Duties and functions of the Council

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the administration of municipal area shall vest in the Council. (2) In addition to the duties imposed upon it by or under this Act or any other law for the time being in force, unless the Government otherwise directs it shall be the duty, of every Council to undertake and to make reasonable provision for the following matters within the limits of the municipal area, and when effective measures cannot otherwise be made then even outside the said limits, namely:— (a) lighting public streets, places and bilildings; (b) watering public streets, and places; (c) cleansing public streets, places and sewers, and all spaces, not being private property, which are open to the enjoyment of the public, whether such spaces are vested in the Council or not; removing noxious vegetation; and abating all public nuisances; (d) extinguishing fires, and protecting life and property when fires occur; (e) regulating or abating offensive or dangerous trades or practices; (f) removing obstructions and projections in public streets or places and, in spaces, not being private property, which are open to the enjoyment of the public, whether such spaces are vested in the Council or in Government; (g) securing or removing dangerous buildings or places and reclaiming unhealthy localities; (h) acquiring and maintaining, changing; and regulating places for the disposal of the dead; (i) constructing, altering and maintaining public streets, culverts, municipal boundary marks, markets, slaughter-houses, latrines, privies, urinals, drains, sewers, drainage-works, sewerage works, baths, washing places, drinking fountains, tanks, wells, dams and the like; (j) obtaining a supply or an additional supply of water, proper and sufficient .for preventing danger to the health of the inhabitants from the insufficiency or unwholesomeness of the existing supply, when such supply or additional supply can be obtained at a reasonable cost; (k) naming streets and numbering of premises; (1) public vaccination; (m) suitable accommodation for any calves, cows or buffaloes required within the municipal area for the supply of animal lymph; (n) printing such annual reports on the municipal administration of the municipal area as the Government by general or special orders requires the Council to submit; (o) erecting substantial boundary marks of such description and in such position as shall be approved by the Director , defining the limits, or any alteration in the limits of the municipal area; (p) disposing of night-soil and rubbish and if so required by the Government, preparation of compost manure, from such night-soil and rubbish; (q) providing special medical aid and accommodation for the sick in time of dangerous or communicable disease and taking such measures as may be required to prevent the outbreak or to suppress and prevent the recurrence of such disease; (r) giving relief and establishing and maintaining relief works in time of scarcity or for destitute persons within the limits of the municipal area; (s) imposing compulsory taxes which are specified in section, 101; (t) establishing and maintaining public dispensaries, and providing public medical relief and organising Family Planning Centres; (u) establishing and maintaining primary schools. (3) A Council may, at its discretion, provide, either wholly or partly, out of the municipal property and funds for— (a) laying out, whether in areas previously built upon or not, new public streets, and acquiring the land for that purpose, and the land required for the construction of buildings or curtilages thereof to abut on such streets; (b) establishing or maintaining public hospitals, institutions for pre-primary and secondary education, libraries, museums, lunatic asylums, gymnasiums, akhadas, and homes for disabled and destitute persons, and constructing and maintaining buildings therefor, along with such other public buildings like town halls, municipal offices, shops, dharmashalas, open air theatres, stadia and rest houses; (c) laying out or maintaining public parks and gardens, and also planting and maintaining road-side and other trees; (d) providing music for the people; (e) taking a census, and granting rewards for information which may tend to secure the correct registration of vital statistics; (f) making a survey; (g) paying the salaries and allowances, rent and other charges incidental to the maintenance of the Court of any stipendiary or honorary Magistrate; or any portion of any such charges; (h) arranging for the destruction or the detention and preservation of dogs which may be destroyed or detained under section 278 of this Act or under any law for the time being in force the Union territory; (i) securing or assisting to secure suitable places for the carrying on of the offensive trades specified in section 265; (j) supplying, constructing and maintaining, in accordance with a general system approved by the Director of Public Health, receptacles, fittings, pipes and other appliances whatsoevor on or for the use of private, premises, for receiving and conducting the sewage thereof into sewers under the control of the Council; (k) the acquisition and maintenance of grazing grounds; and the establishment and maintenance of dairy farms and breeding stud; (1) establishing and maintaining a farm or factory for the disposal of sewage; (m) promoting the well-being of municipal employees or any class of municipal employees and of their dependants; (n) providing accommodation for servants employed by the Council; (o) the construction of sanitary dwellings for the poorer classes; (p) the purchase, organisation, maintenance, extension and management of mechanically propelled transport facilities for the conveyance of the public; (q) the construction, maintenance, repairs, purchase of any works for the supply of electrical energy or gas; (r) making contributions towards the construction, establishment or maintenance of educational institutions including libraries and museums, any hospital, dispensary or similar institution providing for public medical relief, or any other institution of a charitable nature; (s) giving grants or donations to privately run primary or secondary schools or hostels for students; (t) the setting up of dairies or farms for the supply, distribution and processing of milk or milk products for the benefit of the inhabitants of the municipal area; (u) any public reception, ceremony. fair, entertainment or exhibition held in the municipal area, within the amount as may be determinied by Director from time to time. (i) in each case, where the expenses are above the permissible limits herein before specified; (ii) in each case, whatever the expense involved, after the annual limits herein-before specified are reached; (v) any other measure not specified in sub-section (2) likely to promote public safety, health and convenience. (4) No suit for damages or for specific performance shall be maintainable against any Council or any Councillor or officer or servant thereof on the ground that any of the duties specified in sub-section (2) above have not been performed. (5) Every Council shall also, out of the municipal property and fund, make payments at such rates as the Government may from time to time by general or special order specify for the maintenance and treatment either in the municipal area or at any asylum, hospital or house, whether within or without such municipal area, which the Government declares by notification to be suitable for such purpose,— (a) of lunatics, not being persons for whose confinement an order under Chapter XXV of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Central Act 2 of 1974 ), is in force, and (b) of leprosy patients, resident within, or under any enactment for the time being in force removed from, the municipal area: Provided that the Council shall not be liable under this sub-section for the maintenance and treatment of any lunatic or leprosy patient in any such asylum, hospital or house as aforesaid, unless such lunatic or leprosy patient, immediately previous to his admission thereto, has been resident in the municipal area for at least one year: Provided further that, where an application is made to the High Court or a District Court under the provisions of section 88 of the Indian Lunacy Act, 1912, no, order for the payment of the cost of maintenance of the lunatic by a Council shall be made without an opportunity being given to such Council to show that the lunatic has an estate applicable to his maintenance or that there is a person legally bound, and having the means, to maintain him. The officer in charge of any asylum to which lunatics for whose maintenance and treatment a Council is liable under this section are admitted shall maintain a clear account of the cost of maintenance and treatment incurred on account of each lunatic detained in the asylum and shall furnish a copy thereof to the Council on application. (6) Where a Council has entered into any arrangement or made any promise, purporting to bind it or its successors for a term of years or for an unlimited period to continue to any educational or charitable institution a yearly contribution from the municipal property or fund, it shall be lawful for the Council or its successors, with the sanction of the Government, to cancel such arrangement or promise, or to discontinue, or diminish such yearly contribution, provided that it shall have given at least twelve months’ notice of its intention so to do to the manager or managers of such institution.