BPSC 71st CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 15 of 150

Correct — B, Madhubani. The national observance of National Panchayati Raj Day on 24 April 2025 was held in Bihar's Madhubani district, and more precisely than the option can show: at Lohna Uttar Gram Panchayat in Jhanjharpur block, with the Prime Minister present in person. From that village stage he addressed Panchayati Raj Institutions and Gram Sabhas across the country, conferred the Special Category National Panchayat Awards 2025 — the Climate Action Special Panchayat Award, the Atma Nirbhar Panchayat Special Award and the Panchayat Kshamta Nirman Sarvottam Sansthan Puraskar — and inaugurated, dedicated or laid foundation stones for development projects worth over Rs 13,480 crore in housing, rural development, power, railways and connectivity. Three of the award-winning panchayats were headed by women sarpanches, one of them Motipur in Bihar and the others from Maharashtra and Odisha, and the programme was delivered on a 'whole-of-government' basis drawing in six Union Ministries. The date is not arbitrary and is the part worth carrying forward: 24 April marks the day in 1993 on which the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force, giving panchayats constitutional status, so 2025 was the 32nd anniversary of that commencement; the Day itself has been observed since 2010. Note also the specific Bihar substance the Prime Minister used the occasion to state, because BPSC can ask it directly — that Bihar was the first state in the country to provide 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats, well ahead of the constitutional floor of one-third. As of the exam on 13 September 2025 this was the current edition; the venue moves each year, so the answer is anchored to 2025 and should never be updated to a later host.

• (a)Patna — The reflex answer, and a well-designed one. Patna is the state capital and does host most of Bihar's national-scale events — the 7th Khelo India Youth Games were inaugurated at its Pataliputra Sports Complex on 4 May 2025, ten days after this one. But the Panchayati Raj Day national event is deliberately taken to a village rather than a capital: the whole point of the occasion is the Gram Panchayat, and in 2025 the stage was Lohna Uttar Gram Panchayat in Jhanjharpur block, Madhubani.
• (c)Gaya — Gaya is in south Bihar and is the state's pilgrimage and tourism headline — the Vishnupad temple, and Bodh Gaya with the UNESCO-listed Mahabodhi Temple Complex a few kilometres away. It draws national and international events of a completely different kind and had no role in the 2025 Panchayati Raj Day programme, which was held in the Mithila region of north Bihar, on the other side of the Ganga.
• (d)More than one of the above — A single national observance has a single host venue, so the compound option cannot hold. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj organises one national event each 24 April at one location — Madhubani in 2025 — with satellite programmes in states and panchayats elsewhere; those satellite events are not the 'National Panchayati Raj Day event' the question asks about, and neither Patna nor Gaya hosted the national programme in any case.

Panchayati Raj became a constitutional subject rather than a state-discretionary one with the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992, which inserted Part IX, Articles 243 to 243-O, and added the Eleventh Schedule listing 29 subjects that States may devolve to panchayats. The architecture it built has a fixed skeleton: the Gram Sabha as the body of all registered voters of a village under Article 243A; a three-tier structure of village, intermediate and district panchayats, with States having a population not exceeding 20 lakh permitted to skip the intermediate tier under Article 243B; a five-year term with fresh elections before its expiry and within six months of a dissolution under Article 243E; reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to population and not less than one-third of all seats and chairperson posts for women under Article 243D; a State Election Commission to superintend panchayat elections under Article 243K; and a State Finance Commission constituted every five years to review panchayat finances under Article 243I. A separate Ministry of Panchayati Raj was created at the Centre in 2004 to drive this, and it is the ministry that organises National Panchayati Raj Day and the National Panchayat Awards. The Amendment set a floor, not a ceiling, which is why state practice diverges sharply — Bihar's 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats, the first such move in the country, sits well above the constitutional one-third.

This looks like pure recall, but it can be reasoned. The observance exists to celebrate village self-government, and the Government stages it accordingly — in a Gram Panchayat, not in a state capital. That alone makes Patna the least likely of the three even before the fact is known, and it is exactly the inference BPSC set the option to punish. What fixes Madhubani specifically is the political and economic package that travelled with it: the Prime Minister used the Madhubani stage to launch over Rs 13,480 crore of Bihar projects, to speak about Mithila and makhana, and to pay tribute to Ramdhari Singh Dinkar on his death anniversary — all of it Mithila-region content that would make no sense from Patna or Gaya. The bigger risk in this area is not the venue but the DATE, because three dates compete and candidates fuse them. 24 April 1993 is when the 73rd Amendment came into force, and it is the anniversary the Day marks. 24 April 2010 is when the Day was first observed. 2 October 1959 is when Panchayati Raj was first inaugurated at Nagaur in Rajasthan on the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee's model, which is a different event entirely and is also Gandhi Jayanti. And 21 April, close enough to trap the careless, is Civil Services Day. If you fix one thing from this card, fix that 24 April belongs to the commencement of the 73rd Amendment — the venue then becomes a single year's fact hanging off a permanent one.

• National Panchayati Raj Day 2025 was observed on 24 April 2025 at Lohna Uttar Gram Panchayat, Jhanjharpur block, Madhubani district, Bihar, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi present; it was the 32nd anniversary of the 73rd Amendment's commencement, and the Day has been observed since 2010.
• At the Madhubani event the Prime Minister launched development projects worth over Rs 13,480 crore across housing, rural development, power, railways and connectivity, and conferred the Special Category National Panchayat Awards 2025 — the Climate Action Special Panchayat Award, the Atma Nirbhar Panchayat Special Award and the Panchayat Kshamta Nirman Sarvottam Sansthan Puraskar.
• 24 April marks the commencement of the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 on 24 April 1993; the Amendment inserted Part IX (Articles 243 to 243-O) and the Eleventh Schedule with its 29 subjects, and the nodal ministry is the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, created in 2004.
• Bihar was the first state in India to provide 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats — above the constitutional floor of not less than one-third under Article 243D — a point the Prime Minister made from the Madhubani stage itself.
• Panchayat empowerment figures cited at the event: more than 2 lakh Gram Panchayats connected to the internet over the preceding decade, over 5.5 lakh Common Service Centres established in villages, 30,000 new Panchayat Bhawans built, and more than Rs 2 lakh crore devolved to panchayats in ten years.
• Dates that get fused and must not be: 24 April 1993 — 73rd Amendment in force; 24 April 2010 — first observance of the Day; 2 October 1959 — Panchayati Raj first inaugurated at Nagaur, Rajasthan on the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee model; 21 April — Civil Services Day.

• Answering 'Patna' because it is the state capital — the national event is deliberately held in a Gram Panchayat, and in 2025 that was in Jhanjharpur block, Madhubani
• Fusing 24 April 1993 (the 73rd Amendment's commencement) with 24 April 2010 (the Day's first observance) or with 2 October 1959 (the first inauguration at Nagaur, Rajasthan)
• Confusing 21 April, Civil Services Day, with 24 April, National Panchayati Raj Day
• Treating the one-third reservation for women under Article 243D as the ceiling — several states including Bihar, which moved first, provide 50 per cent

BPSC asks the current-affairs surface of this topic — where the event was held, how much was announced, which award was given — and when a national observance lands in Bihar it will almost certainly appear in the next paper, so the state's hosting calendar for the year before the exam is worth revising as a list. UPSC never asks the venue of an observance; it asks the constitutional machinery underneath it, and has done so repeatedly — which Part and which Amendment created panchayats, what a State Finance Commission does, where and when Panchayati Raj was first inaugurated. Prepare the venue and the money for BPSC, and Articles 243A to 243-O for UPSC.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  National Panchayati Raj Day is observed every year on which date?

  • (a)21 April
  • (b)24 April
  • (c)2 October
  • (d)26 November

  Answer(b) 24 April — it marks 24 April 1993, when the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force. 21 April is Civil Services Day, 2 October is Gandhi Jayanti and 26 November is Constitution Day.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 added which Part and which Schedule to the Constitution of India?

  • (a)Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule
  • (b)Part IX-A and the Twelfth Schedule
  • (c)Part VIII and the Tenth Schedule
  • (d)Part X and the Ninth Schedule

  Answer(a) Part IX and the Eleventh Schedule — Part IX covers Articles 243 to 243-O on panchayats and the Eleventh Schedule lists 29 subjects for devolution. Part IX-A and the Twelfth Schedule were added by the 74th Amendment for municipalities.