Chapter V OBLIGATORY AND DISCRETIONARY FUNCTIONS OF MUNICIPAL COUNCILS

Obligatory functions of municipal councils. It shall be incumbent on every municipal council to make adequate provision by any means or resources which it may lawfully use or take for each of the following matters within the municipal area, namely:— (a) lighting public streets, places and buildings; (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 municipal 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, bridges, and other public places, and in spaces not being private property, which are open to the enjoyment of the public, whether such spaces are vested in the municipal council or belong to the 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 (including separate and suitable place for vending vegetables), slaughter houses, latrines, privies, urinals, drains, sewers, drainage works, sewage works, baths, washing places, drinking fountains, tanks, wells, dams and the like; (j) obtaining supply of 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 houses; (l) registering births and deaths; (m) public vaccination; (n) providing suitable accommodation for calves, cows, or buffaloes required within the municipal area for the supply of animal lymph; (o) maintaining schools for pre-primary education; (p) arranging for the destruction or the detention and preservation of such dogs within the municipal area as may be dealt with under the law in force relating to police or under section 222 of this Act; (q) providing facilities for anti-rabic treatment and treatment of lepers and mental patients and meeting the expenses of indigent persons undergoing anti-rabic treatment within or outside the municipal limits; (r) providing covered metallic receptacles and covered metallic receptacles mounted on wheels for use by servants employed by the municipal council for the removal of night soil and rubbish and disposing of night-soil and rubbish and, if so required by the Government, preparation of compost manure from such night-soil and rubbish; Explanation.—In this clause, “rubbish” includes dust, ashes, broken bricks, mortar, sewage, dung, dirt, decomposed substances and refuse of any kind. (s) providing accommodation for municipal sweepers and scavengers and granting of loans to such sweepers and scavengers for construction of houses, subject to rules prescribed in this behalf; (t) printing such annual reports on the municipal administration of the municipal area as the Government, by general or special orders, requires the municipal council to submit; (u) paying the salary and the contingent expenditure on account of such police or guards as may be required by the municipal council for the purpose of this Act or for the protection of any municipal property, and providing such accommodation as may be required by the Government under the law in force relating to police. (u1) vital statistics including registration of births and deaths; (u2) regulation of taneries; (v) maintenance of up-to-date record of all buildings and sites within the municipal area; and (w) planting and maintaining of road-side trees. (q) providing facilities for anti-rabic treatment and treatment of lepers and mental patients and meeting the expenses of indigent persons undergoing anti-rabic treatment within or outside the municipal limits; (r) providing covered metallic receptacles and covered metallic receptacles mounted on wheels for use by servants employed by the municipal council for the removal of night soil and rubbish and disposing of night-soil and rubbish and, if so required by the Government, preparation of compost manure from such night-soil and rubbish; Explanation.—In this clause, “rubbish” includes dust, ashes, broken bricks, mortar, sewage, dung, dirt, decomposed substances and refuse of any kind. (s) providing accommodation for municipal sweepers and scavengers and granting of loans to such sweepers and scavengers for construction of houses, subject to rules prescribed in this behalf; (t) printing such annual reports on the municipal administration of the municipal area as the Government, by general or special orders, requires the municipal council to submit; (u) paying the salary and the contingent expenditure on account of such police or guards as may be required by the municipal council for the purpose of this Act or for the protection of any municipal property, and providing such accommodation as may be required by the Government under the law in force relating to police. (u1) vital statistics including registration of births and deaths; (u2) regulation of taneries; (v) maintenance of up-to-date record of all buildings and sites within the municipal area; and (w) planting and maintaining of road-side trees.

Special functions. Subject to such reasonable and adequate provision as is mentioned in section 87 being made, every municipal council shall make reasonable provision for the following special matters, namely:— (a) providing special medical aid and accommodation for the sick in time of dangerous disease; and taking such measures as may be required to prevent the outbreak or suppress and prevent the recurrence of the disease; (b) giving relief to and establishing and maintaining relief works in times of famine or scarcity for destitute persons within the limits of the municipal area.

Notwithstanding anything contained in sections 87 and 88, the Government may exempt any municipal council from any of the provisions of those sections or may declare that, in regard to any municipal council, any of the functions specified in the aforesaid sections shall be deemed to be discretionary duties within the meaning of section 91.

If any municipal council supplies water through pipes, it shall take such steps, at such intervals, and on payment of such fees, as may be determined by a general or special order made by the Government, to ascertain the condition of the water so supplied, by inspection and analysis at a laboratory approved by the Government in that behalf: Provided that the Government may, by notification, exempt any municipal council from the provisions of this section.

Discretionary functions of municipal councils. Every municipal council may, in its discretion, provide either wholly or in part for all or any of the following matters, namely:— (a) laying out, whether in areas previously built upon or not new public streets and acquiring the land for that purpose, including the land requisite for the construction of buildings or curtilages thereof, to abut on such street; (b) constructing, establishing or maintaining public parks, gardens, libraries, museums, mental hospitals, halls, offices, dharmasalas, choultries, musafirkhanas, rest-houses, homes for the disabled and destitute persons and other public buildings; (c) providing shelter for destitute women; (d) constructing and maintaining, where necessary, suitable sanitary houses for the habitation of the poor and granting loans for construction of such houses or for effecting necessary improvements connected therewith; (e) providing accommodation for any class of servants other than sweepers and scavengers employed by the municipal council or granting loans to such servants for construction of houses, subject to the rules prescribed in this behalf; (f) [Omitted] (g) planting and maintaining roadside and other trees; (h) taking statistics and granting rewards for information which may tend to secure the correct registration of vital statistics; (i) making a survey; (j) securing or assisting to secure suitable places for the carrying on of the offensive trades mentioned in section 256; (k) supplying, constructing and maintaining receptacles, fittings, pipes and other appliances whatsoever on or for the use of private premises for receiving and conducting the sewage thereof into a sewer under the control of the municipal council; (l) providing of music or other entertainments in public places or places of public resort; (m) the promotion of public health or child welfare; (n) contribution towards any public funds for the relief of human suffering, within or without the municipal area; (o) by a resolution passed at a general meeting and supported by one-half of the total number of councillors and with the previous sanction of the Deputy Commissioner in the case of a town municipal council and of the Director of Municipal Administration in the case of a city municipal council organising any public reception, public ceremony, public entertainment or public exhibition within the municipal area: Provided that the expenditure on such reception, ceremony, entertainment or exhibition shall not exceed such limits as may be generally or specially prescribed; (p) the organisation or maintenance during scarcity, of shops or stalls for the sale of necessaries of life; (q) housing and maintaining destitute orphans and destitute cripples; (r) subject to the provisions of any law regulating the establishment of warehouses, constructing, establishing and maintaining warehouses; (s) establishment and maintaining of dairy farms and breeding studs; (t) provision of transport facilities within the municipal area; (u) maintenance of an ambulance service; (v) supply of water beyond the limits of the municipal area; (w) the acquisition and maintenance of grazing grounds; (x) guaranteeing the payment of interest on money expended for the construction of a telephone line subject to the previous sanction of the Government when the line extends beyond the limits of the municipal area; (y) promoting the well-being of municipal employees or any class of municipal employees and of their dependents; (z) the construction, purchase, organisation, maintenance extension and management, of mechanically propelled transport facilities for the conveyance of the public; (aa) the construction, maintenance, repairs, purchase of any works for the supply of electrical energy; (bb) 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; (cc) construction, maintenance and provision of public bathing houses; (dd) revival or promotion of cottage industries; (ee) improvement of cattle and live-stock including construction and maintenance of veterinary hospitals; (ff) maintenance of maternity homes and child welfare centres; (gg) maintenance of art galleries; (gg1) slum improvements and up-gradation; (gg2) urban forestry, protection of environment and promotion of ecological aspects; (gg3) urban poverty alleviation; (gg4) promotion of cultural, education and aesthetic aspects; (hh) promotion, formation, extension or assistance of co-operative societies; and (ii) any other matter not hereinbefore specifically named which is likely to promote education or public health, safety or general welfare or convenience, or the advancement of the economic condition of the inhabitants or which is necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Act, expenditure whereon is resolved by the municipal council by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total number of councillors and with the approval of the Government, to be an appropriate charge on the municipal fund. Provided further that, the vacant land appurtenant to the building, up to one thousand square feet shall be exempted and more than one thousand square feet shall be levied with property tax on vacant land in accordance with clause (c) of sub-section (2).

When a municipal council has entered into any arrangement, or made any promise, purporting to bind itself 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 municipal council, or its successors, with the sanction of the Government, to cancel such arrangement or promise, or to discontinue or to 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.

The management, control and administration of every public institution exclusively maintained out of municipal property and funds shall vest in the municipal council by which it is maintained: Provided that the extent of the independent authority of any municipal council in respect of public education, health and sanitation and its relations with the Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Public Health of the Government shall from time to time be prescribed by the Government. Notwithstanding anything contained in this sub-section the assessment made under this sub-section for any return submitted under sub-section (1) for the last six financial years, commencing from the financial year 2023-24, shall be concluded within one year. (4) If any owner or occupier fails to submit a return as required under sub-section (1) or fails to pay in advance full amount of property tax as required under sub-section (2) submits an incomplete or incorrect return, the Municipal Commissioner or the Chief Officer, as the case may be or the authorised officer, shall cause an inspection of the vacant land and building and may also cause such local enquiry as may be considered necessary, and based on such inspection and information collected, he shall assess the property tax and send a copy of the order of assessment to the owner or occupier concerned. (5) When making an assessment of tax under sub-section (3) or (4), the Municipal Commissioner or the Chief Officer, as the case may be, or the authorised officer may also direct the owner or occupier to pay in addition to the tax assessed a penalty,- (a) at the rate of two per cent per month of the amount of property tax assessed and due in case of failure to pay amount of property tax due and to submit a return; (b) not exceeding two times the amount of difference between the tax assessed and the tax paid along with his return in the case of submitting knowingly an incorrect or incomplete return. (c) One hundred rupees in case of faliure to submit return after payment of property tax in full (6) The owner or occupier may either accept the property tax assessed and the penalty if any, levied or send objections to the Municipal Commissioner or the Chief Officer, as the case may be, or the authorised officer within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of a copy of the order under sub-section (3) or (4). (7) The Municipal Commissioner or the Chief Officer, as the case may be, or the authorised officer shall consider the objections and pass such order either confirming or revising the assessment of such tax and penalty if any, within a period of sixty days from the date of filling objections and a copy of the order shall be sent to the owner or occupier concerned. (8) The property tax shall be paid by the person primarily liable within ninety days after the commencement of every year, If default is made in making payment the person liable to pay shall pay a penalty at the rate of two percent per month of the amount of tax remaining unpaid after the expiry of the period Provided that, for the financial year 2020-2021, the property tax shall be paid by the person primarily liable, within one month after the commencement of the Karnataka Municipalities and Certain Other Law (Amendment) Act, 2021. (9) In order to facilitate filing of return by an owner or occupier of any building or vacant land and assessment of property tax the Municipal Council shall from time to time issue guidelines for determining the taxable capital value and property tax payable thereon.