5.11 Per Capita Expenditure on Salaries and Wages

198 Om Prakash Mathur

extremely low level ofservices and,consequently,the deplorable living conditions in cities and towns.

We analyze below the performance ofmunicipalities on the basis oftwo supplementary criteria:(a) expenditure on salaries and wages and (b) expenditure on operations and maintenance.Note should be made ofthe staff-intensive activity ofmunicipal operations.For instance,solid waste collection and management is vastly labor intensive,except in a few large cities, where mechanized collection has replaced manual lifting ofgarbage.Therefore,a high proportion ofexpenditure on salaries and wages is commonly observed among municipalities in most states.The statewide position is given in table 5.11.

Expenditure on salaries and wages accounts for 54.2 percent oftotal municipal expenditure.In Madhya Pradesh,however,it is as high as80.4 percent.

TABLE 5.11 Per Capita Expenditure on Salaries and Wages

Salaries and wages, Annual growth rate, State 2001/02 (Rs) 1997/98 to 2001/02 (%)

Maharashtra 681.72 4.73 Himachal Pradesh 477.14 11.92 Punjab 411.47 12.65 Gujarat 394.46 8.07 Goa 366.34 8.23 Jammu and Kashmir 344.51 20.13 Madhya Pradesh 343.89 –0.33 West Bengal 317.70 12.80 Tripura 313.52 7.41 Tamil Nadu 272.16 5.87 Chhattisgarh 263.25 — Uttaranchal 254.91 — Kerala 247.90 14.65 Rajasthan 246.92 7.56 Karnataka 202.92 8.99 Orissa 179.64 11.13 Haryana 177.93 –0.51 Andhra Pradesh 169.34 12.08 Uttar Pradesh 165.11 8.35 Assam 138.19 5.71 Manipur 62.10 7.04 Jharkhand 37.24 — Bihar 37.24 –8.85 Sample states 312.58 6.70

Source: Mathur and Thakur 2004. Note:Sample states refers to those states whose data are contained in the table.