74th Amendment and Municipalities in India

Constitution (Seventy Forth Amendment) Act, 1992 has introduced a new Part IXA in the Constitution, which deals with Municipalities in an article 243 P to 243 ZG. This amendment, also known as Nagarpalika Act, came into force on 1st June 1993. It has given constitutional status to the municipalities and brought them under the justifiable part of the constitution. States were put under constitutional obligation to adopt municipalities as per system enshrined in the constitution.

Definition of Metropolitan area

Metropolitan area in the country is an area where population is above 10 Lakh. (Article 243P)

Three Kinds of Municipalities

Article 243Q provides for establishment of 3 kinds of Municipalities of every state.

Composition of Municipalities

All the members of a Municipality are to be directly elected by the people of the Municipal area and for the purpose of making the electorate; the municipal area will be divided into territorial constituencies known as Wards.

The manner of election of Chairpersons of municipalities has been left to be specified by the State Legislature. Article 243R>

Ward Committees

There shall be constituted the ward committees consisting of one or more wards within the territorial area of all the municipalities with a population of 3 Lakhs or more.

Reservation of Seats:

Rreservation of the seats for the Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in every municipality corporation has to be provided in proportion to their population to the total population in the municipal area.

Duration of Municipalities

Duration of the municipality has been fixed at 5 years from the date appointed for its first meeting. Elections to constitute a municipality are required to be completed before the expiration of the duration of the municipality. If the municipality is dissolved before the expiry of 5 years, the elections for constituting a new municipality are required to be completed within a period of 6 months from the date of its dissolution.

Disqualifications of the members

A member is disqualified to be chosen as a member of municipality if he / she is disqualified under any law to be elected as MLA. The minimum age to be qualified as a member is 21 years.

Powers, authorities and responsibilities

As per Article 243 W, all municipalities would be empowered with such powers and responsibilities as may be necessary to enable them to function as effective institutions of self-government.

An illustrative list of functions that may be entrusted to the municipalities has been incorporated as the Twelfth Schedule of the Constitution. This schedule defines 18 new tasks in the functional domain of the Urban Local Bodies, as follows:

Financial Powers

Via Article 243X, the constitution has left it open to the Legislature of a State to specify by law matters relating to imposition of taxes. Such law may specify:

Finance Commission

Article 243Y makes provision that the Finance Commission constituted under Part IX for Panchayats shall also review the financial position of the municipalities and will make recommendations to the Governor.

Union Finance Commission also suggests the measures needed to augment the Consolidated Funds of States to supplement the resources of the panchayats in the states.

Audit and Accounts

As per article 243Z, the maintenance of the accounts of the municipalities and other audit shall be done in accordance with the provisions in the State law. The State Legislatures will be free to make appropriate provisions in this regard depending upon the local needs and institutional framework available for this purpose.

Elections Commission

Article 243ZA makes the provisions that the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to the Panchayats and municipalities shall be vested in the State Election Commissions.

Application to Union Territories:

Article 243ZB makes provisions for applications of these provisions to the Union Territories. This article says that the provisions of Municipalities shall be applicable to the UTs in same way as in case of the states but the President by a public notification may make any modifications in the applications of any part.

Not applicability in some areas

Article 243 ZC says that provisions of part IXA are not applicable to

If the parliament makes any modifications in the scheduled areas , then the same restrictions would apply to those areas also.

Committee for District Planning

We have studied in the part IX that Planning and allocation of resources at the district level for the Panchayati Raj institutions are normally to be done by the Zila Parishad. As per the provisions of the Part IX-A, for urban areas, municipal bodies discharge these functions within their respective jurisdictions.

However, this gives rise to an important question that at the how the allocation of the funds has to be made. The Constitution has made provisions of creating two Planning Committees in the state.

The Draft District Development Plan so prepared and recommended by the District Planning Committee shall be forwarded by the Chairperson of the Committee to the State Government.

Metropolitan Planning Committee:

Article 243 ZE says that there shall be constituted in every Metropolitan area a Metropolitan Planning Committee to prepare a draft development plan for the Metropolitan area as a whole. So for the areas with a population of 10 lakhs or more, a Metropolitan Planning Committee shall be constituted for preparing a draft development plan for the metropolitan area as a whole.

Comment

When we look at the provisions of the Part IXA of our constitution, we can say with confidence that 74th amendment act 1992 is one of the most important and vital amendments carried out so far in with regard to the urban development. The act has attempted to make the local bodies stronger, transparent. Here are some notable implications with regard to this Constitution amendment act: