All fall down

Ill-financed municipalities are endangering citizens

Derelict municipal administration has been on full display in Delhi over the past few months with three disasters causing the death of more than 30 people, including foreign nationals. The latest tragedy, involving a five-storey structure mainly rented by students attending colleges in Delhi University’s South Campus, resulted in the death of seven people.  Preliminary investigation suggests that waterlogging in the basement, poor construction quality, and unauthorised building on an old and dilapidated structure brought down the building. Three months ago, a massive fire in a bed & breakfast establishment in Hauz Rani caused the death of 23 people. Investigation revealed an unauthorised restaurant operating on the ground floor, and a two-and-a-half-storey structure with six rooms had been converted into an illegal five-storey structure with 31 rooms. Fire escapes were absent. In May, six people, many of them studying for competitive exams, died after a building in Mehrauli collapsed. The usual sorry story of unauthorised construction and poor building standards emerged — all of which continued despite a notice from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi following resident complaints.

 

These tragedies are only the tip of an outsized iceberg of municipal malfeasance and corruption. According to fire-department records, Delhi has reportedly recorded more than 1,000 building collapses over the past three years. Each time such a tragedy occurs, the government launches a crackdown, which mostly involves arresting the offending owners and revoking the licences of similar establishments around the city for a while. But somehow, this flurry of post-facto action does not seem to result in greater compliance; the city can only hold its breath till the next tragedy. New Delhi, of course, attracts attention as the national capital. It is by no means the worst performer on this head. But it reflects the state of municipal governance all over India — Gurugram, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata are no exceptions. Between 2020 and 2024, an analysis by The Hindu of the Accidental Deaths and Suicides reports showed that over 7,800 people had died in building collapses across the country, and Delhi accounted for 169 of them.

 

These numbers reflect the parlous state of municipal finances. Most of them are broke because the bulk of the citizenry either does not pay for services — property, water, and so on — or the services are underpriced to encourage some level of compliance from those who can afford to pay. The upshot is that municipal administrations have little financial flexibility or empowerment even as the incentive for corruption — in safety audits and so on — expands. A 2026 study on the fiscal empowerment of city governments by the Praja Foundation, a non-government organisation that works on issues related to accountable governance, found that 43 municipal corporations across 28 states and two Union Territories depend on government grants for nearly 60 per cent of their income. Own-source revenue, on average, accounts for about 35 per cent and property tax just 14 per cent. With inadequate institutional capabilities, it is no surprise that few municipalities borrow from the market. Sunday’s building collapse presented yet another reminder that, against the loftier goals of economic reform, municipal reform to upgrade Indian cities is an urgent priority too.