Urban Administration by Municipality and Municipal Corporation

In urban areas, the population is much larger than in villages, and their problems are more complex.
Local affairs and basic amenities are managed by larger self-governing bodies.
The government classifies cities based on population size to set up local self-governing bodies.
- Larger urban areas (population over one million): Municipal Corporations (Nagar Nigam).
  - Examples: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai.
- Smaller urban areas (population between one lakh and one million): Municipal Councils (Nagar Palika).
- Smaller areas transitioning from rural to urban: City Councils (Nagar Panchayat).
All three municipal bodies (corporations, councils, city councils) are responsible for administration and civic infrastructure and have a five-year term.
They consist of elected, nominated, and ex-officio members.
The city is divided into wards, each electing a member known as the ward councillor or simply councillor.

Obligatory functions:
- Water purification and supply.
- Sewage treatment and disposal.
- Garbage disposal and street cleanliness.
- Solid waste management.
- Development plans for the city.
- Prevention of pollution and protecting the environment.
- Building and maintenance of roads, streets, flyovers/bridges.
- Street lighting.
- Development and maintenance of parks, playgrounds, gardens, and open spaces.
- Maintenance of cemeteries and crematoriums.
- Registration of births and deaths.
- Conservation of heritage sites.
- Disease control, including immunization.
- Maintenance of public municipal schools.
- Establishment and maintenance of primary and secondary public municipal schools
- Building and maintaining hospitals and dispensaries
Optional functions include:
- Constructing houses for the poor.
- Building rest houses and lodges.
- Running libraries and museums.
- Planting trees and maintaining fire brigades.

Members are elected on the basis of adult franchise (all adults have right to vote) for a five-year term.
Elected members are known as councillors.
Seats are reserved for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other backward classes.
One-third of the seats are reserved for women.
Nominated members (aldermen) are elected from respectable citizens.

The head of the municipal corporation is the mayor (or mahapur).
Elected by the members and presides over corporation meetings.
A deputy mayor discharges the mayor's duties in their absence.
Terms vary between 1-2.5 years in different corporations.
Municipal councils are headed by a chairman and a deputy chairman, elected by the members.

Activities are conducted through different committees.
Every corporation has a standing committee for policy decisions.
Separate committees handle water supply, health, transport, and garbage collection.
Ward committees consist of representatives from two or more wards.

The mayor performs duties with the help of the Chief Executive Officer (municipal commissioner) and the standing committee.
The municipal commissioner is the administrative head, appointed by the government. They act as supervisors.
Acts as a link between the corporation and the state government.
Implements decisions and prepares the annual budget.
Departments include health, transport, civil works, education, and water supply.
Each department has an officer assisting the commissioner.

Municipal corporations require a lot of money.
Octroi is an important source of income (tax collected on goods brought into a town).
Various taxes: water tax, property tax, entertainment tax, pilgrimage tax.
Taxes on education and other amenities.
Income from selling its own land.
Government grants loans for projects involving huge expenditure.
State governments also provide financial assistance and grants.

People can express grievances if municipal corporations fail to fulfill requirements.
Meet with ward councillor to discuss problems like bad roads, absence of street lighting, or piling up of garbage.
If unresolved, present the problem to the municipal commissioner through letters or petitions.
Other ways: rallies, dharnas, signing petitions, filing cases in Lok Adalats, or writing letters to newspapers.

Important task of the municipal corporation.
Separate department for collection and disposal of city waste.
Earlier waste was disposed of by creating landfills, but now solid waste is converted into organic manure.
Non-governmental organizations are also recycling city waste into productive goods.

In 1994, a plague epidemic broke out due to accumulated filth.
Surat was one of the dirtiest cities in India, with garbage dumped in drains and streets.
The municipal corporation made no attempts to ensure adequate water supply, flood drainage, collection of garbage, not even to dispose of animal carcasses rotting in the streets.
Several people lost their lives or fled the city.
People and the municipal corporation took quick measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic and to clean the city.
Surat is now the second cleanest city of India after Chandigarh.
The community and the government worked hand in hand to ensure that Surat became a model for other cities.

Launched on 2nd October 2014.
Aims at eradicating open defecation, constructing toilets, and creating a clean India.
Cities are competing for the rank of the cleanest city of India.
Indore has been ranked as the cleanest city of India for the past few years.