LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

MUNICIPALITIES

Every municipal committee constitutes a body consisting of elected representatives i.e., councillors, the State Government having power to nominate councillors to represent the wards, which fail to elect seat or seats allotted to them. The State Government have also the power to prescribe the number and the extent of wards to be constituted in each municipal committee as also the number of councillors to be elected from each ward and the seats reserved for women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

The term of office of a municipal committee is for live years but it can be extended further by the State Government. Each municipality is presided over by a president elected by the councillors. The president holds office for one year or for a period not less than the residue of the term of office of the committee, whichever is less and not exceeding three years as the committee may determine. Each committee has also a vice-president who is nominated by the president from amongst the members of the committee.

A president or a vice-president can be removed from the office by the State Government on account of misconduct, neglect or incapacity to perform the duties imposed by law after giving reasonable opportunity of showing cause against such an order. The municipal committee can also remove a president or a vice-president by passing a resolution to that effect, provided that three-fourth of its members vote in favour of such a resolution.

The Municipalities Act has defined the duties of the president some of which arc as follows.

(1) to preside over the meetings of the municipal committee.

(2) to guide the financial and executive administration, and

(3) to supervise and exercise control over all officers and servants of the municipal committee.

The Act provides for the formation of sub-committees of different branches of a municipal committee for administration by the elected councillors.

As regards duties of the municipalities, the Act divides municipal functions into obligatory and optional. The former includes all matters essential to the health, safety, convenience, and well-being of the population; while the latter are those which are not considered absolutely essential. Following are some of the obligatory duties of all the municipalities.

(1) lighting public streets, places and buildings;

(2) cleaning public streets, places and removing noxious vegetation and abating all public nuisances;

(3) disposing of night soil and rubbish;

(4) extinguishing fires and protecting life and property When fires occur;

(5) establishing and maintaining cattle pounds;

(6) securing possession of or removing buildings which are in a unsecured state;

(7) providing proper and sufficient supply of water;

(8) registering deaths and births;

(9) carrying out public vaccinations;

(10) establishing and maintaining poor-houses;

(11) taking such measures as may be required to prevent the outbreak, spread or recurrence of infectious diseases;

(12) carrying out the annual census of agricultural cattle; and

(13) printing and publishing annual administrative reports;

Municipalities may at their discretion provide out of their funds for the following among others:

(1) constructing, maintaining public parks, gardens, libraries, sarais, residential houses, hospitals and dispensaries;

(2) furthering educational objects other than the establishment and maintenance of primary schools;

(3) planting and maintaining road-side and other trees;

(4) undertaking destruction or detention and preservation of stray dogs;

(5) establishing and maintaining a farm or a factory for the disposal of sewage; and

(6) constructing and maintaining such roads, buildings and other Government works other than irrigation works;

Municipal taxation may embrace the following items:

(1) tax on buildings or lands;

(2) tax on persons exercising profession or art or carrying on any trade;

(3) octroi tax on animals or goods Drought within the municipal limits for sale, consumption or use;

(4) water rate where water is supplied by the committee;

(5) lighting rate;

(6) drainage tax;

(7) tax payable by the occupiers of buildings or lands; and

(8) tax on pilgrims.

The State Government may raise objections to levy of any tax which appears to be unfair in its incidence upon or obnoxious to the interest of the general public. The State Government may sanction or refuse to sanction any proposal for levy of taxes or sanction them subject to the modifications as it may deem fit or return them to the committee for further consideration. With a view to improve the financial position of the municipal committee, the State Government may compel the committee to impose new taxes. Sometimes yield from the taxes imposed does not enable the committee to meet all the expenditure it has to incur. The incomes of the committees are therefore supplemented by grants by the Government which are both of a recurring and non-recurring type. Thus grants are made by Government to municipal dispensaries and hospitals, to water supply schemes, towards payment of dearness allowance to staff, etc.

The control of all the municipalities in the district vests in the Director of Municipal Administration, Maharashtra State. The State Government can appoint an executive officer when a committee becomes incompetent to perform its duties. In such case the State Government have powers to dissolve or supersede a municipal committee.

There are nine municipal committees in the district at Akola, Akot, Telhara, Balapur, Patur, Murtizapur, Karanja, Washim and Mangrulpir. These municipal councils were established and governed under the Central Provinces and Berar Municipalities Act. 1922. The Municipality of Akola is nearly a hundred years old. The nine municipalities together cover the entire urban population or 22.10 per cent of the total population of the district according to the Census of 1961. The details about the municipalities are shown in the following table:

TABLE No. 1

Municipalities in the Akola District

As per the findings of the 1961 Census, the per capita tax appears to be high at Akola, but as it is an important market centre a part of the incidence of tax falls on the agriculturists who bring their produce for sale there. In 1961-62 the per capita municipal tax at Akola was 22.59 whereas it was 3.17 at Patur which was the lowest. During 1962-63 the income of all the municipalities including government grants was Rs. 68,04,158 as against Rs. 65,08,624 in 1964-65. About 72 per cent of the total income of all municipalities in 1964-65 was raised through rates and taxes, giants and contributions. In case of expenditure during the same period 50 per cent of the expenditure was incurred on public health and 'conservancy, 17 per cent on public instructions while the remaining was on administration, public health and safety, etc.

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