Question Discussion & Solution

The correct answer is None.

• No members are nominated in the present State Assembly of Rajasthan.
  • Member indirectly elected and nominated in Legislative Council, not Legislative Assembly.

Additional Information 

• Member indirectly elected and nominated in Legislative Council, not Legislative Assembly.
  • The members being drawn from various sources, the Council shall have a variegated composition.
  • 5/6 of the total number of members of the Council shall be indirectly elected and 1/6 will be nominated.
  • One-third of the total number of members of the Council would be elected by electorates consisting of members of local bodies like the municipalities and the district boards.
  • One-third would be elected by members of the Legislative Assembly from amongst people who are not Assembly members.
  • One-twelfth of the members would be elected by electorates comprising of graduates of the standing of three years dwelling in that particular state.
  • One-twelfth of the members would be elected by electorates consisting of teachers who have been in the teaching profession for at least 3 years in educational institutes in that state, which are not lower than secondary schools in the standard.
  • The rest would be nominated by the Governor from persons having knowledge or practical experience in matters like science, literature, cooperative movement, art and social service.

The correct answer is Part IVA.

Key Points

• Part IVA
  • Part IVA of the Indian Constitution relates to Fundamental Duties and is given in article-51 (a).
  • Fundamental Duties are taken from the Constitution of Russia.
  • The Fundamental Duties of citizens were added to the Constitution by the 42nd Amendment in 1976 on behalf of the Swaran Singh Committee recommendations.
  • These duties tell us of the national aims & the basic models of political order and they also motivate us to learn a sense of social responsibility.
  • Originally, the Constitution of India did not contain fundamental duties but today we have 11 fundamental duties.
  • Fundamental duties are applicable only to citizens and not to the aliens.
  • India borrowed the concept of Fundamental Duties from the USSR.

The correct answer is Santhanam Committee.

Key Points

• Central Vigilance Commission:
  • The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is the main agency for preventing corruption in the Central government.
  • It was established in 1964 by an executive resolution of the Central government.
  • Its establishment was recommended by the Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption (1962-64).
  • Thus, originally the CVC was neither a constitutional body nor a statutory body.
  • Later, in 2003, the Parliament enacted a law conferring statutory status on the CVC.
  • In 2004, the CVC has been designated as the agency to receive and act on complaints or disclosure on any allegation of corruption or misuse of office from whistleblowers under the “Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers’ Resolution” (PIDPI), which is popularly known as “Whistle Blowers” Resolution.
  • The Commission is also empowered as the only designated agency to take action against complainants making motivated or vexatious complaints.
  • The CVC is conceived to be the apex vigilance institution, free of control from any executive authority, monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government and advising various authorities in Central Government organizations in planning, executing, reviewing, and reforming their vigilance work.

Additional Information

• Other Committee:
  • In 1957, the National Development Council constituted a committee headed by Balwant Rai Mehta to look into the working of the community development program.
  • The appointment of the Ashok Mehta Committee in 1977 did bring new thinking in the concepts and practice of the Panchayat Raj.
  • The G. V. K. Rao Committee (1985) recommended making the “District” the basic unit of planning and also holding regular elections.
  • The L. M. Singhvi committee recommended providing more financial resources and constitutional status to the panchayats to strengthen them.

The correct answer is 80.

• Uttar Pradesh contributes 80 seats to the Lok Sabha.

Key Points

• The State has 80 Parliamentary constituencies.

Additional Information

• Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of Lok Sabha Constituencies. 

The correct answer is directly elected by the people.

Key Points

• Panchayat Samiti:
  • Panchayat Samiti is a rural local government (panchayat) body at the intermediate tehsil (taluka/Mandal) level in India.
  • It works for the villages of the tehsil that together are called a development block.
  • The members of the Panchayat Samiti are elected directly elected by the people.
  • Panchayat Samiti is related to Article 243(c) of the Indian Constitution.
  • According to  Article 243(c) - “intermediate level” means a level between the village and district levels specified by the Governor of a State by public notification to be the intermediate level for the purposes of this Part
  • It has been said to be the "panchayat of panchayats".
  • The 73rd Amendment defines the levels of Panchayati raj institution as:
    • District (or apex) level
    • Intermediate level
    • Base level
  • The Panchayat Samiti is the link between the gram panchayat (village council) and the Zila Parishad (district board).
  • The name varies across states: Mandal Parishad in Andhra Pradesh, taluka panchayat in Gujarat, and Mandal panchayat in Karnataka.

Additional Information

• The most common departments found in a panchayat Samiti are:
  • Administration
  • Finance
  • Public works (especially water and roads)
  • Agriculture
  • Health
• Each department in a panchayat Samiti has its own officer.
• Most often these are state government employees acting as extension officers, but occasionally in more revenue-rich panchayat Samiti, they may be local employees.
• A government-appointed block development officer (BDO) is the supervisor of the extension officers and executive officer to the panchayat Samiti and becomes, in effect, its administrative chief.
• The panchayat Samiti collects all the prospective plans prepared at the Gram Panchayat level and processes them for funding and implementation by evaluating them from the angles of financial constraints, social welfare, and area development.
• It also identifies and prioritizes the issues that should be addressed at the block level.