Shimla’s ex-mayors seek more funds for civic bodies

Shimla, June 24

A delegation of former mayors and commissioners of Shimla Municipal Corporation today urged the 16th Finance Commission to substantially increase the Intergovernmental Transfers (IGTs) to urban local bodies.

“The IGTs to urban local bodies (ULBs) in India are about 0.5 per cent of the GDP, which is quite low compared to 2-5 per cent in other developing nations,” the delegation said.

It comprised Adarsh Kumar, first mayor of Shimla; Madhu Sud, a former mayor, Shakti Singh Chandel, a retired IAS officer and former Commissioner of Shimla Municipal Corporation; MP Sud, a retired IAS and former Commissioner of Shimla MC, and Tikender Panwar, a former deputy mayor of Shimla.

The delegation demanded that the special assistance schemes on the lines of 90:10 schemes should be further enhanced as the mountain states have low resource pool and are vulnerable to natural disasters.

Further, the delegation demanded that forest grants for the ULBs, like Shimla Municipal Corporation, where 55 per cent land is under forest cover, should be increased significantly.

“Neither the city government (ULB), nor the state government allows commercial green felling. The trees act as lungs to its people and tourists. This space should also be considered by the commission for adequately compensating such towns,” the delegation said. It also demanded a liberal grant for undertaking a study and preserving the heritage nature of around 100 buildings in the town. Considering the vulnerability of the state to natural disasters, it pleaded with the commission for one-time help to carry out the mapping of the entire state from geological and hydrological perspective.

“In the absence of geological data, land use planning is done in a typical copy-paste model of plain areas. What is built on the surface must be determined by the strata underneath because the Himalayas are fragile, and tectonic plate movements are still ongoing,” the delegation said.

The former mayors and commissioners also drew the attention of the commission towards teething issues like solid waste management and upward mobility. Stating that motorised transport and the push for creating more spaces for such mobility was ruining the hilly landscape, the delegation said the commission must help mountain towns for enhancing the alternative forms of mobility, which were sustainable, had lower carbon footprint and were based on strengthening public transport.