Local Government in Urban Areas

• A Municipal Corporation or Council is a local governing body in an urban area. It works for the welfare of the people and provides basic facilities to the people of the urban areas like towns, cities, etc.
• In the cities, there is a big organisation called the Municipal Corporation’ that takes care of street lights, garbage collection, water supply, keeping the streets and the market clean.
• Municipal Corporation is also responsible for ensuring that diseases do not to spread in the city.
• Municipal Corporation also runs schools, hospitals and dispensaries.
• In smaller towns, these works are done by the Municipal Council. The city is divided into different wards.
• The city is divided into different wards and ward councilors get elected.
• The decisions, like where a park or a new hospital should go are usually made by the Ward Councilors.
• The complicated decisions that affect the entire city are taken by groups of councilors who form committees to decide and debate issues.
• When the problems are within a ward then the people who live in the ward can contact their councilors.
• The decided issues are implemented by the Commissioner and administrative staff who is appointed by the government.
• Municipal Corporation has various departments such as water department, a department to look after gardens, another to look after roads.
• The Councillors are elected by the people, and Commissioner and administrative staff are appointed..
• There are different names of the governing bodies depending upon the population of the towns or cities.

Types of Urban Governing Bodies

• Nagar Panchayat
• Municipality (Nagar Palika)
• Municipal Council (Nagar Parishad)
• Municipal Corporation (Nagar Nigam)
• Metropolitan Municipal Corporation (Mahanagar Palika)

Responsibilities of a Municipal Corporation
(1) Arrangement of garbage collection
(2) Prevention and control of diseases in the city
(3) Electricity and Water supply
(4) Keep the Markets and other public places clean, etc.
(5) Construction of public places such as roads, schools, hospitals, gardens, bus stops, etc.

Structure of a Municipal Corporation

There are appointed and elected people who work together in a municipal corporation. For efficient and systematic administration of a city, it is divided into smaller regions called wards.

Elected Members
From every ward of a city, one representative is elected by the people. This elected representative is called Ward Councillor.
All the ward councilors elected their leader who is called Mayor or Chairman of the Municipal Corporation.

Appointed Members
Municipal Commissioner, Accounts Officer, Sanitation Engineer, etc. are some of the appointed members who work in the municipal corporations.
There are different departments for various types of public works.

Responsibilities of a Ward Councillor

Ward Councillor is the representative from a ward. So, he is responsible for solving the problems of the people.
(1) He takes the problem to Municipal Corporation and works for the solution.
(2) He also helps the people on administration-related matters.

How does the Municipal Corporation gets its money?

• Collects in different ways. i.e. house/property tax. water supply bill etc.
• People who  own homes have to pay a property tax as well as taxes for water and other services.

Question 1: Why did the children go to Yasmin Khala's house?
Answer 1: Rehana’s mother told them that Municipal Corporation takes care for replacement of the lights and Yasmin Khala recently retired from Municipal Corporation so can tell better about the person for the maintenance of the street lights.

Question 2:List four ways in which the work of the Municipal Corporation affects the life of a citydweller.
Answer 2:
 Disposal of garbage.
 Supply of Electricity.
 Supply of drinking water.
 Maintenance of drainage system.
 Construction and maintenance of roads, parks, street lights etc.

Question 3: Who is a Municipal Councillor?
Answer 3: A Municipal Councillor is an elected member of committee of Municipal Corporation.

Question 5:How does the Municipal Corporation earn the money to do its work?

Answer 5:The Municipal Corporation earns money in the form of different taxes:
 House tax
 Education tax
 Hotel or shop tax
 Movie tax

Question 4: What did Gangabai do and why?
Answer 4: Gangabai gathered some women and went to the Ward Councillor shouting some slogans describing the condition of the street.She did that as there was garbage here and there all over the street and this was attracting mosquitoes, flies, dogs and rats in the locality.

Question 1. A city is much bigger than a village and more spread out. A city has crowded markets, many buses and cars, water and electricity facilities, traffic control and hospitals. Have you ever wondered who is responsible for running all this? Do you know how decisions are made? How the planning is done? Who are the people who do all the work?

Answer:In the city, there is the Municipal Corporation that takes care of street lights, garbage collection, water supply, keeping the streets and the markets clean. The Municipal Corporation is also responsible for ensuring that diseases do not break out in the city. In smaller towns, these works are done by a little bit smaller organisation known as a Municipal Council.

The city is divided into different wards and ward councillors get elected. The complicated decisions that affect the entire city are taken by groups of Councillors who form committees to decide and debate issues. When the problems are within a ward then the people who live in the ward can contact their Councillors. After the decisions taken by Councillor’s Committees and the Councillors, the Commissioner and the administrative staff implement them.

The Commissioner and the administrative staff are appointed while the Councillors are elected. As the city is so large, the work here is divided into different departments, such as the water department, the garbage collection departments, sanitation department, etc.

Question 2. List at least four different tasks that the Municipality does :

Answer:The Municipality does the following tasks:

• Lay down the park.
• Opening of hospitals and dispensaries.
• Opens school for children.
• Ensures that the disease should not break out in the city.

Question 3. Fill in the blanks in the sentences below :

1. In a panchayat, the elected members are called ________ .
2. The city is divided into several ________ .
3. In a Municipal Corporation, the elected members are called ________ .
4. Groups of councillors deal with issues that affect the ________ .
5. Elections are held once every ________ years for the Panchayat as well as for the Municipality.
6. While the councillors make decisions the administrative staff led by the commissioner ________ these.

Answer:

1. Panch
2. wards
3. Councillors
4. entire city
5. five
6. implements

Question 4. What was Gangabai protesting about?
Answer:Gangabai was protesting because the garbage was not being collected from the streets and if it remains uncollected it attracts dogs, rats, and flies. Also, people get ill from the smell. Even the children did not play in the streets because their parents were afraid that they did get sick from staying on the streets too long.

Question 5. Why does Gangabai approach the Ward Councillor?
Answer:Gangabai decided to approach the Ward Councillor because he was elected by them.

Question 6. What did Gangabai say when the Commissioner said that there were not enough trucks in the city?
Answer:Gangabai smartly replied, "But you seem to have enough trucks to collect garbage from the rich localities".

Question 7. Do you know when and how often garbage gets collected in your neighborhood?
Answer:The garbage is collected once a day, in the early morning in my locality.

Question 8. Do you think it is the same for all neighbourhoods of the city? Why not? Discuss.
Answer:It is not the same in all parts of the city because:

• Municipal Corporation does not have enough workers.
• Sometimes the workers are reluctant to work and leave the garbage on the road.
• The households throw the garbage on the streets.
• The vehicles are parked on the roadside, making it difficult for the workers to clean the city.

Question 9. Did you know that your taxes enable the government to provide roads, bridges, parks, and street lights? List three more benefits that the taxeshelp in funding, after discussing with your family:
Answer:Taxes make the Government stable so that it can protect people constitutionally, it can be used in many ways like:

• Free education
• Good health for free
• Ration for poor
• Salaries to all government employees
• Scholarship for students etc.