Introduction

Introduction
The urban local governments are of three kinds organised according to the size of the city : Municipal Corporation or Nagar Nigam, Municipal Council or simply Municipality or Nagar Palika and Town Committee or Nagar Panchayat. A Municipal Corporation or Nagar Nigam administers a city that has a population of over 10 lakhs.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION :
 A city is divided into small units called wards. Individual wards or a collection of wards within a corporation sometimes have their own administrative bodies known as ward committees. The members of the corporation are elected by the people of each ward. The elected representatives represent their wards and are known as ward councillors. The ward councillors look after the problems related to their ward. Ward councillors are elected every five years. Seats are reserved for women, and also for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Municipal Corporation. After elections, the ward councillors elect their heads, a Mayor and a Deputy Mayor from among themselves. The Mayor is usually chosen for a term of five years. He is the Presiding Officer of the Corporation. The Municipal Corporation also has a Chief Executive Officer known as the Commissioner. The Commissioner is appointed by the State Government from the Indian Administrative Service (lAS). He or she implements the decisions made by the Corporation. Commissioner takes the help of the officers in charge of various departments such as health, water, sanitation and housing. He or she also prepares the annual budget.

Functions :
The Constitution provides a list of functions for the local government in cities. The Corporation has both obligatory functions and optional functions.

Compulsory functions are as follows:
•    Supply of drinking water
•    Construction and maintenance of roads
•    Cleaning streets and sewerages
•    Maintenance of public health and sanitation through waste management and drainage
•    Maintenance of public hospitals and provision of vaccinations and taking measures to control epidemics
•    Establishment and maintenance of primary schools
•    Registration of births and deaths
•    Naming of streets and numbering of houses
•    Ensuring public safety by removing obstruction , say a manhole or a fallen tree, in public streets
•    Maintaining fire engines and ambulance services to save life and property

Some of its optional functions are:
•    Construction and maintenance of parks, gardens, playgrounds, libraries, museums, rest houses, etc.
•    Providing facilities such as parking lots, bus stops, street lights and public transport
•    Planting and maintaining roadside plants
•    Safeguarding the interests of the weaker sections of the society by providing housing for low income groups, rescue home for women and old, and orphanages for orphans.

 

Municipality

Municipality :
The cities with a population of more than twenty thousand are managed by Municipalities or Municipal Committees. The members of Municipal Committee, who generally number between 15 to 60, are also elected in the same way as the members of a Corporation. These members elect a Chairman and a Deputy Chairman. Their duties are the same as of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor. The Chairman of a Municipal Committee presides over the meetings and carries out the functions with the help of the executive members in accordance with the policies approved by the elected members.

Differences between a Municipal Corporation and a Municipality :

Sources of Income : 
        
To discharge all these functions properly, the local bodies need money which they get from the following sources :
(i)    Octroi duty on goods brought into the city or taken out of the city.
(ii)    Taxes on property, i.e., houses, shops and lands .
(iii)   Taxes on vehicles.
(iv)    Income from water and electricity supplied to houses and factories.

Key Terms
1.    Municipal Corporation: also called nagar nigam, is a local government body that governs a city which has a population of over 10 lakhs 

2.    Municipal Committee: also called nagar palika, is a local government body that governs a smaller city with a population between 20,000 and 10 lakhs

3.    Wards : small units in which a city is divided for governing purposes 

4.    Ward Councillor: elected member of municipal corporation or municipality who represents a ward

5.    Mayor: head of the municipal corporation 

6.    Municipal Commissioner: head of the administrative staff of the municipal corporation 

7.    Sub-Contracting : hiring private contractors to undertake government jobs 

8.    Tax: money collected from the people in return for the facilities and services given to them by the government 

9.    Vat: value added tax is the indirect tax on the consumption of the goods

 

Related Chapter Name