A
town panchayat or
panchayat town is a small town, under 20,000 or 25,000 inhabitants, which is formed under the
panchayati raj administrative system. In census data, the abbreviation T.P. is used to indicate a "town panchayat".
Tamil Nadu was the first state to introduce the panchayat town as an intermediate step between rural villages and
urban local bodies (ULB).