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BOOK REVIEW

GOVERNING INDIA’S METROPOLISES

EDITORS JOEL RUET

STEPHANIE TAWA LAMA -REWAL

AMUKTHA | MICHELLE | RINOSH | SAMEERSubmitted by

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In the first chapter the author broadly discusses about the need of good governance in India’s metropolis and why the urban governance is important in India for todays context ,this is explained by considering four major metropolis of India viz. Delhi , Mumbai , Hyderabad and Kolkata. They were part of top ten megacities world wide and one tenth of the world’s urban population lives in these cities .

Living conditions of an increasing number of people

Economic development

Political in nature-decision making (decentralisation policy)

THREE MAJOR ISSUES

Governance is considered to be a complex reality , a fuzzy concept

Ubiquitous

Ambiguous

Indispensable

The word governance was used in 13th century itself but came into discussion after the world bank report in 1989 on the weak governance in sub-Saharan regions . Governance is increasingly used by the global actors and corporate governance is increasingly used in management studies and political sciences of institutional set-up.

COMPONENTS OF GOOD GOVERNANCE

Transparency

Accountability

The fight against

corruption The rule of law

The respect for human

rights

Decentralization

Public participation

The major criticisms on urban governance suggested the “depoliticizing effect”- a project for the elimination of the politics (i.e.)a society centred perspective . Thus a good governance means a dissolvent of democratic nation . The term participation in good governance is still a notion , as good governance suggest the managerial powers , public action is fragmented and the state is always considered as an apex of decision making .

urban governance implies the role of government in urban affairs and reconsiders the participation of other bodies

Interaction

Negotiation

Co-ordinatio

n

Co-operatio

n Networks

Partnerships

PLURALISM IN GOVERNANCE

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POLYCENTRISM –URBAN GOVERNANCE

Public sector Private sector Market actors Non -market actors

The research methodology mentioned tries to explore the urban governance through economic liberalisation and politico-administrative decentralisation . Authors try to justify the reason for selecting the four metropolitan cities

DELHI MUBAI KOLKATTA HYDERABAD

Capital of India

City - State

National capital territory

Legislative assembly

Government

British colonisation

Restructuring economic activities

Commissioner system

Mayor in council

Pre –colonial city New metropolis Liberalisation

URBAN GOVERNANCE ANALYSED IN TERMS OF SOCIAL ,POLITICAL ,ECONOMIC AND SPATIAL DIMENSIONS

Semi-directed

interviews

Focus group discussions

Direct observation of events

Analysis of official

documents

QUALITATIVE METHODS FOR THE STUDY

Sector within an city

Sector across cities

Management of urban affairs

Integration across states

Interaction between actorsFormal

Informal

The second chapter gives a brief overview of the governance structure in four cities through comparative analysis between the relevant institutions, reforms and various actors . The analysis of governance form is started through the decentralisation concept proposed in the 74th constitutional amendment act,1992. In urban context the involvement of many bodies in the governance has made the centric governance obsolete and promotes decentralisation.

The sketch of the four urban cities are drawn in terms of democratic decentralisation principles

MAJOR CONSIDERATIONS

Actors pertaining to a state at various levels

Civil society actors

Industry and the corporate sector

Key private and multi-lateral actors

DELHI

Delhi municipal council

Delhi cantonment

board

2 ULB’s

Administration city

Service sector

Central

Delhi vidyut board Electricity

Delhi transport corporation Mass transit

Delhi jal board

Water

Delhi development authority Central ministry of urban development

Central ministry of home affairs

INSTITUTIONAL FRAGMENTATION

State

• BagidarI scheme in welfare of civic activities along with resident welfare association (RWA) and market traders association (MTA)

• 2006 is noted as the worst day in Delhi urban governance during the period of Sheila Dikshit

Participatory schemes

Social empowerment

HYDERABAD

VISIONWorld class city High tech sectors

POLICY

INSTITUTIONAL FRAGMENTATION HYDERABAD METROPOLITAN WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION BOARD(HMWSSB)

Implements world banks ideas since 1980’sMANAGER

HYDERARBAD MUNICIPALITY AND SURROUNDING AREAS INTEGRATE

• 1995-2004 is noted as the best period of Hyderabad as they received lot world bank funds , e-seva was implemented during this time which was a great success

• PPP-HITEC city, planned metro system and new international airport

Good governance idea

Against decentralisation

CORPORATE SECTOR

Municipal services for the urban poor ,Indian population project (viii) World bank

World bank and UNDP

Water and sanitation programme

UK’s department for international development

Report on civic centres in Hyderabad and centre for good governance

UN-HABITAT and cities alliance

City development strategy

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MUMBAI

Peninsular territory

BRIHAN MUMBAI CORPORATION Cosmopolitan city

Global city-region

• Better off city • Western

suburbs

• Working class eastern

• North western suburb

INSTITUTIONAL FRAGMENTATION

BMC

• Education• Water supply• Sewerage• Slum

improvement• Electricity

MMRDAUrban local bodies

Thane & Kalyan Parastatals

• MHADA • MSRDC

• Mumbai transformation project unit fetched support from world bank and cities alliance programme

• CAG-citizen action group was setup denoting the empowerment of the prominent public in governance

• CREDAI came up with slum de-congestion plan for central core city in 2006

Liberalisation

KOLKATTA

Northern Kolkata

STATE-CENTRIC GOVERNANCE

Industrial development

PPP (new Kolkata scheme)

East and south –east

Central Kolkata

Southern Kolkata

NEW DEVELOPMENT-

HISTORICAL GROWTH

INSTITUTIONAL FRAGMENTATION

KMDA

KMPC

KMA

• Gram panchayats• Panchayat samitis• Zilla parishads

URBAN

MIC model Municipal authority • Corporation • Mayor in council• Mayor

• Women have stronger representation than in other metropolitan cities

Borough committee

Ward committee

• WBIDC• WBIDFC

PPP

Against democratisation

NGO & CBO

AGNI Action for good governance and networking in India

Lok satta Activist group in hyderabad

ODA Calcutta slum improvement project

COVA Confederation of voluntary association

SPARC Urban development

Slum adoption programmes & slum sanitation programmes(in BMC)

ALM Local area citizen groups

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Co-production of services

Policy inputs and service

delivery

Involvement of urban

poor

Participatory rationales

Bhagidari scheme

Management of civic affairs

ALM Solid waste management –residents in Mumbai

THE RISE OF MIDDLE CLASS IN METROPOLITAN INDIA

India is transforming into an international image were we see ourselves prioritized to IT economic growth than rural poverty and the expanding middle class is consuming like the elite of other world whose behaviors of choosing commodities are much influenced by the western societies .

Road side shopsTraditional MarketsCycles and Scooters

Conservative housing

MallsMultiplex

Luxury CarsGates communities

Replaced By

Thus urban sees the rich getting rich and poor getting less as the slums are driven to its periphery and the middle class is emerging the powerful which can been proven in too important dynamics of its ever own they are :

EDUCATION DEMOCRACY

• The quality of educational spaces demanded bye the middle class who aspire to get into the higher section of the society and every parent wish better living standards of their children .

• The ambiguous nature makes them part of the part of elite creating a huge gap between them and those below poverty line.

• To lessen the variations caused implementation of free and compulsory education by the government have benefited the poor

• The positive increase in the abstention of middle class as they are frustrated with the goods and services provided by the local govt body

• Greater association with activism and new participation schemes like community participation mainly targeting middle class made a counter balance of their abstention .

• The vice of middle goes beyond scripted objectives people’s participation makings governance more transparent and accountable

The global aspired of the middle class for better educational facility as it being their main identify of survival and ready to pay huge amounts made drastic increase of private schools .

The abstention of the elite categories making the Politian's concentrate more on the slum dwellers which is actually made to target the middle classes making it activist

EDUCATIONAL IMPACTS

CONCLUSION

• Increase in the education quality and important of Private education in rural India

• Decreasing the private providers than the government . No institutional Segregation

• Satisfying the concentration of the urban middle thirst in the locality

• Increase the accountability and transparency of the governance . “rise in generality“

• Re-awakening the interest of middle class voters in local politics

• Political organization should be built around a civil society rather than a political party

DEMOCARCY IMPACTS

In education lower classes do no get benified as a collective as the middle class tendency to exist the low quality institutions .

While the local democracy in collective as the activism of the middle class remains in a long term benefits the others as well.

VERTICAL GOVERNANCE IN INDIAN METROPOLITAN

GOOD GOVERNANCETRANSPARENCY

ACCOUNTABILITY[Private and Public participation]

Face 1New opportunityHidden TransactionsCorrupt Practices

Face 2Weak linkages with citizensLack Of IncentivesOverlapping of roles

URBAN GOVERNANCE Corruption + Cilentelisum

Top officials +

Common Person

Socio-political PracticesPatronageBrokerage

The Vertical Governance = Practices

+ Inter relationships

of various actors .

The vertical pattern that exist dominant in the city linking with the social capital hierarchies including different levels of powers which contribute to an urban space

PATRONAGE : A system in person who controls the non market exchange of goods and services outside the legal frame

Personality

Reciprocity

Dependency

Inequality makes patronage a fundamental vertical , social relationship between the dominant and dominated persons . Indian society of caste and religious differences in a favourable place for patronage which creates mobility between different social and economical communities .

CORRUPTION:

Social Corruption

Economic Corruption

Dependent

Patronage and corruption are mostly the same which gives access to good and services which are cannot be reached without them . Positivity makes conditions favourable to reach by the person . The following examples illustrates how Corruption and Patronage acts Ilike a knife with two edges which can either provide or restrict

The Public Distribution System :

The ration cards are provided at the PDS to access the food subsidies and making it as a fundamental document to produce for calming any services like passport residency proof ect. Manking the neccicity of the poor including many people t take the advantage throught brokerage . Reason being the immigrants and emigrates . Where paying bribes making access to serices which re actull prevented and officially illegal .

FORMAL AND INFORMAL ACTORS IN PDS

Elected or pertly elected Actors

The users : an Ambiguous and limited Mobilisation

The Filtering Intermediatiaries

Political Society

PERPETUATING PATRONAGE OR DEEPING DECENTRALISATION

Boosting Infrastructure

Circumventing the Decentralisation Process

Pampering Political Parties

Prompting Role Reversal

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In the tenth chapter it discuss about the reforms in solid waste management in context of the city Mumbai and Hyderabad, the policy convergence and the process taken by the two. It was the Supreme court of India set up a committee to look into solid waste management following public interest litigation which later recommendations were incorporated as Municipal solid waste rules 2000 notified by Ministry of Environment and Forest which municipalities should follow.

Schemes adopted by the Cities•No Garbage collection tax for both and was financed by only municipal budget.•Hyderabad- sweeping and cleaning were given to small private contractors as well as NGOs some were managed by RWAs.•Mumbai- Advanced locality Management

Governance structure

Stopgap policy•In Hyderabad decline in productivity and efficiency as private contractors poor performanceIn Mumbai the public records were not transparent•In both cities role of the councillor is marginalFictive participation of Low income neighbourhoods•In Mumbai slum development programme corporator provide informal support to CBOs. •Junior engineers are also instrumental in helping CBOs•CBOs turned out to non participative as households are not informed of the schemes and have no say in decision making process

Changing and Abiding features of Municipal government•Decision making process in municipal corporations are highly centralised even though some form of de concentration exists.•Wards administrative capacity depends essentially on the leadership quality of municipal commissioner and elected councillors•Importance of elite in bureaucracy•Transformation of relationships between public servants, the end users of services and corporators•Ability to reduce social and spatial disparities.

ConclusionThe author is trying to discuss about the solid waste management practices governance in the two cities with the issues related in terms of governance analyse in depth for the reasons behind the issues.

Additional municipal commissioner

Assistant engineer environments

Officers on special duty

Hyd

erab

ad

Mumbai-centralised with limited responsibility to administrative circle

ALM units are micro level associations representing one building or a group of buildings, covering one or two lanes. They are registered and given a number but not with the charity commissioner, The funding of ALM programmes differ from one unit to another, They either charge a monthly fee from their members or depend on donationsSLUM ADOPTION SCHEME aims at ensuring waste collection and disposal within the slums with on public participation. Communities, represented by community based organisation CBOs, take charge of implementation of the scheme with limited support from the municipal corporation

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In the eleventh chapter discusses about the political and social evolution of governance through political- economy prism. Ie., modes of urban governance and the interventions of state government by taking the case studies of Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai.

Delhi Hyderabad Kolkata Mumbai

Centralised reforms Vs Decentralisation

Reluctant decentralisation as Delhi lack normal state powers

•Top- down political decisions•Most advanced for reforms but without political decentralisation

Devolution of most civil functions, but no ward committees

•Industry led agenda for reforms•Disputed political terrain

Ambiguous state/ bureaucracy towards democratisation

•Discourse on good governance but brutality of public intervention

•Commissioner model persists•Schemes to bypass locally elected people

•Mayor in council system

•Importance of local area citizens groups: CBOs•Distinction unclear between roles of CBOs and contractors

Multiple actors and public-private interaction

•Mainly an administrative city•Large economic activities •Policies to constrain industry

•City as a laboratory•IT and world class city, indigenous capitalism•Little co-ordination between corporators

•From monocentric to polycentric development•Outsourcing, no real PPPs•Recent industry revival

•Land gentrification agenda•Social infrastructure most neglected•Outsourcing rather than real PPPs

Varieties in expanding urban governance and the politics of public reformsIt mainly discuss on the stands taken to develop the city by the state head for without no much local public involvement. It also tells about the relationship between the business corporate, bureaucrats and the politiciansOn Elites and a role for the stateIt mainly discuss about how the rich and the poor interact with the government. Poor will be approaching the government with councilors as agents which is called lower government circuit and the rich will be approaching any problem through the higher level political or bureuacratic officials which is called upper government circuits. Both of their priorities may be different and may have impact on each other.ConclusionAll the above chapters discuss on the play of the state government role in cities they are in power. It gives the idea on the existing scenario of urban governance in India with the examples, approaches and issues on it. Also it gives the idea of the transformation of governance system.