LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

MUNICIPALITIES

Under the Central Provinces and Berar Municipalities Act, 1922, as amended, the State Government have powers to declare any local area to be a municipal committee and to extend the present limits of existing municipal committees. Every municipal committee consists of elected councillors. The State Government have also powers to prescribe the number of wards, number of councillors and seats reserved for women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.

The term of the office of a municipality is for five years. Every municipality has to be presided over by a president elected by the councillors from among themselves [As per the recent amendment the President of the municipality is elected directly.]. Each committee has a vice-president who is nominated by the president from amongst the members of the committee. A president or a vice-president could be removed from the office by the committee by passing a resolution to that effect provided that the three-fourth of the total number of members of a committee vote in favour of such a resolution. They are also removable from the office by the State Government for misconduct or neglect or incapacity to perform duties after giving reasonable opportunities to the concerned persons to represent their case.

Under the provisions of the Municipalities Act and rules made thereunder the duties of the president are as follows: —

(a) to preside over the meetings of the municipal committee;

(b) to guide the financial and executive administration and perform such other executive functions as may be performed by the municipality; 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 administration by the elected members.

In so far as the duties of the municipality are concerned, they are divided into obligatory and optional. The matters essential to the health, safety, well-being of the population fall under obligatory duties while optional duties cover those which despite being legitimate objects of local expenditure, are not considered absolutely essential. The following are some of the obligatory duties: —

(1) lighting public streets, places and buildings;

(2) watering public streets and places;

(3) cleaning public streets, places and abating all public nuisances;

(4) extinguishing fires and protecting life and property from fire;

(5) regulating or abating offensive or dangerous trades or practices;

(6) removing obstructions in public streets and places;

(7) securing or removing dangerous buildings and reclaiming unhealthy localities;

(8) constructing and maintaining public streets, markets, slaughter houses, latrines, drains, washing places, etc.;

(9) providing sufficient supply of water;

(10) naming streets and numbering premises;

(11) registering births and deaths;

(12) carrying out public vaccination;

(13) establishing and maintaining hospitals and dispensaries and providing medical relief;

(14) establishing and maintaining primary schools; and

(15) printing and publishing annual administration reports of the committee.

The municipality may impose taxes on the following items: —

(1) a tax on buildings and lands;

(2) a tax on trade and profession or art;

(3) market dues on persons exposing goods for sale in any place or market belonging to the State Government;

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

(5) octroi tax on animals or goods brought within the municipal limits;

(6) tax on pilgrims;

(7) lighting rate and;

(8) drainage tax.

The State Government may raise objections to the levy of any tax which appears to be unfair in its incidence in the interest of the general public and suspend the levy of such tax until the objections are removed. Many of the taxes are levied by the municipalities but the rates at which they are levied do not enable them to meet all their expenditure. Therefore, their incomes have to be supplemented by various types of grants by the Government, both recurring and non-recurring.

The control of the municipalities in the State vests in the Director of Municipal Administration. The State Government have powers to suspend the execution of a resolution passed by a municipality or prohibit any act which is considered to be in contravention of powers conferred upon it by the Maharashtra Municipalities Act, 1965; provided that a reasonable opportunity is given to the committee to show cause against the order. The Government is also entrusted with powers to direct the performance of any work or duty if it is satisfied that the committee has made default in performing such a work or duty. It may also direct the committee to bear the expenses incurred in such default. If the Government is satisfied that a committee makes default again and again or is incompetent to discharge its duties or abuses its powers, it may suspend the working of a committee, and the same is entrusted to the executive officer appointed by the Government for general improvement in the administration of the committee.

Five towns in Bhandara district, viz., Bhandara, Gondia, Tumsar, Pauni and Tirora have municipal committees established under the Central Provinces and Berar Municipalities Act, 1922. Their details are shown in the following statement: —

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