Indian Polity Quiz: Panchayati Raj and Municipalities

The correct answer is D, the 73rd and 74th Amendment Acts. Both were passed in 1992 and together they gave constitutional status to local government. The 73rd Amendment inserted Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule for the panchayats and came into force on 24 April 1993, while the 74th Amendment inserted Part IXA and the Twelfth Schedule for the municipalities and came into force on 1 June 1993.

Option A is wrong because the 42nd Amendment of 1976 added the words socialist, secular and integrity to the Preamble and the 43rd of 1977 restored the power of judicial review; neither touched panchayats. Option B is wrong because the 86th Amendment of 2002 made elementary education a fundamental right under Article 21A and the 87th of 2003 changed the census figure used for delimitation. Option C is wrong because the 64th Amendment Bill of 1989 on panchayats was defeated in the Rajya Sabha and never became an Act.

The correct answer is B, Village Committee. 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. There is no tier called a Village Committee in this structure; the village body of all voters is the Gram Sabha, which is an electorate under Article 243A and not a tier of the panchayat.

Option A is wrong because the Panchayat Samiti is the intermediate or block level tier, which a State may omit only if its population does not exceed twenty lakh. Option C is wrong because the Gram Panchayat is the base tier, elected directly from wards of the village. Option D is wrong because the Zila Parishad is the district level tier, the topmost of the three. All three named in A, C and D are therefore part of the system.

The correct answer is B, Madras. 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. It is the oldest municipal body in the country and is the standard answer to questions on the beginnings of urban local government in India.

Option A is wrong because Calcutta received its municipal corporation in 1726, nearly four decades later, under a Royal Charter. Option C is wrong for the same reason: Bombay also got its corporation in 1726 along with Calcutta, so neither was the first. Option D is wrong because Delhi was not a Presidency town of the Company in the seventeenth century and its municipal corporation was created much later, in 1958, by an Act of Parliament. Only Madras fits the year 1688.

The correct answer is D, Municipalities. 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. Article 243Q lists three of them: a Nagar Panchayat for an area in transition from rural to urban, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area.

Option A is wrong because the Council of States is the Rajya Sabha, the upper House of Parliament, and has nothing to do with local government. Option B is wrong because a Zilla Parishad is the district level body of the rural panchayat system under Part IX. Option C is wrong for the same reason: a Panchayat Samiti is the intermediate or block level rural body. Both B and C belong to the rural side, so only D names the urban bodies.

The correct answer is C, Municipal corporation and holding elections for it. 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 Election Commission under Article 243ZA.

Option A is wrong because district councils in the tribal areas of the North East are governed by the Sixth Schedule, which was part of the original Constitution of 1950. Option B is wrong because panchayats were the subject of the companion 73rd Amendment, which inserted Part IX. Option D is wrong because the Gram Sabha is recognised by Article 243A of Part IX and is not an elected body at all; it is the assembly of all registered voters of a village.

The correct answer is B, 29. 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 field within which a State may empower panchayats.

Option A is wrong because eighteen is the number of subjects in the Twelfth Schedule, added by the 74th Amendment for the municipalities, and the two numbers are regularly swapped in the options. Option C is wrong because thirty-one matches no schedule of local government. Option D is wrong because twelve is the number of the Schedule, not the count of its subjects, and is offered to catch a hurried reader. Remember the pair: Eleventh with 29, Twelfth with 18.

The correct answer is B, Article 243A. 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 Gram Sabha is defined in Article 243 as the body consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls of a village within the area of a panchayat, which makes it the primary unit of direct democracy in the system.

Option A is wrong because Article 40 is a Directive Principle asking the State to organise village panchayats; it is the inspiration for Part IX but is not enforceable and does not mention the Gram Sabha. Option C is wrong because Article 243D deals with the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and women. Option D is wrong because Article 243K establishes the State Election Commission for panchayat elections.

The correct answer is B, 21 years. 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. The same rule is carried into Article 243V for the municipalities, so both rural and urban local bodies use the age of twenty-one.

Option A is wrong because eighteen is the voting age fixed by Article 326 after the 61st Amendment of 1988; voting and contesting are different thresholds. Option C is wrong because twenty-five is the minimum age for membership of the Lok Sabha and of a State Legislative Assembly under Article 84 and Article 173. Option D is wrong because thirty is the minimum age for the Rajya Sabha and for a State Legislative Council.

The correct answer is C, ten lakh. 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 243ZE then requires a Metropolitan Planning Committee in every such area to prepare a draft development plan for the whole metropolitan area.

Option A is wrong because three lakh is the population at which Wards Committees become compulsory in a municipality under Article 243S. Option B is wrong because five lakh is not a threshold used anywhere in Part IX or Part IXA. Option D is wrong because twenty lakh is the State population below which the intermediate tier of panchayat may be left out under Article 243B. These three figures, three, ten and twenty lakh, are the ones examiners interchange.

The correct answer is B, the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee. 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. Rajasthan acted on it first, with Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurating Panchayati Raj at Nagaur on 2 October 1959.

Option A is wrong because the Ashok Mehta Committee of 1977 recommended the opposite, a two-tier system of Zila Parishad and Mandal Panchayat. Option C is wrong because the L. M. Singhvi Committee of 1986 is remembered for demanding constitutional status for panchayats and recognition of the Gram Sabha. Option D is wrong because the G. V. K. Rao Committee of 1985 dealt with administrative arrangements for rural development and poverty alleviation.

The correct answer is C, the Governor of the State. 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. To protect the office, the same Article says that he shall not be removed from office except in the manner and on the grounds prescribed for the removal of a Judge of a High Court, and his conditions of service cannot be varied to his disadvantage after appointment.

Option A is wrong because the President appoints the Chief Election Commissioner of India, who handles parliamentary and Assembly elections, not local body polls. Option B is wrong because the Election Commission of India has no authority over panchayat and municipal elections. Option D is wrong because the Chief Minister has no constitutional power of appointment to this office, although the Council of Ministers advises the Governor.

The correct answer is C, a Nagar Panchayat. 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. In deciding the classification the Governor considers the population, the density of population, the revenue generated for local administration, the percentage of employment in non-agricultural activities and the economic importance of the area.

Option A is wrong because a Municipal Corporation is constituted for a larger urban area, typically a big city. Option B is wrong because a Municipal Council is meant for a smaller urban area, that is a town that is already urban. Option D is wrong because a Cantonment Board is not a body under Part IXA at all; it administers a military station under the Cantonments Act and works under the Union Ministry of Defence, with the station commander as its president.