Local Government - The one that impacts you the most

In the next few blogs we will discuss about different levels of Government (National,State and Local), we will start off with "Local Government" as this is the government that has the most impact on our day-day lives.

Ok lets start with it right away ...

High Level Fundas:
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Local Goverments are of two types:
  1. Panchayats     : Rural Areas
  2. Municipalities : Urban Areas.

I will only cover municipality as being in Bangalore thats the only one that I have first hand experience with, concepts in Panchayat are similar.

Local Government deals with issues like the following:
  Water, Sanitary, Street Roads, Road lights, Garbage Disposal, Creation of Parks, Granting  permission to  commercial buildings and so on, so if you have any problems with the above - your local govt. can help!

Whats your ward number ?
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To understand local government, you have to first understand about wards and councillors. A city is divided into a number of "wards" - a search in Google will let you know your ward number. People in Bangalore can refer the following site for ward details: http://bbmpelections.in/wards

Who is your goto person in Local Government ?
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Each of the wards is represented by a person called "Councillor" they are also called "Corporators", they talk on your behalf in BBMP(Bangalore City Corporation), so keep in touch with him/her!

Like Central or State Government - we also have Legislatures and Executives in Local government, details follow:

Wings of Local Government
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Legislature in Local Govt: 
The collection of councillors/corporators in your city form the Legislature of your local government, they form committees to decide on things to be done in each ward. So, if you want a new park in your area - talk to your councillor! he/she would  have to get the required budget to get a park created,  this team is headed by a "Mayor".

Like all legislators - the councillor has to ensure that all Goverment works in your area happen correctly, so if you have problem with water, drainage, garbage etc.. talk to your councillor, he can help you in ensuring that works happen.

Executive in Local Govt:
BBMP Commissioner and his team form the "Executive" arm of local goverment, they are usually people from
administrative services background like IAS etc.,

These are the guys/gals who actually co-ordiate the work of hundreds of people in your area ranging from
sweepers who clean your roads to people people who collect your land taxes! since its not possible to do it directly by the corporation its divided into multiple departments like Water dept, Garbage dept,  Garden dept etc.,  the corporation can also outsource some works Eg: garbage collection.

Judiciary in local Govt:
In Villages there are Panchayats which deal with minor disputes, there is nothing like that in cities at ward level, the closest I can think of is "Munsiff Courts", anyway law issues would be handled by usual courts like District courts which are there in every district.