Small Towns and Decentralisation in India: Urban Local Bodies in the Making

by Remi De Bercegol

This book examines the impact that decentralisation reforms, initiated in the early 1990s, have had on small towns in India. It specifically focuses on small towns in Uttar Pradesh, one of the most densely populated and poorest states in India. Although considered home to one of the oldest urban civilisations, India remains one of the least urbanised regions in the world. At the same time, the country has many million-strong metropolises that are among the world’s largest megacities, as well as a multitude of small and medium-sized towns and cities. This paradoxical urbanisation, against a backdrop of reforms, has interested the scientific community to gain a more nuanced understanding of the changes and challenges involved. This book analyses an urban environment often overlooked by researchers and public authorities, namely, that of small towns. These towns are of vital importance as this is where the bulk of future urban development will take place. However, decades after implementation of the reforms, the majority of reviews and assessments have focused on large cities and so the impacts of the reform on small towns are still poorly understood. This book includes extensive primary data about political, technical and financial municipal issues in small towns of northern India and, is therefore, of interest to students, researchers and planners working on urban and regional studies in the global South.

Genres: Urban

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Mayank Bawari]

An excellent academic study by Frenchmen “Remi De Bercegol” of the 1992’s 74th decentralisation of town amendment, in oft unknown 4 towns of mythic Eastern UP during last Behan Mayawati Government tenure. The primary motive of the book is the to see the effect of the decentralisation in a small pocket of India for consistency in comparison and a few new institutions that grew to implement it.

The author is quite enthused about the exercise, and has a very dispassionate take on the whole exercise, at the same time unimpaired by take of local caste politics and regional allegiances, and uncharacteristically avoids Hindutva politics just to score some brownie points with the expectant crowd.

It pains to read the ineffectual incestous nebulous network of competing government/semi government agencies, trying to pass on regular repair work to the next Nigam/Ward, the wilful lack of coordination in even the simplest of daily tasks, such as ad-hoc load shedding planning and water distribution,leading to a constant fluctuation in water pressure in effect water hammer bursting the sub standard pipes in half drained last monsoon overflow mixed with daily sewer water, the game of petty one-upmanship and/or total open collusion between the ward member, mayor, MLA, EO and MP leading to essentially the same result irrespective of the party affiliations. The culture of Bakshish, undue favours, embezzlement, misuse of government property, quota management, lack of accountability, escalating corruption, poor record keeping, unprofessional management, tax avoidance, unnecessary taxation, and wastage of resources essentially turning an empowering exercise of development into political arena for captive population to serenade itself into daily theatre of federal politics with local actors. The book is an eye opener for anyone interested in knowing about what really ails the towns of India, and how any and all reforms are co-opted into something that’s disastrously different from any semblance of the pencilled law and legislative intent, a deformed still born runt that reminds one of something familiar and alien in origin at the same time.

Rating: 5/5