Urban Local Self Government in India

No Urban Local Self-governments are functioning in the notified towns/cities of Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh till date. So the urbanites of these states have no participation in the decision-making and implementing processes, though the urbanization in these states is at a faster rate creating urban human problems of complicated nature and the State Governments have not yet implemented the provisions of the Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act, 1992 for the setup of the Municipalities which are not in keeping with the national goal democratic decentralised governance and planning processes. The concept of democratic decentralised governance hardly operates in these states. The book  suggests to implement the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act,  1992 for a set-up of the Urban Governance in the notified towns, to enable the urbanites to partcipate in decision-making and implementing processes of complicated urban problems affecting directly their daily lives. The book emphasizes people's empowerment, democratic, decentralised and participative civic governance which the 74th constitutional Amendment Act envisages. The functions of state Governments and urban Local Self-Governments as partners in a common endeavour ti improve the living conditions of the urbanites are emphasised. The volume is full of policy insights into the dynamics of urban local governance. The contributors to the volume have biended in their essays variegated perspectives; descriptive, analytical logical, empirical and instrumental. The volume will be found useful to students and practitioners of political and administrative systems who are interested in not only understanding the dynamics of urban local governance system but also in identifying solutions to the issues and problems concerning effectiveness in the urban governance system.

R.N. Prasad (b.1941) is Professor at the Department of Public Administration, Mizoram University (Central), Aizawl. He is a former Head of the Department of Public Administration and the Dean, School of Social Sciences. He has been teaching Public Administration and Political Science for well over three decades. He has participated in several local regional, national and international seminars/conferences/workshops and contributed numerous scholarly and research papers. He, being a prolific writer and devoted researcher, has to his credit more than 85 research papers and book reviews published in academic and professional journals of national and international repute and edited volumes. He has also authored, co-authored edited and co-edited a number of books. He is a member of different academic bodies of several universities, research institutes/conuncils/Boards and also a life member of professional associations/bodies. He is an Hony. Secretary of the Indian Institute of Public Administration, Mizoram Regional Branch, and the editor of its annual journal, Administrative Review.