Institutionalizing People's Participation in Urban Governance: An Inter-City Perspective of Wards Committees in West Bengal

Socio-spatial order of neoliberal Ahmedabad

“…Prior to 1992, citizen participation had been voluntary and mostly limited to projects, such as the Slum Networking Project, as well as other slum upgrade programs implemented in in Ahmedabad (Dutta, 2000). Participation occurred less frequently in the decision making stages than in the implementation and monitoring stages of projects (Ghosh and Mitra, 2008). Governments had no legal obligation to formalise citizen participation in routine governance processes such as annual budget formulation, planning and monitoring the implementation of neighbourhood infrastructure projects (Ghosh and Mitra, 2008).…”

“…Participation occurred less frequently in the decision making stages than in the implementation and monitoring stages of projects (Ghosh and Mitra, 2008). Governments had no legal obligation to formalise citizen participation in routine governance processes such as annual budget formulation, planning and monitoring the implementation of neighbourhood infrastructure projects (Ghosh and Mitra, 2008). Decentralisation through the 74 th CAA involved the devolution of power, functions and resources from the state to local governments and from local government to new participatory spaces, called Ward Committees (WC), in cities with a population of more than 300,000.…”

“…The WCs and ASs were to act as participatory platforms for neighbourhood governance, to deepen the participation of the citizens in urban transformation processes and enhance the responsiveness of the local government to their needs (Sivaramakrishnan, 2000). By 2010, both the 74 th CAA and the CPL were ratified and implemented to different degrees by state governments (deWit et al, 2008, TERI, 2010, Ghosh and Mitra, 2008. However, research on the implementation of these initiatives in practice is limited to a few early-ratifier states, like West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.…”