Post Date: Post Date – 12:30 AM, Tuesday – Nov 1st
According to the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments of 1992-93, decentralization is more about delegating power and authority to local government agencies
Authors: Keerthi Srilakshmi, Ram Charan Tej Keerthi
On September 18, 2022, the Andhra Pradesh government filed a petition for special leave to the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s decision in the case of Dhanekula Rama Rao et al v Andhra Pradesh et al delivered on March 3, 2022 ‘s judgment. It is held that “In view of the language used in Article 4 of the Constitution of India, the establishment of the three organs of state legislature, executive and judiciary to govern the state are within the powers of Parliament and the state legislature shall not have the power to make any laws establishing these three wings “.
The Andhra Pradesh government has passed the Andhra Pradesh Decentralization and Inclusive Development of All Regions (APDIDAR) Act 2020. This was issued immediately after the High Power Committee report was approved by the Cabinet meeting on the same day in January 2020. Against this backdrop, the government’s plea now in the Supreme Court has reignited the debate over having multiple capitals for the country.
main target
The main objective of the bill is to “provide governance decentralization and inclusive development for all regions of the state. It also envisages the creation of regional planning and development committees, including provisions for three governance seats in different parts of the state to be called capitals”. The three districts are the Amaravati Metropolitan Development Area known as the “Legislative Capital”; the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Area Development known as the “Administrative Capital”; and the Kurnool Urban Development Area as the “Judicial Capital” “.
The objective and rationale statement mentions that the purpose of the Act is to “distribute all state functions in all regions, decentralize various state agencies, departments, agencies etc. to ensure balanced and inclusive development of Andhra Pradesh”.
In theory and practice, decentralization should enhance citizens’ participation in governance, especially the participation of socially disadvantaged groups in the decision-making process. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “Decentralization is the reorganization of powers in order to establish a system of shared responsibility based on the principle of subsidiarity among governance bodies at the central, regional and local levels. Based on such a principle, functional (or tasks) are transferred to the lowest institutional or social level that can (or potentially) accomplish them”. Political (decentralization), administrative (decentralization or delegation) and fiscal are the three main types of decentralization processes.
In this case, it is imperative to understand the APDIDAR Act and analyze its potential in achieving its intended goals and objectives. The government’s motives and intentions are correct. The government claims that the bill was enacted in 2014 under the auspices of KS Sivaramakrishnan based on a report of a committee of experts to study alternatives to the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, Ministry of Home Affairs of the Indian government. One of the main recommendations of the committee was that “with regard to the new capital, the committee itself does not favour the establishment of one for Andhra at this stage”.
Greenland Capital City
The question is whether these three areas are suitable for developing greenfield capital cities. Apparently, the expert committee made recommendations for the greenfield capital proposed by the then TDP government. The current system of adjudication only considers capitals, not green capitals. The Act and the government believe that the separation of the three government agencies is one of the ways to bring decentralized and equitable development to all regions of the country.
Much has been said about the geographic distance between the three capital cities and the inherent difficulties faced by citizens, elected representatives, officials and other stakeholders. In this regard, the financial and time costs are enormous. To this end, the government argues that investment and job creation will increase as a result of the development of the three capitals in these regions.
It should be understood that decentralization is not the separation of governance bodies from one place to many as enacted in the APDIDAR Act. It is more about the devolution of powers to local government bodies such as Panchayat and municipalities under the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments of 1992-93. The Act violates the true spirit of decentralization as it divides the three agencies of government but does not delegate legislative, executive and judicial powers to local government agencies. The bill came out of nowhere; as the YSR Congress 2019 election manifesto did not mention it. Instead, it mentions that “the integrated and holistic development of all regions of the country is true decentralization”.
Towards decentralization
Governments conflate development issues with decentralization issues, although the normative framework links the two in an organic way. Separating the three agencies into separate locations increases decentralization or empowerment. The bill lacks a clear vision for the effective devolution of power and authority.
To illustrate this, the committee noted that “inviting all other government departments to position themselves in Guntur and Vijayawada would lead to unplanned and random development”. The government has introduced Visakhapatnam to replace Vijayawada as executive capital. It does not reflect issues such as departmental coordination and the complexity of development work implementation.
A key point comes in the context of tensions between the legislature and the executive. The geographic separation of the two deepens vulnerability and affects the quality of governance and development outcomes. This geographic separation widens the gap between the three government agencies, only to re-centralize power and authority. The bill fails to instill the spirit of the principle of subsidiarity at the heart of decentralized governance.
(Keerthi Srilakshmi is a PhD Research Fellow in Development Studies at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore. Ram Charan Thej Keerthi is a Governance Consultant)
