Effective Decentralisation—Going beyond Reconciled Planning Scales and Capacities: The Need to Recognise Specific Socio-political Drivers

Abstract

The 1990s ushered in two parallel changes in India. The first pertains to liberalisation, which meant the opening-up of the country to international trade and foreign investment, and the introduction of tax reforms and inflation control measures. The second, internal to India, albeit linked intrinsically to liberalisation, is decentralisation as initiated through the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA). The CAA seeks to strengthen urban local bodies as units of local self-government through functional and financial empowerment. Two decades hence, the country continues to suffer from a poorly executed decentralisation agenda. This paper, through the case study of the Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR), traces the impact of the decentralisation agenda on the socio-spatial fabric of the region. It highlights how, in the absence of empowered local governments, the state government is increasingly vesting decision-making powers in non-elected task forces, the latter being more or less individuals patronised by ruling parties. The approval of the statutory planning tool for the BMR was stalled on account of the lack of legitimate planning bodies. Consequently, growth continues to be investment-driven, with the metropolitan region emerging as a distorted spatial fabric. The paper argues that the reconciliation of planning scales and capacities renders decentralisation incomplete. In parallel, contending socio-political challenges are an imperative.

Notes

While globalisation, as a process, has been implicit to capital accumulation for centuries (Castells, 1983; Harvey, 1996; Sassen, 2006), contemporary globalisation is different, as it has a networking capacity largely enabled through digital communication technologies and information systems. It is these which separate the current globalisation processes—in terms of speed, size and complexity—from previous forms of globalisation in the earlier historical periods (Castells, 2009).

This paper understands livability as the provision of adequate livelihood and ecological sustainability, both of which represent two sides of the same coin. “To be livable, a city must put both sides of the coin together, providing livelihoods for its citizens, ordinary as well as affluent, in ways that preserve the quality of the environment” (Evans, 2002, p. 1).

A structure plan is a regional-level perspective plan, supporting a long-term vision for development and a related spatial perspective for integrated development, in the area without compromising on its ecology and natural environment. By its very nature, it provides a comprehensive platform for the drawing-up of a vision and a suitable set of sector strategies.

Prior to this, the principal author was involved as an urban planner in the preparation of this structure plan for the same geography in 1998.

Civil society organisations in the city have been active in furthering the decentralisation agenda since the mid 1990s. Workshops were organised for engagement with public-sector officials at various scales of the government. The authors have attended several of these workshops. Notable amongst these include citizens' demands on public disclosure, transparency and people's participation in the BBMP (2007), the Kasturirangan Committee Report—comments and review (2008) and Measures for Inclusive and Participatory Implementation of the 74th CAA (2011).

Rural decentralisation is mandated through the 73rd amendment to the Constitution of India, also referred to as the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act (73rd CAA).

The Constitution of the Republic of India, part XI, divides the functions into three lists; the central list, the state list and the concurrent list. The first outlines functions where the centre has exclusive authority; the second outlines subjects where the states are the ultimate authority; the last outlines the joint domain of both the state governments and the Union territories of India as well as the central Government of India under these subjects.

Article 243W of the 74th CAA empowers the state to make laws that enable municipalities to function as institutions of self-government, to provide for the economic development and social justice according to local needs. The CAA also mandates, through Article 243U, that elections to the municipal bodies are to be held before the expiry of five years of the term of the previous council, unless the council is dissolved, in which case it has to be held within 6 months of the date of dissolution. Functional devolution is mandated through the 12th schedule of the 74th CAA.

Currently, the country is implementing the 12th five-year plan (2007–12). Budget allocations in the plan represent central assistance for state plans and are developed, monitored and executed by the Planning Commission—a central government institution.

Parastatals are semi-government organisations, companies or agencies owned or controlled wholly or partly by the government, having their own governing boards.

In India, metropolitan areas, by and large, comprise more than one local body. The metropolitan area is understood to be “an intergovernmental city involving the local, the state and the central tiers of government” (Sivaramakrishna, 2006, p. 25) and needs to be politically and technically governed by a specific entity. The Metropolitan Planning Committee is envisioned as the governing body at the metropolitan level. As per the 74th CAA, all local bodies in the metropolitan region are required to prepare their own plans, subsequently to be collated as the metropolitan plan.

For further details on the state-wise compliance of the 74th Amendment Act provisions, see the NIUA report, Impact of the 74th CAA, Table 1, p. IX, available at: http://www.niua.org/Publications/working_papers/74CAA-mpmathur.pdf .

The JNNURM is a government of India project launched in 2005. It aims towards efficiency in urban infrastructure, the improvement of service delivery mechanisms, the enhancement of community participation and the building of accountability of the urban local bodies. Under this scheme, cities seeking funds for infrastructure provision and enhancement have to implement a Community Participation Law, which mandates the public participation process through the establishment of area Sabhas or neighbourhood committees—a level of governance below the ward committees.

The BMR is one of the few urban agglomerations in the world to be situated above 1000 metres. The city is sited on a plateau with catchments in all directions draining away from the city. With no perennial sources of water, the city's development has been totally driven by a reliance on the nearest perennial source, the River Cauvery, which is situated at a distance of 108 km and, more crucially, at the lower elevation of 450 metres. The scenario has become increasingly critical with the uncontrolled overexploitation of ground water resources

The land capability analysis is a GIS-based decision-making tool used to define suitable land parcels for development. Parameters like environment, transport, demography and economy, along with multiple sub-parameters, are considered to arrive at the capability assessment. The objective is to address and incorporate the region's natural resources in the physical and policy-planning framework for development.

The name Bangalore is an anglicised version of the town's name in the Kannada language, Bengaluru. In 2006, the Municipal Corporation passed a resolution to rename Bangalore as Bengaluru, following a proposal led by the state government.

See: http://www.ABIDebengaluru.in/about; accessed July 2011.

See: http://www.ABIDebengaluru.in/ABIDe_constitution.jpg; accessed July 2011.

The federal state of India has a multiparty system in which small regional parties predominate. Political parties that wish to contest local, state or national elections are required to be registered by the Election Commission of India (EC). If a party is recognised in four or more states, it is declared as a national party by the EC. Otherwise, it is known as a state party. Both the India National Congress (known as the Congress Party) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are national political parties.

See: L. Saldana (2010) Implications of the Karnataka High Court direction in WP 13241/2009 (pil of Environment Support Group and ors. vs Bangalore Metro and ors.) For the implementation of the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961. Note of HC Order in Metro Case of ESG, pp. 1–3.

Ghosh (2005) cites various examples of this experimentation. While the constitution of the BATF is in itself an example of private-sector partnership in urban governance, the task force was further responsible for instituting the following reforms in the city: a self-assessment scheme (SAS) for property tax collection; a fund-based accounting system (FBAS) at the Bangalore local body; forums for citizen input with the summit and opinion polls, and, lastly, to implement a technology-led plan preparation process for the city, the BATF encouraged the BDA to hire a French consortium to revise the comprehensive development plan (CDP) for Bangalore.

The consultants, on their own initiative, organised public meetings as a means to foster the participation of other stakeholders in the city, including the private and the non-governmental sector.

For a plan to become a statutory document, approval from the Urban Development Department of the government of Karnataka, is mandatory.

The bill seeks to increase participation through the constitution of area sabhas or neighbourhood areas—a level of governance lower than the ward committees. The Bangalore Municipal Corporation area is currently divided into 198 wards, each ward supporting approximately 40 000 inhabitants. The definition of neighbourhood areas (area sabhas), in accommodating a smaller population, aims to improve inhabitants' interactions, then to represent and plead their requirements and needs at the ward committee level

The BMRG bill also highlights the need for area sabhas, though it differs from the Community Participation Law in the way these were to be represented. The Community Participation Law calls for nominated area sabha representatives and the BMRG bill calls for elected area sabha representatives.

The Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) is an output of the government of India policies. In continuation with the previous initiatives to create IT parks and IT special economic zones (SEZs), mostly based on tax incentives measures, the last ‘investor-friendly policy’, as referred to in the press release published by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 3 April 2008, released by the the government of India, intends to set up ITIRs whose minimum size of 40 square km would be much larger than the previous economic zones. The main objective is to reduce pressure on existing urban areas by facilitating the growth of new townships and the dispersal of economic activity (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, 2008, http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=37077; accessed 7 February 2012) Based on a central–state joint initiative and public–private partnerships, the state government will provide all physical infrastructures and utilities within its jurisdictions, while the central government will facilitate the development of national highways and airport and road linkages.

The project was initially awarded in the year 2007, to the real estate major Delhi Leasing and Finance (DLF) Private Ltd. The DLF group had tied up with Dubai-based developer Limitless to implement the project. However, it could not make any headway, due to political instability in the state and subsequent global economic meltdown. The project developer, as a result, backed out of the deal.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anjali K. Mohan

Anjali K. Mohan is a partner with Integrated Design (INDE) Bangalore, India. She is currently pursuing her PhD in urban e-governance with the International Institute of Information Technology—Bangalore, Karnataka, India, and E-mail: [email protected]

Bérengère Mercier

Bérengère Mercier is with Integrated Design (INDE) Bangalore, India. E-mail: [email protected]