Enough of Modi chants like; ‘Chalo Chale Modi Ke Sath’ and Kuthe Neun Thevla Maharashtra Majha’ (Look where did they led My Maharashtra).
With the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) forming minority government in Maharashtra which is going to be challenging, as they will be governing the state which is highly aspirational and is urbanizing at a greater rate than any other state of India.
Maharashtra in the coming years is to become India’s ‘most urbanized state’.
All eyeballs, in Maharashtra set on the BJP which ruling at centre and now going to be in state as well and in-case of Mumbai the BMC too.
The expectations of the voters are obviously going to be high, which is going to be a shaky way ahead for the BJP, looking at the economic condition of the state, which is something we can safely assume to be ‘Agni-Pariksha’ for the BJP.
Over the last decade Maharashtra’s urban population increased nearly by 25%.
According to research reports, Maharashtra’s urban population is expected to grow from 50.8 million in2011, to 84.1 million by 2031, which is more than 50% of the state’s population looking for urbanization.
Looking at Maharashtra’s speedy urbanizing pattern the state government cannot afford to remain apathetic towards the municipal bodies governance unlike the previous government. The challenges are not only limited to municipal bodies of Mumbai (BMC) or Pune (PMC) but also municipal bodies that will emerge with the urbanization process.
Already with Mumbai taking more than half of the state sponsored revenue for the Urban Local Bodies (ULB’s) the state’s other ULB’s are short of adequate capital.
With the previous government failing in getting rid of the distress among state’s ULB’s and failure in collecting taxes; property tax which was collected only 37% and water charges which collection was only 46% out of the total. The new state government cannot afford to govern in the same manner.
The CAG report, also observed that municipal bodies in Maharashtra spends 42%-50% of their revenue on establishment salaries. Such inefficiencies and operational hurdles leave the municipal bodies in Maharashtra with little left for capital works and public service.
The practical problems are leakages within state government, inflation and delays in clearance of projects with extrapolating the requirement of urbanizing Maharashtra goes beyond calculations.
It’s clear that the municipal bodies are going to decide the fate on the quality of governance by the new state government. The new government has to make sure the revenues for municipal bodies increase and regular upgrades on accounting and management of funds is done.
This all will go long way in monitoring outcomes, attracting corporates and providing aspirational governance to citizens.
( The research data mentioned here is taken from Janaagraha a non-profit organization based in Bangalore.)
