Greater Chennai Corporation

Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is the civic body that governs the metropolitan city of Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Inaugurated on 29 September 1688, under a royal charter issued by King James II of England on 30 December 1687 as the Corporation of Madras, it is the oldest municipal body of the Commonwealth of Nations outside Great Britain. It is the largest municipal corporation in Tamil Nadu with an area of 426 km2. It is headed by a mayor, who presides over 200 councillors, each of whom represents one of the 200 wards of the city. It is the second oldest corporation in the world after the City of London. The city limits, which had been expanded several times over the years, is currently coterminous with the Chennai district. The Madras Corporation is the oldest municipal body of the Commonwealth of Nations outside the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1688 to control the powers of the Governor of Madras, Elihu Yale. The corporation was created by a Royal Charter issued on 30 December 1687 by King James II on the advice of the chairman of the East India Company, Josiah Child, on the model of Dutch Government in the East Indies. The charter constituted the existing town of Fort St. George and all the territories belonging to the town, not exceeding a distance of ten miles from the Fort, into a Corporation. The Parliamentary Act of 1792 conferred the new Corporation power to levy municipal taxes in the city. The municipal administration also commenced from this act, making provision for the administration of the city. The Municipal Act continued to be amended, constantly introducing major changes in the constitution and powers of the corporation from time to time. Prior to the establishments of the corporation, the Governor of Madras or the company's agent managed the affairs of the Fort St George and its residents with the assistance of a headman, an accountant, and the head of watch and ward. The Governor sat as Madras's Justice of the Peace. Taxes were introduced by Governor Streynsham Master (1678–1681).