8. Special Purpose Agency

In addition to these seven area-based urban bodies (or multipurpose agencies), the states have set up certain agencies to undertake designated activities or specific functions that 'legitimately’ belong to the domain of municipal corporations or municipalities or other local urban governments. In other words, these are function-based and not areabased. They are known as 'single purpose’, 'uni-purpose’ or 'special purpose’ agencies or 'functional local bodies’. Some such bodies are:

1. Town improvement trusts.

2. Urban development authorities.

3. Water supply and sewerage boards.

4. Housing boards.

5. Pollution control boards.

6. Electricity supply boards.

7. City transport boards.

These functional local bodies are established as statutory bodies by an act of state legislature or as departments by an executive resolution. They function as autonomous bodies and deal with the functions allotted to them independently of the local urban governments, that is, municipal corporations or municipalities and so forth. Thus, they are not subordinate agencies of the local municipal bodies.

There are three types of municipal personnel systems in India. The personnel working in the urban governments may belong to any one or all the three types. These are

1. Separate PersonneI System: Under this system, each local body appoints, administers, and controls its own personnel. They are not transferable to other local bodies. It is the most widely prevalent system. This system upholds the principle of local autonomy and promotes undivided loyalty.

2. Unified PersonneI System: In this system, the state government appoints, administers, and controls the municipal personnel. In other words, state-wide services (cadres) are created for all the urban bodies in the state. They are transferable between the local bodies in the state. This system is prevalent in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and so on.

3. Integrated PersonneI System: Under this system, the personnel of the state government and those of the local bodies form part of the same service. In other words, the municipal personnel are the members of the state services. They are transferable not only between the local bodies in the state but also between local bodies and departments of state government. Thus, there is no distinction between local civil service and state civil service. This system is prevalent in Odisha, Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and others.

The various national level institutions providing training to the municipal personnel are

1. All-India Institute of Local SelfGovernment (Mumbai) constituted in 1927; it is a private registered society

2. Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies (New Delhi) set up in 1967 on the recommendation of Nur-uddin Ahmed Committee on Training of Municipal Employees (1963-1965)

3. Regional Centres for Urban and Environmental Studies (Kolkata, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Mumbai) set up in 1968 on the recommendation of Nur-ud-din Ahmed Committee on Training of Municipal Employees (1963-1965)

4. National Institute of Urban Affairs, established in 1976

5. Human Settlement Management Institute, established in 1985

There are five sources of income of the urban local bodies. These are as follows:

1. Tax Revenue: The revenue from the local taxes include property tax, entertainment tax, taxes on advertisements, professional tax, water tax, tax on animals, lighting tax, pilgrim tax, market tax, toll on new bridges, octroi and so on. In addition, the municipal bodies imposes various cesses like library cess, education cess, beggary cess and so on. Octroi (i.e., taxes on the entry of goods into a local area for consumption, use or sale therein) has been abolished in most of the states. Property tax is the most important tax revenue.

2. Non-Tax Revenue: This source include rent on municipal properties, fees and fines, royalty, profits and dividends, interest, user charges and miscellaneous receipts. The user charges (i.e., payment for public utilities) include water charges, sanitation charges, sewerage charges and so on.

3. Grants: These include the various grants given to municipal bodies by the Central and State Governments for several development programmes, infrastructure schemes, urban reform initiatives and so on.

4. Devolution: This consists of the transfer of funds to the urban local bodies from the state government. This devolution is made on the basis of the recommendations of the state finance commission.

5. Loans: The urban local bodies raise loans from the state government as well as financial institutions to meet their capital expenditure. They can borrow from the financial institutions or other bodies only with the approval of the state government.

The Central Council of Local Government was set up in 1954. It was constituted under Article 263 of the Constitution of India by an order of the President of India. Originally, it was known as the Central Council of Local Self-Government. However, the term 'selfgovernment’ was found to be superfluous and hence was replaced by the term 'government’ in the 1980s. Till 1958, it dealt with both urban as well as rural local governments, but after 1958 it has been dealing with matters of urban local government only.

The Council is an advisory body. It consists of the Minister for Urban Development in the Government of India and the ministers for local self government in states. The Union minister acts as the Chairman of the Council.

The Council performs the following functions with regard to local government:

(i) Considering and recommending the policy matters

(ii) Making proposals for legislation

(iii) Examining the possibility of cooperation between the Centre and the states

(iv) Drawing up a common programme of action

(v) Recommending Central financial assistance

(vi) Reviewing the work done by the local bodies with the Central financial assistance

Table 39.3 Articles Related to Municipalities at a Glance

Table 39.4 Name of Urban Local Bodies in the States (2019)B‌

NOTES AND REFERENCES‌

1. 'Local Government’ is a subject mentioned in the State List under the 7th Schedule of the Constitution.

2. The bill was passed in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in December 1992. After that, the bill was approved by the required number of state legislatures. It was assented by the president in April 1993.

3. A transitional area means an area which is in transition from a rural area to an urban area.

4. At present (2019), ten states of India have scheduled areas. These are: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan. Presently (2019), there are a total of ten tribal areas (autonomous districts) in the

four states of Assam (3), Meghalaya (3), Tripura (1) and Mizoram (3).

5. Metropolitan area means an area having a population of 10 lakh or more, in one or more districts and consisting of two or more municipalities or panchayats or other contiguous areas.

6. The Rural-Urban Relationship Committee (1963-66) headed by A.P. Jain recommended that small town area committees should be merged with the panchayati raj institutions to avoid multiplicity in the pattern of local bodies.

7. A cantonment area is a delimited area where the military forces and troops are permanently stationed.

8. Report of the Thirteenth Finance Commission (2010-2015), Volume II, December 2009, P. 424-426.