KOCHI: A Recent urban governance reforms study has placed Kerala in the fourth position in the country in terms of empowerment of local self-government and grassroots democracy. The state stands behind Odisha, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh in the Urban Governance Index (UGI) 2020.
According to Nitai Mehta, founder and managing trustee of Praja Foundation, the NGO which carried out the study, the 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1992, mandated constitution of city governments and devolution of 18 functions mentioned in the Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution to ‘city governments’.
“There is no mapping of the devolution and urban governance reforms across the country even after 25 years,” said Nitai. The study was done after visiting 40 cities and the National Capital Territory over three years (2017-2020).
The UGI comprised four themes that were divided into 13 sub-themes and consisted of 42 indicators. The four themes included empowered local elected representatives and legislative structure, empowered city administration, empowered citizens and fiscal empowerment. “The idea behind building the UGI is to understand the level of decentralisation of urban governance,” said Praja Foundation director Milind Mhaske.
“The ranking is relative but if we look at the absolute score, none of the top five states have scored more than 57 per cent. This shows that there is a need for urban governance reforms,” said Mhaske.