73rd and 74th Amendments

The 73rd and 74th Amendments. Introduced in 1989 and passed in 1992, they came into force in 1993. The 73rd concerns rural local government (Panchayati Raj Institutions, PRIs); the 74th concerns urban local government (Nagarpalikas). Local government remained a State subject, but states had one year to bring their laws in line with the amendments, creating uniformity across the country.

Provisions of the 73rd Amendment:

• Three-tier structure in all states: the Gram Panchayat (a village or group of villages) at the base; the Mandal (Block or Taluka) Panchayat at the intermediate level (which smaller states need not have); and the Zilla Panchayat for the district's whole rural area.
• A Gram Sabha is mandatory: all adults registered as voters in the panchayat area; its role is set by state law.
• Elections: all three levels are directly elected for five years. If a state dissolves a panchayat early, fresh elections must be held within six months. (Before this, many states had indirect elections to district bodies and no rule for prompt elections.)
• Reservations: one-third of positions for women; seats for SCs and STs in proportion to their population at all levels; states may also reserve for OBCs. Reservations apply to chairpersons (Adhyakshas) too, and the one-third for women applies within SC, ST and backward-class seats, so a Sarpanch's post may be reserved for, say, an Adivasi woman.
• Transfer of subjects: 29 subjects from the State List, listed in the Eleventh Schedule (including agriculture, minor irrigation, rural housing, drinking water, roads, rural electrification, poverty alleviation, education, health and sanitation, women and child development, the public distribution system), are to be transferred to PRIs. How many are actually transferred is decided by each state's law (Article 243G).
• State Election Commissioner: each state appoints one to run local elections; the office is autonomous but separate from the Election Commission of India.
• State Finance Commission: appointed every five years to examine local bodies' finances and review how revenues are shared between the state and local bodies, and between rural and urban bodies, so that funding is not a purely political matter.

Adivasi areas. The 73rd Amendment did not apply to many Adivasi areas. A separate act in 1996 (PESA) extended the panchayat system to them while protecting their customs of managing common resources like forests and ponds: Gram Sabhas there have more powers, and panchayats need their consent on many matters.

The 74th Amendment applies the same pattern to urban areas: direct elections, reservations, transfer of functions, State Election Commission and State Finance Commission. Urban functions are listed in the Twelfth Schedule. The Census defines an urban area as having at least 5,000 people, at least 75 per cent of working men in non-agricultural work, and a density of at least 400 per sq km; about 31 per cent of Indians lived in urban areas in 2011.

Example (new): if a state government dissolves a Zilla Panchayat in July, new elections must be held by the following January.