Local Governance in India can be divided into two categories, urban and rural.

Urban Local Bodies [ULBs] provide basic infrastructure and services in cities and towns. According to a 1991 Indian Census, there are 3255 ULBs in the country classified into four major categories: municipal corporations, municipalities (Municipal council, municipal board, municipal committee), town area committees and notified area committees.^[1] A Municipal corporation is a legal definition for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, villages, and boroughs. ... A municipality or general-purpose district (compare with: special-purpose district) is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government. ... Municipal council (conseil municipal)(maire) Despite enormous differences in population, each of the communes of the French Republic possesses a mayor (maire) and a municipal council (conseil municipal) which manage the commune from the mairie (city hall), with exactly the same powers no matter the size of the commune (with... A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly referring to a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. ...

Urban Local Governance

Large urban areas are governed by municipal corporations, often simply called corporations. The area under the corporation is further divided up into wards. Individual wards or collections of wards within a corporation sometimes have their own administrative body known as ward committees.

Smaller urban areas are governed by municipal councils or municipal boards, which are often referred to simply as municipalities. Municipalities are also divided into wards, which may be grouped together into ward councils. One or more corporators are elected to represent each ward.

Rural Local Governance

Rural governance in India is based on the Panchayati Raj system. The Panchayat (पंचायत in Devanagiri) is an Indian political system that groups five villages in a quincunx (four peripheral villages around a central one were laid out as the 5 side of a die). ...

It is a three tier system, with the Zilla Parishad at the district level, blocks at the middle level and the village council at the lowest level. Zilla Parishad is a local government body at the district level in India. ...

References

1. ^ D.P. Tiwari, Challenges in Urban Planning for Local Bodies in India

See Also

• Districts of India