Learn From Morbi: Fix Local Govt

Municipal bodies should raise more funds, do mandated audits, invest in staff competency

- KK Pandey

The probe into the deadly collapse of the footbridge over Machchhu river in Morbi must go into all the different levels of upkeep of this

143-year-old bridge. Only this will enable the proper identification of lapses whether on the part of the civic body or contractors or subcontractors, as also why the bridge was opened in advance of the scheduled date. But the broader goal of the investigation into the causes of this tragedy must be to identify what civic bodies around the country need to do to avoid such tragedies recurring on loop.

This tragedy has taken place close on the heels of flooding in Bengaluru. There also the widespread damage has underlined the need to rewire urban governance. Because it is clearly failing the job.

What makes these episodes even more worrying is that Gujarat and Karnataka are relatively advanced states. If India’s IT, manufacturing and service hubs are in this condition, imagine the situation elsewhere.

This decay reflects a huge historical failure to reform urban governance and these incidents underline that there must not be any more delay in such reform. The PM recently observed in Gujarat itself that the vision of India@2047 as a developed nation will be shaped by cities. People-centric urban governance is simply imperative.

In the Morbi and Bengaluru cases three aspects of urban asset creation and maintenance have come to the forefront:

● Fiscal health (liquidity and elasticity) of own sources

● Procurement process and its enforcement

● Capacities of civic bodies to deliver services