State governments in India
Encyclopedia
State government
s in India are the governments ruling States of India and the main minsters in the state are the chief ministers. Power is divided
between central government
and state governments. While central government handles Military, external affairs etc., the state government controls internal police
security etc. Income for central govt. are through Customs duty, excise tax, income tax
etc., while state govt income comes from sales tax
(VAT), stamp duty
etc.
Sarkaria Commission
was set up to review power balance between states and the union. Central government can replace state government with President's rule
if required. The state of Jammu and Kashmir
has higher autonomy compared to other states by Article 370
.
is bicameral in 6 states and unicameral in the rest. Lower house is elected with 5 years term, while upper house if exists 1/3 of the members elected every 2 years with 6 year term.
The Indian Constitution allows for states to have either a unicameral or bicameral legislature. A state is said to be unicameral if it has only one house of parliament
. The numbers in the brackets indicate the number of seats in the lower and upper house respectively. Most of the newer states are unicameral and only a few of the older states (6 states out of 29) still remain bicameral. In a state with a bicameral legislature, the lower house is called the Legislative Assembly
or Vidhan Sabha
and the upper house is called the Legislative Council
or Vidhan Parishad
. By law, the upper house can not be more than 1/3 the total size of the lower house but must have more than 40 seats (except in the case of the state of Jammu and Kashmir
which is allowed by special legislation to have less than 40 seats in its Legislative Council.)
The upper house, Vidhan Parishad
has limited legislative powers, and was primarily intended for consultation and can not hold up legislation passed by the lower house, the Vidhan Sabha
for more than a few months. The Legislative Assembly
is composed of members directly elected from individual constituencies while the upper house, the Legislative Council
consists of members indirectly elected by the Lower House, members nominated for by the State government, and members elected from specially designated teacher's and graduate's constituencies.
Andhra Pradesh
abolished its upper house in 1984 but is now in the process of setting up a new Legislative Council
. The legislation for this has already been passed by the Parliament of India
and the state Legislative Assembly
and Andhra Pradesh
will have a bicameral legislature following elections in 2007.
Many regional parties and national parties are in power in states of India. Coalition cabinet exists in some states.
appointed by central govt. president
and cabinet are also members. Cabinet size can be maximum of 15% the number of legislators in lower house, the law passed during Vajpayee's
central government. Police
hierarchy and various other
has High court
which has jurisdiction of the whole respective state.
State government
A state government is the government of a subnational entity in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or be subject to the direct control of the federal government...
s in India are the governments ruling States of India and the main minsters in the state are the chief ministers. Power is divided
Federation
A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
between central government
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
and state governments. While central government handles Military, external affairs etc., the state government controls internal police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
security etc. Income for central govt. are through Customs duty, excise tax, income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
etc., while state govt income comes from sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
(VAT), stamp duty
Stamp duty
Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on documents. Historically, this included the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions. A physical stamp had to be attached to or impressed upon the document to denote that stamp duty...
etc.
Sarkaria Commission
Sarkaria Commission
Sarkaria Commission was set up in June 1983 by the central government of India. The Sarkaria Commission's charter was to examine the relationship and balance of power between state and central governments in the country and suggest changes within the framework of Constitution of India. The...
was set up to review power balance between states and the union. Central government can replace state government with President's rule
President's rule
President's rule is the term used in India when a state legislature is dissolved or suspended and the state is placed under direct federal rule...
if required. The state of Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
has higher autonomy compared to other states by Article 370
Article 370
Article 370 of the Indian constitution grants special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir.-Text of Article 370:In view of its importance the text of the article 370 is reproduced below:Article 370 of the Constitution of India...
.
Legislature
State government's legislatureLegislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
is bicameral in 6 states and unicameral in the rest. Lower house is elected with 5 years term, while upper house if exists 1/3 of the members elected every 2 years with 6 year term.
The Indian Constitution allows for states to have either a unicameral or bicameral legislature. A state is said to be unicameral if it has only one house of parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
. The numbers in the brackets indicate the number of seats in the lower and upper house respectively. Most of the newer states are unicameral and only a few of the older states (6 states out of 29) still remain bicameral. In a state with a bicameral legislature, the lower house is called the Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly is the name given in some countries to either a legislature, or to one of its branch.The name is used by a number of member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as a number of Latin American countries....
or Vidhan Sabha
Vidhan Sabha
The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the provincial legislature in the different states of India. The same name is also used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the union territories, Delhi and Pondicherry...
and the upper house is called the Legislative Council
Legislative Council
A Legislative Council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.A Member of the Legislative Council is commonly referred to as an MLC.- Unicameral legislatures :...
or Vidhan Parishad
Vidhan Parishad
The Vidhan Parishad is the upper house in those states of India that have a bicameral legislature. , six states have a Legislative Council: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh...
. By law, the upper house can not be more than 1/3 the total size of the lower house but must have more than 40 seats (except in the case of the state of Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
which is allowed by special legislation to have less than 40 seats in its Legislative Council.)
The upper house, Vidhan Parishad
Vidhan Parishad
The Vidhan Parishad is the upper house in those states of India that have a bicameral legislature. , six states have a Legislative Council: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh...
has limited legislative powers, and was primarily intended for consultation and can not hold up legislation passed by the lower house, the Vidhan Sabha
Vidhan Sabha
The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the provincial legislature in the different states of India. The same name is also used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the union territories, Delhi and Pondicherry...
for more than a few months. The Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly is the name given in some countries to either a legislature, or to one of its branch.The name is used by a number of member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as a number of Latin American countries....
is composed of members directly elected from individual constituencies while the upper house, the Legislative Council
Legislative Council
A Legislative Council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.A Member of the Legislative Council is commonly referred to as an MLC.- Unicameral legislatures :...
consists of members indirectly elected by the Lower House, members nominated for by the State government, and members elected from specially designated teacher's and graduate's constituencies.
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
abolished its upper house in 1984 but is now in the process of setting up a new Legislative Council
Legislative Council
A Legislative Council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.A Member of the Legislative Council is commonly referred to as an MLC.- Unicameral legislatures :...
. The legislation for this has already been passed by the Parliament of India
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...
and the state Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly is the name given in some countries to either a legislature, or to one of its branch.The name is used by a number of member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as a number of Latin American countries....
and Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
will have a bicameral legislature following elections in 2007.
| State | Legislature type | Size |
|---|---|---|
| West Bengal West Bengal West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP... | Unicameral | 295 |
| Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh... | Unicameral | 234 |
| Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city.... | Unicameral | 231 |
| Rajasthan Rajasthan Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with... | Unicameral | 200 |
| Gujarat | Unicameral | 182 |
| Orissa Orissa Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April... | Unicameral | 147 |
| Kerala Kerala or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions.... | Unicameral | 141 |
| Assam Assam Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country... | Unicameral | 126 |
| Punjab Punjab (India) Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the... | Unicameral | 117 |
| Haryana Haryana Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south... | Unicameral | 90 |
| Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh is a state in Central India, formed when the 16 Chhattisgarhi-speaking South-Eastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained separate statehood on 1 November 2000.... | Unicameral | 90 |
| Jharkhand Jharkhand Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east... | Unicameral | 81 |
| Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east... | Unicameral | 68 |
| Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh is a state of India, located in the far northeast. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, and shares international borders with Burma in the east, Bhutan in the west, and the People's Republic of China in the north. The majority of the territory is claimed by... | Unicameral | 60 |
| Tripura Tripura Tripura is a state in North-East India, with an area of . It is the third smallest state of India, according to area. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are... | Unicameral | 60 |
| Nagaland Nagaland Nagaland is a state in the far north-eastern part of India. It borders the state of Assam to the west, Arunachal Pradesh and part of Assam to the north, Burma to the east and Manipur to the south. The state capital is Kohima, and the largest city is Dimapur... | Unicameral | 60 |
| Manipur Manipur Manipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of... | Unicameral | 60 |
| Meghalaya Meghalaya Meghalaya is a state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means the Abode of Clouds in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq mi . The... | Unicameral | 60 |
| Goa Goa Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its... | Unicameral | 40 |
| Mizoram Mizoram Mizoram is one of the Seven Sister States in North Eastern India, sharing borders with the states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and with the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Burma. Mizoram became the 23rd state of India on 20 February 1987. Its capital is Aizawl. Mizoram is located in the... | Unicameral | 40 |
| Sikkim Sikkim Sikkim is a landlocked Indian state nestled in the Himalayan mountains... | Unicameral | 32 |
| Uttarakhand Uttarakhand Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship... | Unicameral | 70 |
| Pondicherry | Unicameral | 30 |
| Delhi Delhi Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census... | Unicameral | 70 |
| State | Legislature type | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity... | Bicameral | 404 + 108 |
| Maharashtra Maharashtra Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India... | Bicameral | 289 + 78 |
| Bihar Bihar Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India.... | Bicameral | 243 + 96 |
| Karnataka Karnataka Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava... | Bicameral | 224 + 75 |
| Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the... | Bicameral | 89 + 36 |
| Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third... | Bicameral | 295 + 90 |
Politics
Many regional parties and national parties are in power in states of India. Coalition cabinet exists in some states.
Executive
Executive branch is headed by governorGovernors and Lieutenant-Governors of states of India
The Governors and Lieutenant-Governors of the states and territories of India have similar powers and functions at the state level as that of the President of India at Union level. Governors exist in the states while Lieutenant-Governors exist in union territories and in the National Capital...
appointed by central govt. president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
and cabinet are also members. Cabinet size can be maximum of 15% the number of legislators in lower house, the law passed during Vajpayee's
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...
central government. Police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
hierarchy and various other
Judiciary
JudiciaryJudiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...
has High court
High Court
The term High Court usually refers to the superior court of a country or state. In some countries, it is the highest court . In others, it is positioned lower in the hierarchy of courts The term High Court usually refers to the superior court (or supreme court) of a country or state. In some...
which has jurisdiction of the whole respective state.