With municipal elections to take place, soon, in the state, it is time to consider the role municipal bodies play in grassroots self-governance. It has been seen that gated communities are, by and large, better run than wards of municipal bodies. Is the difference similar to that between private and government schools – impacted by the economic and social status of the communities they serve? Are there changes that can be made at governance levels to ensure such differences have less of an effect and there is greater equity in distribution of services? This is an obvious question that must occur to voters at the time of holding municipal elections. The challenge is even bigger in dealing with cities like Dehradun that have a considerably diverse population.
One excuse given is that there is a general shortage of funds, which are not enough to go around. One way of dealing with this could be by merging development authorities such as the MDDA with the Nagar Nigam. Not only would it provide more funds to the municipality, but also give it greater powers to manage the city’s growth. At the present, both agencies go in different directions – one has a representative character, while the other is bureaucratic to the core. Also, it would improve greatly the ‘design’ problem that afflicts infrastructure and development schemes. Many of these fail simply because, first, they serve the interests of a narrower section of the people and, second, because these are not democratically evolved. How much of a say do representatives of the slums, for instance, have in the plans made by the MDDA?
People also tend to judge their needs by the immediately perceivable problems they face in everyday life, instead of having a more informed opinion. Water shortages, for example, may be considered distribution woes, instead of a larger issue of depleting supply. Although it is true that distribution might be an issue at one level, water conservation is very much a challenge that the community faces as a whole. The problem is much more urgent, but people do not understand that as much as they should. Naturally, the planners do not give it the priority it deserves.
The largest elephant in the room, of course, is corruption. One reason power is not centralised in any one body is because small groups of people can unite and conspire to hijack institutions for pecuniary ends. This has happened so often that people have lost faith in governance. They cooperate in the process as little as necessary, simply because they have no hopes of it delivering the goods. It is important, therefore, for voters to choose their representatives well, refusing to be bribed by those who plan to cheat them in the end. That would be a good beginning for the coming municipal polls.
