Bihar Quiz: Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies of Bihar

The 73rd Amendment Act was passed by Parliament in 1992 and was brought into force on 24 April 1993, which is why that date is observed every year as National Panchayati Raj Day.

Under the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006 the head of a Gram Panchayat is the Mukhiya, who is elected directly by all the voters of the panchayat area, with an Up-Mukhiya as deputy chosen by the elected ward members.

The Gram Kachahari is a feature of the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006 and is a bench of the directly elected Sarpanch and the elected Panches of the panchayat area; it decides small disputes between villagers and may impose a fine in the matters the Act lists, while serious offences…

Article 243A, inserted by the 73rd Amendment, 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, so the body is constitutional but its powers are decided by state law.

The Eleventh Schedule was added by the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992 and lists 29 subjects, among them agriculture, land improvement, minor irrigation, animal husbandry, rural housing, drinking water, roads, rural electrification, poverty alleviation programmes, primary and secondary schools, markets and fairs and public distribution.

Bihar amended its panchayat law and held the panchayat elections of 2006 with fifty per cent of the seats, and of the posts of Mukhiya, Sarpanch, Pramukh and Adhyaksha, reserved for women, which took it well beyond the one-third floor fixed by Article 243D and made it the first state…

Article 243K for panchayats and Article 243ZA for municipalities vest the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of these elections in a State Election Commission consisting of a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor.

Article 243Q provides three kinds of municipality: a Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area, that is an area turning from rural into urban, a Municipal Council, the Nagar Parishad, for a smaller urban area, and a Municipal Corporation, the Nagar Nigam, for a larger urban area.

The Twelfth Schedule was inserted by the 74th Amendment Act, 1992 and lists 18 subjects that a state legislature may entrust to municipalities under Article 243W, including urban planning and town planning, regulation of land use, water supply, public health and sanitation, slum improvement, urban poverty alleviation, fire services, burials…

Article 243I requires the Governor of a state to constitute a Finance Commission at the end of every fifth year to review the financial position of the panchayats and to recommend how the taxes, duties, tolls and fees of the state should be shared with them, what grants-in-aid they should…