Political oversight of executive power is a fundamental principle of India’s parliamentary democracy. The chain of accountability requires the executive or the government to be responsible to elected representatives, who, in turn, are answerable to citizens. Thus, the Union government is responsible to Parliament and state governments to state assemblies. Though municipalities have been in existence in India since the late 19th century, it was only in 1993 that the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (74th Amendment) provided constitutional recognition to directly elected municipalities to exercise political oversight of city administration. However, in March 2025, a report of the Parliament Standing Committee on housing and urban affairs spotlighted the unfinished agenda of empowerment of our municipalities.

Recently, this Standing Committee presented its report to Parliament, analysing the budget of the ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) for 2025–26. The committee found that not only was the budget of MoHUA for FY25 slashed by 23% mid-year, MoHUA was unable to spend ₹20,875 crore (33%) even from that curtailed budget till the last month of the financial year. According to the committee, the lack of holistic and comprehensive urban planning at the city level has led to........

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