State and Local Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The sixth report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission is related to local governance. It is titled Local Governance: An Inspiring Journey into the Future, and it dealt with the working of the panchayats and the urban local bodies.

The fifth report dealt with public order, the seventh with capacity building and the eighth with combating terrorism, so the key accepts the sixth.

Answer: C

Article 243ZD of the Constitution provides for the District Planning Committee. It was inserted by the 74th Amendment Act and requires every State to constitute such a committee to consolidate the plans of the panchayats and municipalities in the district.

Article 243ZA deals with the elections to the municipalities. Articles 242ZD and 244ZA do not exist in this form. So the key accepts 243ZD.

Answer: B

One of the most significant recommendations of the L. M. Singhvi Committee on Panchayati Raj Institutions was the non-involvement of political parties in elections to them. The Committee, set up in 1986, held that party politics harmed the working of the panchayats.

Involvement of political parties is the opposite. Right to recall and a fixed term for the PRIs are also mentioned in this connection, but the key takes non-involvement of political parties as the answer.

Answer: C

The official key gives Urban Millennium as the title of the UN Habitat 2006 report. I could not confirm the title in a source; the report of that year was on the state of the world's cities, so the key is followed with that caution.

Urban Governance, Urban Development and Urban Habitat are not the titles the key accepts.

Answer: D

The official key says that the National Commission on Urbanization classified the urban poverty alleviation programmes. The Commission, set up in 1985, reviewed urban problems and policies. I could not confirm the classification in a source, so the key is followed.

The Planning Commission, the National Development Council and the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation are not credited with it by the key.

Answer: D

Nagaland is the State that does not have Panchayati Raj Institutions under the 73rd Amendment. Article 243M exempts Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and certain tribal areas from Part IX, because they have their own customary institutions.

Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura have panchayats, so they are wrong as answers.

Answer: D

When a district officer promulgates orders to prevent any danger of a breach of public peace, he or she is acting as the District Magistrate. The powers of maintaining law and order, such as orders under the Code of Criminal Procedure, belong to the magistrate.

As District Collector the officer deals with land revenue and general administration, as an administrative officer or coordinator he or she looks to the other departments, but the power to issue orders for public peace is that of the magistrate. So the fourth option is correct.

Answer: C

The establishment of a Vigilance Committee in the office of the District Collector is not a recommendation of the Second ARC for modernising the office. The Commission recommended a management information system, a computerised district grievance cell, and a forum for interacting with civil society groups and the media.

Since the question asks for the one that is not a recommendation, the third option is the answer.

Answer: D

The Kotwal under Mughal administration had no regulatory role in educational affairs, so the fourth statement is not correct. The kotwal was the chief police and magisterial officer of a town, with authority in magisterial matters and police powers at the municipal level.

The first three statements describe the kotwal's recognised functions in the key, while the supervision of education was not among them. The question asks for the one that is not correct, so the fourth option is the answer.

Answer: A

The functions of the District and Metropolitan Planning Committees according to the Second ARC include the integration of spatial and economic development (i), concerted rural and urban planning (ii), and advice and assistance to local bodies in preparing development plans and implementing them effectively (iii).

Advice to the Planning Commission in the preparation of the Five Year Plans (iv) is not among them. So the first option is correct.