73rd and 74th Amendments

Acting on recommendations like the P.K. Thungon Committee's, the central government introduced two constitutional amendment bills in 1989, aimed at strengthening local governments and bringing an element of uniformity to their structure and functioning right across the country — a genuine concern, since local government being a State subject had until then meant every State could organise it however (or however little) it chose. As the example of Brazil shows, a written constitution can, if it wants to, protect local government's independence quite firmly: the Brazilian Constitution has created States, Federal Districts and Municipal Councils, each assigned independent powers and jurisdiction, and just as the Republic cannot interfere in the affairs of the States (except on constitutionally specified grounds), the States themselves are barred from interfering in the affairs of the municipal councils. It took a few more years for India's own amendments to become law: the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments were finally passed by Parliament in 1992, the 73rd dealing with rural local government — the Panchayati Raj Institutions, or PRIs — and the 74th with urban local government, the Nagarpalikas, and both amendments came into force in 1993. Because local government rema …