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Decentralized planning

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Decentralized Planning is a type of planning where local organisations and institutions formulate, adopt, execute actions and supervise the plan without interference by the central body. Decentralized planning in the State operated mainly through the following institutions and instruments; Grama Sabha (GS): People’s participation in decentralization was sought to be ensured mainly through meetings of the GP ward level Grama Sabha, chaired by the ward member.

There are following major dimensions of decentralization:

(i) Financial:- the transfer of revenue, budgeting and expenditure authority to local elected bodies.

(ii) Administrative:-the transfer of functional responsibilities in various sectors as well as staff resources to the jurisdiction of elected local governments

(iii) Political:- the transfer of policy and legislative powers to local councils that have been democratically elected and establishment of mechanisms of accountability to local constituents

Panchayats are mentioned in Rig Veda, which is believed to have been composed more than 1000 years before Christ. The five members of the Panchayat of the village were known as Pancha Parameswar, or the five godly persons. Kings were respectful towards them. The Panchayat distributed land, collected revenue and settled disputes in the village. However, the Panchayats suffered a steady decline later under feudal and Moghul rules. A new class of feudal chiefs called zamindars came to function as a link between the king and the people.

Lord Ripon, who is regarded as the father of local-self government in India. He attached importance to both administrative efficiency as well as political education at the local level.

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, 1992, which gave Constitutional status to panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) and urban local bodies (ULBs) respectively, in both letter and spirit in order to bring about greater decentralisation and increase the involvement of the community in planning and implementing schemes and, thus, increase accountability.

The Amendments left important matters such as implementation, service delivery (including local capacity building) and transfer of responsibilities and powers to rural local bodies at the discretion of the state legislatures. Consequently, while expenditure responsibilities of local bodies are extensively enhanced, there is no law to ensure a corresponding assignment of funds to match the additional responsibilities.

The District Planning Committee was made under the Constitution (74th) Amendment Act, 1992. Accordingly, there shall be a District Planning Committee at the district level to consolidate the plans prepared by the panchayats and municipalities and to prepare a draft development plan for the district as a whole.

  • Village/Ward Committee: Micro visioning & planning – linking vision to individual/family
  • Gram Panchayat:Link vision to own responsibility , resources , decide goal & plan
  • Intermediate Panchayat:Link vision to own responsibility , resources , decide goal & plan
  • Zilla Panchayat:-Link vision to own responsibility , resources , decide goal & plan
  • District Planning Committee :Integration & Consolidation

The Eleventh’ Schedule of the Constitution has recommended 29 subjects for devolution to Panchayats. The most important rationale for decentralized planning is direct involvement of the people in addressing their own development. An intervention which has impact only at the local level and can be organized locally is best left to the Panchayat to organize the same.

Union Parliament and State Legislatures.

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Parliament is the central institution through which the will of the people is expressed, laws are passed and government is held to account. It plays a vital role in a democracy, and endeavours to be truly representative, transparent, accessible, accountable and effective in its many functions. The Parliament has two Houses–Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha is upper House and represents the States of India while the Lok Sabha is lower House.

Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha: 0rganisation and Functions;

The Council of States (Rajya Sabha) is the Upper House of our Parliament. It consists of not more than 250 members, out of which, 238 members represent the States and Union territories and 12 members are nominated by the President from amongst the persons having special knowledge and practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service. At present, the actual strength of Rajya Sabha is 245. A permanent body, Rajya Sabha is not subject to dissolution. However, one-third of its members retire biennially. A member who is elected for a full term retains his membership for six years. He is eligible for re-election. A Member elected/ nominated to a casual vacancy serves for the remainder term only. Members of Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.

Lok Sabha is composed of representative of the people chosen by direct election on the basis of adult suffrage.  The maximum strength of the House envisaged by the Constitution is 552, upto 530 members to represent the States, up to 20 members to represent the Union Territories and not more than two members of the Anglo-Indian Community to be nominated by the President, if,  in his opinion, that community is not adequately represented in the House.  The total elective membership is distributed among the States in such a way that the ratio between the number of seats allotted to each State and the population of the State is, so far as practicable, the same for all States.

The cardinal functions of the Parliament is to oversee the administration, passing of budget, ventilation of public grievances, and discussing various subjects like development plans, international relations, and national policies. The Parliament can, under certain circumstances, assume legislative power with respect to a subject falling within the sphere, exclusively reserved for the states.

The Parliament is also vested with powers to impeach the President, remove judges of Supreme and High Courts, the Chief Election Commissioner, and Comptroller and Auditor General in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Constitution. All legislation requires the consent of both Houses of Parliament. In the case of Money Bills, the will of the Lok Sabha prevails. The Parliament is also vested with the power to initiate amendments in the Constitution.

Articles 168 to 212 in Part VI of the Constitution deal with the organisation, composition, duration, officers, procedures, privileges, powers and so on of the state legislature.In most of the States, the Legislature consists of the Governor and the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha). This means that these State have unicameral Legislature. In a Six States( Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.), there are two Houses of the Legislature namely, Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) and Legislative council (Vidhan Parishad) besides the Governor.Where there are two Houses, the Legislature, is known as bicameral.Five States have the bicameral, legislature. The Legislative Assembly is known as lower House or popular House. The Legislative Council is known as upper House.

There is a Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) in every State. It represents the people of State. The members of Vidhan Sabha are directly elected by people on the basis of universal adult franchise. They are directly elected by all adult citizens registered as voters in the State. All men and women who are 18 years of age and above are eligible to be included in the voters’ List.

There are certain qualifications prescribed by the Constitution for being elected as an M. L. A. The candidate must:

  • be a citizen of India;
  • have attained the age of 25 years;
  • have his/her name in the voters’ list;
  • not hold any office of profit; and
  • not be a government servant.

Subject to the provisions of article 333, the Legislative Assembly of each State shall consist of not more than five hundred, and not less than sixty, members chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the State.

The Legislative council or Vidhan Parishad is partly elected and partly nominated. Most of the members are indirectly elected in accordance with the principle of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote system. Different categories of members represent different interests. The composition of the Legislative Council is as follows:

i. One-third members of the Council are elected by the members of the Vidhan Sabha.
ii. One-third of the members of the Vidhan Parishad are elected by the electorates consisting of members of Municipalities, District Boards and other local bodies in the State;
iii. One-twelfth members are elected by the electorate consisting of graduates in the State with a standing of three years;
iv. One-twelfth members are elected by the electorate consisting of teachers of educatioal institutions within the State not lower in standard than a secondary school who have teaching experience of at least three years;
v. The remaining, i.e. about one-sixth members are nominated by the Governor from amongst the persons having special knowledge in the sphere of literature, science, arts, co-operative movement and social service.

The State Legislature is empowered to make laws on State List and Concurrent List. The Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies have the right to make the laws on the subjects mentioned in the Concurrent List. But in case of contradiction between the Union and State law on the subject the law made by the Parliament shall prevail.

State legislature has exclusive powers over subjects enumerated in List II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution and concurrent powers over those enumerated in List III. Financial powers of legislature include authorisation of all expenditure, taxation and borrowing by the state government. Legislative assembly alone has power to originate money bills. Legislative council can make only recommendations in respect of changes it considers necessary within a period of fourteen days of the receipt of money bills from Assembly. Assembly can accept or reject these recommendations.

State legislatures, apart from exercising the usual power of financial control, use all normal parliamentary devices like questions, discussions, debates, adjournments and no-confidence motions and resolutions to keep a watch over day-to-day work of the executive. They also have their committees on estimates and public accounts to ensure that grants sanctioned by legislature are properly utilised.

REGULATORY GOVERNANCE      

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Regulation refers to “controlling human or societal behaviour by rules or regulations or alternatively a rule or order issued by an executive authority or regulatory agency of a government and having the force of law”. Regulation covers all activities of private or public behaviour that may be detrimental to societal or governmental interest but its scope varies across countries. It can be operationally defined as “taxes and subsidies of all sorts as well as explicit legislative and administrative controls over rates, entry, and other facets of economic activity”.

 

Definition –

 Regulatory Governance can be defined as the furthering of public goals by setting, monitoring, and enforcement of regulations directed at influencing behavior and that involves private parties.

 

There are some ambiguity in these two terms as perceived by many people.

Some more or less conceive of ‘regulation’ and ‘governance’ as synonyms. In this sense, regulation and governance both refer to operations aimed at influencing public goals. Others argue that regulation is only a subset of activities that is encompassed with the overarching term governance. They distinguish regulation from the granting, allocating and distributing of scarce resources. While regulation only indirectly shapes the distribution of scares resources in society by setting, monitoring and enforcing norms and standards, other policies are about the direct distribution or redistribution of scarce resources.In this sense, governance refers to both direct and indirect attempts to achieve public goals by way of ‘providing, distributing, and regulating’.

All contributions deal with setting, monitoring and enforcing norms and standards. Hence, It can be limited the analysis to governancy by regulation and leave out of consideration the subcategory of governance that concerns the direct distribution or redistribution of scarce resources.

 

The second difference in meanings attributed to governance pertains to the relationship between governance and government. Some distinguish governance from contents and actors. Conceived of as such governance concerns modes of social coordination to provide collective goods by regulation regardless of which actors undertake these attempts. According to this definition, governance can also include hierarchical steering by state actors only. Others define governance in terms of the involvement of private parties with the realization of public goals, or ‘beyond government’. Conceived of as such, governance is distinguished from social steering by state agents only, or ‘governance by government’.

 

Important Regulatory Bodies in India

 

  1. RBI – Reserve Bank of India

Sector: Banking & Finance, Monetary Policy

  1. SEBI – Securities and Exchange Board of India

Sector: Securities (Stock) & Capital Market

  1. IRDAI – Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority

Sector: Insurance

  1. PFRDA – Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority

Sector: Pension

  1. NABARD – National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development

Sector: Financing Rural Development

  1. SIDBI – Small Industries Development Bank of India

Sector: Financing Micro, Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises

 

Example – Regulatory Governance in Education  à

 

E Governance

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The “e” in e-Governance stands for ‘electronic’. Thus, e-Governance is basically associated with carrying out the functions and achieving the results of governance through the utilization of ICT (Information and Communications Technology), So it is the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for delivering government services, exchange of information, communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems and services between government-to-customer (G2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government (G2G) as well as back office processes and interactions within the entire government framework.[1] Through e-governance, government services will be made available to citizens in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner. The three main target groups that can be distinguished in governance concepts are government, citizens and businesses/interest groups.

 

Types of Government Interaction in e-governance.

  • G2G: Government to Government 

  • G2C:Government to Citizen 

  • G2B: Government to Business

  • G2E:Government to Employee

 

  1. G2G (Government to Government): When the exchange of information and services is within the periphery of the government, is termed as G2G interaction. This can be both horizontal, i.e. among various government entities and vertical, i.e. between national, state and local government entities and within different levels of the entity.

 

  1. G2C (Government to Citizen): The interaction amidst the government and general public is G2C interaction. Here an interface is set up between government and citizens, which enables citizens to get access to wide variety of public services. The citizens has the freedom to share their views and grievances on government policies anytime, anywhere.

 

  1. G2B (Government to Business): In this case, the e-governance helps the business class to interact with the government seamlessly. It aims at eliminating red-tapism, saving time, cost and establish transparency in the business environment, while interacting with government.

 

  1. G2E (Government to Employees): The government of any country is the biggest employer and so it also deals with employees on a regular basis, as other employers do. ICT helps in making the interaction between government and employees fast and efficient, along with raising their level of satisfaction by providing perquisites and add-on benefits.

E-governance can only be possible if the government is ready for it. It is not a one day task, and so the government has to make plans and implement them before switching to it. Some of the measures include Investment in telecommunication infrastructure, budget resources, ensure security, monitor assessment, internet connectivity speed, promote awareness among public regarding the importance, support from all government departments and so forth.

Benefits of E-governance

  • Reduced corruption
  • High transparency
  • Increased convenience
  • Growth in GDP
  • Direct participation of constituents
  • Reduction in overall cost.
  • Expanded reach of government

Through e-governance, the government plans to raise the coverage and quality of information and services provided to the general public, by the use of ICT in an easy, economical and effective manner. The process is extremely complicated which requires, the proper arrangement of hardware, software, networking and indeed re-engineering of all the processes to facilitate better delivery of services.

E Governance in India

e-Governance in India has transformed to promote inclusive growth that covers electronic services, products, devices and job opportunities. An initiative driving this growth is the Digital India. The Digital India programme is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

National E-governance Plan
The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has been formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in 2006.
The NeGP aims at improving delivery of Government services to citizens and businesses with the following vision: “Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man.”

 

Recent initiatives and Mission mode Projects

§  UID

The unique identification project was conceived as an initiative that would provide identification for each resident across the country and would be used primarily as the basis for efficient delivery of welfare services. It would also act as a tool for effective monitoring of various programs and schemes of the government.

 

  • e-Governance in Municipalities

It is a unique initiative of the Government of India conceptualized under the umbrella of the overall National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (Jnnurm) aimed at improving operational efficiencies within Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

 

§  Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems

Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) MMP aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the efficiency and effective policing at all levels and especially at the Police Station level through adoption of principles of e-Governance, and creation of a nationwide networked infrastructure for evolution of IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system.

 

§  Public Distribution System

Computerization of the PDS is envisaged as an end-to-end project covering key functional areas such as supply chain management including allocation and utilization reporting, storage and movement of food grains, grievance redressal and transparency portal, digitization of beneficiary database, Fair Price Shop automation, etc.

 

§  Health

ICT for programme management has been undertaken by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in the Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) programme and the Ministry envisages a more comprehensive use of ICT including for Hospital Information Systems, supply chain management for drugs and vaccines, providing ICT tools to ASHA and ANM workers.

 

§  e-procurement

Ministry of Commerce & Industry (Department of Commerce) has been nominated as the Nodal Ministry for implementation of e-Government Procurement (e-GP) Mission Mode Projects (MMP).

 

§  e-Courts

The e-Court Mission Mode Project was conceptualized with a vision to transform the Indian judiciary by making use of technology. The project had been developed, following the report submitted by the e-Committee under Supreme Court on national policy & action plan on implementation of information communication tools in Indian judiciary.

 

§  e-Biz

The e-Biz Mission Mode Project, being executed by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, was conceptualized with the vision

 

  • Direct Cash transfer

To facilitate disbursements of Government entitlements like NREGA, Social Security pension, Handicapped Old Age Pension etc. of any Central or State Government bodies, using Aadhaar and authentication thereof as supported by UIDAI.

 

  • M Governance

M-Governance is not a replacement for e-Governance, rather it complements e- Governance. M-Governance, is the use of mobile or wireless to improve Governance service and information “anytime, anywhere”.

  • Mobile Seva

It aims to provide government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets. It has been developed as the core infrastructure for enabling the availability of public services through mobile devices.

 

 

State Executive:-Governor,Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers

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The Governor is the head of the state executive. He is also the representative of the Centre in  the  state.  The Governor acts as the nominal head whereas the real power lies in the hand of the  Chief Ministers of the states and the Chief Minister’s Council of Ministers.

Article 153 of the Constitution states that there shall be a Governor for each State.  One person can be appointed as Governor for two or more States. Article 154 vests the executive power of the State in the Governor.  Article 155 says that “The Governor of a State shall be appointed by the President by warrant under his hand and seal”.  Article 156 provides that “The Governor shall hold office during the pleasure of the President”.  The term of the Governor is prescribed as five years.   The only qualifications for appointment as Governor are that he should be a citizen of India and must have completed the age of thirty-five years.

The powers of the Governor can be categorized as

(i) Executive powers:-Governor is the head of the State executive and The executive power of the State shall be vested in the Governor and shall be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him in accordance with this Constitution.Governor appoints the Chief Minister of the State. Other ministers are also appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. The ministers including the Chief Minister hold office during the pleasure of the Governor.

(ii) Legislative powers:- Governor  has the right of addressing and sending messages, summoning, deferring and dissolving the State Legislature. The Governor inaugurates the state legislature and the first session of each year, by addressing the Assembly, outlining the new administrative policies of the ruling government.The Governor lays before the State Legislature, the annual financial statement and also makes demands for grants and recommendation of ‘Money Bills’.The Governor constitutes the State Finance Commission. He also holds the power to make advances out of the Contingency Fund of the State in the case of any unforeseen circumstances.All bills passed by the Legislative Assembly become a law, only after the Governor approves them. In case it is not a money bill, the Governor holds the right to send it back to the Vidhan Sabha for reconsideration. But if the Vidhan Sabha sends back the Bill to the Governor the second time, then he has to sign it.The  Governor  has  the  power  to  reserve  certain  bills  for  the President. The Governor has the power to promulgate an ordinance when the Legislative Assembly is not in session, and a law has to be brought into effect immediately. However, the ordinance is presented in the state legislature in the next session, and remains operative for a total of six weeks, unless it is approved by the legislature.

 

(iii) Financial powers:-Money bills in the State legislature cannot be introduced without prior recommendation of the Governor.  Governor ensures that the Budget of the state is laid before the assembly every year. The “Contingency Fund of the state” is maintained and administered by the Governor of the state. Governor can advance money out of it for meeting unforeseen expenditures, but the money has to be recuperated with the authority of the state legislature. The Governor of the state receives the report of the States auditor general pertaining to the accounts of the legislature and puts it before the state legislature.

(iv) Judicial powers:-Under Article.161, Governor has the power to grant pardon, reprieve or remission of punishment or to  suspend,  remit or  commute  the  sentences  of  any  person,  convicted  of  any  offence against any law relating to the matter which the executive authority of the state extends.

(v) discretionary powers:-When no party gets a majority in the Legislative Assembly, the Governor can either ask the leader of the single largest party or the consensus leader of two or more parties (that is, a coalition party) to form the government. The Governor then appoints the leader of the largest party as Chief Minister.

Constitution of Indian under article 163 states that  There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, except in so far as he is by or under this Constitution required to exercise his functions or any of them in his discretion.Chief Minister is the head of the government in the State. The Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister as its head exercises real authority at the State level. The Council of Ministers has the following categories of ministers: Cabinet Ministers, Minister of State and Deputy Ministers.

The Chief Minister is the link between the Governor and the council of ministers. He is required to communicate to the Governor the workings of the various wings of the government. Similarly, the advice and suggestions of the Governor are communicated to the council of ministers by the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister has a pivotal role in the financial matters of a state, including the budget, basic infrastructural and developmental priorities of the state, financial planning and economic growth of the state and others.

Functions and powers of Council of Ministers:-

(1) Formulation State Policies. The Council of Ministers has the responsibility of formulating and determining the policies of the state. All the policies are discussed and decided upon by it.
(2) Running Administration. The ministers are responsible for the running the administration of the State in accordance with the policies of the government and the laws passed by the legislature.
(3) Appointment – making powers. The Cabinet, in fact the Chief Minister, makes all appointments in the state. All the appointments of the high dignitaries of the state made by the Governor on the advice of the State Council of Ministers.
(4) Law Making. It is the ministry which really decides the legislative programme. Most of the bills are introduced by the ministers in the state legislature. The Governor summons, prorogues and dissolve the State Legislature upon the advice of the Council of Ministers.

Functions of The Chief Minister:-

  • Chief Minister is the real head of the State Government. Ministers are appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. The Governor allocates portfolios to the ministers on the advice of the Chief Minister.
  • Chief Minister presides over the Cabinet meetings. He/she coordinates the functioning of different ministries. He/she guides the functioning of the Cabinet.
  • Chief Minister plays a key role in framing the laws and policies of the State Government. Bills are introduced by the ministers in the State legislature with his/her approval. He/she is the chief spokesman of the policies of his government both inside and outside the State Legislature.
  • The Constitution provides that the Chief Minister shall communicate to the Governor all decisions of the Council of Ministers relating to the administration and the affairs of the State and proposals for legislation.
  • The Chief Minister furnishes such information relating to the administration of the affairs of the State and proposals for legislation as the Governor may call for.
  • If the Governor so requires, the Chief Minister submits for consideration of the Council of Ministers any matter on which a decision has been taken by a minister but which has not been considered by the Cabinet.
  • The Chief Minister is the sole link of communication between the Cabinet and the Governor. The Governor has the right to be informed by the Chief Minister about the decisions taken by the Council of Ministers.

 

Right To Service    

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Delivering public services in a time bound, decentralised and citizen friendly manner has been one of the major challenges facing the administration wing of the government.

 

Right to Public Services legislation in India comprises statutory laws which guarantee time-bound delivery of various public services rendered to citizens and provides mechanism for punishing the errant public servant if they are is deficient in providing the stipulated services. Hence, Right to Service legislation ensures delivery of time bound services to the public. If the concerned officer fails to provide the service in time, he will have to pay a fine. Thus, it is aimed to reduce corruption among the government officials and to increase transparency and public accountability.

 

Right to Service legislation are meant to reduce corruption among the government officials and to increase transparency and public accountability. Madhya Pradesh became the first state in India to enact Right to Service Act on 18 August 2010 and Bihar was the second to enact this bill on 25 July 2011. Several other states like Bihar, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, HimachalPradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand have introduced similar legislation for effectuating the right to service to the citizen.

 

Our development as a nation is plagued by low literacy levels, poor health, high population, extreme poverty and corruption. In 2014 India ranked 85th out of 175 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index11 indicating there is a long way to go.

 

The three defining indicators that have emerged as main components of good governance, effectively reinforcing democratic principle

 

  1. Transparency and Accessibility: Transparency is described as the “characteristic of governments, companies, organisations and individuals of being open in the clear disclosure of information rules, plans, processes and actions”.

 

  1. Accountability and Timelines: Administrative transparency is a means to ensure accountability, reason the lack of it, and also highlight areas susceptible to corrupt practices, further ensuring that they are not overlooked. Accountability strategies which include checks and balances range from checking resource use, controlling expenditure, internal and external auditing processes, to monitoring mechanisms.

 

  1. Impact and Responsiveness of the Administration: The impact of the efficiency of the system can be gauged by people’s faith and confidence in the same. Citizens have become more articulate and aware and expect the administration to respond not merely to their demands but also anticipate them beforehand. The effectiveness and efficiency of an administration at any level, centre, state or local depends on fully responsive and representational people and institutions, as well as on prioritising service and legal mechanisms to correspond with needs of citizens.

 

The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), “Citizen Centric Administration: The Heart of Governance” endorsed the Sevottam framework and recommended its full implementation in Union and State Governments. Later in 2007, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission recommended that Citizen’s Charters should stipulate penalties for non-compliance followed by The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice recommending giving statutory status to Grievance Redressal mechanisms, in 2008.

 

Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) In June 2007, the DARPG put in place a 24×7 online portal that links 89 ministries/departments/organisations as of now. This web-enabled solution called the CPGRAMS, sought to streamline and integrate the whole process. The CPGRAMS helps in filing, transferring, tracking and monitoring of complaints from both sides—the citizen, and the department-incharge—from any place and at any time.

 

 

The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011

 

The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 20, 2011. The Bill was referred to the Department Related Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.

19 States have Notified/Enacted the bill till yet.

 

The Bill refers to a ‘citizens charter’ which is a document that defines the standard of services to be provided by an entity. The citizens charter will also provide the time frame within which goods and services are to be provided.

  • The Bill requires all public authorities to appoint officers to redress grievances.  Grievances are to be redressed within 30 working days.  The Bill also provides for the appointment of Central and State Public Grievance Redressal Commissions.
  • A penalty of up to Rs 50,000 may be levied upon the responsible officer or the Grievance Redressal Officer for failure to render services.

 

The common framework of the legislations in various states includes, granting of “right to public services”, which are to be provided to the public by the designated official within the stipulated time frame. The public services which are to be granted as a right under the legislations are generally notified separately through Gazette notification. Some of the common public services which are to be provided within the fixed time frame as a right under the Acts, includes issuing caste, birth, marriage and domicile certificates, electric connections, voter’s card, ration cards, copies of land records, etc.

On failure to provide the service by the designated officer within the given time or rejected to provide the service, the aggrieved person can approach the First Appellate Authority. The First Appellate Authority, after making a hearing, can accept or reject the appeal by making a written order stating the reasons for the order and intimate the same to the applicant, and can order the public servant to provide the service to the applicant.

An appeal can be made from the order of the First Appellate Authority to the Second Appellate Authority, who can either accept or reject the application, by making a written order stating the reasons for the order and intimate the same to the applicant, and can order the public servant to provide the service to the applicant or can impose penalty on the designated officer for deficiency of service without any reasonable cause, which can range from Rs. 500 to Rs. 5000 or may recommend disciplinary proceedings. The applicant may be compensated out of the penalty imposed on the officer. The appellate authorities has been granted certain powers of a Civil Court while trying a suit under Code of Civil Procedure.

Arunachal Pradesh Tax and economic reforms

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Arunachal Pradesh Tax and economic reforms

Major Land Mark Economic Reform Goods and Service tax

The launch of GST on July 1, 2017 was indeed a historic occasion and a paradigm shift as India moved towards ‘One Nation, One Tax, One Market’.

Benefits:

  • Consumers – Removal of cascading in taxes and efficiency gains will bring down the overall cost paid by consumers.
  • Trade and Industry –
  1. It will benefit because of uniform single indirect tax throughout the country, seamless flow of input tax credit, removal of tax related barriers ate inter-state borders, reduced logistic costs, end to end IT enabled system and minimal interface with tax authorities.
  2. Exports will become more competitive and Make in India programme will get a major fillip due to increased ease of doing business and protection from cheap imports as all imports will be subject to integrated GST, in addition to the basic custom duty.
  • Manufacturers – They will be able to take rational decisions with regard to sourcing of raw materials, location of manufacturing and warehousing facilities.
  • Central and State Governments – Will witness tax buoyancy and the tax collection costs will reduce significantly.
  • Ease of doing business –
  1. Simpler tax regime with fewer exemption
  2. Reduction in compliance costs – no multiple record keeping for a variety of taxes so lesser manpower needed
  3. Simplified and automated procedures for various processes such as registration, returns, refunds etc.
  4. All interaction to be through the common GSTN portal – minimal public interface between the tax payers and administration
  5. Harmonization of laws, procedures and rates of taxes

Need for Constitutional Amendment:

  • Indian constitution had clearly demarcated the fiscal powers between Centre and States as per the entries in Union and State list.
  • Centre – Levy tax on the manufacture of goods (except alcoholic liquor for human consumption, opium, narcotics etc.). Centre, alone, is also empowered to levy service tax.
  • State – Levy tax on the sale of goods.
  • In case on inter-state sales, the Centre had power to levy tax (the Central Sale Tax) by the tax was collected and retained entirely by the states.
  • Amendment concurrently empowered the Centre and States to levy and collect GST.

Journey to launch of GST in India:

  • The idea of GST was first mooted in 2000 and a committee was set up under the chairmanship of Asim Dasgupta (the then West Bengal Finance Minister).
  • In 2003, another task force under Vijay Kelkar to recommend tax reforms were formed.
  • During the presentation of 2006-07 union budget, the govt. proposed to introduce GST from April 1, 2010.
  • The constitutional amendment (122nd) bill was introduced in 2014 and finally became act in September 2016. It became the 101st Amendment act.

Constitution (101st Amendment) Act 2016:

  • It empowers both, the Centre and the States, to levy and collect GST.
  • The GST has been defined as a tax on supply of goods or services or both, except supply of alcoholic liquor for human consumption.
  • Thus, alcohol for human consumption has been kept out of the GST by way of the definition of GST in the constitution.
  • On the other hand, five petroleum products viz. petroleum crude, motor spirit (petrol), high speed diesel, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel have temporarily been kept out and GST council would decide the date from which they shall be inducted in GST.
  • Inter-State supply of goods and services (Integrated GST, IGST) would be levied and collected by Centre. It will ensure that the GST is truly destination based consumption tax and there is seamless flow of input tax credit, even when goods and services are moving from one state to another state.

The GST Council of Arunachal Pradesh Tax and economic reforms:

  • The guiding principle of the GST Council is to ensure harmonization of different aspects of GST between the Centre and the States as well as among States with a view to develop a harmonized national markets for goods and services within India.
  1. Chairperson – Union FM,Arunachal Pradesh Tax and economic reforms
  2. Vice Chairperson – to be chosen amongst the ministers of State Govt.
  3. Members – MOS (Finance) and all Ministers of Finance/Taxation of each state
  4. Quorum – 50% of total members
  5. States – 2/3 weightage and Centre – 1/3 weightage
  6. Decision by 75% majority (the weightage of voting has been so assigned that it is not possible for either the Centre or the states to take any decision unilaterally)
  • However, till now all the decisions in the council have been taken by consensus and there has not been any occasion for voting.
  • The difficult issue of cross empowerment and administrative division of tax payers between the states and center was resolved in a true spirit of give and take.
  • Council to make recommendations on everything related to GST including laws, rules and rates etc.
  • The newly created constitutional body, the GST Council, has emerged as a new model of cooperative federalism, where the centre and the states are willing to share and pool in their sovereignty and give fiscal space to each other.

Compensation to the Arunachal Pradesh Tax and economic reforms:

  • As GST is a destination based tax, there was an apprehension that many manufacturing states might lose revenue after implementation of GST.
  • Hence, the act provides for the compensation to the States for loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of GST for a period of 5 years.
  • The compensation act has fixed the revenues of the year 2015-16 as the base year revenues and further a nominal annual growth rate of 14% has been provided.
  • The Act provides for levying of a cess, which shall be used for compensation to the states in case there is loss of revenue. This cess shall be levied on luxury items and goods.

Deciding Tax Rates of Arunachal Pradesh Tax and economic reforms:

  • While deciding tax rates, the council has tried to achieve balance between three objective:
  • To ensure that interests of poor and vulnerable sections of the society are protected and goods of mass consumption and essential commodities remain at affordable level.
  • To ensure that the overall revenues of the States and the Centre are protected.
  • To see that the tax incidence on the goods and services does not increase or decrease substantially from the present incidence of tax.
  • Hence four tax rates of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% slabs have been decided.

Supporting Medium and Small Enterprises:

  • The law provides for an exemption threshold where by it is not mandatory for a business whose aggregate turnover in a financial year is less than Rs. 20 lakh ( Rs. 10 lakh for special category states) to register.
  • There is also a composition scheme under which an eligible registered person, whose aggregate turnover in preceding financial year did not exceed Rs. 75 lakhs can opt to file summarized returns on a quarterly basis.
  • The taxpayers dealing in goods and restaurant sector can only opt for the composition
  • Under the composition scheme, the manufacturer will pay tax at the rate of 1%, restaurant sector @ 2.5% and traders @ 0.5% of the turnover each under CGST act and SGST act.
  • However, the service providers and the tax payers making inter-state supplies or making supplies through e-commerce operators are not eligible for composition scheme.

Tracking Tax leakages and Corruption:

  • The mechanism of matching of invoices will ensure that the input tax credit of purchased goods and services will only be available if the taxable supplies received by the buyers get matched against the taxable supplies received by the suppliers.
  • The GST Network is responsible for the IT backbone and is geared to generate more than 3 billion invoices per month.
  • It will check tax frauds, tax evasion and would bring more and more businesses into formal economy.
  • Tax payers can register, file returns and make payment of taxes on a single portal on the
  • Even in rare case, if the tax payer is to interact with the tax authorities, he will have to interact with only one authority either from the State govt. or from the Central govt.

Conclusion:

The launch of GST is a transformative reform and will change the way businesses are done in India. Radical change of this magnitude is bound to bring about some pain bu the gains of little pain are going to be many and long lasting for the Indian economy.

 

Citizen Centric Governance

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The “key word” to be used in this is the “citizens engagement” in the various phases of the service definition, development, refining and monitoring, and the whole concept of user-centric services is based on “putting the citizen (user) at the centre of innovative services” starting from enabling of a specific procedure: citizens shall be involved in the user-centric services development driven by what users want and operate on a scale that is relevant to them.

The whole approach can be actualised through very different ways and using very different tools, often not only ICT-based; public workshops and consultation are still a powerful instrument to create a co-operative debate

Indeed ICT is only a tool, both for information gathering and information delivering, as we can elicit useful information through face-to-face discussions, and the first challenge is to define the most suitable interface for users/citizens we shall use to empower the citizen to interact.

Citizen-centric governance means also creating a so-called ‘smart environment’ that see the users/citizens as their main stakeholders. The user-centricity will be the basis for adopting a shared approach: people living in a smart multimodal environment which maximizes the economies of scope and scale across its multiple infrastructure layers. Here, the ‘smartness’ shall not be referred uniquely to the technologies, but includes a broader view of ensuring a minimum QoS for public and private services, the direct contact and management of the resources in the territory, the coopetition among citizens and the other actors (government, industry, academia) working together to co-drive structural changes. It’s the application of the Quadruple Helix model, introduced within the Open Innovation 2.0 (OI20) main vision, and applied to the territorial open government.

The ideal citizen centric governance scenario might be described as one with freedom of choice to participate in the design, delivery and review of public services with governments that focus on enabling user initiating and implementing levels. However, realising this relies on a number of factors, among all the interactivity and including active citizen participation through discussion, dialogue and debate, possibly supported by social networks and platforms. It has been emphasised that techniques such as narratives, games or even art may be important vehicles for expressing evidence and forming opinion.

Following this preliminary analysis, and keeping in mind that an informed citizenry might engage with experts from many domains in generating scenarios for improving the quality of urban life and urban performance, we can list some initial recommendation targeted to the Community at large:

  • It’s important to assess methodologies for users and citizens’ engagement that imply the active participation of users especially in the phase of the service definition. Empowering citizens to be decision makers: individuals, small communities and organizations can participate in the entire decision making process in a manner that was not possible earlier.

 

  • The use of new technologies and the 2.0 tools through mobile devices empowers the co-participation of users, being these the interface that almost all citizens and users are going to use for the management of all the information of his/her daily life. The focus shall be on ways in which citizens can first access information about what is happening in their communities and cities but also explore ways in which a wide range of different groups can become actively involved in the design and planning process, both remotely and in face-to-face situations using data, models and scenarios all informed by contemporary ICT.

 

  • The business perspective for the service’ sustainability is a boundary requirement when thinking about the need of provision of added-value content information. More users, more trust, more engagement, more feedback, more info to be elaborated by third parties.

 

  • Core Principles for Making Governance Citizen Centric

 

 

  • In our country there is a tendency for some enforcement agencies not to rigorously enforce the provisions of law. This is particularly evident in case of traffic related violations, civic offences, infringement of pollution control laws etc. For their part, sometimes, the citizens are equally to blame for flouting rules with impunity and without regard to public health, safety and consideration for others. A crackdown on these types of offences in some cities like Delhi, whether enforced by Courts or otherwise, have tended to operate as campaigns and may therefore be unable to create and sustain a long term impact because they are driven by personalities or by court verdicts rather than by the institutions themselves.
  • Hence all public agencies should adopt a zero tolerance strategy towards crime, in order to create a climate of compliance with laws leading to maintenance of public order. This strategy should be institutionalized in the various public agencies by creating appropriate statistical databases, backed up by modern technology, to monitor the level and trends of various types of offences and link these to a system of incentives and penalties for the officials working in these agencies. It should be combined with initiatives to involve the community in crime prevention measures. The core principles for making governance citizen centric are:
  • Making Institutions Vibrant, Responsive and Accountable
  • Active Citizens’ Participation – Decentralization and Delegation
  • Transparency
  • Civil Service Reforms
  • Ethics in Governance
  • Process Reforms
  • Periodic & Independent Evaluation of the Quality of Governance

 

Citizen expects good governance and high quality performance from Government. Good governance brings prosperity. Instead bad governance, brings conflict result in civil war, as it restricts opportunities of its citizen which make them frustrated.

Having said all this, it is important to re-iterate that the success of the governance depends on proper policy making and policy implementation which in turn depends on the successful implementation of different methodologies of good governance at the ground level rather than managerial skills of the administrators, mainly because of the in-built variable and dynamic nature of the problems wherein the success of the decisions more depend on whether the understanding of the administrator is congruent to the nucleus of the problem as it was perceived by the public at large. Further not only the administrators are expected to identify the issues but also the relative weights which needs to ascribed to the various issues and their related aspects. Lastly the manner in which the issues are addressed again is very organic and fluid which ascribes ultimate importance to the sensitivities and perceptions of the clientele in accordance with the situational features. Thus, participation of all stakeholders as government, judiciary, institutions, civil society and citizens are necessary to bring good governance.

 

Main Features of Arunachal Economy

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Main Features of Arunachal Economy

Introduction

  • The economy of Arunachal Pradesh is predominantly agrarian. Agriculture and allied activities have overriding importance as a source of livelihood to the people of Arunachal Pradesh.
  • The State’s economy is characterized by persistent stringent financial situation marked by a very low level of State’s own resources co-existing with high level of borrowing.
  • The State has been suffering from impaired economic development due to bottlenecks in development of roads, civil aviation etc. in terms of per capita State Domestic Product and other development indices such as power, road length, Arunachal Pradesh ranks below national average.
  • Arunachal Pradesh is one of the Special Category States and is largely dependent on Central Assistance for Plan investment as the scope of internal mobilization of resources is limited in Arunachal Pradesh in view of low tax base. Therefore, the prime mover of the growth of the economy has been the flow of funds from the Centre.
  • The relatively isolated economies of the tribal communities of the area, which were later reorganized as Arunachal Pradesh, were gradually integrated into the larger economy only after independence, and more particularly after the Indo-China war of 1962. Apart from the relatively late exposure to modernization, another specificity of the historical transformation of the Arunachal economy was the role of the State as the prime mover in this process of gradual transformation and integration of the economy.
  • Arunachal Pradesh has now witnessed remarkable social and economic changes within a comparatively short period of time. The State’s economy has not only experienced a remarkable growth over the past decades, it has diversified from agriculture and forestry based subsistence economy into a market economy.
  • In 1970-71 the per capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) of Arunachal Pradesh was 56.14 percent of the per capita national income. Starting from a very low base, Arunachal’s per capita income increased at a faster rate than the country’s national income.
  • The predominantly barter economies are in the process of being transformed into a monetized economy. The market institutions are still underdeveloped in many respects, and there is a great deal of regional variations in the degree of integration with the market economy.
  • There is a significant change in terms of land tenure system, which is steadily leading to individual ownership by making collective ownership (clan, village, community ownership) a marginal phenomenon. In urban or semi-urban areas, land became a commodity for earning cash and ‘brewing social conflicts’
  • Subsistence nature of farming coupled with modern consumption structure is the driving force behind the changing economic institutions in Arunachal Pradesh. The rural urban migration, due to pull factors in the state, has resulted in substantial increase in employment in service sector. Thus, the process of modernization has led to the transformation of the traditional economic institutions in the State.
  • In the context of Arunachal Pradesh, power sector is the most vital infrastructure input for socio- economic development and has assumed centre stage because of huge hydropower potential.
  • At the time of independence there were less than 100 km. of dirt roads. At the time attaining statehood in 1987 the total road length was only 3419 km and today it stands at 21066.36 km i.e., 25.16 km/ 100 sq. km a quantum jump in progress.
  • The prospect of creating an industrial base in the state seems daunting in the light of the ecological and economic specificities of the state. However, a carefully designed strategy for establishing specific industries having strong forward and backward linkages has been envisaged in the New Industrial Policy-2008 of the State.

Economic Reforms

The Government of Arunachal Pradesh has been pursuing economic reforms for speedy development. There has been a significant fiscal correction in the last couple of years. Major reforms initiated by the State are

  • The State has taken various measures to curtail non-plan and unproductive expenditure and to increase State’s Own tax and non-tax revenue. The State’s own tax which was around Rs. 37.00 crore has now jumped to above Rs.80 crore this year. Because of various initiatives in development of hydropower, mines and minerals etc. The non-tax revenue is also increasing substantially.Main Features of Arunachal Economy
  • The State Govt. has enacted the ‘Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act 2006’ and in accordance the ‘Arunachal Pradesh Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Rule 2007’ have been framed to ensure prudence in fiscal management.
  • Mobilization of State’s own resource is pre-requisite for financing the annual plan. The Finance Department is in constant touch with revenue generating departments and monitoring meticulously for greater revenue generation.
  • The gross fiscal deficit which was at 13.85% of GSDP in 2004-05 has been reduced to 3.57 in 2007-08. • Serious restrictions have been put for the non-developmental expenditure including the post creation. • The Plan schemes are now being executed in Project Mode with the introduction of the concept of non-divertible earmarked allocation. The State Govt. has constituted very high level committee under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to scrutinize the project proposals.
  • The State Govt. has notified “Hydro Electric Power Policy 2008” to accelerate investments in development of hydro power projects having installed capacity above 25 MW. The Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh had also announced “Small Hydro Power Policy 2007“for small hydro power projects upto an installed capacity of 25 MW.
  • The State PWD has reduced its manpower by 7000 Nos. through VRS. It will lead a saving of Rs. 30.00 crore per year. Other departments with surplus man-power are also working out the modalities.
  • To minimize the burden of committed liabilities of salary, Government of Arunachal Pradesh has transferred 13265 Nos. Plan posts of 37 Nos. departments from 7th Five Year Plan onwards during Annual Plan 2008-09 in the first phase. Transfer of remaining 8 Nos departments as well as committed liabilities of 8 departments will be taken care in the second phase during Annual Plan 2009-10. As a result provision Direction and Administration has been reduced to 27.69% during 2008-09 compared to 44.14% during Annual Plan 2007-008.

 

Union Executive:-President,Vice President, Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers

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Union Executive:-President

The Union executive consists of the President, the Prime minister and the Council of ministers.

Powers and functions of The President of India

The President is the head of the Indian State. He is the first citizen of India and acts as the symbol of unity, integrity and solidarity of the nation. Article 52 of our constitution provides for a President of India .

Article53 (1) says that the executive power of the union shall be vested in the President and shall be exercised by him either by directly or through officers subordinate to him in the constitution.

Article 53(2) declares the President as the supreme commander of the defence forces and exercise of his power would be regulated by law.

Executive Powers of President: The Constitution of India vests the executive powers of the Union in the President.

  • He/She appoints the Prime Minister, who is the leader of the majority party or group of parties having majority in the lower house, the Lok Sabha.
  • He/She also appoints other members of the Council of Ministers on the recommendations of the Prime Minister.
  • All executive actions of the Union must be expressed to be taken in the name of the President.
  • He/She also appoints Governors in the States, the Attorney General of India, the Comptroller and the Auditor General of India, the Ambassadors and High Commissioners as well as the Administrators of the Union Territories.
  • He/She also appoints the Chairman and Members of the Union Public Service Commission as well as the Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
  • The President is the supreme commander of the Armed Forces and appoints the Chiefs of the three wings, Army, Airforce and Navy.

Legislative Powers of the President

  • President summons both the Houses of the Parliament for sessions.
  • President also prorogues the sessions.
  • President is also responsible for dissolving the Lok Sabha.
  • The first session of each year and the first session of newly elected Lok Sabha after the general elections begin with the address of the President.
  • President can nominate two members in the Lok Sabha belonging to the Anglo Indian community.
  • President has the power to send messages to the Parliament.
  • President can nominate 12 members to the Rajya Sabha.
  • President submits the reports of UPSC, Finance Commission etc. to the Parliament. the assent of the President. To introduce certain bills in the
  • No bill can become a law without Parliament, prior permission of the President is required. E.g. Money bills.
  • President possesses Veto power.
  • President has Ordinance making power under Article 123.

Financial Powers of The President

  • All money bills are introduced in the Lok Sabha only with the prior approval of the President.
  • The President has the control over Contingency Fund of India. It enables her to advance
    money for the purpose of meeting unforeseen expenses.
  • Annual budget and railway budget are introduced in the Lok Sabha on the recommendation of the President.
  •  The President appoints the Finance Commission after every five years. It makes recommendations to the President on some specific financial matters, especially the distribution of Central taxes between the Union and the States.
  • The President also receives the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, and has it laid in the Parliament.

Diplomatic Powers of The President:

  • The President has the power of appointing Indian Ambassadors to other countries
  • He receives ambassadors, High Commissions and diplomatic envoys from foreign Nations.
  • All treaties and international agreements are concluded in the name of the President.
  • The president represents India in International Conferences.

Judicial Powers of the President

  • The President, as head of state, can pardon a criminal or reduce the punishment or suspen cummute or remit the sentence of a criminal convicted by the Supreme Court or High Courts for an offence against the federal laws.
  • Presidents pardoning power comprises of Pardon, reprieve, remission, respite and commutation.
  • The President can pardon a person convicted by a Court Martial. His/her power of pardon includes granting of pardon even to a person awarded death sentence. But, the President performs this function on the advice of Law Ministry.
  • Advisory Jurisdiction under Article 143 also comes under judicial powers of the President.

Emergency Powers of the President:-

  • Article 352: Proclamation of Emergency – due to external intrusion or war the President of India can declare a state of emergency through a Proclamation. This Article suggests that such a Proclamation can be revoked or a varied Proclamation can also be issued. However, the decision of the Cabinet ministers to issue such a proclamation must be sent to the President in written form prior to his issuance of the same. According to the Article, all such Proclamations should be presented to both the Houses of the Parliament. The Proclamations, if not accepted by a resolution, will be counted as ineffective after one month. If the Proclamation is not accepted after the passing of a second resolution, then it will become ineffective after the expiry of 6 months of the second resolution. It is also mentioned in the Article that not less than two-thirds of the members of any of the Parliamentary Houses should be required to pass a resolution. There are certain rules specified in this Article regarding the President revoking or issuing a varied Proclamation during Emergency.
  • Article 353: Effect of Proclamation of Emergency – this Article states that the Proclamation of Emergency includes extending the executive power of the union to the states in the form of directions. The Parliament, as per this Article, can confer the power to make laws, upon the officers or authorities of the Union.
  •  Article 354: Application of provisions relating to distribution of revenues while a Proclamation of Emergency is in operation – provisions made under Articles 268 to 279 can be modified or exceptions can be made by the President of India by an Order while the Proclamation period of emergency is going on. Information about all such Orders must be conveyed to both the Houses of Parliament.
  • Article 355: Duty of the Union to protect States against external aggression and internal disturbance – this Article states the fact that the Union or Center is solely responsible for defending the various states from all types of violence and aggressions erupting from outside and disturbances occurring within the nation’s territory.
  • Article 356: Provisions in case of failure of constitutional machinery in States – the President of India can take charge of a state if the reports submitted to him by the Governor suggest that the government of the state has become incapable of exercising the Constitutional powers. The President is also subjected to exercise the powers of the government of such state by Proclamation. The Proclamation issued under such circumstances become ineffective after 6 months from the date of issuance, if not revoked during this time period. All such Proclamations have to be presented to both the Houses of Indian Parliament and will expire after two months. The Legislative powers of such state shall also be exercised by the Parliament. In the Houses of Parliament there are certain rules and regulations regarding the expiry of the Proclamation and the time period normally depends upon the fact whether it has been revoked earlier or not.
  • Article 357: Exercise of legislative powers under Proclamation issued under article 356 – the powers of the Legislature shall be exercised by the Parliament during emergency. The Parliament has the right to delegate Legislative powers to the President of India or any such authority. The President of India, after the Proclamation of Article 356, can make laws and shall have access to the consolidated fund during the time period when the House of the People is not in operation.
  • Article 358: Suspension of provisions of article 19 during emergencies – any provision under Article 19 will not be effective during emergency and the states can make law and undertake executive action. However, only those laws and executive actions containing recital related to emergency during the Proclamation of Emergency are effective as per the Article.
  • Article 359: Suspension of the enforcement of the rights conferred by Part III during emergencies – the President of India can suspend all ongoing proceedings in any court of the nation during emergencies by an Order. The President can also call upon all pending court proceedings in case of emergencies. All such orders declaring the suspension of court proceedings have to be submitted to both the Houses of Parliament.
  • Article 360: Provisions as to financial emergency – a declaration shall be made by the President of India through a Proclamation regarding the financial crisis of the nation if such situation arises. Such a Proclamation can be revoked and has to be presented in both the Houses of the Parliament. The Proclamation thus issued will become null and void after two months if the same is not approved through a resolution passed by the Houses of Parliament. In case the Houses are not in session the Article suggests certain specific guidelines regarding the Proclamation. This Article also includes provisions relating to the salary and allowance reduction of those who are employed with Union and state departments. A provision relating to money bills and other financial bills passed by the state Legislature is mentioned in the Article. This provision states that all such bills have to be considered by the President during financial instability.

Vice President

Vice-President performs a dual role : (1) as Vice-President (2) as the Chairman of Rajya Sabha. The Vice-President is the ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha which means that whosoever is the Vice-President, he/she presides over the Rajya Sabha and performs normal duties of a presiding officer. These include maintenance of order in the House, allowing members to speak and ask questions, and putting bills and motions to vote.

He/She is elected by an electoral college which consists of the members of both Houses of the Parliament. He/She is

elected according to the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferrable vote, and the voting is by secret ballot.

The  Vice-President  can  be  removed  from  his  office  by  a  resolution  of  the  Rajya  Sabha passed by its members and agreed by Lok Sabha. At least fourteen days’ notice is necessary before such resolution is moved.

The Vice-President is the ex-officio Chairman of Rajya Sabha which means that whosoever is the Vice-President, he/she presides over the Rajya Sabha and performs normal duties of a presiding officer. These include maintenance of order in the House, allowing members to speak and ask questions, and putting bills and motions to vote. Since the Vice-President is not a member of the Rajya Sabha, he/she cannot vote in the House. But, in case of a tie (equality of votes in favour and against a bill), the Vice President exercises his/her casting vote so that a decision can be reached.

If ever a vacancy arises in the office of President, due to death, resignation or impeachment, the Vice-President officiates as the President for not more than six months (see above). During that period, he enjoys all powers of the President, and does not preside over the House when he officiates as President.

In case the President is temporarily unable to discharge his/her functions, the Vice-President may be called upon to discharge his/her functions, without becoming officiating President.

 

Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers

The executive powers of the President are exercised by the Council of Ministers. The Constitution provides that “there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President in the excercise of his functions”. Here the word “shall” indicates that the President cannot function without the Council of Ministers. The President is the constitutional head of State, but the real Head of the government is the Prime Minister.

The Constitution of India provides for a parliamentary system of government and, therefore, divides the executive into two parts: the nominal and real executive. The President of India is the nominal executive and the Council of Ministers is the real executive which works under the leadership of Prime Minister. Article 74, 75, and 78 of the constitution provide for provisions relating to the council of Ministers and the Prime Minister.

The  Prime  Minister  shall  be  appointed  by  the  President  and  other  Ministers  shall  be appointed by the President upon the advice of the Prime Minister. The Ministers hold office during the  pleasure  of  the  President.  The  council  of  Ministers  shall  be  collectively  responsible  to  the  Lok  Sabha.   A minister  who  for  any  period  of  six  consecutive  months  is  not  a  member  of  the Parliament shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister.

The Prime Minister being the head of the Council of Ministers, selects the Ministers to be sworn in by the President. The Ministers in fact are chosen by the Prime Minister and remain Ministers as long as they enjoy the confidence of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister distributes portfolios among Ministers. The President can change the portfolios as and when he desires. The Prime Minister can drop a Minister or ask for his/her resignation. The Prime Minister presides over the meetings of the Cabinet and conducts its proceedings. As head of the Cabinet, he/she largely influences the decisions of the Cabinet. The Prime Minister co-ordinates the working of various ministers.

The Prime Minister, as the leader of the Lok Sabha, is also the leader of the Parliament. In the  capacity  as  the  leader  of  the  majority  party  it  is  he  who  decides,  in  consultation  with  the Speaker, the complete agenda of the house. The summoning and proroguing of the house is decided upon by him. He can address each house of the Parliament but can vote only in the house to which he  belongs.  The  Prime  Minister  has  the  most  effective  power  to  ask  for  dissolution  of  the  Lok Sabha.

The Prime Minister is the Ex-officio Chairman of the Planning Commission (Now NITI Ayog) as well as of the National Development Council. He/She represents the nation at the international conferences as the head of the government.

Constitution of India states that “There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice: Provided that the President may require the Council of Ministers to reconsider such advice, either generally or otherwise, and the President shall act in accordance with the advice tendered after such reconsideration.”