A Metropolitan Planning Committee under Article 243ZE is constituted for an area having a population of at least:

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.