A Study of Citizen Satisfaction on Municipal Services in Aizawl City

Abstract

Untill recently, Aizawl was called a cluster of villages or a big village. It is the capital of Mizoram (Land of the Mizos), which is a tiny mountainous state in north-east India. The population according to 2011 census was 2,93,416. The traditionally based village governing institution known as Village Council has administered village administration since 1954. These councils were entrusted with multi-functions as per multitudes of acts and regulations passed by the government from time to time. In fact, it was not a development body and had performed line agency functions for implementing various policies of the different government departments. So, the necessity of strengthening the local body was felt throughout a very long period. In 2008, Aizawl Municipal Council was formed as per Article 243 of the Indian Constitution. A survey was conducted to find out the level of people’s satisfaction on municipal services such as solid waste management, regulation of land use and construction of building, management of parking lots, licensing regulations, property tax, etc. The paper analyses the people’s perception and satisfaction with the new urban local body, i.e. municipal council and a comparative study of the pre-AMC and post-AMC is attempted.