Fragile Urban Governance: Evolution, Decline, and Empowerment of Local Self-Government in India  (English, Hardcover, Gangadhar Jha)

"Urbanization is giving rise to a vibrant and volatile urban India as the engine which drives the economic activities that contribute to national economic growth. Even though this imposes unprecedented onus on urban local self-government (ULSG) for providing efficient, effective, inclusive and responsive urban services, they have been struggling to do so. Most ULSGs especially in India's secondary cities are too fragile to perform the mandated functions for enhancing the quality of life and making cities and towns livable. This volume traces the evolution of ULSGs, their decline after Independence, and steps taken to strengthen them especially through big-bang decentralization initiative of 1992 for their empowerment by enacting the 74th Constitution Amendment Act (74th CAA). Analysing facets of decentralization initiative, views of two review Commissions, policy responses to it and processes for implementation of constitutional provisions, the volume alludes to conspicuous gaps at three levels such as (i) gaps and deficiencies in the 74th CAA itself, (ii) gaps in the post-74th CAA Municipal Acts that were required to conform to the constitutional provisions, and (iii) gaps due to half-hearted implementation of even the mandatory constitutional provisions. Empowerment and strengthening of ULSG being in the nature of an imperative, the volume explores plausible options within the constitutional autonomy of states and also specifies experiential based rational framework and a strategy for strengthening of ULSGs that must look beyond the existing predilection for mere training."