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Article: 8.1 National
governance
The nation shall
have a national parliament consisting of two houses, an elected
national assembly and a national council of stakeholders. It
will have an elected chief executive called the President of
India and a head of state judiciary called the Chief Justice of
India. The state bureaucracy will be accountable to the people
of India.
Article 8.2 Control
over resources and functions
The national
government will control resources to handle national level
infrastructure such as external relations, defence, national
reserve police, national highways, national water systems,
national power generation and distribution, national level
minerals, selected higher education, selected referral hospitals
and interstate heritage sites. It will be accountable to the
people of the nation through effective transparency laws
covering the sovereign rights of the people to information,
consultation, participation and referendum.
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 national
governments. This will be to enable it to provide (1) national
level infrastructure, (2) support to states with inadequate
resources, and (3) coordination, but not interfere in state and
local jurisdictions.
Article 8.3 National
parliament
The national
parliament (rashtra sansad) shall consist of a national assembly
(rashtra sabha) and a state council (rashtra parishad) of
stakeholders. The national assembly shall consist of members
elected from constituencies as delineated from time to time. It
shall have a fixed term of four years. It will have legislative
powers on all matters assigned to the national parliament under
Schedule A. It will approve the budget, and, through its
committees, perform various watchdog functions.
Article 8.4 National
council of stakeholders
The national council (rashtra
parishad) of stakeholders shall be a permanent body moderating
decision-making for sustainability. It will have representatives
of various interest groups in the nation 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. One-third of its members will retire every year, and
new members from the same category renominated.
The National Sovereign Rights Commissions shall, through a
consultative process, determine the principal interest groups in
the nation, 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 one-third 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 national council of stakeholders will constitute committees
for resolving interstate social, environmental, economic and
political conflicts and will not interfere in local discords.
The national council 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 become effective.
If the state council is not happy about the decision, it can
seek referendum on it along with the next election.
Article 8.5 National
elected chief executive and his deputy
The national chief
executive called the President of India (Rashtrapati) and the
Vice President of India (Up-Rashtrapathi) shall be elected as
a team through direct election.
Article 8.6 Political
appointments
The President of India
may make political appointments of ministers not exceeding 25,
who shall not be legislators, for assisting him in his work. All
such appointments shall require approval by a joint committee of
the national assembly and council and if rejected, the President
shall have to propose another person. Such appointments will
terminate on expiry of the term of the President unless he gets
reelected.
Article 8.7 The
Supreme Court of India
There shall be a
Supreme Court of India as the highest court of the land. The
National Appointments Authority for Independent Functionaries
shall select the judges of the Supreme Court and a joint
committee of the national assembly and council shall interview
the persons selected and approve their appointment. The Supreme
Court shall draw budget from the national government. Its judges
will be impeachable by the national parliament. For more details
see Part 6 Judicial System.
Article 8.8
Departmental Heads
The appointment of
all departmental heads including secretaries to government,
chiefs of armed forces, national highways, national water
systems, national level power installations, and heritage sites
shall require approval by a joint committee of the national
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 national
bureaucracy is directly accountable to the people of the nation.
Article 8.9 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 8.10
National planning
The national
government will coordinate the state plans with the national
level infrastructure to prepare a national plan. Such scientific
regional planning will be an ongoing reiterative participatory
process.
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