Municipalities

(Articles 243p-243zg)

▸ The Constitution of India provides the provision of local self government units in urban area by inserting Part IX-A through the 74th Amendment Act, 1992.
▸ The Constitution provides for three types of Municipalities. Nagar Panchayat, for areas in transition from rural to urban.
▸ Municipal Council is for smaller urban area.
▸ Municipal Corporation is for larger urban area. It is the biggest urban local government.
▸ The Constitution of Municipalities shall be determined by a Law of the State Legislature. Wards Committees shall be constituted in those Municipalities having a population of three lakh or more.
▸ Seats shall be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
▸ One-third of the seats shall be reserved for women.
▸ Municipalities will have the power to impose taxes, duties, tolls and fees in accordance with law. The Constitution provides for a State Finance Commission to review the financial position of the Municipalities and recommend measures to augment their funds.
▸ Under Article 243 ZD, a District Planning Committee shall be constituted to consolidate the plans prepared by the Panchayats and Municipalities in the district.
▸ Under Article 243 ZE, a Metropolitan Planning Committee shall be constituted to prepare a draft development plan for the metropolitan area as a whole.

▸ Part XVII of the Constitution deals with the official language in Articles 343 to 351.
▸ Hindi written in Devanagari Script is to be the official language of the Union.
▸ In 1955, the President appointed an official Language Commission under the Chairmanship of BG Kher.
▸ All proceeding in the Supreme Court and in every High Court are to be in English Language only.
▸ The authoritative texts of all bills, acts, ordinances, order, rules, regulation and by-laws at the central and state levels.
▸ Normally there were fourteen languages in Eighth Schedule, but eight were added during amendments, now 22 languages are there 1. Assamese 2. Bengali 3. Gujarati 4. Hindi 5. Kannada 6. Kashmiri 7. Konkani 8. Malayalam 9. Manipuri 10. Marathi 11. Nepali 12. Oriya 13. Punjabi 14. Sanskrit 15. Sindhi 16. Tamil 17. Telugu 18. Urdu 19. Santhali 20. Bodo 21. Maithili 22. Dogri.
▸ Sindhi was added by the 21st Amendment Act, 1967; Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were added by the 71st Amendment Act, 1992; and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added by the 92nd Amendment Act, 2003.
▸ The Constitution imposes a duty upon the centre to spread the development of the Hindi language so that it may become the 'lingua franca' of the composite culture of India.