The Constitution of India contains no provision for the constitution of municipalities in every State for

Correct — D, an Urban Panchayat. Article 243Q, inserted by the Seventy-fourth Amendment in 1992, requires every State to constitute three kinds of urban local body and names each of them: a Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area, that is an area moving from rural to urban; a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area; and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area. No fourth category exists in Part IXA, and the term 'Urban Panchayat' does not appear in the Constitution at all. The word panchayat enters the urban list only in the name of the transitional-area body.

• (a)a Nagar Panchayat — Named in Article 243Q as the body for a transitional area — a place that is ceasing to be rural but is not yet a full urban centre.
• (b)a Municipal Council — Named in Article 243Q for a smaller urban area. Most district towns are governed by one.
• (c)a Municipal Corporation — Named in Article 243Q for a larger urban area, which in practice means the big cities.

Part IXA gave urban local government the constitutional footing that Part IX gave to panchayats. Its architecture is a graded one: the size and character of the settlement decides which of three bodies governs it, and the Governor makes that determination by public notification, weighing population, density, the revenue generated for local administration, the share of employment outside agriculture and the economic importance of the place.

The question is a straight test of whether a candidate can recall the three names as the Constitution gives them. The distractor works because 'Urban Panchayat' sounds plausible beside 'Nagar Panchayat' and because several State laws use their own local vocabulary — town area committee, notified area committee, cantonment board — none of which is in Article 243Q either. A proviso to the same article lets the Governor skip a municipality altogether in an industrial township where an industrial establishment already provides municipal services.

• The Seventy-fourth Amendment Act, 1992, added Part IXA and the Twelfth Schedule, and came into force on 1 June 1993.
• Article 243Q names three urban bodies — Nagar Panchayat, Municipal Council and Municipal Corporation.
• The Governor decides which applies, by population, density, local revenue, employment outside agriculture and economic importance.
• A proviso to Article 243Q permits an exemption for an industrial township served by an industrial establishment.
• The Twelfth Schedule lists eighteen subjects that a State may devolve on its municipalities.

• Counting two urban bodies instead of three — a distinction UPSC has tested directly before.
• Treating a cantonment board or a notified area committee as a constitutional category.

A negative-stem recall item on the exact vocabulary of one article.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under Article 243Q, which body is constituted for a transitional area?

  • (a)Municipal Corporation
  • (b)Nagar Panchayat
  • (c)Municipal Council
  • (d)Cantonment Board

  Answer(b) Nagar Panchayat — the body for an area that is ceasing to be rural but is not yet a full urban centre.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  How many subjects does the Twelfth Schedule list for municipalities?

  • (a)Eleven
  • (b)Fifteen
  • (c)Eighteen
  • (d)Twenty-nine

  Answer(c) Eighteen — the Eleventh Schedule's twenty-nine subjects belong to the panchayats instead.