[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2022: INSIGHTS STATIC QUIZ, 24 January 2022 – Polity

Solution: b)

Balwant Rai Mehta Committee (1957): Originally appointed by the Government of India to examine the working of two of its earlier programs, the committee submitted its report in November 1957, in which the term ‘democratic decentralization ‘first appears.

Ashok Mehta Committee (1977-1978): The committee was constituted by the Janata government of the time to study Panchayati Raj institutions.

G V K Rao Commitee (1985): Appointed by the Planning Commission, the committee concluded that the developmental procedures were gradually being taken away from the local self-government institutions, resulting in a system comparable to ‘grass without roots’.

L M Singhvi Commitee (1986): Constituted by the Rajiv Gandhi government on ‘Revitalisation of Panchayati Raj institutions for Democracy and Development’.

Solution: d)

73RD AMENDMENT ACT OF 1992:

• This act has added a new Part-IX to the Constitution of India.
• The act has given a practical shape to Article 40 of the Constitution which says that, “The State shall take steps to organize village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.”
• The act gives a constitutional status to the Panchayati raj institutions. It has brought them under the purview of the justiciable part of the Constitution.

Solution: a)

Compulsory Provisions of the 73^rd Constitutional Amendment Act (1992) or the Part IX of the Constitution:
1. Organisation of Gram Sabha in a village or group of villages.
2. Establishment of panchayats at the village, intermediate and district levels.
3. Direct elections to all seats in panchayats at the village, intermediate and district levels.
4. Indirect elections to the post of chairperson of panchayats at the intermediate and district levels.
5. 21 years to be the minimum age for contesting elections to panchayats.
6. Reservation of seats (both members and chairpersons) for SCs and STs in panchayats at all the three levels.
7. Reservation of one-third seats (both members and chairpersons) for women in panchayats at all the three levels.
8. Fixing tenure of five years for panchayats at all levels and holding fresh elections within six months in the event of supersession of any panchayat.
9. Establishment of a State Election Commission for conducting elections to the panchayats.
10. Constitution of a State Finance Commission after every five years to review the financial position of the panchayats.

Granting powers and authority to the panchayats to enable them to function as institutions of self-government is a Voluntary Provision.

Solution: d)

Composition of municipality

All the members of a municipality shall be elected directly by the people of the municipal area.

For this purpose, each municipal area shall be divided into territorial constituencies to be known as wards.

The state legislature may provide the manner of election of the chairperson of a municipality. It may also provide for the representation of the following persons in a municipality.

1. Persons having special knowledge or experience in municipal administration without the right to vote in the meetings of municipality.
2. The members of the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assembly representing constituencies that comprise wholly or partly the municipal area.
3. The members of the Rajya Sabha and the state legislative council registered as electors within the municipal area.
4. The chairpersons of committees (other than wards committees).

Solution: b)

All the members of a municipality shall be elected directly by the people of the municipal area.

The act provides for the reservation of seats for the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes in every municipality in proportion of their population to the total population in the municipal area. Further, it provides for the reservation of not less than one-third of the total number of seats for women (including the number of seats reserved for woman belonging to the SCs and the STs).