NEW DELHI: The latest Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems has revealed how none of the 21 cities covered had an effective mechanism to prevent unplanned development. It also found that in many of the cities staff vacancies against sanctioned strength is about 30%.
These two factors along with poor financial health of municipal bodies are the main reasons behind their poor performance, according to the report.
The survey highlights how vacancies in 2015 were as high as 64% in case of Patna and even in Bengaluru just marginally better at 52%. “You have less manpower and even lesser skilled employees, which severely impacts the quality of service delivery,” Janagraha coordinator Srikanth Viswanath said.
The report also mentions how in almost all cases people working in municipal bodies have little specialisation in urban services. The only exceptions were Mumbai and Pune, which have municipal cadre and even the municipal commissioner with relevant experience has a stable tenure. While there are examples like Kolkata where two commissioners were changed in five years, Raipur got eight municipal chiefs during the same period. It’s not much better in the case of Bengaluru and Jaipur.

According to the report, revenue remains the biggest concern for municipal bodies. Only six out of the 21 cities have realistic budgets and Mumbai and Pune are among the few cities that have higher per capita expenditure and have better revenue flow. Most of the cities don’t generate enough revenue to finance their capital expenditure requirement and thereby they heavily depend on central and state grants.
The survey also mentions how in most cities the councillors are paid even lesser than grade D employees such as peon and sweeper.
“Robust financial resources, planning, accountable and visionary political leadership and transparency are the key to good governance in cities. You cannot expect a municipal commissioner to come up with a plan and implement everything when he is there only for eight months,” Vishwanth said.
The report also mentions how only eight cities including Bhopal, Chennai, Dehradun, Jaipur and Lucknow mayors are elected directly by people with five year terms. Five cities have mayors with less than two-and-a-half years term. None of the cities submit quarterly audited financial reports.