The Story of a Municipality
Director: Swati Dandekar
Duration: 41 minutes
Saturday June 17, 6.30 pm
The 74th amendment to the Indian constitution called for decentralisation of city and town municipalities and ushered in a new era in governance. It enabled towns and small urban centres to collect taxes from its people to provide services and plan for socio-economic development. Over the past decade, this reform has had uneven success.
“The Story of a Municipality” is a film on urban local self-governance based on the work of the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, a Bangalore based organisation engaged in research on urban local self-governance.
The film examines the conditions under which democracy functions in a small town in India. It looks at the working of its City Municipal Council (CMC) from within, at a time of crisis. The coastal town of Karwar is the ‘beneficiary’ of a large foreign bank funded infrastructure development project. The film traces the introduction of this project to the town and studies its impact on self-governance. It looks at issues such as the role of elected representatives, relationships within the CMC, access to information, and raises concern over the erosion of democratic processes.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the director of the film and other stakeholders concerned with governance.
Participating persons
P.R. Ramesh – Ex-Mayor, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike
Poornima Vyasulu – Centre for Budget and Policy Studies
Rajeev Gowda – Associate Professor, Economics and Social Sciences, IIM-B
S.Vishwanath – Rainwater Club
Swati Dandekar – Filmmaker
Swati Ramanathan – Co-founder, Janaagraha
Duration: 41 minutes
Saturday June 17, 6.30 pm
The 74th amendment to the Indian constitution called for decentralisation of city and town municipalities and ushered in a new era in governance. It enabled towns and small urban centres to collect taxes from its people to provide services and plan for socio-economic development. Over the past decade, this reform has had uneven success.
“The Story of a Municipality” is a film on urban local self-governance based on the work of the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies, a Bangalore based organisation engaged in research on urban local self-governance.
The film examines the conditions under which democracy functions in a small town in India. It looks at the working of its City Municipal Council (CMC) from within, at a time of crisis. The coastal town of Karwar is the ‘beneficiary’ of a large foreign bank funded infrastructure development project. The film traces the introduction of this project to the town and studies its impact on self-governance. It looks at issues such as the role of elected representatives, relationships within the CMC, access to information, and raises concern over the erosion of democratic processes.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the director of the film and other stakeholders concerned with governance.
Participating persons
P.R. Ramesh – Ex-Mayor, Bangalore Mahanagara Palike
Poornima Vyasulu – Centre for Budget and Policy Studies
Rajeev Gowda – Associate Professor, Economics and Social Sciences, IIM-B
S.Vishwanath – Rainwater Club
Swati Dandekar – Filmmaker
Swati Ramanathan – Co-founder, Janaagraha
