MPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 76 of 100

Correct — option (1), 'Only (a), (b) and (d)'. The Twelfth Schedule was inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992 and lists eighteen subjects that a State legislature may entrust to the municipalities — the urban local bodies. Test each statement against that list. Statement (a) pairs two entries: fire services, which is item 7, and the promotion of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects, which is item 13 and which the paper renders loosely as 'promotion of artistic vision'. Both are in the Schedule, so (a) qualifies. Statement (b) reproduces item 14 almost exactly — burials and burial grounds, cremations, cremation grounds and electric crematoriums. It qualifies. Statement (d) pairs the safeguarding of the interests of weaker sections including the handicapped and mentally retarded, which is item 9, with the protection of the environment, which appears in item 8 alongside urban forestry and the promotion of ecological aspects. It qualifies. Statement (c) is the one that fails, and it announces itself: 'markets and fairs' and 'rural housing' both belong to the ELEVENTH Schedule, the list of twenty-nine subjects for the panchayats inserted by the Seventy-third Amendment. The word 'rural' in a question about the municipal schedule is a tell that costs nothing to notice. Three statements in and one out gives option (1). One caution on the printed page: 'Promotion of artistic vision' is the paper's paraphrase, not the constitutional text, which reads 'Promotion of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects'.

• (2)Only (c) and (d) — This option keeps the one statement that must be excluded and drops two that belong. Statement (c) is out because markets and fairs and rural housing are Eleventh Schedule subjects, entrusted to panchayats, not to municipalities. Meanwhile statement (a) covers fire services and the cultural-educational-aesthetic entry, and statement (b) reproduces the cremation entry almost verbatim — both squarely inside the Twelfth Schedule. An option that admits only two of four statements in a question of this type should always be checked against the ones it silently rejects, because the rejection is doing as much work as the admission.
• (3)Only (a), (b) and (c) — The first two statements are correctly admitted and then the wrong third is chosen. This option swaps statement (d) for statement (c) — trading a genuine Twelfth Schedule pair (safeguarding the interests of weaker sections including the handicapped and mentally retarded, item 9; protection of the environment, part of item 8) for a genuine ELEVENTH Schedule pair. It is the option a candidate reaches by not testing statement (d) at all, on the assumption that environmental protection sounds like a State or Union subject rather than a municipal one. It is a municipal one: urban forestry and protection of the environment sit together in the Schedule.
• (4)Only (b), (c) and (d) — This retains the false statement (c) and drops the true statement (a). Statement (a) is the least obvious of the three that qualify, because 'promotion of artistic vision' is not the constitutional wording and a candidate scanning for the phrase 'cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects' will not find it. But its other limb, fire fighting services, is unmistakably item 7 of the Schedule, and fire services are among the most recognisably municipal functions there are. Rejecting a statement because half of it is loosely worded, while accepting one whose subjects belong to a different Schedule altogether, is the exact inversion of careful reading.

Local government was given constitutional standing by two amendments passed together in 1992. The Seventy-third Amendment inserted Part IX, Articles 243 to 243-O, and the Eleventh Schedule, which lists twenty-nine subjects for the panchayats; it came into force on 24 April 1993. The Seventy-fourth Amendment inserted Part IXA, Articles 243P to 243ZG, and the Twelfth Schedule, which lists eighteen subjects for the municipalities; it came into force on 1 June 1993. In each case the Schedule is not a transfer of power by itself: Article 243G for panchayats and Article 243W for municipalities empower the State legislature to endow these bodies with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self-government, and the Schedule is the menu from which the State may draw. The practical consequence is that devolution varies considerably from State to State even though the Schedules are uniform across the country.

The eighteen subjects of the Twelfth Schedule read as a description of what a town has to do for itself: urban planning including town planning; regulation of land use and construction of buildings; planning for economic and social development; roads and bridges; water supply for domestic, industrial and commercial purposes; public health, sanitation, conservancy and solid waste management; fire services; urban forestry, protection of the environment and promotion of ecological aspects; safeguarding the interests of weaker sections of society including the handicapped and the mentally retarded; slum improvement and upgradation; urban poverty alleviation; provision of urban amenities and facilities such as parks, gardens and playgrounds; promotion of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects; burials and burial grounds, cremations, cremation grounds and electric crematoriums; cattle pounds and prevention of cruelty to animals; vital statistics including registration of births and deaths; public amenities including street lighting, parking lots, bus stops and public conveniences; and regulation of slaughter houses and tanneries. Article 243Q provides for three kinds of municipality — a Nagar Panchayat for an area in transition from rural to urban, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area, and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area.

• The Twelfth Schedule contains 18 subjects for the municipalities. It was inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992, along with Part IXA (Articles 243P to 243ZG), and came into force on 1 June 1993.
• The Eleventh Schedule contains 29 subjects for the panchayats. It was inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992, along with Part IX (Articles 243 to 243-O), and came into force on 24 April 1993. Markets and fairs and rural housing are Eleventh Schedule subjects.
• Twelfth Schedule entries used in this question: item 7 fire services; item 8 urban forestry, protection of the environment and promotion of ecological aspects; item 9 safeguarding the interests of weaker sections of society including the handicapped and mentally retarded; item 13 promotion of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects; item 14 burials and burial grounds, cremations, cremation grounds and electric crematoriums.
• The Schedules do not themselves transfer power. Article 243G for panchayats and Article 243W for municipalities empower the STATE LEGISLATURE to endow these bodies with powers and authority, drawing on the Schedule, which is why actual devolution differs from State to State.
• Article 243Q provides for three types of municipality: a Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area, and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area.

• Missing the rural-urban tell. Any entry containing the word 'rural' — rural housing, rural electrification, minor irrigation — belongs to the Eleventh Schedule and not to the municipal list.
• Assuming environmental protection is too large a subject for a municipality. Urban forestry and protection of the environment are expressly item 8 of the Twelfth Schedule.
• Rejecting a statement because it paraphrases rather than quotes. 'Promotion of artistic vision' is the paper's loose rendering of 'promotion of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects', and its companion limb, fire services, is unambiguous.

Papers work the two Schedules against each other, and almost every question in this area is at bottom the same question: is this subject rural or urban. The commonest shapes are a mixed list of entries with the Twelfth Schedule members to be picked out, as here; a straight count question asking how many subjects each Schedule carries; and a matching question pairing amendment number with Part, Article range and Schedule. UPSC prefers to test the framework — which Part contains the powers of municipalities, which amendment inserted it — while state commissions like this one prefer the entries themselves, quoted or lightly paraphrased. Reading both Schedules once in the bare text is therefore worth more than any summary, because the examiner is quoting from that text and the recognition has to be at the level of the phrase.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  How many subjects are listed in the Eleventh and the Twelfth Schedules of the Constitution of India respectively?

  • (a)18 and 29
  • (b)29 and 18
  • (c)29 and 12
  • (d)18 and 12

  Answer(b) 29 and 18 — the Eleventh Schedule lists 29 subjects for the panchayats and was inserted by the 73rd Amendment along with Part IX; the Twelfth Schedule lists 18 subjects for the municipalities and was inserted by the 74th Amendment along with Part IXA. The order of the two numbers is the whole of this question, and reversing them is the standard error.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under Article 243Q of the Constitution, a Nagar Panchayat is constituted for :

  • (a)a larger urban area
  • (b)a smaller urban area
  • (c)an area in transition from a rural area to an urban area
  • (d)a cantonment area

  Answer(c) an area in transition from a rural area to an urban area — Article 243Q provides three kinds of municipality: a Nagar Panchayat for such a transitional area, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area. A cantonment is administered by a cantonment board under a separate central law, not under Part IXA.