-Dr. S. Vijay Kumar Local Governments or local bodies are institutions of the local self-governance, which look after the administration of an area or small community such as villages, towns or cities. The Local bodies in India are broadly classified into two categories. The local bodies constituted for local planning, development and administration in the rural areas are referred as Rural Local Bodies known as Panchayats and the local bodies, which are constituted for local planning, development and administration in the urban areas are referred as Urban Local Bodies, known as Municipalities. Mahatma Gandhi advocated Panchayati Raj as the foundation of India's political system, his term for such a vision was "Gram Swaraj" or “Village Self-governance” , a decentralized form of government in which each village would be responsible for its own affairs. Instead, India developed a highly centralized form of government. However, this has been m...