LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

MUNICIPALITIES

The term of office of a municipal committee is for five years but it can be extended further by the State Government. Under the provisions of the Act, every municipal council is to be presided over by a President elected from amongst the councillors. The President holds office for such term which is not less than one year or 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 previous to the election of a President determine. Each municipal council has a Vice-President who is nominated by the President from amongst the councillors.

Under the Maharashtra Municipalities Act, 1965. and the Rules made thereunder, the duties of a President are given below: (a) to preside over the meetings of the municipal committee, (b) to guide the financial and executive administration, and (c) to supervise and exercise control over all officers and servants of the municipality. The Act provides for the formation of sub-committees of different branches of a municipal committee for proper administration.

Duties : The Act divides the duties of the municipalities into obligatory and optional. The former includes all matters essential to the health, safety, convenience and well-being of the population, while the latter cover those which, despite being legitimate objects of local expenditure, are not considered absolutely essential.

The obligatory duties include lighting and sweeping of public streets, places, etc., extinguishing fires, regulating offensive or dangerous trade, acquiring and maintaining places for disposal of dead, constructing public places, obtaining supply of water, registering births and deaths, carrying out vaccination, establishing and maintaining hospitals and dispensaries and primary schools, giving relief to persons in famine, etc.

The municipality may at its discretion provide out of its funds for constructing and maintaining gardens, rest-houses, etc., undertaking transport facility for public, providing well-being of municipal employees, etc. Municipal taxation may embrace among others the following items: -

(i) a rate on buildings and lands;

(ii) a tax on all or any vehicles, boats, or animals used for riding draught or burden;

(iii) a special sanitary cess upon private latrines, premises or compounds cleansed by the municipal agency;

(iv) any other tax authorised by the Stale Government. The rules regulating the levy of taxes have to be sanctioned by the Director of Municipal Administration, who has been given powers to subject the levy to such modifications not involving an increase of the amount to be imposed or to such conditions as to application of a part or whole of the proceeds of the tax to any purpose.

The State Government may raise objections to the levy of any particular tax which appears to it to be unfair in its incidence or obnoxious to the interest of the general public and suspend the levy of it until such time as the objections are removed. The State Government may require a municipality to impose taxes when it appears to it that the balance of the municipal fund is insufficient for meeting any cost incurred by any person acting under the directions of the Director for the execution of any work or the performance of any duties which the municipality is under an obligation to execute or perform but which it has failed to execute or perform.

Many of these taxes are levied by the municipalities but the rates at which they are levied do not enable them to meet all their expenditure. Their incomes have to be supplemented by numerous grants made by Government, both recurring and non-recurring. For instance, grants are made by Government to municipalities for hospitals, water-supply and drainage schemes, expenditure on control of epidemics, payment of dearness allowance to staff, etc. These grants add substantially to the municipal income. Besides these taxes and grants from the Government the municipal councils also derive income from fees from the educational institutions and receipts from markets.

Four out of five towns in the district have municipalities established under the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act of 1925 (No. IV) and the Bombay District Municipal Act, 1901 (Nos. I and III). The position of these municipalities in the years 1961, 1965 and 1970 is shown in the following statement:-

These four municipalities together covered 84.35 per cent of the urban population or 9.35 per cent of the total 1971 Census population of the district. The population of Ahmadnagar city is exclusive of the population of the nearby cantonment area. The municipal tax figures therefore did not include the receipts of the cantonment board.

The receipts and expenditure of all the municipalities for the years 1961-62, 1965-66 and 1969-70 is shown below:-

The receipts and expenditure of all municipalities in the year 1971-72 amounted to Rs. 1,27,98,000 and Rs. 1,52,12,000, respectively

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