The municipal commissioner heads the administrative staff of the municipal corporation. He is appointed by the government. He implements all the decisions of the municipal corporation and prepares the annual budget. Committees are set to decide on various issues affecting the life of the citizens. The commissioner and his administrative staff implement these decisions. Let us learn more about Urban Administration.

The administrative structure of the municipal corporation includes departments like health, transport, civil works, education, water supply, etc. Each department has an officer who assists the commissioner in his work like the chief engineer, chief medical officer, education officer, etc. The municipal corporation covers a large area and population. Therefore, the administrative structure includes a number of workers.

Sources of income

Since the municipal corporation works on a large scale, it requires a lot of money to discharge all its functions properly. Octroi is an important source of income for the municipal corporation. Various taxes like water tax, property tax, entertainment tax, pilgrimage tax, contribute to its income.

There are also taxes on education and other amenities. It receives income by selling its own land. Besides these, the government also grants loans to the corporation whenever it undertakes a project involving huge expenditures. State governments also provide financial assistance and grants to corporations.

A community protest

Sometimes situations can arise where the municipal corporations fail to fulfill the requirements of the people. In such a situation, people protest and can get their demands fulfilled by complaining to the right people.

Let us take a look at one such situation. The sanitation workers of the municipal corporation for a long time had been ignoring the cleanliness of the roads in some colonies.

The area was coming under the grip of an epidemic. The people of one of these localities got together and decided to go to the ward councilor. The councilor listened to their problems and promised to put the case in front of the commissioner. People signed a petition. The councilor and a few people went to meet the Municipal commissioner.

Upon hearing their grievances the commissioner gave excuses like there are was rampant with wild dogs and wild snakes which prevented the sweepers from cleaning the area.

He also said that the roads in the area are in a bad difficult for the sweepers to clean the locality. The angry people protested that the municipal corporation was responsible for bad roads and poor lighting and threatened that if no action was taken to improve the situation, then they would file public interest litigation in the court. Eventually, this is what happened.

The city court directed the corporation to immediately look into the matter, following which the streets of the colonies were cleaned. Since then the area has been kept clean by the municipal corporation workers. Thus, we see that municipal corporations in India have a department for solid waste management. Earlier waste was disposed of by creating landfills but now the solid waste is converted into organic manure. Many non-governmental organizations are also recycling city waste into productive goods such as bags, rugs, etc.

Read More: Municipal Election - Urban Administration - Class 6 Notes