Realising the Rural-Urban Continuum

As India transitions to an urban-centric era due to significant demographic shifts, challenges arise in addressing infrastructure needs and governance across urban and rural areas. The existing policy frameworks and flagship programmes like AMRUT and Swachh Bharat Mission often fail to integrate the urban-rural continuum, leading to inefficiencies and inadequate infrastructure development.

Financial Decentralization and Constraints:

• Centralization Issues: Recent years have seen over-centralization of finances, with local bodies facing severe financial constraints. The 13th Finance Commission highlighted the "asphyxiation" of local bodies due to tied grants linked to central schemes.
• Impact of Property Tax and GST: The rise in property tax should ideally align with the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) to prevent loss of tied grants. The disconnect between these components risks diminishing financial resources for towns.
• Tied vs. Untied Grants: Financial devolution has increasingly favored tied grants over untied ones, limiting the flexibility of local bodies and impacting their ability to address local needs effectively.

Issues with Existing Urban-Rural Programmes:

• AMRUT and Urban-Rural Continuum: The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) targets urban infrastructure but excludes contiguous areas like census towns and urban villages, which are significant in the waste flow cycle.
• Swachh Bharat Mission Limitations: The Swachh Bharat Mission addresses solid and liquid waste management separately for urban and rural areas. This division creates inefficiencies, as integrated waste management solutions are needed for peri-urban and urban areas.
• Missed Opportunities for Integration: Both AMRUT and Swachh Bharat Mission could benefit from collaborative planning at the district level to address infrastructure needs more holistically and reduce bureaucratic centralization.

Need for Governance Reforms:

• Revisiting Constitutional Amendments: The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments aimed to address urban and rural challenges but now require strengthening to better reflect contemporary needs.
• District Planning Committees, which should ideally lead planning and resource allocation, have often become extensions of district bureaucracy rather than autonomous entities.
• Case Study of Kerala: In Kerala, integrated management of urban and rural issues, such as the withdrawal of a landfill site due to combined local governance, demonstrates the benefits of unified oversight.

Practice Question:

Q. Critically analyze the current challenges in India's urban and rural governance frameworks, particularly focusing on financial decentralization and infrastructure development. How can integrating urban-rural policies and strengthening local governance structures address these challenges effectively? Suggest measures for improved policy implementation and resource management.