Types of urban local government

The Government of India Act 1935 brought local government within the purview of the provincial government and granted them enhanced powers. Since that time, local government evolved a lot. Currently, eight types of urban local bodies are visible in India.  

We shall cover these bodies in this chapter.

Municipal Corporation:

• The Act of state government established Municipal Corporations for the big cities of states, and the Act of Parliament for the big cities of Union Territories.
• A corporation has three authorities.
• First is the corporation council headed by the Mayor (assisted by the Deputy Mayor). The council is a deliberative and legislative organ of the corporation.
•  The councillors and Mayor are directly elected by the people.
• The second organ of the corporation is the standing committees that deal with activities like health, education, and public works and are empowered to make decisions in their respective fields.
• The third authority of the corporation is the Municipal Commissioner, a government officer responsible for implementing the decisions taken by the council and standing committees.

Municipalities (Municipal Board/Municipal Council/ Municipal Committee):

• The Acts of the state legislature set them up to administer small cities or towns. It also has three authorities.
•  First, the municipal council is the legislative branch of the municipality and is headed by the Chairman, who in turn is assisted by a Deputy Chairman.
• The standing committees facilitate the work of the municipality in various fields, such as health, taxation, etc.
• The third authority of the municipality is the Chief Municipal Officer, appointed by the state government and responsible for the general administration of the municipality.

Notified Area Committee:

• This may be created either in a town that is fast developing or which may not fulfil the conditions for the creation of a municipality.
• It is so called because it is created through a notification of the state government published in the official gazette.
• It is not a statutory body.
• The government nominates all its members and the Chairman. It performs similar functions as performed by a municipality.

Town Area Committee:

• A separate Act of state government creates it for the administration of small towns.
• As provided in the Act, it may be wholly elected or totally nominated or partly elected or partly nominated body.
• It performs limited functions like street lighting, drainage, etc.

Cantonment Boards:

• They are established to perform municipal functions for the civilian population living in cantonment or military areas.
• It is created and works under the Central Act of 1924 under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence.
• There are three types of Cantonment Boards depending on the civilian population in the Cantonment Area.
• It comprises partly elected and partly nominated members. The members are elected for a three-year term.
• The military officer commanding the cantonment station is the ex officio chairman of the Cantonment Board.

Townships:

• Townships are established by a public sector undertaking as its housing colony to provide civil amenities to its employees.
• It has no elected members, and its affairs are managed by a Town Administrator appointed by the public sector undertaking.