Metropolitan

development of
Calcutta
BEFORE AND AFTER
74 TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ACT

Submitted to : Mr . Muzzaffer
Hussain
Submitted By : K . Uma Devi
09011PA012 ,
M . Tech Planning 3 rd Sem
1
Urban local bodies - brief
history
 Municipal government, corporations and municipalities
developed under British rule to take care of local
sanitation and public health
Madras corporation was set up as far as back in 1687
Royal charterin 1720 established mayors court in each of
presidency towns of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta

Lord mayo’s resolution of 1870 spoke in favour of local

institutions to raise local resources and look after public
facilities and public health
Democratic local government was recommended by Lord Rippon
in his resolution of 18th May,1882
Later strengthened under provisions of Government of
India Act 1919 and Government of India Act 1935 2
 State Govt
Administrative structure
Councillors

Sub Ordinate

MAYOR
Executive Head of the Corporation Commissioner

DY . MAYOR MAYOR IN COUNCIL

(10 other Councillors

DEPT DEPT 3
Parastatals
Late in the 50s, the Calcutta and its surrounding areas were
seriously affected by outbreaks of the cholera epidemic.
 In the 60s with the assistance of the Ford Foundation through
an organization set up for the purpose called the CMPO
(Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organization ).

The Basic Development Plan prepared by the CMPO proposed a

series of functional authorities with metropolitan wide
jurisdiction such as water supply, sewerage, traffic and
transportation, parks and playgrounds etc.
Two separate development authorities for undertaking new town
development on the west bank and east bank were also
proposed.
A planning organization at the top was to provide the
strategy and coordination.
The Calcutta Metropolitan Water Supply and Sanitation
Authority was indeed set up under a special law but in 4
the absence of any fund it became a nonstarter.
Metropolitan level
initiatives
 Between 1966 and 1970, the situation deteriorated by serious
industrial recession and significant loss of employment.
 In 1971, a special revival plan for Calcutta with substantial
assistance from the Government of India borrowings.
A compact organisation called the Calcutta Metropolitan
Development Authority was created which was to administer the
metropolitan development fund, sanction projects, designate the
agency to implement the same and coordinate the work.
Over the next 10 years some progress was made but the
organizational situation remained the same.

In 1979, the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority was

designated as a Statutory Planning and Development Authority
under the West Bengal Town and Country Planning Act, 1979.
It combined powers of town planning as well as development.

By then CMDA had become an overarching command organisation 5

with the CMWSA, the Calcutta Improvement Trust and Howrah
Improvement Trust as its subsidiaries.
Pre - 1977
 Only 18 new municipalities were created
 All the municipalities including Kolkata Municipal
Corporation were under bureaucratic control without regular
election
 Increasing scarcity of financial resources and lack of
organizational capacity, especially of ULBs, had hampered
the urban service delivery systems.
 All urban initiatives were centered around Kolkata and its
surrounding areas this had badly hampered the urban growth
of small and medium towns outside Kolkata city
 No specific programme was taken to uplift the standard of
living of urban poor
 The age-old municipal laws had lost their relevance, there was
no attempt to amend, substitute or modify them
 The then State Government, during three decades after
independence, left inherited carelessness, imprudence,
6
negligence and failure in the field of municipal
administration.

Post - 1977
 However, things started to change from 1978. The Left Front
Government started to lay more and more emphasis on all
these municipal corporations and other municipalities.
 The Left Front Government realized that without active
participation of the citizens in the day to day activities
of the municipalities, the policies formulated by it cannot
yield expected result.
 It may be mentioned here that the elections to the urban
local bodies of this state are being held at regular
intervals since 1981.
 With the active support of the government, these ULBs have
slowly been transformed into the third tier of local self-
government in true sense.

7
New Era of Urban
Governance
 To cope up with the increasing pace of urbanization and
to provide improved civic service for the citizens 36
new ULBs have been constituted during three decades of
the Left Front Government, taking the
 total number of ULBs to 125,
 including 6 municipal corporations,
 116 municipalities and
 3 notified area authorities.

8
74th Constitutional Amendment
Act
 Most of the provisions of the 74th Constitution Amendment
Act, relating to devolution of power, already existed in
the statutes governing the urban local bodies of this
state well before the legislation of this Act.
 Government of West Bengal has implemented all the
provisions of this Act within the time frame fixed by
Article 243ZF and has become forerunner among all other
states in India.
 In addition to the ideas mooted by this Act, the State
Government has also made it mandatory to incorporate the
unique idea of constituting Ward Committee in every ward
of the urban local bodies with the active participation
of the citizens, including the citizens from socially
and economically weaker sections of the society.
 Further, keeping in tune with the constitutional amendment,
District Planning Committees as well as Metropolitan
Planning Committee for Kolkata Metropolitan Area, the
first of its kind in the country, have also been 9
constituted.
KMDA
Statutory planning and development authority for the Kolkata
Metropolitan Area (KMA)
 Oldest and second largest metropolis in India extends over
1,854 sq km area with a population of more than 15 million
 Prime agency for planning, promoting and developing the KMA.
 Consists of 3 municipal corporations namely Kolkata, Howrah
and ChandanNagar, 38 municipalities and nearly 600 non
municipal urban and urbanizing panchayats and other
settlements.
Besides the planning and implementation of selected schemes,
KMDA is also engaged in preparation of existing land Use
Maps and Registers (lUMR), Outline Development Plans (ODP)
and land Use Development Control Plans (lUDCP).
KMDA's role is multi disciplinary -it is the agency of city
planning, it sculpts new areas and townships, it develops
physical infrastructure as well as provide basic services
like water, drainage, and waste management. 10
Organogram
 When the CMDA was
set up in 1971, it
had the Chief
Minister of the
State as the
Chairman, two
other State
Ministers and
three
representatives of
the Municipalities
nominated by the
State Government.
 Later on the KMDA
was enlarged as a
11 member Board
with the Minister,
Urban Development 11
as the Chairman.

Kolkata Metropolitan Planning
Committee (KMPC)
 The state government enacted the West Bengal Metropolitan Planning
Committee Act, 1994 for the purpose of decentralized spatial and
socio-economic planning in Kolkata.
 The Act provided for the constitution of KMPC for the preparation of
draft development plan for the metropolitan area as a whole by
consolidating the development plans of its constituent
municipalities and village councils.
 Two-thirds of the committee is elected by, and from amongst, the
elected members of the 41 Municipalities and around 100
Chairpersons of the village councils in the Kolkata Metropolitan
Area (KMA).
 Another one-third of committee is made up of nominated
representatives of the Government of India, the state government
and the organizations and institutions relating to urban
development and infrastructure.
 It took seven years after the enactment of the Act that the KMPC was
formed and started deliberating.
 KMDA has been declared as the Secretariat of KMPC and the Secretary12
of KMDA has been appointed as the Secretary of the KMPC.
Functions of KMPC
 The Kolkata MPC is responsible for preparing:
1. Perspective plan (25 years)
2. Draft Development Plan (Five yearly)
3. Annual Plan for Implementation.

13
 Structure
Urban Development Department

Metropolitan Level
Kolkatta Metropolitan Planning Commitee

Chairperson
Elected Member
Metropolitan Development Authority

Secretary
(Secretary of KMDA

14
Members ( 60 Members
40 elected & 20 Nominated
(Secretary of KMDA