He has Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs & Sports, Development of the North Eastern Region and now Cabinet Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, citing Pakistan’s system of local governance, has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to detach municipalities from the Ministry of Urban Development and hand them to him.

“In the absence of a composite Ministry of Panchayats and Nagarpalikas at the Centre, effective district planning to bridge the rural-urban divide and institutionalize processes of inclusive growth is not possible,” says Aiyar in a letter to the Prime Minister last month.

The PMO has asked the Ministry of Urban Development and Ministry of Urban Employment & Poverty Alleviation to comment on Aiyar’s proposal.

This is Aiyar’s second attempt to include the two governing bodies under one umbrella. In 1992, he persuaded Sonia Gandhi to suggest to the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao to create a composite ministry. However, that suggestion was not found to be “practical.”

“But on the basis of developments since the formation of our government in May 2004, I am emboldened to suggest to the PM that the idea be revived,” he said, adding that the progress achieved in panchayati raj institutions had “left urban local bodies behind”.

“Outcomes will remain sub-optimal until Panchayats and Nagarpalikas are brought under a single Ministry at the Centre,” Aiyar says arguing that such a move will help in more effective implementation of Government’s schemes for urban areas, including the urban renewal mission, JNURM.

To make his case, Aiyar cites Pakistan’s National Reconstruction Bureau which integrates administration and economic development in rural and urban areas within a district. “As Rajiv Gandhi made clear in several keynote speeches on local government, he wanted to end the ‘colonial divide’ between rural and urban India,” he writes.