Just after Independence in India, most of the urban and semi-urban areas had been constituted into municipalities of one kind or another. Among them were the premier corporations of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata each with a special kind of constitutional structure, better financial resources and subject to less state control than other municipal bodies.

The service which the local bodies had to render was restricted to education, public health, sanitation, medical relief, roads and a few public works. This was so because these bodies were considered to be inefficient and they lacked adequate financial resources.

These bodies derived their revenues from a number of sources – taxes on property, taxes on trade, taxes on persons; fees and licences, non-tax resources such as rent of land, houses, income from commercial undertakings; government grants, etc.

Municipal government in India covers five distinct types of urban local authorities, viz., the municipal corporations, the municipal councils, the notified area committees, the town area committees and the cantonment committees.