One on One | Dr Jairaj Phatak, IAS (Retd.) Director General, AIILSG
Devolution of ‘funds, functions & functionaries’ key to efficient local governance A city is developed when its local government is strengthened and plans are introduced and implemented at the local level. AIILSG works in close association with the Government of India, state governments and city municipalities to introduce plans and development work at the ground level. The newly appointed Director General of AIILSG, Dr Jairaj Phatak, IAS (Retd.) has the experience of serving in big cities like Mumbai, which adds to his knowledge in the urban development sector in India. In this special ‘One-on-One’ Series interaction with him, Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update, gets to know more about his vision for the institute and the role of AIILSG in improving local governance Since you have been working in the urban sector for long now, how do you think AIILSG can contribute in strengthening the capacity of urban local bodies (ULBs) and in providing them with knowledge resources and handholding support?
The AIILSG was set up by local bodies in the Bombay Presidency. Quoting Mani Shankar Aiyar, Indian politician and former diplomat, I would like to say that the real devolution of responsibilities in governance can come on the parameters of three Fs- funds, functions and functionaries. Municipal corporations of Maharashtra and Gujarat were undertaking the works for water supply, sewage, urban transport, fire
36 December 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
division and town planning along with the traditional municipal works. That was when the local bodies thought of sharing their experiences and learning from each other’s experiences. The thought was to have common courses, training programmes, etc. to groom their municipal staff. This laid the track for the first work of the institute. The institute does the work for centrally sponsored programmes as well. We devise our training programmes after a thorough analysis. The aim is to develop the programmes in a way that the population of urban India can receive its maximum benefit. With growing urban spaces, many urban services of solid and liquid waste management are coming to villages. The role of our institute
is to train staff of such Panchayati Raj institutions as well. how is AIILSG helping the municipalities in governance issues and in devolving the power to elected representatives?
Since AIILSG is the creation of the municipalities itself, it cannot do anything about the role of municipalities or the elected representatives. It is on the state government to decide what to devolve to the municipal corporations or Panchayati Raj. Unlike National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) or the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), our institute does not delve into the training of officers at the ministerial or secretariat
