Quality of urban life is a subject of eternal relevance. Sadly, it has also become a holy cow. No one dares to slaughter it, but no one seriously feeds it either. Parliamentary committee reports indicate that the ‘hardware’ of urban India—metros, housing complexes, sewage plants—is being built at an unprecedented pace. Yet the use of this infrastructure and ultimately the quality of citizens’ lives, depends on the ‘software’ of governance.
As city dwellers in Maharashtra prepare to vote in several municipal corporation elections, it is pertinent to reflect on a long list of issues crying out for attention. Here are six fundamental concerns that merit wider public discourse, consensus-building and—most importantly—honest political will. Ideally, these issues should dominate discussions as competing parties seek a popular mandate.
The list begins with linking all state and central grants to the performance of municipal bodies. Urban local bodies spend substantial funds received from higher governments, but owing to corruption and mismanagement, overall improvements in the quality of urban life remain elusive. The 15th Finance Commission made a significant attempt to reform municipal finance by tying grants more closely to performance outcomes than in the past.
One critical new metric proposed is the maintenance of ‘squatter-free public areas’. Expanding this to include the proportion of encroachment-free pavements would help create a quantifiable index. Equally important is penalising non-performing corporations that allow slums or illegal shops to mushroom on streets. Such disincentives would push urban bodies to perform better.
A major reason for pervasive corruption in urban bodies is that mayors and elected representatives are left with little real decision-making power. Despite the 74th Constitutional Amendment of 1992, devolution of authority to urban local bodies has remained incomplete and largely cosmetic. Ironically, the official with power—the municipal commissioner—is not directly accountable to citizens, while the official with accountability—the mayor—lacks authority. Consequently, constitutionally mandated institutions of local self-government continue to be weakened.
Excessive concentration of power in state governments has made local governance fragile and unresponsive. The prevailing ‘strong commissioner–weak mayor’ model reduces the mayor to a ceremonial figurehead. This imbalance cascades downward: councillors, left without authority, often resort to exploiting their nuisance value, leading to the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth and emboldening black-money operators in politics.
Land is the most finite and fiercely contested resource in urban India. The existence of so-called ‘vacant land’ in urban agglomerations presents a dual challenge—it is both a wasted asset that could host public infrastructure and highly vulnerable to encroachment, eventually spawning unserviceable squatter settlements. Addressing this requires a dedicated institutional mechanism: a commissionerate for vacant lands.
While the impact of the Maharashtra Vacant Lands (Prohibition of Unauthorised Occupation and Summary Eviction) Act, 1975 needs reassessment, the July 2024 establishment of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) deserves close study. It could serve as a robust prototype. HYDRAA links asset protection with disaster management and, unlike conventional municipal enforcement—which is often toothless—operates with a dedicated force and police coordination, ensuring enforcement without political interference.
Failure to prevent illegal hutments has also facilitated cross-border infiltration, with the potential to significantly alter urban demography. Unlike in villages, illegal migrants can seamlessly blend into megacities. Spaces beneath flyovers, near traffic signals and along railway tracks have become safe havens. A demographic audit is therefore a necessary governance tool to ensure urban planning is grounded in reality rather than outdated census data.
Multiple reports on land encroachments have also flagged how unchecked demographic shifts near sensitive zones—such as defence installations and railway infrastructure—pose serious security risks.
The quality of urban life is inversely proportional to commute friction. While India is rapidly expanding metro rail networks—set to become the second-largest in the world—last-mile connectivity remains the Achilles’ heel. In many cities, ridership falls short of projections because the door-to-station journey is more expensive and time-consuming than the metro ride itself. The ministry of housing and urban affairs has rightly identified last-mile connectivity as a critical focus area.
One promising experiment is transit-oriented development. To solve the last-mile problem structurally, cities are encouraged to bring people closer to transit hubs. High-density, mixed-use development within walking distance of stations is promoted by allowing higher floor-space indices. This approach densifies transit corridors and reduces dependence on private vehicles.
The final imperative is the institutionalisation of art, heritage and culture committees in every municipality. A liveable city is not merely functional—it is aesthetic, culturally vibrant, and distinct in character. The Model Building Bylaws, 2016, advocate this very approach, arguing that aesthetic interventions must move beyond ad hoc beautification.
They recommend that art and culture committees vet proposals for murals and public installations to ensure alignment with local cultural contexts. Several reports have also proposed a public art fund, financed by earmarking, say, one per cent of the budget of new flyovers or metro stations for public art. This would embed aesthetics into infrastructure planning, ensuring that beauty is not an afterthought but a core element of urban development.
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe | Senior BJP leader
(Views are personal)
(vinays57@gmail.com)