State and Local Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The secretariat helps with (1), (2) and (4).

A ministry's secretariat assists the minister in formulating policies and programmes (2), prepares the budget and controls expenditure (1), and, as the key accepts, speaks for the government on the ministry's business, for example by preparing replies to Parliament and explaining policy (4).

Advising the Governor (3) is not a function of the ministries' secretariat. The Governor is the constitutional head of a state, and he is advised by the state council of ministers, not by the secretariat on behalf of ministries. Every option except (1), (2), (4) includes item (3), so elimination alone settles the answer.

Answer: D

The group governed by the 1949 Act is Nanded-Waghala, Amravati and Kalyan-Dombivali.

The Bombay (Mumbai) Provincial Municipal Corporations Act, 1949, since renamed the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, is the general law under which most of Maharashtra's municipal corporations were constituted, including these three.

Mumbai's corporation has its own older statute, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, and Nagpur's corporation was set up under its own City of Nagpur Corporation Act, 1948. Every other option includes Mumbai or Nagpur, so each contains a city that did not originate under the 1949 Act.

Answer: C

The pair that is not a municipal source of income is land service and sales tax.

Sales tax was a state tax, levied by state governments under the State List, and has since been subsumed in GST; land revenue is likewise collected by the state's revenue department. Neither is a municipal tax.

The other pairs are traditional municipal revenues. Property tax is the main one, and octroi on goods entering the city was a major source until it was abolished. Entertainment and advertisement taxes, market fees and water charges are also levied by municipal bodies under state municipal laws.

Answer: B

The Royal Commission on Decentralisation, appointed in 1907, was headed by Hobhouse (C.E.H. Hobhouse), and its report of 1909 recommended strengthening village panchayats and giving greater financial powers to provincial governments and local bodies.

Lord Dalhousie is wrong because he was Governor General in the 1850s. Lord Rippon is wrong because he is associated with the 1882 resolution on local self-government. Lord Mayo is wrong because his name is tied to the financial decentralisation of 1870.

Answer: B

Jaiprakash Narayan opposed the entry of political parties into local body elections. He advocated partyless democracy built from village and local level institutions, because he believed party competition would divide communities.

Jawaharlal Nehru is wrong because he favoured political participation through parties. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is wrong because he led the Congress organisation and did not argue for a partyless local system. Abdul Kalam Azad is wrong because he was a Congress leader without this stance.

Answer: A

The Gram Sabha is the institution responsible for social audit. It is the general body of all registered voters in a village, and it can examine the works, accounts and beneficiary lists of the village panchayat, which is how schemes such as MGNREGA make use of it.

The Village Panchayat is wrong because it is the body whose work is audited. The Panchayat Samiti and the Zila Parishad are wrong because they are higher tiers of the system and do not carry out social audit on behalf of the community.

Answer: C

The assertion is true and the reason is false. The Chief Secretary has no fixed tenure and serves at the pleasure of the Chief Minister. The reason is false because the First Administrative Reforms Commission did make a recommendation about the Chief Secretary's tenure, though it was not accepted.

Both correct, with or without explanation, is wrong because the reason is incorrect. (A) false and (R) true is wrong because the assertion is correct.

Answer: A

Both statements are correct and the reason explains the assertion. Panchayati Raj Institutions have not become fully effective even after the 73rd Amendment, largely because States have not given adequate powers, finances and personnel to them, and State control has stayed strong in practice.

The second option is wrong because the reason directly explains the poor performance. The remaining options are wrong because neither statement is false.

Answer: C

The remark about the Chief Secretary's job is credited in the key to E. N. Mangat Rai, so the answer is C.

Mangat Rai, a former Chief Secretary of Punjab, wrote about the Chief Secretary as a generalist who is part of the process of government, not a technician or a professional. The remark stresses that the post is not a specialist's post but part of the human side of democratic government.

The other names, Mohan Mukherjee, Dharmvir and V. D. Murti, are not credited with the statement in the key.

Answer: D

The report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission on State and District Administration is the 15th, so the answer is D.

The commission submitted fifteen reports between 2006 and 2009. The fifteenth, in 2009, is 'State and District Administration', and it dealt with the role of the State Government, the district collector and local bodies.

The twelfth (A) deals with citizen-centred administration, the thirteenth (B) with organisational structure of the Government of India, and the fourteenth (C) with strengthening of financial management. They are not the report asked for.