Ranchi Municipal Corporation

Ranchi Municipal Corporation was established on 15th September 1979 by merging erstwhile Ranchi Municipality, Doranda Municipality and Ranchi Doranda Joint Water Board. It was the second municipal corporation to be set up in erstwhile Bihar (after Patna Municipal Corporation) and the first in the state of Jharkhand. Ranchi city got its first municipality in 1869, which covered an area of 7.02 sq km.^[6] This was extended in 1951 and 1971 to 20.3 sq km and 89.98 sq km respectively. The present Ranchi Municipal Corporation was established in 1979 and the first elections to the corporation were held in 1986.^[7] The municipal corporation covers an area of 175.12 sq km and is divided into 55 administrative wards, each represented by an elected councillor.^[3]

At the time of the creation of the state of Jharkhand in 2000, the Bihar Municipal Act, 1922 was adapted as the Jharkhand Municipal Act, 2000 to govern all urban local bodies in the new state. Ranchi Municipal Corporation was governed by its own municipal act, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation Act, 2001. With the enactment of the Jharkhand Municipal Act 2011, these two ceased to be in effect and the 2011 became the only governing legislature for all city governments in Jharkhand.^[8]

The commissioner is appointed by the state government. They are either an officer from the Indian Administrative Service or the Jharkhand Administrative Service. According to Section 55 of the Jharkhand Municipal Act, 2011, the appointment can be made on regular basis or contractual basis and no time period is mentioned for the position.^[9] The present municipal commissioner at Ranchi Municipal Corporation is Mr. Sushant Gaurav, a cadre from the Indian Administrative Services.^[10]

Some of the powers and functions of the Commissioner are:^[9]

• The Standing Committee may delegate some of its power or functions to the commissioner and in turn, the commissioner may delegate their power to any corporation officer or employee (Section 33)
• The Commissioner is supposed to nominate an official to be the secretary of the Ward Committee (Section 34) and Conveyor of Zonal Committees (Section 49)
• The Commissioner can attend any meeting of the corporation or may authorize any corporation officer to attend (Section 82)
• The Commissioner shall prepare a budget estimate every year (Section 108 (1))
• The Commissioner has to approve every public advertisement in the city (Section 171)
• The Commissioner can serve a notice to an occupier of a land or building for the purpose of the recovery of property tax (Section 185 (1))

There are 24 administrative departments at Ranchi Municipal Corporation.^[11] Some important departments at the Corporation are: Accounts, Birth & Death Registration, Bhoosampada, Engineering, Health, Revenue, Town Planning, and Water supply.

Apart from the municipal commissioner, the Jharkhand Municipal Act, 2011 mentions the following key administrative posts to be created at the municipal corporation:^[9]

• Chief Finance Officer / Chief Accounts Officer
• Municipal Internal Auditor
• Chief Municipal Engineer
• Chief Town Planner and Municipal Architect
• Chief Municipal Health Officer
• Chief Environmental Engineer (for solid waste management)
• Chief Information and Technology Officer
• Municipal Law Officer
• Municipal Secretary
• Additional and Deputy/Assistant Municipal Commissioners

Under section 26 of the Jharkhand Municipal Act, 2011, the positions of mayor and deputy mayor are elected directly i.e. the position holders are voted in by the people themselves.^[9] The last municipal election was in 2026 with a voter turnout of 49.3%.^[12][13] Roshini Khalkho and Sanjeev Vijayvargiya both of the Bharatiya Janta Party won the mayoral and deputy mayoral seats. ^[14]The 2018 municipal election was the first and only time the mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates in Jharkhand could use political party symbols, while the candidates for councilor seats continued to use symbols allotted to them by the Jharkhand State Election Commission.^[15][16] The next municipal election will take place in 2031.^[17]

Each ward of the corporation is represented by an elected councillor whose term is coterminous with that of the corporation i.e. of five years.^[9] For the purpose of election, the councillors can not use party symbols and are instead provided with election symbols by the Jharkhand State Election Commission.^[16] According to the Jharkhand Municipal Act, 2011, around 50% of the seats are to be reserved for the following categories:

• Scheduled Castes,
• Scheduled Tribes,
• Backward Classes,
• Women

The seats reserved for persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories will be proportionate to their population share in the municipality. The remaining number of seats within the 50% stipulated reserved seats will be reserved for candidates from Other Backward Classes. Further, up to 50% of the reserved seats and up to50% of the unreserved seats will be reserved for women. The seats so reserved will be allotted on a rotational basis i.e. the councillor seat of any particular ward need not be reserved for the same category or be reserved at all in subsequent elections.^[9] Presently, there are 55 councillors in Ranchi representing 55 wards.^[2][3]

Jharkhand Municipal Act, 2011 mandates the establishment of standing committees at every municipality.^[9] The mayor is the presiding officer and the term of the members is of five years. Ranchi Municipal Corporation has set up a Standing Committee.^[18] The Standing Committee is composed of ten councillors, the mayor, the deputy mayor, the municipal commissioner and RMC officials.^[19] The Act also mandates the setting up of Zonal Committees, each representing groups of wards in the city. These too have been formed in Ranchi, with each Zonal Committee having 5–6 wards under it.^[4] The function of the Zonal committees is to look after the issues felt at each zone, report them to the corporation, and prepare solutions for the same. The Jharkhand Municipal Act, 2011 mandates the establishment of ward committees for each ward in the municipality.^[9] Though ward committees have been formed in Ranchi, they are not active.^[20]

The Municipal budget is prepared by the Accounts department of Ranchi Municipal Corporation, with inputs from the different administrative departments and elected representatives. The budget is first approved by the Standing committee, after which it has to be approved by the general elected body of the corporation.^[19] After getting the approval from the corporation, it is forwarded to the state government for the final approval.^[23] The funds are generated by the corporation itself, as well as grants from the state and central governments. The budget for the year 2020–21 is ₹2,276 crores, which is around ₹100 crores less than the 2019–20 municipal budget.^[19] The reason for this has been the financial difficulties that the corporation has been facing. Expenditures for the corporation include purchasing water tanks, maintaining night shelters, construction of infrastructure such as roads and footbridges, vending zone, improving facilities at government schools.^[19][23] Other expenses include establishment expenditures, programmatic expenditures, procuring fogging machines, setting up ward level offices, beautification of the city, and developing software for the corporation.^[24]

Ranchi Municipal Corporation provides some important services in the city. The Water Supply department issues new water connections, undertakes boring and installation of hand pumps, and collects fines for illegal connections and boring.^[25] The municipal body is responsible for the Solid Waste Management of the city, including collection and disposal of the waste.^[26] It has also constructed public toilets in Ranchi and has outsourced the maintenance to private entities.^[27] The corporation is responsible for the installation and maintenance of street lights in the city and for painting safety marking on the roads.^[28][29] The municipal corporation is also responsible for constructing roads, and is planning to develop sky escalators to ease traffic.^[30][31] It maintains municipal parks and regulates parking fees in the city.^[32][33][34] The Ranchi Municipal Corporation plans on reopening and operating the only electric crematorium in the city.^[35]