Abstract
The 74th Amendment Act 1992 envisaged decentralisation of planning and governance as an important mechanism for effective local government but has proved to be somewhat contrary in reality over the years. Decentralisation of urban governance has become most tricky in case of the urban Metropolitan Region (MR), which is an amalgamation of several inter-governmental agencies and municipalities. After all these years, when several components of decentralised urban governance have been a no-go from the very beginning, it is important to look at the process of some of these policy formulations and what is actually happening to get a sense of what went amiss or needs attention.
The book deals with this issue in respect to the megacities of India primarily by illustrating examples from five megacities or MRs, namely, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. These metropolitan regions are experiencing in-migration and rapid expansion of their core cities and the agglomeration area, but remain wanting for better governance. The strength of the book lies in the insight it provides from a first person account from the author about the intentions of 74th Amendment Act, 1992 and related policies and programmes, specifically those on metropolitan governance. In fact, in many places, one feels the author may have dealt more with what happened at the time of promulgating these policies rather than stating what is happening at present. It would have perhaps helped remind many the purpose of it, since at present the unfolding of narratives has almost become similar, not only in these five megacities as mentioned in the book but even in other cities across the country.
The book traces the evolution of urban governance in the framework of metropolitan regions through the perspective of water and sanitation, land-use planning, transportation, environment sustainability and resource mobilisation, duly supported by comprehensive data related to demographics, economy, infrastructure and environment at every stage.
The first chapter deals with definitions, particularly after the 2011 Census, and traces the changing nomenclature over the years for urban areas. Detailed data for each of the five MR chosen shows an increase in the number of census towns with Mumbai and Kolkata having the highest numbers in absolute terms. There is a discussion on the growth of new towns which are industrial towns, and over the years have developed but not necessarily as they were envisaged to be. It is mainly because they remained confined within the walls of industrial townships and were not even part of the local municipal jurisdiction in several cases. Such towns thus showed little willingness to grow as important urban centres and act as a core for adjacent regions. Interestingly, the issue of migration is introduced at the very beginning to establish its relevance when one talks about a metropolitan region, its economy and growth. For example, most migrants to metropolitan cities are from within the state and not from other states, except to Mumbai city.
The second chapter gets into the history of planning for the metropolitan region which took its formative steps in the 1960s with the establishment of the then Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation which saw unparalleled mentoring from the then chief minister of West Bengal and was under his direct control which enabled the participation of not only national but international consultants facilitated by Ford Foundation. The Delhi Development Authority, 1955 and Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority, 1970 later became the precursors of forming similar bodies in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. It is such detailed accounts, by virtue of the author’s presence as a bureaucrat in these processes, which makes the book interesting.
The book further discusses the delineation of metropolitan regions and identifies some of the inherent lacunae of the process. But it offers little in terms of the discussion which might be held particularly important for those concerned with many of the newly carved out regional development authorities; the ‘off the map’ cities being deployed as political acts rather than an exercise in spatial decision-making.
The third chapter deals with the most important question of governance systems in the metropolitan regions which over the years has become more complicated and less streamlined across cities. The conflict between the elected representatives and the chief executive officer becomes especially aggravated in the metropolitan region which involves multi-municipal jurisdiction. The formation of a development authority in the five cities and how over the years these development authorities have consolidated their position vis-à-vis municipal authorities is the main thrust. Since the author himself was part of the committee which ushered in the 74th Amendment Act, the specifics of the purpose of envisaging such an Amendment and the emphasis on the formation of the Metropolitan Planning Committee was well thought of by the government’s own experience of functioning in Calcutta. This makes the chapter interesting and feeds curiosity beyond what is already known about the existing struggles of metropolitan governance.
Further, the chapters are structured across subject areas such as infrastructure, land, environment and livelihood and people—all of which large city regions and municipalities struggle and deal with on a day-to-day basis. Functioning and up-keeping of infrastructure is the real measure of a metropolitan region’s capabilities and capacities. Basic infrastructure deals with the issue of water supply, sanitation and solid waste management. Its deliverance and maintenance gets entangled between various agencies to such an extent that the role of the metropolitan development authorities in service provision has become inconclusive. Decision-making about project identification, fund allocation and monitoring its progress is done through various state-level agencies, with little role for municipalities. Although, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) had the provision of forming a state-level agency solely for the purpose of coordination between various parastatal agencies, it never took this up which reconfirms that cities are still struggling in terms of policy failure rather than project failure. Land being the most limited resource and hence the most contested one in our urban centres has been dealt for each of the five cities separately to show the different mechanism each undertook for large scale public acquisition for development purposes. As the author emphasises, it is necessary to get a historical account of the situation in each of the metropolitan areas. He evidences an overlapping of institutions that own and control land. Land for infrastructural projects is easy to come by in metropolitan areas but the same dexterity is hard to come by for other public interest infrastructures.
As the title suggests, the thinking for metropolitan governance is fractured and the set-up fragmented—mostly among various stakeholders who unfortunately are not the elected representatives but the state itself. It is just not about non-implementation of reforms for the metropolitan region to be effective but more so the concomitant effect of reverse actions which has made state agencies emerge as the sole authorities like the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) and the City Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) with overriding powers to plan in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Phadke, 2013). The author himself is quite forthcoming in accepting that the Metropolitan Planning Committee never really took off and in the present context holds no ground. Even in the pioneering city of Kolkata, where the West Bengal Metropolitan Planning Committee Act, 1994 was formed, the actual rules to implement the same was formulated only in 2001 (Kumar, 2006). The conflicts between legislation and policy making and the ones who are executing the same, the commissioners have been played out numerous times in the municipal history across the country. It is getting further aggravated in the metropolitan regions. The creation of parastatal bodies for urban governance has almost become detrimental for survival. The sense of urgency to optimise these mechanisms is to be found mostly among the late starters. Therefore, what lessons are being carried forward from these five major metropolitan regions is more important now than ever before.
While the author believes that India’s metropolitan problems can only be resolved with a political vision and will, it is something that looks hard to come by. With more and more activities of any national significance being staged in urban areas, it is the urban which is at the centre stage. The local bodies are being relegated as mere symbolic elected heads. At the same time, this account of the evolution of metropolitan governance should be used as pointers by practitioners and policymakers to further strengthen the 74th Amendment Act, 1992 and bring the elected body at the centre stage of decision-making.
The postscript at the end of the book talks about how randomly the metropolitan region is identified either for expansion or reduction. This underlines the current mood across cities, where political considerations are the driving force rather than a regional perspective. To cite an example, the recently formalised Patna Master Plan, 2031 took close to two years to deliberate and finalise the boundaries of what would politically benefit the region rather than spatial considerations. To conclude, as the author emphasises, the main intent of the book is to develop a political vision for metropolitan governance. And it must start from the lessons of these early starters. The detailed appendix at the end of the book for each of the metropolitan region is a definite asset for researchers.