in evidence in those towns and cities, may tend to dampen the festive occasion. The centenary year can and should serve to generate a new drive to overcome the shortcomings, clean up the towns and provide civic amenities that can compare with what obtains in the urban centres in the advanced countries.

It is true that many of these towns have grown rapidly in size and population without a proportionate growth in the wherewithal to meet the vastly enlarged civic commitments. Taking Madurai for instance, it started with an area of barely 2,000 acres, housing some 41,000 residents and a revenue of Rs. 30,000 in 1866 and has burgeoned into a city of 8.5 square miles with a population fast nearing the half a million mark. It is pointed out that the revenue of Rs. 1.45 crores, including various grants from the Government, hardly suffices to provide all the services and amenities expected of a leading city with its rapid industrial development and considerable floating population. That contention has much validity. And the Chief Minister's tribute to Madurai's civic record, particularly in the field of education, seems well deserved. That the protected water supply is inadequate, though the Perennial scheme is on the anvil to augment supplies, and that many of the municipal offices themselves are housed in improvised sheds obviously indicate paucity of resources. With the permissible taxes raised to the peak, the Municipality may not be accused of failing to raise all the revenue it can. But with most of the revenue eaten up by establishment charges and recurring expenses, there seems little left for development or improvement, so that there is inevitable stagnation.

The story of Madurai is by and large that of the other municipalities, centenarians or younger ones, of which we have as many as 80. And with the accelerating trend towards urbanisation, their number is bound to swell. Unlike even Madurai, only a few of them can boast of even an underground drainage system, though some measure of protected water supply is available in some of the centres. The National Water Supply and Sanitation scheme may help them provide and upgrade these amenities in the next few years. But if most of these towns present a

depressing picture of dirt and insanitation, the residents have to take their share of blame too. The way the rate-payers forget their civic responsibilities and abuse lanes and thoroughfares, litter them up with refuse, waste water or undervalue their properties to evade the full liability to pay taxes obviously handicap the administration. If the centenary year serves to stimulate public co-operation in making the towns more livable and more beautiful, it would be a significant gain indeed.

Lack of resources cannot, however, be cited as the reason for the many other lapses tration. The transport bottlenecks and ugly on the part of the democratic civic adminisprojections that go under the name of "encroachments" are an eye-sore in every municipal town and they are allowed to remain and proliferate, because of lack of vigilant and honest action on the part of the civic administrations. This surely does not lax enforcement of anti-adulteration iaws, cost money. The same is the case with the sometimes due to local pressures and more often due to sheer apathy.

Building Research

Full size, four-storey structures can be tested to destruction in a unique laboratory just completed at Britain's Building Research Station, at Garston, near London.

Loads, including wind pressures, can be applied to the structures, at any angle, by hydraulic jacks. The first test structure, designed in co-operation with the British

Iron and Steel Research Association, will soon be under load in the main hall of the new building, which has cost £460,000 (Rs. 61.33 lakhs).

Full-size or large-scale tests are increasingly necessary because of new ideas in the design of buildings. Not enough is known in detail of the behaviour of structures as a whole under load, but it is known to be different from that of the separate components because they interact, making the building stiffer than it would be in theory.

The research is aimed at providing the knowledge for more efficient design and cheaper and better forms of construction.

Delhi's wheel of fortune has again taken a new turn. Does it mean that India's central city will be transformed into an ideal metropolis overnight? Has the new order dawning today the essential ingredients for ingredients for making it radiate the orderliness and efficiency, vigour and dynamism associated with the world's most renowned capitals? A categorical answer cannot and should not be given either way. The hopes roused by similar events in Delhi's administrative existence since it became our sovereign Republic's chief city turned into fear and despair. The fate of Delhi's State Legislature was sealed the day group rivalries split the majority party into factions big and small.

The abandonment of the Legislature type of democracy in this city state was followed by a prolonged period of discussions and deliberations in which no less a person than Jawaharlal Nehru, along with such greatly respected persons as Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, participated. The consensus that emerged was that the Delhi Municipal Committee be converted into a Corporation with much wider powers and jurisdiction

than the former. But since the Delhi Congress continued to be a house divided in the new corporation, it suffered an electoral reverse which marred its chances of success. Complaints

Later, when, in the 1962 elections, it did recover and won an overwhelming majority of seats, in the absence of inner cohesion and because of differences with the administrative element both at the Chief Commissioner's ievei and the Municipal commissioner's level, the civic body was unable to serve the interests of Delhi's multi-lingual cosmopolitan inhabitants. Rich and poor, urban and rural people, everyone complained of neglect. Inevitably the search for a

fresh panacea started and the demand for a Delhi Ministry responsible to an elected legislature was revived.

However, despite the fact that almost all the political parties lent support to this

move, they did not succeed in convincing the central Cabinet (and, (and, what is more significant, Delhi's citizens) of its efficacy. Delhi's political, financial and organisational problems, it was felt, did not justify a repetition of the Legislature formula. Neither agitation nor persuasion could quite alter

the earlier decision that Delhi as India's capital needed an administration rather than a Ministry.

Opportunity

The Metropolitan Council, however, has features of both inasmuch as it will be able to give those elected to it the fullest opportunity to debate every issue even as they do in State legislatures. Further, the Executive Councilors, while not enjoying the powers and functions of Ministers responsible to a Legislature, will in effect be in a position to initiate action on every aspect affecting Delhi's administration. But the fact that it is the Lt.-Governor who has the statutory authority to finally implement the recommendations of the Executive Councillors is a limitation which can inhibit them, leading to conflicts and even deadlocks. Will this peculiarly Indian device for a democratic pattern to suit the requirements of efficient and smooth functioning of its seat of Government, solve a problem that has hitherto eluded a reasonable solution. Again, nothing can be said with certainty because of the complex complex character of the city's political organisations and the incredibly intractable nature of its problems.

The success of any collective effort ultimately depends upon whether its components are agreed upon the purpose for which they have formed the collective. A clear definition of the tasks and responsibilities that are to be discharged to give substance to the commonly held social and political beliefs (of those who have been elected to the collective) is indispensable for its success. As I see things, it is the absence of such an understanding that has hampered the processes of administration at every level in Delhi in the past. But now, if the men and

women at the helm of its political affairs have learnt by bitter experience that they must believe in something other than their own importance, then their first duty in the new venture they are undertaking is to make up their minds about the object to which their collective and individual effort is to be directed. If they can unitedly work towards

common destination, common goodwill follow. If, on the other hand, they cannot overcome the temptation to satisfy their personal ambitions, hatreds and rivalries, the Metropolitan Council will go the way of the earlier experiments.

There are several reasons why the Council should not fail. It is the end product of detained scrutiny by the Central Government and consultations with the known leaders of every political group. The scheme has been formulated in the light of past experience and care has been taken to avoid

needless obstacles. It is widely recognised by all that what is most necessary for bringing relief to the harassed citizens is a co-ordinating authority, a link between the Central Government, its local unit and the municipal agencies. The Metropolitan Council can be an excellent mechanism for this purpose. The Council can, through its Executive Councillors, remove the barriers that divide and sub-divide the field of authority, so that Delhi's administrative traffic may flow smoothly and quickly.

A city like Delhi (in spite of the daily addition to its population) can be very much more easily managed than the States adjoining it because its territory is compact. Besides, since its financial obligations are by and large met by the Central Government,

the Delhi Administration does not necessarily have to worry very much about the ways and means position. Another factor in its favour is that its Members of Parlia ment are always available for advice, and they can be made to move the Central Government whenever and wherever the latter tends to ignore Delhi's difficulties. These advantages can be exploited to the full, given the will and desire on the part

of the 'chosen few' to live and work for the good of those who chose them. Once the Delhi politician gives up the habit of envying ministerial neighbour States and the

State "ministers" with all their pomp and authority, it will be realised how utterly useless these trappings are. The essence of authority and power is the love of one's people. If they are satisfied that they are being served well, it should bring to their representatives a sense of fulfilment and elation that is all the reward that a public worker needs to stimulate him.

On Trial

The people of this city will watch the working of the Metropolitan Council and pronounce judgment on it as an institution. They will get an opportunity to give their verdict five months hence. Therefore those who claim that the methodology of the Metropolitan Council is sound in principle must not allow considerations of bureaucratic prestige to come in the way of its accomplishing its primary tasks. Similarly, such members of the Council as intend to seek the

popular vote at the forthcoming General Elections must recognise that they and their political organisation have been put on trial.

There is much to be done to clear the confusion and chaos in and around the city, and members of the Council must not waste a single day in meaningless legalistic and procedural arguments and mud-slinging. The minority's rights must be duly protected, and the minority in turn must observe the decencies of debate. A whole army of men and women is needed to go into every nook and corner of our tiny territory, if India is to be the proud of Delhi, her capital. It has been the seat of many an empire in ancient times. It has known victory and

defeat, peace and war. Modern Delhi has emerged from the clutches 20th century England's most imperial possession. It must symbolise the new in India in every sense of the word. It need not vie with the affluent capitals elsewhere by merely rising multistoreyed structures in selected spots or by building luxury dwellings for those who posses wealth. If its citizens in every lane and bylane of the city and in the villages can claim that they are given adequate opportunity to work, to learn, to be medically treated when sick, to live in dwellings fit for human beings, I believe we will be justified (Continued on page 11)