Where was the first Municipal Corporation set up in India?

a. Bombay

b. Calcutta

c. Madras

d. Surat

ANSWER: Madras

Explanation:

‘Urban Local Government’ in India means the governance of a specific urban area, demarcated for this purpose by the state government, by the people through their elected representatives.

There are 8 types of urban local governments in India.

74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 constitutionalised the system of urban government.

At the Central level, ‘urban local government’ is dealt by -

1. Ministry of Urban Development (created as a separate ministry in 1985).

2. Ministry of Defense (in the case of cantonment boards).

3. Ministry of Home Affairs (in the case of Union Territories).

Evolution of urban local bodies -

It was during the British rule that the institutions of urban local government originated and developed in modern India.

1687-88 - First municipal corporation in India was set up at Madras.

1726 - Municipal corporations were set up in Bombay and Calcutta.

1870 - Lord Mayo’s Resolution of 1870 on ‘financial decentralization’ envisaged development of local self-government institutions.

1882 - Lord Ripon’s Resolution of 1882 was hailed as the ‘Magna Carta’ of local self-government.

He is called as the father of local-self-government in India.

1907 - The Royal Commission on decentralization was appointed in 1907.

It submitted its report in 1909. Its chairman was Hob house.

1919 - Under the dyarchical 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 Indian minister.

1924 - The Cantonments Act was passed by the Central Legislature.

1935 - Government of India Act of 1935 introduced provincial autonomy scheme. The local self-government was declared a provincial subject.

1989 - In August 1989, the Rajiv Gandhi government introduced the 65th Constitutional Amendment Bill (i.e., Nagarpalika Bill) in the Lok Sabha but it was defeated in Rajya Sabha.

1990 - The National Front Government under V P Singh introduced the bill but it lapsed due to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha.

1991 - P. V. Narasimha Rao’s Government introduced the modified Municipalities Bill in the Lok Sabha in 1991.

It finally came out as the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992.

It came into force on 1 June 1993.

Significance of the 74th Amendment Act of 1992 -

This Act added a new Part 9-A to the Constitution of India entitled ‘The Municipalities’ giving constitutional status to municipalities.

It has provisions from Articles 243-P to 243-ZG.

It also added a new Twelfth Schedule to the Constitution containing 18 functional items of municipalities.

12th Schedule deals with Article 243-W.

It made them justiciable part of the Constitution.

The act wanted to revitalize and strengthen the urban governments and make them function effectively as units of local government.