Municipal Act may be a game changer for TRS ahead of Telangana civic polls

The State government maintains that it had taken a path-breaking decision when it announced the allocation of funds for ULBs in the State Budget.
Telangana CM and TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao. (File Photo| EPS)
Telangana CM and TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao. (File Photo| EPS)

In a few days, people will deliver their verdict on who should rule them in towns and the cities in the State. The TRS is upbeat with inputs that it is going to bag a majority of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), while the Congress and the BJP too are hopeful of picking up a handsome number of the civic bodies.

The elections to the ULBs are being held in the backdrop of a new Municipal Act, drafted carefully by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao himself. Though there was criticism that the new Act was against the spirit of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, the ruling party rode rough-shod over it and had brought out the state Act in the Assembly.

Defending the Act, both the Chief Minister and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao had said several times that with the ushering in of the new legislation, the ULBs are up for a make-over.

Though certain aspects of the new legislation like allocation of funds are up to 10 per cent for green cover in the town, christened green-budget and planned urbanisation with provision that those who resort to illegal construction of buildings would be dealt with an iron hand, the Act, sadly, was not very clear about devolution of funds to the civic bodies.

It is needless to say that unless the civic bodies get funds from the State like the way the states get 42 per cent of the divisible pool of central taxes as devolutions, there is not much scope for making the civic bodies throb with vitality and help them acquire the characteristics of real local self-governments.

The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act has laid down that the State may transfer of several powers and functions, including the transfer funds as per the recommendations of the State Finance Commissions (SFC), but it is not followed in true spirit in the State.

Though there is SFC in the State, it does not have a full-fledged body and even if it has, its recommendations are not binding on the State. The State holds the purse strings tightly and the recommendations, if at all they are made, are sure to be relegated to the dust bins.

The State government maintains that it had taken a path-breaking decision when it announced the allocation of funds for ULBs in the State Budget. But allocation is one thing, and actual release another. The BJP leaders argue vehemently that if the ULBs are surviving, it is because of the funds released by the Centre as per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission and that the State government had shown a thumbs down signal to the ULBs to their pleas for funds.

The State government disputes the BJP’s claim that the ULBs are being starved of funds, with the argument that they were releasing funds to the ULBs on a regular basis. Said KTR at a recent interaction with media persons: "We are releasing Rs 261 crore per month to the ULBs, including to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). This is in a way honouring the transfer of financial subject to the civic bodies as laid down by the 74th Constitutional Amendment."

But needless to say that a lion’s share of the funds goes to the GHMC. BJP state vice-president S Malla Reddy, who is also party’s coordinator for municipal elections said, "The State Finance Commission has no regular body except a chairman. In this depressing scenario, no one would expect any great work from this body." 

The opposition parties rose in one voice in Assembly when the Municipal Bill sought to invest the district collectors with powers to dismiss chairmen and councillors if they do not reach the 85 per cent green cover target set for them fearing that it would lead to the State’s interference in the functioning of the civic bodies.

Though the TRS says it was done keeping the best interests of the towns in mind, the temptation to invoke the provisions of dismissal would always be there when the chairman or a councillor of a ULB is from an Opposition party.As the Act is new, it remains to be seen whether it is just all hat and no cattle or would bring in revolutionary changes in the civic administration.

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