D Deka wrote:
I came across the following lists in schedule VII of the Indian constitution that divide the responsibilities between the states and the center. List 1 is for the Center, list 2 is for the states and list 3 is for shared responsibilities. I thought some others may find it interesting.
What needs to be understood is that the residual powers not included in any of the lists were assigned to the Union government. And this category has expanded tremendously in the last fifty years.
More important, with the advent centralized planning, the central government (& the Planning Commission at some point) became the sole authority determining the allocation of the "development outlays" between the states. These monies form a lions share of the total public sector resources expended in India and they are not subject to Finance Commission or any other constitiuonal guidelines. This has totally changed the nature of dependence of the state governments on the central government.
Add to this the power of the central government to use the Reserve Bank of India (not an independent authority) to OK or disapprove of deficits indulged in by the state governments through overdrafts.
And then, the constitutional authority to virtually dismiss any duly elected state government and dismiss state legislatures (through the governor) using Article 356 (in total defiance of the original intention of the constition makers).
Santanu.
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