Haryana Quiz: Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies of Haryana

After the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 every state had to bring its own law in line with Part IX of the Constitution, and Haryana did so with the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, which still governs the gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishads of the state.

Under the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 a gram panchayat is headed by a Sarpanch, who is elected directly by all the voters of the panchayat area, with an Up-Sarpanch as deputy and panches elected from the wards of the village.

Haryana amended its Panchayati Raj Act in 2015 to add conditions for candidates, including a minimum educational qualification, no outstanding arrears of electricity dues or cooperative loans, and a functional toilet at home.

The amendment required a general category candidate to have passed matriculation, that is Class 10, while a relaxation was given to women and to Scheduled Caste candidates, who needed Class 8, and to Scheduled Caste women contesting a panch seat, for whom Class 5 was enough.

The 73rd Amendment Act was passed in 1992 and was brought into force on 24 April 1993, observed every year since as National Panchayati Raj Day.

The Eleventh Schedule, read with Article 243-G, lists 29 subjects such as agriculture, minor irrigation, animal husbandry, rural housing, drinking water, roads, education, health and the public distribution system, which a state legislature may devolve to panchayats.

Article 243-Q requires every state to constitute a Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area that is changing from rural to urban, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area, the category being decided by the Governor on the basis of population…

Article 243-K for panchayats and Article 243-ZA 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, whose Commissioner is appointed by the Governor and may be removed only in the manner and on the…

Article 243-F says that a person who is qualified to be a member of the state legislature may be a member of a panchayat, with one exception: a person who has attained twenty-one years of age is not to be disqualified on the ground of age alone, so twenty-one is…

Faridabad, the largest city of the state and an old industrial centre on the edge of Delhi, got the first municipal corporation of Haryana in the nineteen nineties under the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, and the rest of the corporations were created later as the towns grew.

Article 243-I requires the Governor to constitute a Finance Commission for the state 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 divided with them, what should be assigned…

The amendment never made landholding a condition for contesting; such a requirement would have excluded landless villagers altogether and was not part of the law that the Supreme Court examined.