Searching for Effective City Governance: The Case of India’s West Bengal

Abstract

India had a long colonial rule which shaped its local government. Till the 1930s, local bodies were viewed from the standpoint of efficiency. India’s independence in 1947 brought a paradigmatic shift in the policy of local government with the participation of the citizens as the basic premise. West Bengal is a constituent unit of the Union of India and its capital city is called Kolkata (Calcutta) which was the first capital of the colonial rulers. It has a long tradition of radical and independence movements. It is characterized by a high degree of politicization. Kolkata was the first city in India to introduce a mixed cabinet form of city governance such as the Mayor-in-Council (MIC) system. Accordingly, an attempt has been made to trace the background of this new politico-administrative structure, to assess the functioning of the system and to draw lessons from it for developing countries with similar historical and political situations interested in introducing this MIC model of city governance and for other states of the Union of India. The study shows that while this institutional arrangement is better than the previous commissioner model, the success of it depends largely on the vision of the holder of the office of the Mayor, his/her team spirit and leadership. A well-knit party system with effective and strong command structures down the line is a basic pre-condition. Bureaucracy as a permanent executive has to be allowed to play its legal role effectively without fear or favour and should not be used to settle factional political scores. There should be regular interaction between the higher level government and the local body despite political differences and legislation should provide such scope.