Indian Polity GK Questions with Answers – Page 51

The Fifth Schedule lets the Governor make regulations for the peace and good government of a Scheduled Area, and it names three matters such a regulation may cover: it may prohibit or restrict the transfer of land by or among members of the Scheduled Tribes, regulate the allotment of land…

Article 243Q requires the Governor to constitute a Nagar Panchayat, by whatever name called, for a transitional area, that is an area moving from rural to urban character.

Article 243K vests the superintendence, direction and control of panchayat elections in a State Election Commission consisting of a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor.

Appointed in 1957 to examine the working of the Community Development Programme, it recommended democratic decentralisation through three tiers, namely the Gram Panchayat at the village level, the Panchayat Samiti at the block level and the Zila Parishad at the district level.

Article 243P defines a metropolitan area as an area having a population of ten lakh or more, comprised in one or more districts and consisting of two or more municipalities or panchayats, which the Governor specifies by public notification.

Article 243F provides that a person who is less than twenty-five years of age shall not be disqualified on the ground of age if he has attained twenty-one years, which fixes twenty-one as the floor for membership of a panchayat.

It says that a Gram Sabha may exercise such powers and perform such functions at the village level as the legislature of a State may by law provide.

The Eleventh Schedule was added by the 73rd Amendment Act of 1992 and lists twenty-nine subjects, from agriculture and minor irrigation to poverty alleviation and public distribution, which a State legislature may devolve on the panchayats under Article 243G. The Schedule itself does not transfer power; it only marks the…

The 74th Amendment Act of 1992 created Part IXA for urban local bodies, of which the municipal corporation is the largest form under Article 243Q. It also made regular elections compulsory by fixing a five-year term under Article 243U and by placing the conduct of municipal elections with the State…

Part IXA of the Constitution, inserted by the 74th Amendment Act of 1992, is titled The Municipalities and covers every kind of urban local body.

The East India Company set up the first municipal corporation in India at Madras in 1688, with a mayor and aldermen, mainly to raise local taxes for the maintenance of the town.

The three tiers created by Article 243B are the village level, the intermediate level and the district level, known in most States as the Gram Panchayat, the Panchayat Samiti and the Zila Parishad.

Both were passed in 1992 and together they gave constitutional status to local government.

The Constitution provides for a joint sitting of the two Houses only at the Union level, under Article 108, where the President may summon the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to sit together and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides.

Article 192 says that if a question arises whether a member of a House of the Legislature of a State has become subject to any of the disqualifications listed in Article 191, the question shall be referred for the decision of the Governor, and his decision shall be final.

Article 172 says that the Legislative Council of a State shall not be subject to dissolution, but that as nearly as possible one-third of its members shall retire on the expiration of every second year.

Article 200 gives the Governor three choices on an ordinary Bill and adds a fourth course for special cases: he may declare that he assents, that he withholds assent, or that he reserves the Bill for the consideration of the President, and he may return the Bill to the House…

Article 198 lays down the special procedure for Money Bills in a State: such a Bill cannot be introduced in the Legislative Council, and it may be introduced in the Legislative Assembly only on the recommendation of the Governor.

When the Legislative Assembly passes an ordinary Bill and sends it to the Legislative Council, the Council may hold it up for a maximum of three months the first time.

Article 189 provides that the quorum to constitute a meeting of a House of the Legislature of a State shall be ten members or one-tenth of the total number of members of the House, whichever is greater.