By - Imkong Walling
Municipal bodies are mini parliaments, with their own elected members and bureaucracy (ministerial staff) headed by a state civil service officer. They are vested with powers to regulate market prices and raise revenue on their own— the collected revenue going towards maintaining urban utilities and services, and also salaries of its staff.
They raise revenue through various means, primarily from the market, among which includes tolls, and property tax. There is no provision for the latter in the Nagaland Municipal Act of 2023, however.
They are self-sustaining entities, which, besides managing the upkeep of a town form an inseparable component of state-building. That is the idealised notion of municipal bodies, known in government parlance as Urban Local Bodies (ULB).
Now, how would the Dimapur Municipal Council fare when put up against the notion of an ideal ULB?
If the events in recent months, and also the current developments, have been any indicator, the DMC has been anything but ideal.
All it has achieved is court controversy, while attracting public vitriol over alleged below par performance, and the infamous ‘tolls,’ stylised as Urban Utility Fee, on businesses and transporters alike. It seems to have been gripped in a web of toll collection over improving urban amenities, while hiking service charges.
Tolls on Open Vendor (Rs 20, valid for one day), Street Vending Fee (Rs 20, valid for one day), Tolls on Parking (Rs 10 for hand carts and cycle rickshaws, valid for one day) are a select list of taxes collected. The notorious dustbins and Christmas stars need no mention.
The revising of the Residential Sanitation Fee by Rs 20, from the preexisting Rs 60 to Rs 80 in the month of May defied logic. Increased operational costs were cited as the cause for the more than 30 percent hike, even as the frequency of waste collection reduced to once a week, and in some instances extending up to 8-9 days. Waste collection trucks making the rounds 2-3 times a week was the routine before.
Outsourcing of vehicle parking toll collection, and allocating different zones to not one by multiple private entities compels commuters to pay multiple parking fees, further increasing the tax burden on the residents.
Meanwhile, questions over revenue target and actual collection, and over-staffing remain sidelined.
The recent allegation against one individual, of collecting tax in the name of the DMC at the vegetable wholesale market needs an in-depth inquiry. Simply dismissing an allegation of such magnitude, without taking the effort to demand an independent investigation, against an elected body raises more questions than reassurance.
Protests by DMC employees over unpaid salaries have become regular features. It predates the present elected Class of 2024. The recent cease work agitation by the employees on August 5 and 6 was one.
As recent as February-March, this year, salaries, pending since October 2024, were disbursed only after the employees warned of a cease work agitation. A similar protest was witnessed in September 2022.
Over the years, the employees register has ballooned to 436, as per the latest count, against a sanctioned total of reportedly 260 posts. The monthly salary bill is estimated at almost a crore, though during the recent protest, the requirement for clearing three months backlog was tipped at Rs 2 crore.
Being productive and contributing to the growth and benefit of the towns they belong to is the unmistakable function of municipal bodies. In the case of the DMC, it appears more like a white elephant, imploding under its own weight.
But then, the debate would all boil down to election expenses against the institutionalised practice of putting a price tag on a vote, if not by the entire electorate. The winning councillors spent crores wooing voters. Thus continuing a cycle of reclaiming what is wrongfully attributed as electoral investment after assuming office.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
