About Us

About Us

Tamil Nadu is the first State to have introduced a classification in the status of local bodies as ‘Town Panchayat’, which was planned as a transitional body between Rural and Urban Local Bodies.

Among the Local Bodies, the Town Panchayats were conferred with individual administrative powers and an enhanced staff pattern and these Town Panchayats with unique functional characters have been in existence for over a century. The Town Panchayats were provided with well devised accounting and auditing procedures and the service delivery to the public has been better. The Town Panchayats normally are places of importance such as Division / Taluk headquarters, Tourist Spots, Pilgrim Centers and Commercial/Industrial towns. This has necessitated special attention to the civic needs of the Town Panchayats.

District Municipalities Act

The Town Panchayats are governed by Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act 1920. There are 561 Town Panchayats in the state which are classified into four grades, based on the income criteria :

Grade	No. of TPs	Income Criteria
Special Grade	13	Above Rs. 20 Lakhs
Selection Grade	245	Above Rs.16 Lakhs
Grade I	221	Above Rs. 8 Lakhs
Grade II	82	Above Rs. 4 Lakhs
Total	561

Organisational Setup

Secretariat

Minister for Rural Development
&
Local Administration

The Secretary to the Government,
Municipal Administration And
Water Supply Department

Commissioner

Commissionerate of Town Panchayats

Districts

District Collector

Assistant Director of Town Panchayats
(16 Zonal Offices)

Town Panchayats

Elected Council
&
Executive Officer

Chronological Developments

Till 1981, the Town Panchayats were under the administrative control of Directorate of Rural Development. During 1981, the Government vide G.O. Ms. 828 Dated 7.5.1981, constituted a separate Directorate for the Town Panchayats with the nomenclature of ‘Directorate of Town Panchayats’. However the administrative control of the Directorate of Town Panchayats continued to be with the Rural Development Department at the Secretariat as they were governed under the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1958.

Following the introduction of 73^rd and 74^th amendments to the Constitution of India in the year 1993, all the Town Panchayats were reconstituted under the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920 and treated as transitional area. i.e. an area in transition from rural area to an Urban area. Necessary amendments were brought on to the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920 for this purpose and a separate chapter in respect of Town Panchayats was inserted in the said Act. Consequently though the nomenclature ‘Town Panchayat’ remained unchanged, the administrative control of the Directorate of Town Panchayats was brought under the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department at the Secretariat.

1950	The Madras Panchayats Act 1950	Class I Panchayats Status Health, Education & Local Administration Department
1958	Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1958	Town Panchayat Status Rural Development & Local Administration Department (RD & LA)
1981	Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1958	Creation of Directorate of Town Panchayats Status continued under the control of RD & LA Department.
1984	Bifurcation of Rural Development and Local Administration Department into Rural Development Department & Municipal Administration and Water Supply Dept.	Town Panchayats continued under the control of RD Department.
1994	Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act 1920 (as amended in 1994) (under 74th constitutional amendment effect from 31.05.1994)	Town Panchayat Status changed to and brought under the control of MA&WS Department.
1999	Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act 1994	98 Town Panchayats were identified as financially unviable - 25 Town Panchayats where reclassified as Village Panchayats with their consent.
1999	Introduction of Section 4-A under Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act 1994	To accommodate the existing council and the non provincialised staff.
2004	Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act 1994	561 Town Panchayats reclassification as Special Village Panchayats and brought under RD department.
2004	Amendment to Section 3 B of the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities act 1920	50 Town Panchayats reclassified as Third Grade Municipalities)
2005	Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act, 1994	Separate chapter under the caption of "special provision relating to Special Village Panchayats" in the said Act and the same was notified by an ordinance vide Government Gazette Extraordinary No: 251 dt. 1.10.2004 Further, the Act enacted was notified vide Government Gazette Extraordinary No: 309 dt. 13.12.2004. For administrative purposes separate orders were also issued vide G.O.Ms.No.150 RD Department, Dated 01.10.2004. 561 reclassified as Special Village Panchayats
2006	Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920	Reconstitution of Special Village Panchayats as Town Panchayats G.O.Ms. No.55 MA&WS Dt. 14.7.2006 and brought under MA&WS Dept.

Now there are 561 Town Panchayats in the 16 Zones and classified as below:

Sl. No.	Name of the Zone	District Covered	No. of Town Panchayats
Sl. No.	Name of the Zone	District Covered	Special Grade	Selection Grade	Grade I	Grade II	Total
1	KANCHEEPURAM	KANCHEEPURAM	1	10	9	4	24
2	THIRUVALLUR	THIRUVALLUR	-	8	5	-	13
3	VELLORE	VELLORE	-	14	8	-	22
		THIRUVANNAMALAI	-	4	3	3	10
4	DHARMAPURI	DHARMAPURI	-	8	2	-	10
		KEISHNAGIRI	-	6	-	1	7
5	SALEM	SALEM	-	15	14	4	33
		NAMAKKAL	-	10	8	1	19
6	ERODE	ERODE	-	22	21	10	53
7	COIMBATORE	COIMBATORE	1	20	20	11	52
8	UDHGAMANDALAM	THE NILGIRIS	1	6	4	-	11
9	CUDDALORE	CUDDALORE	1	8	5	2	16
		VILLUPURAM	-	10	4	1	15
10	THANJAVUR	THANJAVUR	-	11	7	4	22
		NAGAPATTINAM	1	2	5	-	8
		THIRUVARUR	-	4	3	-	7
11	THIRUCHIRAPALLI	THIRUCHIRAPALLI	-	6	10	-	16
		PERAMBALUR	-	1	2	4	7
		PUDUKKOTTAI	-	5	3	-	8
12	DINDUGAL	DINDUGAL	1	13	8	2	24
		KARUR	1	3	5	2	11
13	MADURAI	MADURAI	-	7	5	-	12
		THENI	-	12	6	4	22
14	SIVAGANGA	RAMANATHAPURAM	-	1	3	3	7
		VIRUDHUNAGAR	-	2	4	3	9
		SIVAGANGA	-	4	7	1	12
15	TIRUNELVELI	TIRUNELVELI	4	12	16	4	36
		TUTICORIN	1	11	4	3	19
16	NAGERCOIL	KANYAKUMARI	1	11	29	15	56
		T O T A L	13	245	221	82	561