Lord Ripon
Lord Ripon included among the most talented and able viceroy of
Hindustan. He added a new chapter of local self government in sub
continent. It was a period of revolution. Western education was going
very common. The postal department started its work. All these factors
helped in the western based cultured value. He thought that it was the
great obligation of ruling government to train the people to survive act
independently. According to Ripon the local affairs and local interest
issues can be better solved by the help of local institutions. In the past
these institutions failed because of great interruption in their affairs by
government. Its influence was very high. Therefore this institution
cannot work independently.
Lord Ripon wanted local government should be made such as it can
solve issues by itself. Therefore when he was appointed he given a
great consideration to this issue. Condition of this institution was going
bad day by day. Lord Ripon was keenly watching the local government
institution progressing in Europe and playing important role in social
progress of whole society. He wanted the same system in sub-
continent. As the people of sub-continent were very innocent, they
don’t have political awareness and that system was very new to them.
People took less interest in this system he thought that the people of
sub-continent can be well aware when they were trained at the grass-
root level.
He announced at 18th may, 1882 in Lahore Municipal Council meeting
that with the reference of local government all decisions will be made
on regular plan. People will get political sense and they will participate
in government affairs. At the moment a resolution was passed. This
resolution became part of constitutional document of local
government.
Masses political educational training is the basic popular of local
government. This education is very basic and important for local
administration.
In rural areas local board will be established.
The chairman of Municipal committees will be elected by the people.
In these municipals committees nominated political members will be
the important part. And their number will be not less than 1/3
Every board will have the boundary of which he will be able to solve
problems. It will be named” Local Board”.
Selection method will be adopted by the approval of provincial
government.
It was also emphasized that administration will not interference into
the personal matters of municipal committee.
Municipal committee will be run by local taxes and fees. Besides this
they will be able to calculate expenditures and incomes.
In 1883, government of Bengal framed two Bills dealing with
municipalities and local Board respectively. The former provided that all
municipalities, except those excluded by government, would be
granted the right of election. Only in the important towns, was election
for chairman by the municipal commissioners provided. In the light of
Ripon, s view on local bodies, the commissioners called for a two tier
system of local government. According to this system, a union
committee covering an area of twelve square miles would administer
the local affairs of a union of villages. Above the union committee there
would be a local Board, which would not be larger than a sub-division,
Tehsil, or Taluqa. The bill provided for both the tires, geographically
small areas, elected membership, non-official chairman and executive
authority within their defined jurisdiction, but it contained the
provision that central Boards would be established in Calcutta to
control the activities of union committees and Local Boards.
Municipalities’ bill was passed on 29th March, 1884, as Act 111 of 1884,
by the Government of India and subsequently received the viceroy’s
assent. But Local Boards Bill was recommended to the secretary of
state for India as this approval was a constitutional necessity. The
proposal found no favor with Lord Kimberley, the secretary of state,
who instead proposed the setting up of district Magistrates as chairman
and having all the powers intended for the central Board in the Bill. Sir
River Thompson, governor of Bengal, defined the original Bill in
principal but further proposed that local Boards at sub- divisional level
be maintained as the single largest unit of administration and that
commissioner of the division should supervise their activities within
defined limits.
Thompson argued that district committee with the district Magistrate
as their chairman would neither be a working body nor a through
controlling authority. But Mr. Kimberley remained adamant, insisting
on setting up District Committee with the District Magistrate as the
controlling authority. Thus a received Bill was introduced in March,
1885. The establishment of three-tier system of rural local government
system, District Board, Local Board and Union Committee. The governor
could establish a District Board in every District and at his direction, two
subordinate bodies, namely Local Boards in sub- divisions of a district
and union committees in a village and groups of villages. That act
provided the District Board was to consist of nine members appointed
by Governor if no local Board existed within the district. In the presence
of Local Board they would act as an electoral college choosing whatever
proportion of members was allowed by the provincial government.
Where the entire District was covered by local Boards, half the District
Board would be elected. The chairman of the District Board could either
be appointed by government or elected the vice-chairman could
however, be chosen by its members
The local Board was to consist of six members, four elected and two
nominated. Members of the Union Committee under the jurisdiction of
local Board would act as an electoral college. The local Board would
elect a chairman from among its members subject to the approval of
the LT governor. The Union Committee were to consist of a maximum
of nine and a minimum five members all elected from the resident of
Union. The Act was silent as regards the chairman of the Union
Committee, he was elected everywhere.
Seven years later, the Act of 1891 reduced the number of official
members to 1/3. The representative character of municipalities was no
doubt improved appreciably in terms of membership but whereas in
1895 the Punjab had 77 non- official chairman, at the turn of the
century, the figure was reduced to 29 and all were government
nominees.
In 1904 Lord Curzon, a staunch believe in centralization, set aside all
the local institution in the name of administration efficiency. However
after five years, the Royal Commission upon decentralization expressed
the view that existing arrangement for organization of local bodies
should be future developed and organized on more democratic basis.
The commission favored the decentralization of local bodies but held
that “Political education of any people must necessarily be slow and
that the local government of the British type could not at once take
root in Indian soil.”
The commission recommended that municipalities should have
substantially elected majorities and should normally choose their own
chairman. The district Board were to be retained but with diminished
authority. They two should have a sub-statically elected majority but
district Magistrate should continue to be the chairman. Local Boards
were to be established universally as the primary units for local
administration having substantially elected majorities but with sub-
divisional officers as chairman and finally village panchayats were to be
set up whose members were to be informally elected, with village
headman as chairmen.
After six years, that is in 1915 a resolution favoring the changes in the
structure of local bodies was issued, as Lord Harding gave a serious
thought to the recommendation of the Royal Commission. This
resolution endorsed the principal of elected majorities and so, also the
recommendation of Lord Ripon and Royal Commission for shaping the
structure and composition of local bodies in the Indo- Pak
subcontinent. While lying down the officials were to continue as
chairman of local bodies it allowed provincial Government as and they
appoint non-official chairman. It seemed that at last the climate was
right for the change and the government was about to embark upon a
determined policy of future progress in the domain of local self
government.
The Simon Commission of 1919 provides an interesting sidelight on
“official “ attitudes to local government: “systems of local self-
government fall in to one or other of two well defined types ,which we
may call the British and the continental. In the former, Government is
decentralized. Local bodies with a will of their own exist. They initiate
and carry out their own policies
