ABSTRACT
Devolution of power was the main objective along with administrative and financial reforms at the level of local bodies. The main shift resulting from the reform in the physical planning and development domain was that the right to prepare the development plan would move from state government to the elected local body. The ward committee is the smallest local-level committee. The idea is that the ward committee will articulate its problems at the ward level to the municipal body and the elected municipal body will integrate the demands from various ward committees and prepare a master plan. In 1998, the Union Minister for Urban Development brought in a notification, which exempted Delhi from the 74th Amendment so that the power to plan and develop remains with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and does not go to the local municipality, or even to the elected state government.
