RAS question
The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act deals with:
Correct answer: (D) Municipalities.
The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act deals with municipalities by inserting Part IXA and the Twelfth Schedule into the Constitution of India.
Explanation
The 74th Amendment Act, 1992, effective from 1 June 1993, gave constitutional status to urban local bodies by inserting Part IXA, titled "The Municipalities", into the Constitution. The official constitutional text defines a Municipality as an institution of self-government constituted under Article 243Q. Article 243Q then lists the three municipal forms covered by this part: a Nagar Panchayat for a transitional area, a Municipal Council for a smaller urban area, and a Municipal Corporation for a larger urban area. The Twelfth Schedule, also added by the Seventy-fourth Amendment, is linked to Article 243W and sets out municipal functions. That is why the amendment is identified with municipalities, not panchayats, cooperatives or tribal self-governance.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Tribal self-governance is not the subject of the 74th Amendment; PESA is the law associated with that area.
- (B) Cooperative societies are not covered by Part IXA on municipalities; they are linked to the 97th Amendment.
- (C) Panchayati Raj is governed through the 73rd Amendment, while the 74th Amendment inserts the separate municipal framework in Part IXA.
Concept
This tests the constitutional scheme of local self-government, especially the distinction between rural panchayats and urban municipalities. It recurs in RAS because amendments, schedules and local bodies are core governance facts used in both polity and Rajasthan administration questions.