Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Bodies of Uttar Pradesh

Local self-government is the third tier of the Indian federal structure, and Uttar Pradesh took to it earlier than most states: the United Provinces Panchayat Raj Act was passed in 1947, before the Constitution itself came into force, and the United Provinces Municipalities Act goes back to 1916. What the Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendment Acts of 1992 did was to lift these bodies out of the hands of the state government and give them a place in the Constitution, with a fixed five-year term, reserved seats, a State Election Commission to hold their elections and a State Finance Commission to look at their money. For UPPSC, UPSSSC, UP Police and the Gram Panchayat Adhikari and Lekhpal examinations, this chapter is worth learning closely, because the questions are about names of tiers, article numbers and office-holders rather than about opinions.

The road to the Seventy-third Amendment

The Community Development Programme of 1952 and the National Extension Service of 1953 needed a local body to work through, and the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee of 1957 recommended a three-tier structure of Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad, which it called democratic decentralisation. Rajasthan was the first state to inaugurate the system, at Nagaur on 2 October 1959, and Andhra Pradesh followed the same year. The Ashok Mehta Committee of 1977 wanted a two-tier structure instead, the G. V. K. Rao Committee of 1985 asked for the Zila Parishad to be the pivot of development administration, and the L. M. Singhvi Committee of 1986 was the first to ask that panchayats be given constitutional status. The Sixty-fourth Amendment Bill of 1989 tried to do it and failed in the Rajya Sabha. Success came with the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992, which came into force on 24 April 1993, now observed as National Panchayati Raj Day, and the Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992 for towns, which came into force on 1 June 1993. The first added Part IX, Articles 243 to 243-O, and the Eleventh Schedule with its 29 subjects; the second added Part IXA, Articles 243P to 243ZG, and the Twelfth Schedule with its 18 subjects.

The three tiers in Uttar Pradesh

Article 243B makes a three-tier system compulsory in every state with a population above twenty lakh, so Uttar Pradesh has panchayats at the village, the intermediate and the district level. At the base is the Gram Panchayat, governed by the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 and headed by an elected Pradhan with an Up-Pradhan and elected members called Panchs; its staff is the Panchayat Secretary or Gram Panchayat Vikas Adhikari. Behind the Gram Panchayat stands the Gram Sabha of Article 243A, which is not an elected body at all but the whole body of persons registered in the electoral rolls of the village, and which approves the annual plan and the accounts. At the block level is the Kshettra Panchayat, the body that other states call the Panchayat Samiti, headed by a Block Pramukh, and at the district level the Zila Panchayat, headed by an Adhyaksh; both are governed by the Uttar Pradesh Kshettra Panchayats and Zila Panchayats Adhiniyam, 1961, with the Block Development Officer and the Apar Mukhya Adhikari as their executive officers. Uttar Pradesh has kept one institution that most states dropped, the Nyaya Panchayat, a bench covering a group of Gram Panchayats under the 1947 Act, headed by a Sarpanch, which tries petty civil and criminal cases.

The constitutional provisions to memorise

The urban local bodies of Uttar Pradesh

Article 243Q provides three kinds of municipality, and Uttar Pradesh has all three. A Nagar Panchayat is constituted for a transitional area, that is an area in transition from rural to urban; a Nagar Palika Parishad, the Municipal Council, for a smaller urban area; and a Nagar Nigam, the Municipal Corporation, for a larger urban area, the choice depending on the population, the density, the revenue and the share of non-agricultural employment. The corporations work under the Uttar Pradesh Nagar Nigam Adhiniyam, 1959 and the councils and nagar panchayats under the United Provinces Municipalities Act, 1916. A Nagar Nigam is headed by a directly elected Mayor, while its executive head is the Municipal Commissioner, an officer appointed by the state government; a Nagar Palika Parishad and a Nagar Panchayat are headed by an elected Chairman or Adhyaksh with an Executive Officer as the administrative head. Article 243S requires a Wards Committee in every municipality with a population of three lakh or more, Article 243ZD requires a District Planning Committee in every district to consolidate the plans of the panchayats and the municipalities, and Article 243ZE requires a Metropolitan Planning Committee for every metropolitan area, which means an area with a population of ten lakh or more. The oldest municipal corporation in the country, for comparison, is Madras, set up in 1688, and the first municipal corporations of independent India were established well before the Seventy-fourth Amendment gave them constitutional protection.

What the amendments changed, and what examiners ask

Four changes matter most. First, the term: a panchayat or a municipality now lasts five years, and if it is dissolved earlier a fresh election must be held within six months, so a state government can no longer keep local bodies in suspension indefinitely. Second, reservation: seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are in proportion to their population, and not less than one-third of all seats and of the chairperson posts are reserved for women, with many states raising this share by their own laws. Third, elections: they are conducted by the State Election Commission under Article 243K for panchayats and Article 243ZA for municipalities, never by the Election Commission of India. Fourth, finances: a State Finance Commission must be constituted every five years under Article 243-I and Article 243Y to recommend how the taxes of the state should be shared with the local bodies. Candidates should keep the schedules apart as well: the Eleventh Schedule lists 29 subjects for panchayats, from agriculture and minor irrigation to rural housing and education, while the Twelfth Schedule lists 18 subjects for municipalities, from urban planning and water supply to fire services and slum improvement.