INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY ADVANCED RESEARCH TRENDS

ISSN : 2349-7408
VOLUME III, ISSUE 1(2), MARCH 2016

URBAN LOCAL BODIES WITH REFERENCE TO

74th CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ACT OF 1992
Dr. M. GOPI
UGC Post Doctoral Fellow & Faculty, Dept. of Political Science & Public Administration,
Andhra University, Visakhapatnam.

The term Urban Local Government in India signifies the governance of an

urban area by the people through their elected representatives. The jurisdiction of an
urban local government is limited to a specific urban area which is demarcated for
this purpose by the state government.

Municipal Governments in India have been in existence for many years. In

the present form and structure, the municipal bodies owe their existence to British. It
took a century to make the Municipalities representative bodies. The 74 th
Constitutional Amendment Act gave a federal recognition to local government in
India. The Government of Andhra Pradesh introduced new municipalities to give
effect to the Constitutional Amendment Act and showed full commitment and high
compliance of the provisions of the 74th Amendment Act. Before this Constitutional
Amendment Act the local bodies are worked as wings and fancies of the state
government. So the aim of this article is to present how far the 74th Constitutional
Amendment Act revitalizing and strengthening the urban Governments to that they
function effectively as units of Local Government.

Constitution 74th Amendment Act, 1992 provides constitutional status to

Municipalities and Municipal Corporations. The constitution provides for three types
of Municipalities.
 A Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area, that is to say, one area in transition
from rural area to an urban area.
 A Municipal Council for a smaller urban area.
 A Municipal corporation for a larger urban area.

THE ORIGIN OF 74TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ACT:

Historical perspective:
The institutions of urban local government oriented and developed in modern
India during the period of British rule. The major events in the context are given
below are:
 In 1687, the first municipal corporation in India was setup at Madras.
 In 1726, the municipal corporations were setup in Bombay and Calcutta
 Lord Mayo’s resolutions of 1870 on financial decentralization visualized the
development of local self-government institutions.

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 Lord Rippon’s resolution of 1882 has been hailed as the “Magna Carta” of
local self-government. He is called as the father of local self-government in
India.
 The Royal Commission on decentralization was appointed in 1907 and it
submitted its report in 1909. Its chairman of Hob house.
 Under the dyarchial scheme introduced in Provinces by the Government of
India Act of 1919, local self government became a transferred subject under
the charge of a responsible minister.
 In 1924, the Cantonments Acts was passed by the central legislature.
 Under the provincial autonomy scheme introduced by the Government of
India Act of 1935, local self-government was declared a provincial subject.

Constitutionalization:
In August 1989, Rajiv Gandhi’s government introduced 65th Constitutional
Amendment Bill (i.e. Nararpalika Bill) in the Lok Sabha. The Bill aimed at
strengthening and revamping the municipal bodies by conferring a constitutional
status on them. Although the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, it was defeated in the
Rajya Sabha in October 1989, and hence, lapsed. The National front Government
under V.P. Singh introduced the revised Nagarpalika Bill in the Lok Sabha in
September 1990 again. However, the bill was not passed and finally lapsed due to
the dissolution of the Lok Sabha. P.V. Narasimha Rao’s government also introduced
the modified Municipalities Bill in the Lok Sabha in September 1991. It was passed
in both, Lok Sabha Rajya Sabha in December 1992. After that, the bill was approved
by the required number of state legislatures. It was assented by the President of India
in April 1993. It emerges as the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 and
came into force on 1st June, 1993.

74th Amendment Act of 1992:

This act has added Part IX-A to the Constitution of India. It is entitled as The
Municipalities and consists of provisions from articles 243-P to 243-ZG. In addition,
the Act has also added Twelfth Schedule to the Constitution. It contains 18 functional
items of municipalities and deals with Article 243-W. The Act gave Constitutional
Status to the Municipalities. It has brought them under the purview of justiciable part
of the Constitution. In other words, state governments are under constitutional
obligation to adopt the new system of municipalities in accordance with the
provisions of the Act.

Composition: Article No. 243R

All the members of a municipality shall be elected directly by the people of
the municipal area. For this purpose, each municipal area shall be divided into
territorial constituencies to be known as wards. The state legislature may provide the
manner of election of the chairperson of a municipality. It may also provide for the
representation of the following persons in a municipality.

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 Persons having special knowledge or experience in municipal administration
without the right to vote in the meetings of municipality.
 The members of the Lok Sabha and the state Legislative Assembly
representing constituencies which comprise wholly or partly the municipal
area.
 The members of the Rajya Sabha and the State Legislative Council
registered as electors within the municipal area.
 The chairpersons of committees (other than wards committees).

Wards Committees: Article No.243S

There shall be constituted a wards committee, consisting of one or more
wards, within the territorial area of a municipality having population of three lakhs or
more. The state legislature may make provision with respect to the composition and
the territorial area of a wards Committee and the manner in which the seats in a wards
committee shall be filled. It may also make any provision for the constitution of
committees in addition to the wards committees.

Reservation of Seats: Article No. 243T

The Act provides for the reservation of seats for the scheduled castes and the
scheduled tribes in every municipality in proportion of their population to the total
population in the municipal area. Further, it provides for the reservation of not less
that one-third of the total number of seats for women (including the number of seats
reserved for women belonging to the SCs and STs). The state legislature may provide
for the manner of reservation of offices of chairpersons in the municipalities for the
SCs, the STs and the women. It may also make any provision for the reservation of
seats in any municipality or offices of chairpersons in municipalities in favour of
backward classes.

Duration of municipalities: Article No. 243U

The Act provides for a five-year term of office for every municipality.
However, it can be dissolved before the completion of its term. Further, the fresh
election to constitute a municipality shall be completed (i) before the expiry of its
duration of five years; or (ii) in case of dissolution, before the expiry of a period of
six months form the data of its dissolution.

Disqualifications: Article No. 243V

A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as or for being a member of
a municipality if he is so disqualified (i) under any law for the time being in force for
the purposes of elections to the Legislature of the state concerned; or (ii) under any
law made by the state legislature. However, no person shall be disqualified on the
ground that he is less than 25 years of age if he has attained the age of 21 years.
Further, all questions of disqualifications shall be referred to such authority as the
state legislature determines.

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State Election Commission:
The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral
rolls and the conduct of all elections to the municipalities shall be vested in the State
Election Commission.

Finances: Article No. 243X

The state legislature may (i) authorize a municipality to levy, collect and
appropriate taxes, duties, tools and fees; (ii) assign to a municipality taxes, duties,
tools and fees levied and collected by state government; (iii) provide for making
grants-in-aid to the municipalities from the Consolidated Fund of the state; and (iv)
provide for constitution of funds for crediting all moneys of the municipalities.

Functions:
Twelfth schedule contains the following 18 functional items placed within
the purview of municipalities.
1. Urban planning including town planning
2. Regulation of land use and construction of buildings
3. Planning for economic and social development
4. Roads and bridges
5. Water supply for domestic, industrial and commercial purposes
6. Public health, sanitation, conservancy and solid waste management
7. Fire services
8. Urban forestry, protection of the environment and promotion of ecological
aspects
9. Safeguarding the interests of weaker section of society, including the
handicapped and mentally retarded
10. Slum improvement and upgradation
11. Urban poverty alleviation
12. Provision of urban amenities and facilities such as parks, gardens,
playgrounds
13. Promotion of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects
14. Burials and burial grounds, cremations, cremation grounds and electric
crematoriums
15. Cattle ponds, prevention of cruelty to animals
16. Vital statistics including registration of births and deaths
17. Public amenities including street lighting, parking lots, bus stops and public
conveniences
18. Regulation of slaughter houses and tanneries

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The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act and the various follow up actions
including the reforms towards effective implementation of provisions of the 74 th
Constitutional Amendment, have given wide ranging responsibilities and functions
to the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and their elected representatives. The
representatives in Urban Local Bodies have been elected from all sections of the
communities to make the urban governance broad based and more representatives
required proper understanding of different provisions of acts, rules, regulations and
procedures to discharge their duties and responsibilities with cooperation and
coordination of concerned executives for efficient urban governance. The
constitution provides for reservation of seats in order to give due representation to the
weaker section and special groups.

Rationale for the reform:

The Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992 provisions, provides a basis
for the State Legislatures to guide the State Government in the assignment of various
responsibilities to municipalities and to strengthen municipal governance.
Accordingly, several State Governments have amended their Municipal
Acts/Laws/Legislations so as to bring these in conformity with the Constitutional
provisions. While state governments ratified the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act
they have found it difficult to implement its provisions in totality. The functional
devolution to Urban Local Bodies hasn’t been supported by adequate transfer of
revenue sources. Further, the financial autonomy of Urban Local Bodies has been
undermined as they have to seek state government approval for any revisions in tax
rates and user charges and have limited powers to institute new taxes. The existing
legal framework as defined by the state municipal acts was not conducive for
implementing the provisions of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in its true
spirit. Implementation of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act is required for following
reasons:
 Urban Decentralization needs to empower Urban Local Bodies with many
more power and functions to operate as independent levels of government.
 Such increased autonomy also needs to be complemented by appropriate
accountability. This accountability needs to be directly to the citizens
themselves, rather than to another level of government. Hence, formal
mechanisms for such citizen-centric accountability need to be created, along
with reforms in urban decentralization.
 From the citizens’ perspective, there need to be more opportunities to
participate in local governance at many levels: in budgeting, planning, land
use and zoning issues, and so on. Creating this opportunity to participate also
complements the accountability issue mentioned above.
 A consistent mechanism for participation, planning and decentralization
across urban local governments will enables easier coordination at the
regional planning level, through the District Planning Committees and

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Metropolitan Planning Committees that have been envisaged in the
Constitution.
 Strong accountability mechanisms are also required on financial and
operational management of the Urban Local Bodies: budgeting, audits,
presentation of financial statements to the public, performance measurement
indicators and so on. Here again, the primary focus of these instruments
needs to be citizens and users of public services, rather than other levels of
government: i.e., accountability outward to citizens, rather than inward
within government.

Conclusion:
The Government of India introduced new municipal legislation to give effect
to the Constitutional Amendment Act. This proves partly the hypothesis that
Administration of Municipalities in India has become a part of the federal structure
with 74th Amendment to the Constitution of India. However, Ward committees are
not constituted in all Municipalities except in big cities. The bye laws or resolutions
of the Municipality need the approval of the State Government Officials. Still there
is the power of suppression over the Municipalities. As such, the autonomy of
Municipalities seems to be a myth even after constitutional guarantee to the
Municipalities. Though Municipalities form a part of federal structure in India, they
are still the creatures of the State Governments. This partly disproves the hypothesis
that Administration of Municipalities in India has become a part of the federal
structure with the 74th Amendment to the Constitution of India. Ward committees are
to be constituted in all grades of municipalities, irrespective of population criteria.
This would help to make the political representatives accountable to people. People
through meaningful participation in Municipalities would learn how to control the
abuses of the Municipal authorities. In conclusion we can say that the 74th
Constitutional Amendment Act has given some power for revitalizing and
strengthening to the Urban Local Bodies.

References:
1) Tata McGraw Hill’s Series, Public Administration by M. Laxmikanth, in 2007
Published by the Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited.
2) Abhijitt Datta, Municipal and urban India, Indian Institution of Public
Administration, New Delhi, 1980.
3) M.A.Muttalib and Mohd. Akber Ali Khan, Reforms in Municipal government,
regional centre for urban and environment studies 1982
4) Basu, Durgadas, Introduction to the Constitution of India (19 th edition, reprint 2004)
Wadhwa and Company, New Delhi, 2004
5) Lent. D. Upson, Practice of Municipal Administration, the century Co. New York,
1926
6) Earnest W.Steal, Municipal affairs, international text book company Scranton,
Pennsylvania, 1950

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7) Urban Local Bodies by Sri A.K Goyal Prl Secretary M.A & U.D department
8) www.google.com. 74th Constitutional Amendment Act
9) Synopsis of Administration of Municipalities in Andhra Pradesh by Jagatha Hari
Hara Rao.

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