Article 40 of the Indian Constitution provides for the State to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to make them function as units of selfgovernment. The 73rd and 74th Constitution Amendments inserted Part IX and IX A in the Constitution. Both these parts are more or less parallel and analogous. There are a total of 6,45,000 local governments in India. Local governments of the rural regionsare termed as the Panchayats (Part-IX). The local government in theurban areas is referred to as the Nagar Panchayats and the Municipalities (Part IX-A). Nagaur (Rajasthan) in 1956 became thefirst district where Panchayats were established. 73rd Amendment ofthe Panchayati Raj Act is not applicable in J&K