Haryana urban local bodies increase financial powers of municipal commissioners and officers

Time of India

a day ago

Chandigarh: In a move that has reignited tensions over local governance authority, the Haryana urban local bodies (ULB) department has expanded financial powers for bureaucrats overseeing municipal bodies — sidestepping long-standing demands by elected mayors and council heads for greater administrative control.
A notification issued last week grants municipal commissioners and executive officers significantly higher sanctioning authority for development projects, a shift that came just days after a national conference of urban civic bodies in Gurugram called for empowering elected local representatives.
For more than a decade, mayors and presidents of municipal councils — many aligned with the ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party
— have lobbied to approve development works independently.
Instead, they now face further marginalisation, with expanded financial control handed to officers and finance committees. "Despite protocol ranking us above senior bureaucrats, we remain at their mercy," said a mayor from northern Haryana, requesting anonymity.
In Gurugram, municipal commissioners can now approve development works up to Rs 2.5 crore (previously Rs 50 lakh). Projects worth Rs 2.5-10 crore will require approval from a finance committee chaired by the mayor.
Projects above Rs 10 crore and Rs 25 crore will go to the ULB minister and the chief minister, respectively. In other municipal corporations, commissioners can now sanction works up to Rs 1 crore independently.
Finance committees can approve up to Rs 10 crore, with larger projects routed to higher authorities in a similar tiered structure. Municipal councils and committees will follow the same slabs as smaller corporations. The move deepens concerns of elected civic heads being reduced to figureheads. "There were cases where mayors were unaware of final work orders despite chairing finance committees," said the northern Haryana mayor.