Special State Criteria, Official Language, State Funds, Parties and Elections · UPPCS (Uttar Pradesh)

What the official syllabus says

Main Examination, General Studies V:
Special State Selection Criteria, Official Language, Consolidated Fund and Contingency fund, Political Parties and State Election Commission of UP.

The advertisement does not explain the phrase "Special State Selection Criteria". It is usually read as the criteria for giving a state special category status, and the first part below follows that reading.

Topics in detail

Special category status: the criteria

Origin: special category status for some states in the allocation of central plan assistance (from 1969, under the Gadgil formula)
Criteria used by the National Development Council: hilly and difficult terrain; low population density or a sizeable tribal population; strategic location along international borders; economic and infrastructural backwardness; non-viable state finances
Benefits once given: a higher central share in centrally sponsored schemes and tax concessions for industry
The Fourteenth Finance Commission's view that the distinction need not continue in tax devolution, and its higher overall devolution
UP is not a special category state; Uttarakhand, carved out of UP, is one
Region-specific development in UP instead: attention to Bundelkhand and Purvanchal through development boards and packages
The UP Assembly's resolution of 2011 to divide the state into four (Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh and Paschim Pradesh), and the debate on smaller states

Official language

Article 345: a state may adopt one or more languages for official purposes; Articles 346 and 347; Article 350A (instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage)
UP Official Language Act, 1951: Hindi in the Devanagari script as the official language
The 1989 amendment making Urdu the second official language for specified purposes; the Supreme Court upheld it in 2014
Institutions: Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan, the UP Urdu Academy, the Sanskrit Sansthan
Use of Hindi in the High Court and in administration; Hindi Diwas and official-language committees
Issues: translation, technical terms, use of English in higher courts and higher education

Consolidated Fund, Contingency Fund and Public Account

Consolidated Fund of the State (Article 266(1)): all revenues, loans raised and loan repayments received; no money withdrawn without a law passed by the legislature
Public Account of the State (Article 266(2)): money held in trust such as provident funds, deposits and reserve funds
Contingency Fund of the State (Article 267(2)): an imprest at the Governor's disposal for unforeseen spending, recouped later after the legislature approves
Budget process: Annual Financial Statement (Article 202), charged and voted expenditure, demands for grants (Article 203), Appropriation Bill (Article 204), supplementary grants (Article 205), votes on account (Article 206)
UP Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2004: limits on the fiscal deficit and debt
Sources of state revenue: state GST, taxes on petroleum and liquor, stamp duty and registration, vehicle tax, share of central taxes, grants

Political parties

Recognition of state and national parties by the Election Commission of India under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968
Conditions for a state party: a share of the valid votes with seats won in the Assembly or Lok Sabha, or a set number or share of seats, or 8 per cent of the valid votes
Evolution of UP's party system: single-party dominance after independence; the first non-Congress government (1967); coalition governments; social-justice and identity-based mobilisation; return of single-party majorities
Anti-defection law (Tenth Schedule; the 52nd and 91st Amendments) and its use in UP
Issues: funding of parties, criminalisation of politics, internal democracy, caste and community mobilisation

State Election Commission

Articles 243K and 243ZA: elections to panchayats and municipalities are run by a State Election Commission
The State Election Commissioner is appointed by the Governor and can be removed only like a High Court judge
UP's State Election Commission was set up in 1994 after the 73rd and 74th Amendments
Its work: electoral rolls for local bodies, reservation and rotation of seats, polls to gram panchayats, kshetra and zila panchayats, nagar panchayats, municipal councils and corporations
Difference from the Chief Electoral Officer of UP, who works under the Election Commission of India for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections
Issues: timely elections, reservation rotation disputes in courts, model code of conduct, election spending

Overlaps

Federal finance, the Finance Commission and the Representation of the People Act: General Studies II.
Government budgets: General Studies III; UP's budgets and public finance: General Studies VI.
Local bodies whose elections the Commission runs: Local Self-Government, Public Policy and Rights.