Despite various reforms by the central and state governments to overhaul the urban local bodies (ULBs), several challenges remain with regard to their efficient functioning. Elucidate.

Urban local bodies (ULBs) were formed by the 74th Constitutional amendment act. Many reforms are brought by the central and state government to overhaul the ULBs like filling up vacancies, delegation of funds, etc.

Despite this, several challenges remain like:

• Low power delegation.
• Low power to taxation, dependent on state government and central government for fund.
• State government populist measures to give up taxes for vote bank.
• After GST, many taxes ended, e.g. octroi.
• Presence of parallel parastatal bodies, e.g. Jal board, Electricity board.
• Ceremonial position of mayor.
• Lack of staff, high vacancies.
• Overlapping jurisdiction of various tiers of ULBs.
• Sometimes the jurisdiction of ULBs and Panchayats overlap at a lower level.
• Rising unplanned urban expansion – issue of lack of coordination between states.
• Inefficiency due to lack of training of staff.
• Inaccessibility to local people.

To address these challenges, some measures can be taken like:

• More delegation of funds, more taxation rights.
• Filling of vacancies.
• Clear-cut demarcation of jurisdiction.
• Clear power delegation by the state government.
• Mandatory audits.
• Check corruption, nexus with politicians.
• Proper training.

ULBs need to be more efficient as urbanisation in India is growing at a rapid rate. Thus, reforms are the need of the hour.

Topics: GS-II: Devolution of Powers and Finances Up to Local Levels