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Article 7.1 State Governance
Each state shall
have a state parliament consisting of two houses, a state
assembly and a state council of stakeholders. It will have an
elected chief executive called state governor, a deputy chief
executive called deputy state governor and a head of state
judiciary called chief justice of the state. The state
bureaucracy will be accountable to the people of the state.
Article 7.2 Control
over Resources and Functions
State governments
will control resources to handle state level infrastructure such
as state level armed police, highways, water systems, state-grid
power generation and distribution, industry, minerals, higher
education, referral hospitals and heritage sites. It will be
accountable to the people of the state through effective
transparency laws covering the sovereign rights of the people to
information, consultation, participation and referendum.
The state governments will ordinarily not be dependent upon the
national government for support. Based on the principles laid
down in Part 7 of the Constitution dealing with Resource
Management, a part of the revenue from identified environmental
resources and some sources of taxation and/or share in tax
revenue shall be assigned to state governments. This is to
enable them to provide (1) state level infrastructure, (2)
support to local entities with inadequate resources, and (3)
coordination, but not interfere in local jurisdictions.
Article 7.3 State
Parliaments
The state parliament (raj
sansad) shall consist of a state assembly (raj sabha) and a
state council of stakeholders (raj parishad). The state assembly
shall consist of members elected from constituencies as
delineated from time to time. It will elect a speaker and a
deputy speaker to preside over its meetings. It shall have a
fixed term of four years. It will have legislative powers on all
matters specified in Schedule A. It will approve the budget,
and, through its committees, perform various watchdog functions
in relation to the executive.
Article 7.4 State
Council of Stakeholders
The state council
of stakeholders (raj parishad) shall be a permanent body
moderating decision-making for sustainability. It will have
representatives of various interest groups in the state such as
disadvantaged communities, farmers, labour unions, small, medium
and large industry, women, NGOs and professionals, nominated by
their representative organisations through an appropriate
electoral process. Half of its members will retire every year,
and new members from the same category renominated.
Each State Sovereign Rights Commissions shall, through a
consultative process, determine the interest groups in a state,
the number of seats that shall be assigned to each and how the
persons shall be nominated by the interest groups. It shall also
determine which half shall retire every year. It shall give
effect to the arrangement thus determined, and get it ratified
by the people through referendum held along with the next
election.
The state council of stakeholders will constitute committees for
resolving social, environmental, economic and political
conflicts. Social and environmental issues will however be
largely in local jurisdictions. The state councils shall
primarily address inter district/city discords. The state
council of stakeholders will have the power to commission
consultants to review social, environmental and economic
projects and return any bill or project proposal to the elected
house for reconsideration or with suggestions for modification.
If after reconsideration, the elected house approves the bill or
project with or without modification, it will refer it to the
state governor for endorsement.
Article 7.5 Elected
chief executive and his deputy
The state chief
executive called state governor (rajyapal) assisted by a deputy
state governor (up-rajpal) shall be elected as a team
through direct election.
Article 7.6
Political appointments
The state chief
executive may make political appointments of ministers not
exceeding 20, who shall not be legislators, for assisting him in
his work. All such appointments shall require approval by a
joint committee of the state assembly and council and if
rejected, the chief executive shall have to propose another
name. Such appointments will terminate on expiry of the term of
the state chief executive unless he gets re-elected.
Article 7.7 State
high courts
Every state,
except small states linked with the high court of a neighbouring
state, shall have a high court as an appellate authority of
district and city courts. The appointments’ authority for
independent functionaries of the state shall select the judges
of high courts. A joint committee of the state assembly and
council shall approve their appointment. The high courts shall
draw budget from the state government and will be impeachable by
the state parliament. The high courts will thus be accountable
to the people of the state. For more details see Part 8 on
Judicial System.
Article 7.8
Departmental heads
The appointment of
all departmental heads including secretaries to government,
heads of state level armed police, highways, water systems,
power, industry, and heritage sites shall require approval by a
joint committee of the state assembly and council as articulated
in Part 10 on "Appointed servants of the people". The
departmental heads will control the appointment, transfer and
discipline of their subordinates, thus protecting them from
political pressures and abuse. Such professional autonomy, along
with effective transparency mechanisms, will ensure that the
state bureaucracy is directly accountable to the people of the
state.
Article 7.9 Watchdog
functions
The two houses
will perform watchdog functions over the executive through their
various committees. The committees will have the power to call
for any information from the political ministers and
professional departmental heads and also direct them to appear
for personal hearings. The report and recommendations of the
committees shall be made public.
Article 7.10 State
planning
The state
government will coordinate the local plans with the state level
infrastructure to prepare a state plan. Such scientific regional
planning will be an ongoing reiterative participatory process
leading to a national plan.
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