NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 12 Fig. 12.2 — LET’S EXPLORE
Book page 175 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
In Fig. 12.2 above, what similarities and differences do you notice between the Panchayati Raj system and the urban local government?
Answer
First, read the figure carefully. Fig. 12.2 on page 175 is a pyramid. The top three blocks are common to the whole country — Union Government at the national level, then State Government, then Local Government. Below that the pyramid splits into two branches: Rural — Panchayati Raj Institutions on the left, and Urban — Urban Local Bodies on the right. The caption adds “Not to scale”.
Fig. 12.2 redrawn as two ladders. The three blocks at the top are shared; below them the rural branch has one tier more than the urban branch.
Similarities
Both are ‘local government’. They grow out of the same block of the pyramid, and both sit below the State Government — so both work under laws made by the State.
Both stand on the people. The rural ladder ends in the Gram Sabha; the urban ladder ends in the People of the Ward. In both, the base of the pyramid “is the local level, closer to the people”.
Both work through elected representatives. Villagers elect their Gram Panchayat; city people elect their ward councillors.
Both are decentralised and both are meant for self-government. Both handle local services, both raise some local taxes, and in both the citizens have duties as well as rights.
Both have a small committee at the base above the people — the Gram Panchayat on one side, the Ward Committee on the other.
Three rows — the Municipal Corporation / Municipal Council / City Council (Nagar Panchayat), the Ward Committee, and the People of the Ward
Top body
Always the Zila Panchayat, for a whole district
Depends on population — Corporation, Council or Nagar Panchayat, for one city or town
Smallest unit
The village, with a Gram Sabha of all its adult voters
The ward, a part of a city, with a Ward Committee
Direct participation
Strong — the Gram Sabha itself is a meeting of all the voters
Weaker — a city cannot gather all its people, so almost everything runs through elected councillors
Middle level
There is one — the Panchayat Samiti links village and district
There is none in the figure; the ward reports straight to the city body
Kind of work
Agriculture, village roads, drinking water, village schools and health centres
Piped water and sewerage, city solid waste, street lighting, licences, fire services, hoardings, building permissions
Why the urban side has one tier fewer: the rural side must climb from a village of a few hundred people all the way to a whole district, so it needs a step in between. A city is already one continuous settlement under one body — from the ward you reach the city government in a single step. The word ‘Panchayat’ appears on both sides, but a Nagar Panchayat is urban and a Gram Panchayat is rural.
Read the figure exactly: the urban box on page 175 reads “Municipal Corporation or Municipal Council or City Council (Nagar Panchayat)”. It is one box holding three alternatives, not three tiers stacked on top of each other. A given town has only one of them.