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CAG Report on Urban Local Bodies
November 23 , 2024
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- The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act mandated the devolution of powers to urban local bodies so they serve citizens directly and effectively.
- This has not been fully implemented by 18 states even after three decades after Parliament amended the Constitution.
- 17 of the 18 municipal functions have been transferred to the urban local self-governments (ULSGs) by law.
- But only four functions have been effectively devolved with complete autonomy.
- Ten out of the 14 states have overriding powers over ULSGs on more than five of the 16 factors.
- 1,600 out of 2,625 ULSGs in 17 states had no active elected council, and only five had directly elected mayors.
- Six out of the 14 states reserved 50% of their city council seats for women, surpassing the constitutional requirement of 33% reservation for women.
- Only four of the 15 states have empowered their State Election Commissions (SEC) with ward delimitation.
- The municipal bodies heavily depend on the central and state governments for funds.
- On average, only 32% of ULSG’s total revenue was their own.
- As little as 29% of their expenditure went to development works and welfare programmes.
- Their average resource expenditure gap was 42%.
- Only ten states have constituted the State Finance Commissions according to the prescribed timeline.
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