Vol. 4, Issue 12, Part C (2018)

Abstract
Till the enactment of the Andhra Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1965, there was no uniform law governing the municipalities in the State. Historical developments in the eleven districts of the former Madras State were different from those of the nine districts of the erstwhile Hyderabad State. The students of local government know that Madras city was the first town in India to have a municipal body. The Court of Directors of the East India Company set-up a Municipal Corporation for Madras in 1687. This was revised in 1726 and 1793. In 1841 attempts were made to provide a suitable machinery to direct civic affairs when the rate¬payers were entrusted with the assessment and collection of taxes in their divisions. The Acts of 1856 and 1857 further widened the scope of the corporation; the latter Act introduced a larger non-official element into the corporation.