Gujarat: Polity and Administration

What the official syllabus says

GPSC Preliminary Examination, General Studies, under the heading Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International Relations:

• Constitutional Authorities: Powers, Functions and Responsibilities. Statutory, Regulatory and Quasi-judicial bodies.
• Local self-government institutions.
• Important Policies and Programmes of Central and State Government.

Topics in detail

The official lines on constitutional authorities, local self-government and State Government programmes apply to Gujarat as much as to India. This page gathers the Gujarat side.

Formation and constitutional position

• Formation of Gujarat on 1 May 1960 (Gujarat Sthapana Divas) under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960
• Article 371(2): the President may give the Governor special responsibility for separate development boards for Saurashtra, Kachchh and the rest of Gujarat
• Gujarat in Parliament: 26 Lok Sabha and 11 Rajya Sabha seats
• Fifth Schedule areas in the eastern tribal belt

State executive and legislature

• Governor: appointment, powers, discretion; Raj Bhavan, Gandhinagar
• Chief Minister and Council of Ministers; Chief Secretary and the Secretariat (Sachivalaya)
• Gujarat Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha): 182 seats, unicameral; Speaker; committees
• Gujarat High Court at Ahmedabad; district courts; Gujarat State Legal Services Authority and Lok Adalats
• The Vidhan Sabha building in Gandhinagar (Vithalbhai Patel Bhavan); Gujarat's Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members

Constitutional and statutory bodies of Gujarat

• Gujarat Public Service Commission (Gandhinagar): composition and functions under Articles 315-323
• Gujarat State Election Commission: elections to panchayats and municipalities
• Gujarat Lokayukta (Gujarat Lokayukta Act, 1986); Gujarat Vigilance Commission
• Gujarat Information Commission (RTI Act, 2005); Gujarat State Human Rights Commission
• State Finance Commission; State Commission for Women; Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission

District and revenue administration

• District Collector, Prant Officer (sub-division), Mamlatdar (taluka), Talati-cum-Mantri (village)
• District Development Officer of the District Panchayat
• Land and revenue laws inherited from Bombay State and adapted for Gujarat: Land Revenue Code, Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act; Gujarat Revenue Tribunal
• Prohibition in Gujarat since its formation (Gujarat Prohibition Act, from the Bombay Prohibition Act, 1949)
• Training of state civil servants: Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA), Ahmedabad
• Police administration: Director General of Police, police commissionerates in the big cities, district Superintendents of Police

Local self-government in Gujarat

• Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1993 (after the 73rd Amendment; earlier the Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1961)
• Three tiers: Gram Panchayat (Sarpanch), Taluka Panchayat, District Panchayat; the Gram Sabha
• Samras (consensus) gram panchayats as a state initiative
• Urban local bodies: municipal corporations under the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, municipalities under the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963; urban development authorities
• Reservation for women, SCs, STs and backward classes in local bodies

Governance initiatives of Gujarat

• SWAGAT online grievance redress (2003)
• Gujarat (Right of Citizens to Public Services) Act, 2013, the state's public service delivery law
• e-Gram, Jan Seva Kendras and other e-governance services
• Garib Kalyan Melas, Gunotsav and Shala Praveshotsav, Krishi Mahotsav as long-standing state campaigns

Overlaps

Mains General Studies-II (A) and (B) ask for local self-government, constitutional and statutory authorities, and the Public Service Act. The all-India framework is on Indian Constitution, Polity and Judiciary.