Analyse the role of local bodies in providing good governance at local level and bring out the pros and cons merging the rural local bodies with the urban local bodies. (Answer in 150 words)

Introduction

Local bodies institutionalise democratic decentralisation by bringing planning, service delivery and social accountability closer to citizens.

Role in good governance

• Gram Sabhas and urban wards improve participation, needs assessment and inclusion.
• They deliver sanitation, water, roads, local health, welfare facilitation and spatial planning.
• Social audits, local disclosure and elected representation can improve responsiveness.

Merger: benefits and risks

• Convergence can support integrated metropolitan planning, efficient infrastructure and management of peri-urban growth.
• However, merger may dilute rural representation, ignore agrarian needs, centralise decisions and impose urban costs without capacity.
• Use differentiated decentralisation, metropolitan planning committees, fiscal devolution and consultation rather than blanket merger.

Keywords: democratic decentralisation, Gram Sabha, 73rd Amendment, 74th Amendment, subsidiarity, fiscal devolution.