Levels of Government-Part A

Democracy. noun. : Literally it means, People's rule (Demos- people, Cratia- rule). Simply put, it is a system of government where people hold the ultimate power in making or breaking the government.

India, as a sovereign republic, is a collection of many States. States are collection of Districts. Districts are collection of Municipalities/Corporations and local bodies. Like any other democracy, this country too has people at its core.

 

In this Country, the democracy is performed in multiple levels. Lets start from the bottom level and go up.

Villages: Panchayat or Gram panchayat

• Objective: Self-governance at local level. Usually they handle disputes between individuals.

• Head: Sarpanch elected by the members of the wards.
• Members: 7-17 members of different wards of the village. No. of members vary based on the population of the people eligible to vote.
• Criteria: Minimum of 300 people who hold eligibility to vote. It has 7 ward members for a population of 600 people and maximum 17 ward members for a population up to 9000 people.
• Responsibilities of the Sarpanch:
• Maintaining street lights, construction and repair work of roads in villages and also the village markets, fairs, collection of tax, festivals and celebrations
• Keeping a record of births, deaths and marriages in the village
• Looking after public health and by providing facilities for sanitation and drinking water
• Providing free education
• To organize the meetings of gram sabha and gram panchayat
• Providing health services and facilities
• Implementing development schemes related to agriculture and animal husbandry
• Planting trees in and around the village and to protect the environment
• Maintaining public parks and playgrounds, etc.
• Implementing various government schemes.

Blocks: Block Parishad or Taluk panchayat or Mandal Praja Parishad or Panchayat Samiti

• Objective: Self-governance at local level.Villages are grouped under blocks.
• Head: Chairman and Deputy Chairman elected by members of the body.
• Members: 
• Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency(MPTC) members.
• Mandal Development Officer (Responsible for development of backward class population).
• Member of Legislative Assembly(Lok sabha-parliament) having Jurisdiction over that mandal.
• Member of Legislative Assembly of the state(Vidhan sabha) having Jurisdiction over that mandal.
• Member of Legislative council of state(Vidhan Parishad) having Jurisdiction over that mandal.
• Members of zilla parishad from the block.
• Associated members like farmers, members of cooperative societies, Agricultural marketing services, etc.,
• Departments:
• Administration
• Finance
• Public works (especially water and roads)
• Agriculture
• Health
• Education
• Social welfare
• Information Technology
• Women & Child Development
• Functions: Panchayat Samiti collects all the prospective plans prepared Gram panchayat level and processes them for funding and implementation by evaluating them from the angles of financial constraints, social welfare and area development.It also identifies and prioritize the issues which needs to be addressed at block level.
• Criteria: Each block contains 200-600 villages. In some states, tehsils contain set of blocks although in most states tehsils and blocks are one and the same.

Urban Local Bodies:

1. City Council or Nagar panchayat
2. Municipality or Nagar palika
3. Municipal Corporation or Mahanagar palace

I. Municipal Corporation or Mahanagar palika :

• Characteristics:
• It is the type of governance  at ‘Urban’ local government to develop the metropolitan cities.
• Has population more than 1 million.
• Highest self-governance and fiscal autonomy is found at this level.
• They have larger population and diversified economic base and are in direct contact with the state government.
• Head: Mayor elected by the members. Further, Municipal Commissioner acts as the Official-in-charge of this organization.
• Members:
• Councillors  elected(by public) from different wards of that Corporation(number of councillors depends on the area and population of the corporation with a minimum no. of 0.3 million for 1 councillor).
• Members elected(by public) from different wards of that Corporation.
• Sources Of Income: Its sources of income are taxes on water, houses, markets, entertainment and vehicles paid by residents of the town and grants from the state government.
• Functions:
• Roads
• Hospitals
• Over bridge
• Street lighting
• Drainage
• Solid waste
• Fire brigades
• Market places and
• Records of births and deaths
• Education and primary health care

II. Municipality or Nagar palika:

• Characteristics:
• It is the type of governance  at ‘Urban’ local government administered in cities/towns having population more than 0.1 Million(20,000 in some cases after Amendment 74 of Indian Constitution).
• Good level of self-governance is found at this level.
• Usually smaller district cities or large town have this system.
• They are in direct contact with the state government.
• Head: President. Elected by the members of the Nagar Palika.
• Members:
• Members elected(by public) from different wards of that Municipality(number of wards depends on the area and population of the Municipality).
• Engineer,(accountant & auditor).
• Sanitary inspector, Health officer and Education Officer who come from the state public service are appointed by the state government to control the administrative affairs of the Nagar Palika.
• Functions: Its sources of income are taxes on water, houses, markets, entertainment and vehicles paid by residents of the town and grants from the state government.

III. City Council or Nagar Panchayat or Notified Area Council(NAC):

• Characteristics:
• It is the type of governance  at Urban political unit administered in cities/towns having population between 11,000-25,000.
• Usually smaller district cities or large town have this system. These are comparable with municipalities.
• Head: Chairman. Elected by the members of the city council. Executive Officer acts as the Official-in-charge.
• Members:
• Members elected(by public) from different wards of that NAC(number of wards depends on the area and population of the NAC).
• Functions:
• Provide essential services and facilities to the urban area.
• Sanitation programme in township.
• Street lighting and providing roads in every wards and main roads of town.
• Set up and run schools in urban area. Execute programme for adult literacy and run city libraries.
• Water supplying to every wards of urban area.
• Drainage system to clear the solid and liquid wastes from town.
• Build culvert for underground drainage system.
• Records of births and deaths.

Read further Levels of Government-Part B