AD5091 CONSTITUTION OF

INDIA
UNIT V
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION

Sunilkumar K R
Teaching Fellow,
DoME, CEG, AU
 District Administration Head – Role and Importance

• A District Magistrate / Collector, is
an officer who is in-charge of
a district, the basic unit of
administration, in India.

• They are also known as District

Collector or Deputy Commissioner
in several Indian states.

• In general, they are referred to by the

abbreviation DM or DC.
District Administration Head – Role and Importance
(i) REVENUE ADMINISTRATION
District Administration Head – Role and Importance
(ii) LAW AND ORDER ADMINISTRATION
District Administration Head – Role and Importance
(iii) DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
District Administration Head – Role and Importance
 Municipality – Role of Elected Members

• The Mayor is the head of the municipal corporation, but in most states and territories of
India the role is largely ceremonial as executive powers are vested in the Municipal
Commissioner.
• The chief executive officer in a municipal corporation is also known as the municipal
commissioner. The state government appoints this person. The executive officer acts as a
link between the state government and Municipal Corporation.
• The office of the Mayor combines a functional role of chairing the Corporation meeting as
well as ceremonial role associated with being the First Citizen of the city.
• As per the amended Municipal Corporation Act of 1888, a Deputy Mayor is appointed by
the Mayor.
• The tenure of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor is five years. However, in seven states; Bihar,
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand;
Mayors are directly elected by the people and thus hold the executive powers of the
municipal corporations.
Municipality – Role of Elected Members
Panchayati Raj
 Panchayati Raj

• Panchayati Raj (Council of five officials) is the system of local self-government of villages in rural India as opposed to urban
and suburban municipalities.

• It consists of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) through which the self-government of villages is realized. They are
tasked with "economic development, strengthening social justice and implementation of Central and State Government
Schemes including those 29 subjects listed in the Eleventh Schedule.

• Part IX of the Indian Constitution is the section of the Constitution relating to the Panchayats. It stipulates that in states or
Union Territories with more than two million inhabitants there are three levels of PRIs:

• the Gram Panchayats at village level

• the Panchayat Samiti at block level and
• the Zila Parishad at district level
 PRI - The Gram Panchayats at village level

Gram panchayat sabha

• The Sarpanch is its elected head. The members of the gram panchayat are
elected directly by the voting-age village population for a period of five years.

Sources of income
• Taxes collected locally such as on water, place of pilgrimage, local mandirs
(temples), and markets
• A fixed grant from the State Government in proportion to the land revenue and
money for works and schemes assigned to the Parishads
• Donations
PRI - The Panchayat Samiti at block level
PRI - The Panchayat Samiti at block level (Contd.)
PRI - The Zila Parishad at district level
Grass Root Democracy
• Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that shift as
much decision-making authority as practical to the organization's lowest geographic or
social level of organization.

• Grassroots organizations can have a variety of structures; depending on the type of

organization and what the members want. These can be non-structured and non-
hierarchical organizations that are run by all members, or by whichever member wishes
to do something.

• The grass roots level is called the Panchayati Raj System. If democracy means people's
participation in running their affairs, then it is nowhere more direct, clear and
significant than at the local level, where the contact between the people and their
representatives, between the rulers and the ruled is more constant, vigilant and
manageable.