MPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 71 of 100

Correct — option (4), 74th Constitution Amendment Act. The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, is the amendment that gave constitutional status to urban local self-government by inserting Part IXA ('The Municipalities') into the Constitution, covering Articles 243P to 243ZG, along with the Twelfth Schedule listing the functions municipalities may perform. Within this new Part IXA, Article 243ZE specifically provides for a Committee for Metropolitan Planning: in every metropolitan area (broadly, an urban agglomeration with a population of one million or more), a Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) must be constituted to consolidate the development plans prepared by the Municipalities and Panchayats within that area into a single draft development plan for the metropolitan area as a whole, taking into account matters of common interest such as coordinated spatial planning, sharing of water and other physical and natural resources, and integrated infrastructure development. Because Article 243ZE — the specific provision creating the Metropolitan Planning Committee — was inserted by the 74th Amendment, that is the correct answer.

• (1)42nd Constitution Amendment Act — The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976, is one of the most sweeping amendments in India's constitutional history, chiefly remembered for adding the words 'Socialist' and 'Secular' to the Preamble, adding Fundamental Duties (Article 51A) via a new Part IVA, and expanding the Directive Principles — but it made no provision for local self-government or metropolitan planning at all; Part IXA and Article 243ZE did not exist until 1992, sixteen years later.
• (2)44th Constitution Amendment Act — The 44th Amendment Act, 1978, is best known for undoing several changes made by the 42nd Amendment during the Emergency period, notably removing the right to property from the list of Fundamental Rights (making it only a legal right under Article 300A) and restoring important safeguards around the proclamation of Emergency. It has no connection to urban local government structures or metropolitan planning, both of which entered the Constitution only with the 74th Amendment in 1992.
• (3)73rd Constitution Amendment Act — The 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, is the companion amendment to the 74th, but it deals with rural local self-government, not urban: it inserted Part IX ('The Panchayats', Articles 243 to 243O) and the Eleventh Schedule, giving constitutional status to Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads at the village, intermediate and district levels. The Metropolitan Planning Committee is specifically an urban-area body, created by the 74th Amendment's Part IXA, not by the 73rd Amendment's rural Panchayati Raj provisions; the 73rd Amendment's closest rural counterpart is the District Planning Committee under Article 243ZD, a separate and easily confused provision.

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, both passed in 1992 and in force from 1993, together completed India's three-tier system of local self-government by giving constitutional backing to rural bodies (Panchayati Raj, via the 73rd Amendment's Part IX) and urban bodies (Municipalities, via the 74th Amendment's Part IXA) respectively. The 74th Amendment established three types of urban local bodies depending on the settlement's size and transitional status — Nagar Panchayats for areas transitioning from rural to urban, Municipal Councils for smaller urban areas, and Municipal Corporations for larger urban areas — and mandated regular elections, reservation of seats for SCs/STs/women, and State Finance and Election Commissions to oversee them. For large urban agglomerations specifically, Article 243ZE requires a Metropolitan Planning Committee to prepare a single, coordinated draft development plan spanning the multiple municipalities and panchayats that a sprawling metropolitan area typically contains, since urban growth rarely respects a single municipality's boundaries.

MPSC's polity questions frequently test the 73rd-versus-74th Amendment distinction because the two amendments were passed together, cover parallel institutional structures (rural versus urban), and are easy to conflate — the District Planning Committee (Article 243ZD, inserted by the 74th Amendment though it covers both rural and urban planning coordination at district level) and the Metropolitan Planning Committee (Article 243ZE, urban-specific) are a particularly common point of confusion. This question isolates the metropolitan-specific body and tests whether a candidate correctly attributes it to the urban (74th) amendment rather than the rural (73rd) one, or to an unrelated earlier amendment like the 42nd or 44th.

• The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 (in force 1993), inserted Part IXA ('The Municipalities'), Articles 243P–243ZG, and the Twelfth Schedule.
• Article 243ZE, within Part IXA, provides for a Metropolitan Planning Committee in every metropolitan area (broadly, population of one million or more).
• The Metropolitan Planning Committee consolidates development plans from the Municipalities and Panchayats within the metropolitan area into a single draft development plan.
• The 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, is the parallel rural counterpart, inserting Part IX ('The Panchayats') and the Eleventh Schedule — it does not cover metropolitan planning.
• The 42nd (1976) and 44th (1978) Amendments predate local self-government's constitutional status and address entirely different subjects (Fundamental Duties/Preamble changes, and post-Emergency corrections, respectively).

• Confusing the 73rd Amendment (rural Panchayati Raj) with the 74th Amendment (urban Municipalities) since both were passed in the same year
• Mixing up the District Planning Committee (Article 243ZD) with the Metropolitan Planning Committee (Article 243ZE)
• Attributing any major structural or rights-related change to the 42nd Amendment simply because it is the most 'famous' broad amendment
• Assuming the 44th Amendment, known for undoing 42nd Amendment changes, might also have introduced new institutional bodies like the MPC

MPSC polity questions on constitutional amendments frequently test which specific amendment introduced a named institutional body (Metropolitan Planning Committee, District Planning Committee, Finance Commission, etc.), rewarding candidates who know not just the amendment number but the precise article and Part it falls under, rather than a general sense of '73rd and 74th cover local government'.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Article of the Constitution of India, inserted by the 74th Amendment Act, provides for a Metropolitan Planning Committee ?

  • (a)Article 243D
  • (b)Article 243ZD
  • (c)Article 243ZE
  • (d)Article 243ZG

  Answer(c) Article 243ZE — this article, within Part IXA inserted by the 74th Amendment, provides for a Committee for Metropolitan Planning in every metropolitan area.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, gave constitutional status to which tier of local self-government ?

  • (a)Urban Municipalities
  • (b)Rural Panchayati Raj institutions
  • (c)Metropolitan Planning Committees
  • (d)State Election Commissions only

  Answer(b) Rural Panchayati Raj institutions — the 73rd Amendment inserted Part IX ('The Panchayats') and the Eleventh Schedule, giving constitutional backing to Gram Panchayats, Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads.