Which one of the following is not a subject that has been devolved to the Panchayati Raj Institutions by the 11th Schedule of the Constitution of India ?
- (a)Non-conventional energy resources
- (b)Roads
- (c)Higher education
- (d)Libraries
Correct — C, Higher education. The Eleventh Schedule, added by the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act of 1992 and read with Article 243G, lists twenty-nine subjects that a State legislature may entrust to its panchayats. Education appears on that list, but in a deliberately limited form — entry 17 reads 'Education, including primary and secondary schools', and the two neighbouring entries cover technical training and vocational education, and adult and non-formal education. Higher education, meaning universities and colleges, is nowhere in the Schedule; it sits in the Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule and is run by the Union and the States, not by a village or district panchayat. So of the four options only higher education has not been devolved.
- (a)Non-conventional energy resources — This is entry 15 of the Eleventh Schedule. Small solar, biogas and micro-hydro works are exactly the kind of local energy provision the Schedule intended panchayats to take up, and it sits next to rural electrification, which is entry 14.
- (b)Roads — Roads are covered by entry 13, which reads 'Roads, culverts, bridges, ferries, waterways and other means of communication'. Village link roads are among the oldest and most familiar panchayat functions.
- (d)Libraries — Libraries are entry 20 of the Schedule, grouped with cultural activities at entry 21. A village reading room is precisely the sort of small local institution the Schedule assigns to a panchayat.
The Seventy-third Amendment of 1992 gave panchayats constitutional standing through a new Part IX and a new Eleventh Schedule. Article 243G lets a State legislature endow panchayats with such powers as may be necessary to function as institutions of self-government, including schemes for economic development and social justice in relation to the twenty-nine matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule. The Schedule is an enabling menu rather than an automatic transfer — what a panchayat in a given State actually controls depends on that State's own devolution law.
The way to crack this item is to remember the character of the list rather than all twenty-nine entries. Every subject on it is something a village, block or district body could plausibly deliver — drinking water, minor irrigation, fuel and fodder, rural housing, markets and fairs, health and sanitation, the public distribution system. Higher education fails that test at once; a gram panchayat cannot run a university. The parallel Twelfth Schedule, added by the Seventy-fourth Amendment for municipalities, carries eighteen entries and is worth learning alongside it.
- The Eleventh Schedule was inserted by the Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 and lists twenty-nine subjects for panchayats.
- Article 243G is the enabling provision that lets a State legislature devolve those subjects to its panchayats.
- Entry 17 of the Schedule is 'Education, including primary and secondary schools' — higher education is excluded.
- The Twelfth Schedule, added by the Seventy-fourth Amendment for urban local bodies, contains eighteen subjects.
- Non-conventional energy sources, roads and libraries are entries 15, 13 and 20 of the Eleventh Schedule.
Three of the four are named entries of the Eleventh Schedule; only higher education is absent.
- Assuming the Eleventh Schedule transfers subjects automatically — it only enables a State legislature to do so.
- Mixing up the Eleventh Schedule's twenty-nine panchayat subjects with the Twelfth Schedule's eighteen municipal ones.
- Reading 'education' on the list as covering colleges and universities; it stops at secondary schools.
NDA and UPSC both ask this as an odd-one-out from the twenty-nine entries, or as a plain count of subjects in the Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules.
Which one of the following was NOT proposed by the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in the area of Panchayati Raj?
- (a) Thirty per cent seats in all elected rural local bodies will be reserved for women candidates at all levels
- (b) The States will constitute their Finance Commissions to allocate resources to Panchayati Raj Institutions
- (c) The Panchayati Raj elected functionaries will be disqualified to hold their offices if they have more than two children
- (d) The elections will be held in six months’ time if Panchayati Raj bodies are super-ceded or dissolved by the State government
Answer(c) The Panchayati Raj elected functionaries will be disqualified to hold their offices if they have more than two children
The same odd-one-out method applied to the rest of the Seventy-third Amendment — three provisions genuinely in Part IX and one that never was, exactly as higher education is the intruder in the Eleventh Schedule list.
Which one of the following is not a power of Panchayats under Article 243G?
- (a) Land improvement
- (b) Implementation of land reforms
- (c) Land consolidation and soil conservation
- (d) Regulation of land revenue
Answer(d) Regulation of land revenue
The identical odd-one-out built on the same Schedule, five years later — three genuine entries and one outsider, which is how NDA keeps returning to Article 243G.
- practice — not a real PYQ
How many subjects are listed in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution of India?
- (a)Eighteen
- (b)Twenty-two
- (c)Twenty-nine
- (d)Thirty-two
Answer(c) Twenty-nine — the Eleventh Schedule carries twenty-nine subjects for panchayats, against the Twelfth Schedule's eighteen for municipalities.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which Article of the Constitution enables a State legislature to endow panchayats with powers over the subjects in the Eleventh Schedule?
- (a)Article 243G
- (b)Article 280
- (c)Article 356
- (d)Article 370
Answer(a) Article 243G — it lets a State legislature give panchayats the powers needed to work as institutions of self-government in relation to the Eleventh Schedule's subjects.