Local Government — PPSC previous year questions

The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992, in force from 24 April 1993, added Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule and gave Panchayati Raj institutions constitutional status, with a three-tier structure, five-year terms, regular elections and reserved seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women. The 74th Amendment did the same for urban local bodies.

Rajasthan started Panchayati Raj first: Prime Minister Nehru inaugurated it at Nagaur on 2 October 1959, following the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee's advice. Andhra Pradesh followed a few weeks later.

Article 243-E covers a Panchayat dissolved before its term ends. The election to constitute the new body must be completed within six months of the dissolution. The new Panchayat serves only the remainder of the original five-year term. If less than six months of that term is left, no election is needed at all.

The East India Company set up India's first municipal corporation at Madras in 1687-88. It followed the model of English boroughs. Corporations came at Bombay and Calcutta in 1726.

Under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, the State Election Commission conducts Panchayat elections (Article 243K). The Election Commission of India does not. So statement (c) is incorrect. The other statements are correct. A Panchayat has a five-year term from its first meeting (Article 243E). Fresh elections must be held before the term expires, or within six months of dissolution. Parliament passed the Act in December 1992. It came into force on 24 April 1993, adding Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule.

The Balwant Rai Mehta Committee reported in 1957. It was the first to recommend a three-tier structure of 'democratic decentralisation' — gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zila parishad. Nehru inaugurated the scheme at Nagaur in Rajasthan on 2 October 1959. The Ashok Mehta Committee (1977) later argued for a two-tier system instead.

Social audit at the local level is carried out by the Gram Sabha, the body of all registered voters of a village. Under the 73rd Amendment (Article 243A) and Acts such as MGNREGA (Section 17), the Gram Sabha monitors and audits the works and accounts of the Gram Panchayat and other agencies. The Village Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad are elected executive tiers whose work is subject to this audit.

Chandigarh is a Union Territory administered directly by the Centre and has no autonomous council. Ladakh had the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh (1995) and Kargil (2003), while the Mara and Lai Autonomous District Councils are Sixth-Schedule bodies in Mizoram.

The 73rd Amendment provides a three-tier Panchayati Raj but lets a state with a population up to 20 lakh skip the intermediate (block) level, so statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 is wrong because chairpersons at the block and district levels are elected indirectly by the elected members, and statement 3 is wrong because a panchayat formed after an early dissolution serves only the remaining period, not a fresh five years.

The Twelfth Schedule (Article 243W) lists 18 municipal functions. They include urban planning including town planning, regulation of slaughter houses and tanneries, and cattle pounds and prevention of cruelty to animals. Minor irrigation, water management and watershed development is item 3 of the Eleventh Schedule, the panchayat list. So it is not an urban local government function.