Municipalities in most developing nations, financially and otherwise, always looked up to state government for its sustenance and at best, used to work as an agency of the same, thus defeating the actual purpose of their installation. As a matter of fact, the situation was similar for India. The lack of freedom in planning and making decisions; generating and utilising resources were believed to be major obstacles in realising the decentralised character of municipalities. The 74^th constitutional amendment of India provided the adequate remedy. However the doubt remains. Are the municipalities capable enough or have the appropriate information to handle the new responsibilities?

Municipal institutions are ultimately responsible for basic urban services. In most developing countries these services need urgent improvement, but administrative capacity is inadequate. The result is declining governance, loss of faith in these institutions and eventual misuse of granted power. This presents a challenge: “how can capacity be increased, administration and basic service provision be restored or upgraded at the same time? ”

A viable option for practically meeting this challenge is presently emerging. The development and utilisation of GIS for the purpose of effective governance has been tried in many cases. Such an ‘Information System’ is a long-term asset. It helps to capture, retrieve, analyse and represent data in a desired manner. It essentially brings in analytical strength, a decision support, transparency and rationality.

Possible Strategies to implement Municipality GIS –

• Digitisation up to the ward level
• Attribute data at plot level
• Socio-economic profiling
• Availability of basic services at plot level
• Analysis of networks (circulation, water lines, sewer, etc)
• Tax Assessment and collection
• Land Use Mapping
• Conservation mapping/zoning
• Application of Building Byelaws/Monitoring

Programme Schedule