A small town’s administration is handled by a town area committee. It is a semi municipal entity that is responsible for a select few civic duties like conservancy, roads, street lighting, and drainage. It was established by a different state legislature act. What’s in it, the statute regulates activities and other issues. It might entirely nominated in full or in part by the state government or elected and a nominee in part.
Before we can grasp the town area committee, we must first comprehend what an urban local body is and how it came to be. In the colonial era, the idea of urban municipal self-government first emerged. Lord Rippon’s idea led to the creation of urban municipal self-government in 1882. As a result, he is revered as the founding document of local self-government. A statutory establishment that declares an urban area qualifies as an urban area. There is a hierarchy of government in India, including levels at the national, state, regional, and local levels. Simply described, the urban local government in India consists of the elected officials who govern the particular urban region. There are eight distinct forms of urban local bodies in India, and they are as follows:
- Local government
- Local Government
- informed the local committee
- Town area committee
- Cantonment Board
- Town
- Port trust
- Specialty organization
The 1992 74th Constitutional Amendment Act made the urban government system constitutional. In the state list of the seventh schedule of the constitution, the term “local government” is one of the topics.
Town and Town Area
The term “town” comes from an old English word that originally referred to a walled or fenced region, such as a farm, hamlet, or ranch. However, in modern usage, towns are defined as populous settlements with fixed and well defined boundaries that are governed locally. While towns are smaller than cities, they are larger than villages.
Town areas fall within the more general notion of an urban area. Urban areas include statutory towns, census towns, and outgrowth from a census perspective.
- Statutory towns – These are places like municipalities, notified area committees, town area committees, town panchayats, etc. that are defined as urban by statute (law).
- Census towns-Census towns having a minimum population of 5,000 people, a main working population of at least 75% men who are employed in non-agricultural activity, and a population density of at least 400 people per square kilometer.
- Outgrowths –Villages or portions of villages that are adjacent to statutory towns are known as outgrowths.
Town Area Committee
It is a semi-municipal organization that performs the following civic duties:
- Discharge
- Public lighting
- Roads and other necessities including environmental and wildlife protection.
Formation
A state legislature-passed law creates the town area committee. This law regulates the community’s many traits, responsibilities, and makeup.
Composition
Members of the town area committee may be entirely or partially elected or wholly or partially nominated, depending on the state.
Revenue
An urban local authority receives the majority of its funding from five sources. The list is as follows:
- Tax revenue – Income from taxes on real estate, entertainment, markets, bridge tolls, professionals, lighting, advertisements, water, and animals. Coming on cess like a beggar cess, a library cess, and an educational cess. However, one of the main contributors to tax revenue is the property tax.
- Non-tax revenue – This includes profits, dividends, interest, fees, fines, rents on municipal property, as well as payments for using public amenities like water, sanitation, and sewerage.
- Grants – These are essentially monies given by the federal and state governments to support development programs in municipal (town) areas, such as infrastructure projects that link the town to a larger metropolis or other infrastructure plans, Urban Initiative reforms, and so forth.
- Devolution- The state finance commission advises the state on how to allocate its financial resources. According to the recommendations of the financial commission, devolution refers to the transfer of funds from the state government.
- Loans – To fulfill the town’s financial demands, it may obtain loans from state governments or financial organizations, such as banks, to cover its expenses, but the town area committee may only do so with the state government’s permission.