Shafiq Ahmed Sagar
The origin of urban local Government in Jammu and Kashmir State goes back to the second half of the nineteenth century when the J&K gained attention of the of the western world for its beauty in nature and the hospitality of its people. As a matter of fact, the Srinagar city and Jammu city became star attraction for their natural beauty, location at centre, infrastructure of the state, Religious places (city of temples Jammu) and the water ways. With the aim of development, the two municipal committees namely Jammu Municipal Committee and Srinagar Municipal committee were formed with Jammu and Kashmir municipal Act number 16th, in 1886. From 1886 to 2019 the total number of urban local bodies has reached to 78. Among them there are two municipal corporations, (Jammu municipal corporation, Srinagar Municipal Corporation), six municipal councils (three in each division of Jammu and Kashmir) and remaining all are municipalities, 33 are in Jammu province, 37 in Kashmir province. With this land mark decision the total number of urban local bodies has risen to 91. On the other hand, Himachal Pradesh has total 128 urban local bodies (54 Municipalities, 31 Municipal Councils, 21 Nagar Panchayats and 2 Municipal Corporations). Similarly, Punjab has 149 urban local bodies (9 Municipal corporations, 25 Class First Municipalities, 28 Class second and 44 Nagar Panchayats).
After the abrogation of article 370 on 5th of August 2019, the first and significant decision to strengthen the urban local bodies of Jammu and Kashmir was taken by the Administrative Council of J&K on 29 January 2020, under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor Girish Chander Murmu, in which he ordered for the upgradation of thirteen Municipal Committees as Municipal Council at district headquarter and of those with more than 30,000 population as per 2011 census in the newly created union territory of J&K. Among the thirteen Municipal Councils, seven are in Srinagar valley and six in Jammu division. Kulgam, Pulwama, Shopian, Ganderbal, Budgam, Bandipora and Kupwara all fall in the Srinagar division whereas Reasi, Rajouri, Doda, Samba, Kishtwar and Ramban in Jammu division. This is very appreciable step towards decentralization as well as good governance. The people of Jammu and Kashmir welcome this move and hope for the best in future.
While taking the capacity building and management perspective of these bodies, the administrative council also accorded sanction to the upgradation of 13 posts of Executive Officers, and 19 posts of Account Officers in the existing six and the proposed Municipal Councils. This move has also empowered the two Municipal Corporations, namely Jammu Municipal Corporation, and Srinagar Municipal Corporation of the union territory by transferring the engineering wings to them, which earlier worked under the control of Directorates of Urban Local Bodies of Jammu and Srinagar. The people of concerning areas of Jammu and Kashmir are expecting that this decision will enable the speedy execution of developmental work and other urban governance related aspects because the council has more financial resources and capable human resources than the municipalities.
Major concerns which need rapid actions to strengthen the image of urban local bodies across Jammu and Kashmir.
Although this move has increased the number of urban local bodies and will remove all the obstacles which were in the way of smooth functioning of municipal organisations in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, but without the proper devolution and fiscal decentralisation , all efforts are myths because it is the financial power which is considered as the back bone as well as the life sustaining aspect of all organisations.
The comptroller auditor general of India (C.A.G) in its report of 2014-15, found out various loopholes in the financial aspects of urban local bodies of Jammu and Kashmir. According to the report, 85 percent of the funds were allocated under non-plan and merely 15 percent for plan expenditure by the then State Government to the ULBs during the period 2011-15 , which indicates that adequate attention was not given towards developmental activities. Besides, the term of the elected representatives of the ULBs in the State expired in March 2010 and no elections have been held since then. Due to non-holding of municipal elections, the State Government lost the big chunk of financial assistance of Rs. 169.28 crore under the 13th Finance Commission Award. As per the result of the audit of Urban Local Bodies, all the works relating to construction of 382 dwelling units under Basic Services of Urban Poor (BSUP) were retendered, but penalty of Rs 28.50 lakh, as provided under the terms and conditions of the contract, was not imposed upon the defaulting contractors. Further, against the allotted cost of Rs50.22 lakh for construction of 18 units at Tibetan Colony, an amount of Rs105.85 lakh was paid to the contractor on account of his claims regarding the accomplishment of work ,which resulted in excess payment of Rs55.63 lakh to the contractor. Furthermore, the faulty decision on part of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation resulted in idle parking lots and subsequent loss of Rs16.40 lakh to the Corporation.
Due to weak recovery mechanism, there was short realization of rent of Rs 534.22 lakh from flats/shops/godowns rented out by nine ULBs including Batote, Udhampur, Khour, Reasi, Rajouri, Srinagar, Tangamarg, Pulwama, and Budgam. The Chief Executive Officers and Executive Officers of five ULBs including Udhampur, Batote, Khour, Reasi and Rajouri stated that action will be taken to recover the outstanding amount and four ULBs including Srinagar, Tangmarg, Budgam and Pulwama even did not reply to the then state government of Jammu and Kashmir. Similar drawbacks have also been noticed on part of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation to take timely actions, resulting in non- recovery of Rs 218.35 lakh on account of rent and premium of the shops allotted under the rehabilitation package. Meanwhile, the reports also revealed that the ULBs had also failed to safeguard their financial interests as a result the contract amount of Rs 44.55 lakh on account of Lory Adda Toll had not been recovered from the respective contractors by the seven ULBs including, Batote, Udhampur, Reasi, Rajouri, kulgam Pulwama, and Budgam during the period 2010-15.
In the special case of my native district i.e. Rajouri, the Rajouri Municipal Committee has failed to levy/ recover Professional Tax and User Sanitation Charges during the period 2010-15 and suffered a revenue loss of Rs 37.14 lakh, due to non-maintenance of proper tax records, In the year 2018s, Urban Local Bodies’ election was conducted across the state, but the Municipal Council and Municipalities accuse the Government for not providing funds for the development of local areas. It is matter of concern and enquiry that in such circumstances, how they are managing their finance and how the governance process is effective. On the basis of this report, if we would count the financial resources which were not used in appropriate manners or not collected due to many reasons, the aggregate amount would be in millions and billions. If all this money could have been used in ULBs, then at this point of time the picture of our ULBs could be different.
In order to remove all these irregularities from the urban governance process, measures like implementation of 74th amendment act 1992, proper devolution of fiscal share, autonomy in the financial decision- making process, atmosphere of transparency and accountability on the part of earning and expenditure of ULBs, conduction of research by the local academician, social activists, students and higher education institutions must be taken. Moreover, the most important thing is that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are expecting a very comprehensive, sustainable and employable model of urban governance from the new constitutional setup of the union territory, so that the city areas of Jammu and Kashmir can be developed, which can further act as an engine of growth and development across Jammu and Kashmir.
(The author is a Ph.D. Research Scholar Department of Public Administration, at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, Telangana)
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