[Indian Year Book 2022-23]* Indian Year Book Notes | Chapter 3. Polity

 

Indian Year Book

(2022-23)

Chapter – 3. Polity

 

INDIA, a union of states, is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic with a parliamentary system of government. The Republic is governed in terms of the Constitution, which was adopted by Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949 and came into force on January 26, 1950. The Constitution which envisages parliamentary form of government is federal in structure with unitary features.

Ø  The President of India is the constitutional head of executive of the union.

Ø  Article 74(1) of the Constitution provides that there shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head to aid and advise the President who shall in exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice.

Ø  The real executive power thus vests in the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as its head.

Ø  The Constitution distributes legislative power between Parliament and State Legislatures and provides for vesting of residual powers in Parliament. The power to amend the Constitution also vests in Parliament. The Constitution has provision for independence of Judiciary, Comptroller and Auditor-General, Public Service Commissions and Chief Election Commission.

Ø  Both Houses of Parliament have a similar committee structure, with few exceptions. Their appointment, terms of offi ce, functions and procedure of conducting business are also more or less similar and are regulated as per rules made by the two Houses under Article 118(1) of the Constitution.

Union and its Territory

Ø  India comprises 28 states and eight union territories. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 was enacted (MHA, SO No. 3979 (E) dated November 2, 2019) to provide for reorganisation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into the two union territories—one to be eponymously called Jammu and Kashmir, and the other Ladakh.

 

Citizenship

 Citizenship (Amendment) Act

Ø  The amended Act makes foreign illegal migrants of six religious communities, i.e., Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship.

Ø  It is applicable to those who have taken shelter in India due to persecution on grounds of religion or fear of such persecution in their countries and have entered into India on or before December 31, 2014.

Ø  The Third Schedule to the Act has been amended to make applicants belonging to the said communities from the three countries eligible for citizenship by naturalisation, if they can establish their residency in India for fi ve years instead of the previous requirement of eleven years.

Ø  The provisions of the Act, however, do not apply to tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the areas where ‘The Inner Line Permit’ is applicable including the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur.

 

Fundamental Rights

Ø  The Constitution offers all citizens, individually and collectively, some basic freedoms. These are guaranteed in the Constitution in the form of six broad categories of Fundamental Rights which are justiciable. Articles 12 to 35 contained in Part III of the Constitution deal with Fundamental Rights.

 Directive Principles of State Policy

Ø  The Constitution lays down certain Directive Principles of State Policy, which though not justiciable, are ‘fundamental in governance of the country’ and it is the duty of the state to apply these principles in making laws. These have been contained in Part IV from Articles 36 to 51 of the Constitution.

The Union Executive

Ø  The Union executive consists of the President, the Vice-President and the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister as the head to aid and advise the President.

 

 Legislature

Ø  Legislature of the Union which is called Parliament consists of the President and two Houses, known as Council of States (Rajya Sabha), and House of the People (Lok Sabha). Each House has to meet within six months of its previous sitting. A joint sitting of two Houses can be held in certain cases.

 Leaders of Opposition in Parliament

Ø  The Leaders of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha are accorded statutory recognition. Salary and other suitable facilities are extended to them through a separate legislation brought into force on November 1, 1977.

 Government Business in Parliament

Ø  The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs is entrusted with coordinating, planning and arranging government business in both Houses of Parliament. In discharge of this function, he is assisted by two ministers of state.

 Consultative Committees

Ø  Functioning of Consultative Committees of Members of Parliament for various ministries is one of the functions allocated to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs under the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961.

Ø  The minimum membership of a Consultative Committee is ten and the maximum membership is thirty.

Ø  The Consultative Committee stands dissolved upon dissolution of every Lok Sabha and are reconstituted upon constitution of each Lok Sabha.

 

Parliamentary Committees

 Cabinet Secretariat

Ø  The Cabinet Secretariat functions directly under the Prime Minister.

Ø  The administrative head of the Secretariat is the Cabinet Secretary who is also the ex-offi cio Chairmen of the Civil Services Board.

Ø  The business allocated to Cabinet Secretariat is

Ø  secretarial assistance to the Cabinet and Cabinet Committees; and

Ø  rules of business

Ø  It facilitates smooth transaction of business in ministries/departments of the government by ensuring adherence to these rules.

Ø  It assists in decision-making by ensuring inter-ministerial coordination, ironing out differences amongst ministries/departments and evolving consensus through the instrumentality of the standing and ad hoc Committees of Secretaries.

 

 National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention

Ø  The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons is a multilateral international treaty which outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors. The CWC came into force with effect from 1997.

Ø  The National Authority for Chemical Weapons Convention (NACWC) was set up as an offi ce of the Cabinet Secretariat, on behalf of the Government of India, the obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and to act as the national focal point for effective liaison with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and other state parties on matters relating to the Convention.

National Disaster Management Authority

Ø  In 2005, the government enacted the Disaster Management Act, which envisaged the creation of National Disaster Management Authority, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, headed by the Prime Minister, and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by respective Chief Ministers, to spearhead and implement a holistic and integrated approach to disasters management in the country.

Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances

Ø  The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) is the nodal agency of the Government of India for administrative reforms as well as redressal of public grievances relating the states in general and those pertaining to central government agencies in particular

 

Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration

Ø  Government of India instituted ‘Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration’ to acknowledge, recognize and reward the extraordinary and innovative work done by offi cers of the central and state governments.

 Civil Services Day

Ø  The Government of India celebrates April, 21 every year as ‘Civil Services Day’ for the civil servants to rededicate themselves to the cause of citizens and renew their commitment to public service and excellence in work.

National Conference on e-Governance

Ø  The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) along with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in association with one of the state governments organises the National Conference on e-Governance every year since 1997.

 National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment

Ø  National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) aims at assessing the states, UTs and central ministries on the depth and effi ciency of e- Governance service delivery.

Ø  The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) bring out the UN e-Government Survey every two years which provides an analysis of progress in using e-Government.

Ø  ndia stood at 118 in 2014 which improved to 107 in 2016 and 96 in 2018, out of 193 member countries.

 e-Offi ce Project

Ø  e-Offi ce is one of the important Mission Mode Projects for implementing the Digital India Plan.

Ø  The DAR & PG is the administrative ministry for ensuring e-Offi ce implementation.

Ø  It aims to increase the usage of workfl ow and rule based fi le routing, quick research and retrieval of fi les and offi ce order, digital signatures, forms and reporting components.

 Dashboard for Covid-19 Grievances

Ø  During preventive lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, DARPG started special drive to redress lock down and Covid-19 related grievances in shortest possible time. To ensure dedicated monitoring of those grievances a separate National Monitoring Dashboard for Covid-19 grievances was created.

Ø  All central ministries and state governments have nominated a nodal offi cer for prompt disposal of such grievances.

 Good Governance Index

Ø  DARPG has developed Good Governance Index (GGI) for ten key sectors across 50 indicators. These indicators can be used to assess the status of governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the state governments and the union territories for improving governance.

Ø  First edition of GGI was released by DARPG on December 25, 2020 on the occasion of Good Governance Day.

 Integration of Awaaz-e-Awam with CPGRAMS

Ø  Public grievance portal of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been integrated with Centralized Public Grievance Portal of Government of India for seamless transfer of grievances to the authorities responsible for redressal and effective monitoring for their prompt disposal.

 

National Centre of Good Governance

Ø  National Centre of Good Governance (NCGG) is an autonomous institute under DARPG which serves as a think tank for governance and policy reforms, cutting across administrative, social, economic and fi nancial spheres.

Ø  It functions as a national repository on information on best practices, initiatives and methodologies that promote good governance, e-Governance, innovation and change management within the government.

 

 

 

**********