Do state governments or municipal corporations respect the Constitution of India?

The question should be absurd, as it is normally believed that all rights and powers that elected representatives, the judiciary and even the executive enjoy, flow from the fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution.  <> 

That may not be true.  Especially if one looks at the way funds have been collected and disbursed in Mumbai. The dramatis personae are the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and the state government of Maharashtra.  And the plot revolves around the rights and privileges enjoyed by the rich and the powerful. Especially in Mumbai. <> 

Mumbai is, after all, no ordinary city.  It generates at least 40% of the income tax that is collected by the government of India from all over the country even though its population is just around 9.9 million (2001 census), or less than 1% of the total population of India.  Yet, if one considers all revenue collections – including excise and customs duties – Mumbai’s contribution is well over half the collection of the national exchequer. <> 

What makes this even more remarkable is that Mumbai has grown without the benefit of any largesse that has been enjoyed by a city like Delhi given its status as the capital of the country.  For decades, a large part of Delhi’s roadways, its facilities and even its electric and water supply were funded from the monies generated by the rest of the country.  It is only recently that Delhi began paying for much of its own services, now that it has been granted the status of being a city-state. <> 

True enough, Mumbai has its own pulls and pressures. It has one of the highest densities of people per square kilometre, one of the highest in the world.  Then there is the pressure of gender inequality -- there are only 811 females for every 1,000 males, lower than the national average – because many working males come from rural areas, leaving their families behind. This is because, Mumbai remains, after all, one of the most attractive employment destinations in India, where stories of rags-to-riches are commonplace – (notwithstanding the much-less-talked-about tales of princes-yesterday-paupers-today). <> 

The overall literacy rate of the city is claimed to be 77%, which is higher than the national average.  But these figures conceal a frighteningly abysmal quality of education.  In an attempt to be populist, the state government has allowed grace marks to be given to students so that even the inept and the undeserving pass their Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination.  In survey after survey, conducted by independent non-government agencies, it has been found that almost two-thirds of the students in classes VI to X do not know grammatically correct English, even in private English medium schools; and less than 60% would have passed any impartial examination in mathematical skills. That much for the government’s much touted literacy drive! <> 

Compounding all this is a rapacious and insensitive government that has turned the Constitution on its head and has continued to make the poor subsidise the rich. <> 

Consider some of the basic facts:

South Mumbai has 70,590 properties, compared to 13,26,667 in its Western suburbs and 80,533 in its Eastern suburbs.  Take the average rateable value of properties next.  It is Rs.472.33 per square metre for South Mumbai, Rs.487.09 for Western Mumbai and Rs.261.38 for Eastern Mumbai.  The MCGM collects Rs.398.45 crore  by way of property taxes from South Mumbai, and Rs.989 crore from the rest of Mumbai (Rs.750.05 crore and Rs.238.66 crore from the Western and Eastern suburbs respectively).

Yet look at the facilities enjoyed by South Mumbai compared to the city’s suburbs and its becomes evident that the affluent in South Mumbai are being subsidized by the tax payers of the rest of Mumbai.  Consider the following:

(ii)                the efficiency of  the traffic signals ,

(iii)               the number of police stations and policemen deployed per 1000 people,

(iv)              the number of cleaners deployed per square km of roadways,

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(vii)             the per capital expenditure on street lighting

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Look further and you will find that there are more municipal dispensaries, more fire stations and more private markets in South Mumbai than in the rest of Mumbai.  Consider again the number of vehicles and the road tax paid, and you will get the same refrain that the rest of Mumbai is subsidizing South Mumbai.  <> 

In all these respects South Mumbai continues being subsidized by the rest of Mumbai.  Could it be because all the top bureaucrats and politicians have been housed there?  Could it also be because the most affluent of people reside there, and have the ability to demand and get better facilities than the rest of Mumbai and even the rest of the country? <> 

This goes against what the Constitution says:

“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC . . .”

<> Clearly, the poor subsidising the rich is not socialist; it is not democratic either.  <> 

So shouldn’t someone haul up the MCGM and the government for desecrating Constitutional norms?  And shouldn’t there be a law that a minimum fixed percentage of the money generated by a territory should go back towards upgrading the quality of life of that territory.  It could be 60% of the proceeds, or it could be 20%; but it is fair to expect that a fixed percentage of this amount should go back to the areas from where it was raised, and only the rest to a common pool.  What works for center-state finance sharing, should also apply to a city and its suburbs. <> 

Unfortunately, few public interest litigations have taken up these issues, which are the bedrock on which value systems for a city are built, and on which the concept of equity gets a firmer hold.  It should also explain why ordinances get pushed through with impunity – first seeking to regularize irregular settlements till a cut off date of 1995, then extending it to 2000, and now to 2005.  And it also explains the reluctance in abolishing the urban land ceiling act, as also the subsidized rents for old premises along Marine Drive and the business districts of South Mumbai. <> 

Nothing could be a clearer indication of the fact that the preservation of the affluent and the powerful takes precedence over all else, including sadly the Constitution! <> 

And we call ourselves a “sovereign, socialist, secular” democracy!