Local government bodies can deliver better

Local body elections are underway in Kerala. People will elect their representatives to grama panchayat, block panchayat, zilla panchayat, municipalities and corporations as per their place of residence. Kerala is one place in India where the Panchayati raj system of election and local self-governance works in a well-oiled fashion. The local governments deliver and the public has belief in them. This became evident whenever we have crises like natural calamities and lately during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reservation in terms of gender, scheduled caste and tribes ensure wider representation of people by the elected representatives. Everything is good but we still find some deficiencies that can be addressed in the Panchayati raj system.

1. Delimitation is an exercise to assess the changing socio-economic demographics in a locality to continuously graduate them from a grama panchayat to a corporation. The exercise ensures that an area is categorized correctly so that a capable self-government institution is in place there. This will then ensure the institution and the public have access to the best resources. Currently, the wards across Kerala are identified and limited based on the 2001 and 2011 census. We should have completed the delimitation exercise based on 2011 census for the elections in 2020. That means most of the wards in Kerala are identified on the basis of our census done 20 years back. This will have an impact on the expectations of the public and the capacity of the local government to deliver after this election. We should complete delimitation exercises timely.

2. Local governments need funds for social sector spending, capacity building and various development works. They always look for funds from the state and centre government. Unfortunately, none of our local governments does anything well-meaning to maximize the tax collection and mobilization of funds. Elected representatives take a casual approach passing such responsibilities to the state and central governments. Timely collection of building taxes is one item where a local government can deliver better results. In fact, the state government can consider transferring funds in accordance with the efficiency of tax collection by local governments. Also, local governments can find new avenues to raise funds. Going further, they can even do various development works by mobilizing resources within the locality from the stakeholders through innovative ways.

3. Corruption is pervasive in local governments. The pilferage happens in smaller sums and hence goes under the radar of public watchdogs. We can see the larger disbursement of state funds to local governments as a way to democratize corruption, thereby strengthening the political parties at the local level. Local representatives and contractors work in tandem. Generally, we cannot separate one from the other.

4. Reservation of wards based on the scheduled caste and tribe has passed its relevance in Kerala. It is to be noted that we do not have such reservations to state and national elections. This is controversial but Kerala is a place where this can be done. The society has outgrown from the needs of such regressive reservations.

5. The elected representatives can be given the necessary training to build their managerial capabilities which will then ensure better outcomes in their public responsibilities. Institute of Management in Government (IMG) is doing its bit but this can be done at a much larger scale. Better leaders make better decisions delivering better results for society.

6. There are still only six municipal corporations in Kerala. Considering the demographics, we should have more corporations in Kerala. We should be early in identifying emerging cities for equipping the place than late in catching up with the exponential growth of the city.

What do you think?

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