State and Local Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The National Capital Region Planning Board is a statutory body. It was set up under the National Capital Region Planning Board Act of 1985.

It was not created by an executive order, by the Planning Commission or by the Ministry of Urban Development under a judicial direction. So the other options are rejected. The Act gave the Board its legal status and its duty of preparing the regional plan for the area around Delhi. A statutory body has its powers and duties set out by law, which is the point that separates it from a body set up by an order.

Answer: A

The Community Development Programme was started on the recommendation of the Krishnamachari Committee, as the key gives. It was launched in 1952, a few years before the Balwantrai Mehta Committee studied it.

The Balwantrai Mehta Committee examined the working of the Community Development Programme in 1957, and recommended Panchayati Raj, so it is not the source of the programme. The Community Development Programme began on 2 October 1952, with the aim of an all-round development of the village. The Balwantrai Mehta Committee, set up in 1957, reviewed it and proposed the three-tier Panchayati Raj.

Answer: D

All four statements about rural cooperatives are correct, so the code is (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv). They are schools of social dialogue and democracy, they are based on self-help and self-responsibility, they can turn survival-type activities into legally protected productive work, and their members are generally both producers and beneficiaries.

A code that leaves out any of the four gives only part of the picture.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is option B: both statements are correct but the reason is not the correct explanation of the assertion.

The community development programme was indeed launched to secure the total development of the material and human resources of rural areas. It was also realised during the programme that change needs people centred effort. The second statement is true, but it describes a lesson learned while implementing the programme, not the reason why the programme was launched.

Option A claims it explains the launch, which it does not. Options C and D claim that one of the statements is false, but both are accepted as true.

Answer: D

All three roles are given to the Gram Sabha in the Scheduled Areas, so the answer is (i), (ii) and (iii).

Under the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, the Gram Sabha has the power to prevent alienation of land in the Scheduled Areas, is given ownership of minor forest produce, and its recommendation is needed before a licence or mining lease is granted for minerals, as the question sets out.

The options naming only one or two of the roles leave out powers that the Act confers, so they are incomplete.

Answer: B

According to the 2nd ARC, delimitation and reservation of local government constituencies should be done by the State Election Commission.

The Commission reasoned that local bodies are the responsibility of the states and that the State Election Commission already conducts their elections, so it should also handle the delimitation and the reservation of seats, which keeps these tasks independent of the political executive.

The Election Commission of India conducts elections to Parliament and the State Legislatures, not local bodies, Parliament does not carry out the task of delimiting local constituencies, and a State Legislature would leave the task with the political executive, which the recommendation sought to avoid.

Answer: D

The recommendation to merge the planning departments of development authorities with district and metropolitan planning committees was made by the 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission.

The Commission wished to integrate urban and district planning under the planning committees created by the 74th and 73rd amendments, so planning is done in one place instead of by separate authorities.

The Hanumantha Rao, Dantwala and Santhanam committees are earlier bodies from before the 73rd and 74th amendments, and the key does not credit this recommendation to any of them.

Answer: B

The principle of subsidiarity relates to the devolution of functions to Panchayats so that they work as institutions of self government.

Subsidiarity holds that a function should be performed at the lowest level at which it can be done well, so power and responsibilities should pass down to local bodies and not stay with higher levels.

Assigning more financial powers from the centre to states is fiscal federalism, not subsidiarity. Delegation of authority within or outside an organisation concerns administrative delegation, a different idea from devolving functions to elected local governments.

Answer: A

Both statements are correct and the reason explains the assertion, so the answer is option A.

The Zila Parishad is given planning and development functions in the Panchayati Raj system. The district has traditionally been the administrative unit through which such functions are performed, which is why the Zila Parishad is vested with them. The reason therefore accounts for the assertion.

Option B would say the reason does not explain the assertion, which is not so, and options C and D would call one of the statements false, but both are accepted as true.

Answer: B

The key gives the earlier name of the National Institute of Rural Development as the Central Institute of Study and Research in Community Development.

The question asks what the institute was called before 1958, and the key names this institute for community development study and research, which fits the community development programme of that decade.

The Central Institute of Planning and Development, the Central Institute of Statistical Research and the Central Institute of Training and Development are not names the key gives to the institute, so they are wrong.