State and Local Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The second ARC recommended a District Council as the form of integrated governing structure at the district level. It would bring the district's local bodies and elected representatives into one structure for planning and governance.

A District Assembly, a District Committee and a District Board are not the name used for this body in the key. A district planning committee exists under Article 243ZD for planning, but it is a different, narrower body.

Answer: A

Both statements are true and R explains A. A common categorisation of urban local bodies across the country is needed so that the definition of each type is clear.

The reason gives the proposed structure on which it would rest, three tiers of urban local government (municipal corporation, municipal council, nagar panchayat or town panchayat), except in the case of the Town Panchayat, which is treated differently. It is the content of the common categorisation.

Answer: B

The key attributes the suggestion that there is no need to continue the District Rural Development Agency to the report of the Committee to review the existing administrative arrangement for rural development.

The II ARC report on Local Governance, the Chief Ministers' Round Table Conference on Panchayati Raj and the 2000 NGO evaluation of Panchayati Raj Institutions are other documents and are not named for this suggestion in the key.

Answer: D

The key names the Veerappa Moily Committee as the body that recommended that Members of Parliament and State Legislatures should not become members of local bodies.

The Ashok Mehta, L.M. Singhvi and P.K. Thungon Committees made other recommendations on Panchayati Raj and local self-government, and are not named for this one in the key. The reasoning behind such a rule is to keep local bodies free of control by higher legislators.

Answer: B

Both statements are true, but R does not explain A. The Community Development Programme, launched in 1952, was meant to secure the total development of the material and human resources of rural areas.

The reason says only how it was administered, in phases and at five levels from national to village. That is a description of the machinery, not the reason it was launched, so R is not the correct explanation. The options that call either statement false are also wrong.

Answer: D

All four are approaches to rural development in India: the area development approach, the target group approach, the social security approach and the self-employment approach (i, ii, iii and iv).

Examples include the Drought Prone Areas Programme for areas, the Small Farmers Development Agency for target groups, pensions and welfare schemes for social security, and schemes like SGSY for self-employment. A code with fewer items leaves one out.

Answer: C

The item that is not in the Twelfth Schedule is technical training and vocational education.

The Twelfth Schedule lists the functions of municipalities, and it includes planning for economic and social development, water supply and safeguarding the interests of weaker sections, including the handicapped and mentally retarded. Technical training and vocational education appears instead in the Eleventh Schedule, which lists the functions of Panchayats.

The other three options are named in the Twelfth Schedule, so they cannot be the answer to a question asking for the item that is not included.