Page 203 - SST Class 07

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State Government —
Its Working
In a federal form of government, the state gov-
ernment is the government of a country’s subdi-
visions and shares political power with the
national government.
In the constitution of India, which is a sovereign
socialist secular democratic republic, the country
has three levels of governments— the Central,
the States and the Union Territories, besides the
third level of governments, comprising the
panchayats in rural areas and municipalities in
urban areas. In India, the state governments are
the level of government below the central gov-
ernment. Each state of the country is governed
by the state government. There are 28 states and
3 union territories (Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir,
Puducherry) in our country, each of which is
headed by the governor and the Chief Minister
(CM). The CM also heads the Council of
Ministers.
The State government consists of a Governor,
Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers.
These form the State Executive. In addition, we
have the State Legislature which is composed of
two houses — Legislative Assembly and
Legislative Council. The State Executive func-
tions with the help of administrators at the state
level. These constitute the secretaries, civil
servants, magistrate, etc., at the state and district
level within the state.
STRUCTURE OF THE STATE
GOVERNMENT
Executive : State Executive comprises of the
governor and the chief minister with his Council
of Ministers. The Governor of each state is
appointed by the President for a period of five
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years. Executive power of the state is vested in
the Governor. But, the actual powers for proper
functioning of the state are vested on the CM and
his council of ministers.
Judiciary : State’s High Courts have jurisdiction
over the whole state. In the states, the judicial
setup is headed by the Chief Justice. He man-
ages and controls the entire judicial system of the
state pertaining to criminal, civil and all other
forms of litigation. State’s High Courts have to,
however, report to the Supreme Court of India,
which may over-ride the High Court’s findings
and judgements.
Legislature : Each state has a Legislative
assembly. It consists of the Governor and one
House or two Houses, as the case may be. In
seven states, the state government’s legislature is
bicameral. These states are Bihar, Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir,
Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
These states have two Houses known as
Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) and
Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha). The rest of
the states are unicameral. There is only one
House known as Legislative Assembly. State
Legislature or State Assemblies are headed by
the CM.
STATE EXECUTIVE
Governor
The Governor is appointed by the President for a
term of five years. He can, however, be removed
earlier since the governor holds office during the
pleasure of the President.