Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question. How did Belgian government turn to a federal state from a unitary one ?
Answer : Belgium turned into a federal state from a unitary one by reducing the powers of the Central Government and shifted it to the regional governments.

Question. Define Concurrent List.
Answer : Concurrent List includes subjects of common interest to both the Union Government as well as the State Government. For Example, education and forest.

Question. What is a Gram Sabha ? Explain its working.
Answer : A Gram Sabha is the decision-making body for a village. The panchayat works under the supervision of the gram sabha. The people of the village are its voters. Its meeting has to be held twice or thrice a year for approval of annual budget of gram panchayat and for reviewing the performance of the gram panchayat.

Question. What is another popular name of rural local government in India ? 
Answer : Another popular name of rural local government in India is Panchayati Raj system.

Question. What happens in case of conflict in decision taken by the State and Central government ?
Answer : In case of any dispute between State and Central government, the decision taken by the Central government will be followed.

Question. Discuss the dual objectives of federalism.
Answer : The dual objectives of federalism are safeguarding and promoting the unity of the country and accommodating regional diversity.

Question. Correct the following statement and rewrite :
The central government has imposed Hindi in states where people speak a different language
Answer : The central government has not imposed Hindi on states where people speak a different language .

Question. Correct the following statement and rewrite.
Federal power sharing in India needs another tier of government, above that of the local government.
Answer : Federal power sharing in India needs another tier of government, below that of the state government.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question. Explain the role of judiciary in a federal system.
Answer : In a federal system judiciary plays an important role of ensuring the implementation of constitutional provisions and procedures. If any dispute arises between Centre and States regarding exercise of power, it is settled either by supreme court or high court.

Question. Explain any three forms of power sharing among different organs of government in India.
Answer : Forms of power sharing are :
(i) Horizontal form of power sharing e.g., Legislative, Executive and Judiciary.
(ii) Vertical form of power sharing e.g., Union government and State government.
(iii) Power sharing between political parties and pressure groups and movements e.g., colonial government

Question. Describe the rationale behind the implementation of Decentralisation in India.
Answer : The rationales behind the implementation of decentralisation in India are :
(i) India is a vast country; central government is unable to hear the needs of people from different areas.
(ii) The local government can easily understand the needs and demands of their people.
(iii) It helps women to participate in decision making process because 33% seats are reserved for women in local government.
(iv) It takes off burden from central and state government.
(v) It strengthens democracy.
(vi) At the local level it is possible for the people to directly participate in decision making. [Any three]

Question. Describe any three provisions of amendment made in ‘Indian Constitution’ in 1992 for making ‘Three-Tier’ government more effective and powerful.

Answer : Introduction and seeded in our constitution it it to has decent realisation provided local government with power and resources by

(a) it is a constitutionally mandated to hold a regular and free elections to local bodies panchayati and municipal corporation other urban and rural local bodies.

(b) reservation of seat in local bodies and the executive had 4 schedule classes schedule tribes and other backward classes.

(c) one-third of the seats reserved for women.

(d) independent state election commission set up to conduct municipal and panchayat election.

(e) state government are supposed to transfer same power and resources to local bodies this distribution various from state to state.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question. Mention any two achievements and shortcomings of Panchayati Raj system in India.
Answer : The credit of introducing Panchayati Raj system goes to Balwant Rai mehta Committee. Following are its major achievement :
(i) The concept of local government helped in taking democracy to the grass-root level.
(ii) It helped in increasing representation of scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), In spite of its several achievement, there are some shortcomings of Panchayati Raj system, which are follows:
(i) Though, elections are held regularly, yet, meetings of Gram Sabhas, Block Commitiees and Zila Parishads are not held regularly. (ii) Most of the State governments are reluctant to share powers and revenue with the Local government.

Question. Explain how Zila Parishad is formed.
Answer : Panchayat Samitis or mandals of a district form a Zila Parishad. members of the Lok Sabha and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of the district and some officials of other district level bodies are also its members. Its political head is Zila Parishad chairperson. Most members of Zila Parishad are elected.