Urban Local Government

Historical Evolution

The municipal government has existed and flourished in India from ancient times. Megasthenes stated in India that the Mauryas had evolved an elaborate system of municipal government for their capital city, Pataliputra. During the Muslim period, municipal administration was managed by an official known as `Kotwal’. He was appointed by the Centra government. His functions were very comprehensive. He was entrusted with functions such as law and order in the city, control of markets, prevention of crime and social evils, maintenance of the register of the people ward by ward, and espionage. Thus the municipal institutions were entrusted with specific functions in the ancient period. After its advent, the British, government thought of local self-government in urban areas for various reasons.

In doing so it borrowed mostly from its own institutions rather than imitate the pattern of indigenous institutions prevailing before. The British government set up a local body-a a municipal corporation for the city of Madras in 1687 for the first time. Later, the Charter Act of 1793 established municipal administration in the three presidency towns of Madras, Calcutta and Bombay.

The introduction of municipal government in district towns started with the Bengal Act of 1842. It was intended for the limited purpose of providing for public health and sanitation. The next stage in the development of municipal government in India was marked by the resolution of Lord Ripon in 1882. Another significant stage in the history of local government was the report of the Royal Commission on Decentralisation in 1909.

It recommended the development of selfgovernment as a device of administrative devolution. It stressed that the municipal authorities should be given more autonomous powers. The subject of local self-government became one of the transferred subjects under the Government of India Act of 1919. The Act contained a section dealing with the extension of local self-government.

The main recommendations of the Act were:

Elective majorities, with the non-official chairman, Widening the franchise, Freedom of taxation.
On the basis of the recommendations, municipal administration during 1920-30 was kept under the charge of the elected chairman who enjoyed both deliberative and executive functions. But civic administration during the period proved generally corrupt.
As a result, after 1930, Acts were passed in the different provinces for the separation of executive functions from deliberative functions. In the post-independence period, important changes took place in the field of municipal administration.
Municipal institutions received new impetus during the last two decades. They were made more democratic by the abolition of official and nominated members. Thus the municipal government consisted of elected members with substantial powers to run the administration.

Definition of Urban Area

In the context of India, the census reports of 1961 to date have defined those places as urban areas which have a local authority like municipality, cantonment board, notified area committees, (ii) all other places which satisfy the requirements of a minimum population of 5000, at least 75 per cent of the male working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits and a density of population of at least 400 persons per savour it from above criteria, the state government can declare a place as an urban area if it has a pronounced urban characteristic and amenities as the newly founded industrial areas. large housing settlements or places of tourist importance usually have.

Here are some notes on Municipal Corporations And Councils.