MPSC 2021 Prelims Paper-I · Question 98 of 100

Correct — option (3), 9. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region covers 6,328 square kilometres, the figure the stem itself supplies, and it contains nine municipal corporations. They are Greater Mumbai, which is administered by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation; Thane; Kalyan-Dombivli; Navi Mumbai; Ulhasnagar; Bhiwandi-Nizampur; Mira-Bhayandar; Vasai-Virar; and Panvel, the most recently constituted of them, formed in 2016. Alongside these nine corporations the region also contains eight smaller municipal councils and a large number of villages under rural local government, so the corporations are the top tier of a mixed urban and rural region rather than the whole of it. The region is not a single administrative unit and has no government of its own; it is a planning region, spread across the districts of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad, and its planning and development authority is the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, constituted in 1975 under a State Act of 1974 for the coordinated development of exactly this area. That distinction between a planning region and a local government is the useful thing to take from this question: the Authority prepares regional plans and executes major infrastructure projects across the whole 6,328 square kilometres, while civic administration in any given place belongs to whichever corporation, council or panchayat covers it. The nine corporations of the region should be learnt as a list rather than as a number, because MPSC is as likely to ask which of four named cities is or is not a municipal corporation of the region as to ask how many there are, and a list answers both forms. Note that the stem prints the area as '6,328 sq.km.' and offers bare numerals as its four choices; both columns of the paper print the options identically across a single row.

• (1)18 — Eighteen is roughly double the correct figure and is the sort of number a candidate reaches by counting more than the question asks for. The region does contain more urban local bodies than nine — the nine municipal corporations together with eight municipal councils make seventeen urban bodies in all — so a candidate who remembers a figure in the middle teens for 'urban local bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region' and rounds it will arrive somewhere near this option. But the stem asks specifically for Municipal Corporations, which are the largest of the three types of Municipality under Article 243Q, and the councils are a different type constituted for smaller urban areas. Reading the exact category named in the stem — corporations, councils, nagar panchayats or urban local bodies in general — is what separates the right count from a plausible one.
• (2)11 — Eleven has no counterpart in the administrative structure of the region: it is neither the number of municipal corporations, which is nine, nor the number of municipal councils, which is eight, nor the number of urban local bodies taken together, which is seventeen. It is a plausible-looking round number placed to absorb the guesses of a candidate who knows the region is large and populous and is estimating upward from a vague sense of how many big municipal governments the Mumbai area must contain. Guessing here is a bad trade in any event, since a wrong answer costs a quarter of the mark. The correct defence is the list — Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar and Panvel — which can be counted off on the fingers in the examination hall.
• (4)14 — Fourteen, like eleven, corresponds to nothing in the region's structure and is offered for the same reason: it sits between the true count of corporations and the larger count that includes the municipal councils, so it feels defensible to a candidate estimating rather than recalling. The one thing worth extracting from it is that the number of corporations in a metropolitan region is not fixed for all time. Panvel was constituted a municipal corporation only in 2016, which is why compilations published earlier give the region eight corporations rather than nine, and further upgrades of municipal councils are always possible. For any question of this kind the answer should be anchored to the position at the date of the paper — 23 January 2022 — and to the named list rather than to a remembered figure.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region is a planning region rather than a unit of government. It covers 6,328 square kilometres spread across the districts of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad, and within that area civic administration is distributed among nine municipal corporations, eight municipal councils and a large rural remainder under village panchayats. The nine corporations are Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar and Panvel, the last of which was constituted in 2016. Coordination across all of them is the work of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, set up in 1975 under a State Act of the previous year, which prepares the regional plan, funds and executes major transport and infrastructure projects and acts as the special planning authority for designated areas. The constitutional backdrop is Part IX-A: Article 243Q provides for three types of Municipality — Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area, Municipal Council for a smaller urban area and Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area — with the classification of any area left to the Governor by public notification, while the thresholds and the working of each type are fixed by State law, in Maharashtra by the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act for corporations and by the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act, 1965 for the rest. Article 243ZE, added by the same Seventy-fourth Amendment, requires a Metropolitan Planning Committee to be constituted for every metropolitan area to prepare a draft development plan for the area as a whole.

Maharashtra's urban administration is a standing subject in MPSC's papers, and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is its most examined single object because so much of the State's population, revenue and infrastructure spending sits inside it. Questions come in countable form — how many corporations, how many councils, how many districts the region touches, how large it is — and in list form, asking which of four named cities lies within the region or which is or is not a municipal corporation. Both forms are answered by one page of notes: the area, the districts, the nine corporations by name, the number of councils and the name and year of the planning authority. It is worth noticing how this question is built, because it is generous by the standards of the paper: the stem supplies the area, which a candidate could otherwise have been asked for, and asks only for a count. It is also worth connecting it to the constitutional question earlier in the same paper about the three types of Municipality under the Seventy-fourth Amendment, because the two are the abstract and the concrete versions of one topic, and the Commission frequently examines a subject at both levels within a single paper.

• The Mumbai Metropolitan Region covers 6,328 square kilometres and contains nine municipal corporations — Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar and Panvel.
• It also contains eight smaller municipal councils, besides a substantial rural area under village panchayats, so the corporations are the region's top civic tier rather than the whole of its local government.
• Panvel is the most recently constituted of the nine corporations: it was upgraded from a municipal council and came into existence as a corporation on 1 October 2016, which is why compilations published before that date give the region eight corporations rather than nine.
• The region spans the districts of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad, and is a planning region rather than a unit of government with an administration of its own.
• Planning and major infrastructure for the region are the responsibility of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, established on 26 January 1975 under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority Act, 1974; Article 243ZE separately requires a Metropolitan Planning Committee to be constituted for every metropolitan area.

• Counting the wrong category. The stem asks for Municipal Corporations; the region also has eight municipal councils, and mixing the two produces a number in the middle teens
• Treating the region as an administrative unit with a single government. It is a planning region across five districts, and civic administration belongs to the individual corporations, councils and panchayats
• Using a figure from an older compilation. Panvel became a municipal corporation only in 2016, so sources published before that give eight rather than nine
• Guessing a round number because the region is large. A wrong answer costs a quarter of the mark, and the nine corporations can simply be counted off by name

Maharashtra's urban administration is examined every year, and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is its most reliable single source of questions. Expect the countable forms — how many corporations, how many councils, the area of the region, the number of districts it touches — and expect the list forms, which ask whether a named city belongs to the region or is a corporation rather than a council. Beyond those, expect questions on the planning authority, on the constitutional provisions for metropolitan planning, and on the schemes and projects in the news during the year. The whole family is covered by a single page that carries the names as well as the numbers, and the names are the better investment, because a number answers one question while a list answers several. The Commission also likes to ask the constitutional and the local versions of a topic in the same paper, as it does here with the three types of Municipality earlier on, so a candidate who reads Part IX-A once has already prepared half of this question.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following is NOT one of the municipal corporations of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region ?

  • (a)Vasai-Virar
  • (b)Bhiwandi-Nizampur
  • (c)Pimpri-Chinchwad
  • (d)Panvel

  Answer(c) Pimpri-Chinchwad. Its municipal corporation lies in the Pune metropolitan area, not in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The region's nine corporations are Greater Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar and Panvel, the last constituted in 2016; besides these it contains eight municipal councils and a large rural area, and it spans the districts of Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority is best described as which of the following ?

  • (a)A municipal corporation for the whole metropolitan region
  • (b)A planning and development authority for the region, without civic administrative functions of its own
  • (c)A committee of the Government of India for metropolitan planning
  • (d)A body constituted under Article 243Q of the Constitution

  Answer(b) A planning and development authority for the region, without civic administrative functions of its own. It was constituted in 1975 under a State Act of the previous year to plan and develop the Mumbai Metropolitan Region as a whole, and it prepares the regional plan and executes major infrastructure projects; day-to-day civic administration remains with the nine municipal corporations, the eight municipal councils and the village panchayats of the region. Article 243Q deals with the constitution of Municipalities, not of planning authorities.