Federalism Test - 20

Article 3 of the Indian Constitution deals with formation of new States and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing States. It states that Parliament by law can increase the area of any State, diminish the area of any State, alter the boundaries of any State, alter the name of any State .

Panchayati Raj is a system of governance in which are the basic unit of administrations. It has 33 levels: Gram panchayat(village level), Mandal Parishad or block samiti or panchayat samiti(block level) and Zila parishad(district level).

The Consolidated Fund of India is formed under Article 266(1) of the Constitution. The taxes received by the government including central tax, income tax, excise tax, and certain non-tax revenues are credited in the Consolidated Fund. Authority of Parliament is required for withdrawing any amount from this fund. Public Account is formed under Article 266(2) of the Constitution. All the public money received by or on behalf of government other than those that covered under Consolidated Fund, are credited to Public Account. The authorization of Parliament is not required for withdrawing money from this fund.

The exact balance of power between the central and the state government varies from one federation to another. This balance depends mainly on the historical context in which the federation was formed. There are two kinds of routes through which federations have been formed. The first route involves independent States coming together on their own to forma bigger unit, so that by pooling sovereignty and retaining identity they can increase their security. This type of coming together federations include the USA, Switzerland and Australia. In this first category of federations, all the constituent States usually have equal power and are strong vis--vis the federal government. The second route is where a large country decides to divide its power between the constituent States and the national government. India, Spain and Belgium are examples of this kind of holding together federations. In this second category, the central government tends to be more powerful vis--vis the States. Very often different constituent units of the federation have unequal powers. Some units are granted special powers.

Option (B)
The transformation of Belgium from unitary to a federal form of government which was prevented a possible division of Belgium on linguistic lines.

Option (D)
Some states like Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram enjoy special powers under certain provisions of the Constitution of India (Article 371) because of their peculiar social and historical circumstances.

India had emerged as an independent nation after a painful and bloody partition. Soon after Independence, several princely states became a part of the country. The Constitution declared India as a Union of States. Although it did not use the word federation, the Indian Union is based on the principles of federalism.
The Constitution originally provided for a two-tier system of government, the Union Government or what we call the Central Government, representing the Union of India and the State governments. Later, a third tier of federalism was added in the form of Panchayats and Municipalities.

all States in the Indian Union do not have identical powers. Some States enjoy a special status. States such as Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram enjoy special powers under certain provisions of the Constitution of India (Article 371)due to their peculiar social and historical circumstances. These special powers are especially enjoyed in relation to the protection of land rights of indigenous peoples, their culture and also preferential employment in government services. Indians who are not permanent residents of this State cannot buy land or house here. Similar special provisions exist for some other States of India as well. There are some units of the Indian Union which enjoy very little power. These are areas which are too small to become an independent State but which could not be merged with anyof the existing States. These areas, like Chandigarh, or Lakshadweep or the capital city of Delhi, are called Union Territories. These territories do not have the powers of a State. The Central Government has special powers in running these areas. This sharing of power between the Union Government and the State governments is basic to the structure of the Constitution. It is not easy to make changes to this power sharing arrangement. The Parliament cannot on its own change this arrangement. Any change to it has to be first passed by both the Houses of Parliament with at least two-thirds majority. Then it has to be ratified by the legislatures of at least half of the total States.