How the State Government Works

This is Chapter 3 of NCERT's Class 7 Social and Political Life – II (2024–25 reprint) and the second chapter of Unit Two, ‘State Government’, after gess302 (‘Role of the Government in Health’). The chapter fills book pp. 24–35; the same 14-page PDF also carries the Unit Three opener and its Teacher's Note on Gender (pp. 36–37), which belong to the next chapter (PDF page n = book page n + 23). Its parts: an opening newspaper-and-comic sequence, ‘Whose Responsibility?’; Who is an MLA? (with a map of Himachal Pradesh's 68 constituencies and its 2017 results); A debate in the Legislative Assembly; the difference between legislature and executive; Working of the government (a press conference, a newspaper report, visits, compensation, new laws); A wallpaper project; five exercises and a four-term glossary. We use seven concept sections — the chapter is short, so they are compact. The book's numbers are recomputed with asserts. Facts from the Constitution are added as Beyond NCERT (†) with article numbers. No map is drawn: the Himachal map becomes a seat grid and a table. The parties and the chief minister the book names are its 2017 illustration of how a majority works — no party or government is characterised here.

• How this chapter relates to UPSC, honestly: the State government is a GS2 staple — Governor, chief minister, Council of Ministers, State Legislature, the parliamentary principle that the executive answers to the legislature. The book gives only the bare idea; the articles and cases come from the senior chapters and the Constitution.
• Senior chapters: keps203 (Election and Representation — constituencies, first-past-the-post); keps204 (Executive — parliamentary system, Governor, chief minister); keps205 (Legislature — how a legislature controls the executive, Speaker, Legislative Councils); keps207 (Federalism — the Governor and Centre–State relations); keps208 (Local Governments); Class 10 jess402 (Federalism) and jess404 (Political Parties); Class 9 iest106 (Democracy) and iest107 (Elections).
• Before and next: gess302 (health — the same diarrhoea and water story, from the side of services); Class 8 hess303 (Parliament and the Making of Laws — the same ideas for the whole country) and hess304 (Judiciary); the next chapter in this book begins Unit Three on gender.
• UPSC from this chapter: eight questions — Prelims 1979, 1985, 2017 and 2020 (in a parliamentary system the executive is responsible to the legislature), 2008 (how the Legislative Assembly is composed), 2014 (the Governor's discretionary powers — does the Governor choose ministers?); Mains GS2 2021 (accountability of the executive to the legislature) and 2024 (the cabinet system and legislative supremacy). List and keys at the end.

• Whose responsibility? Patalpuram: water once in three days, children with diarrhoea, deaths — an opposition rally demands that ‘our MLA’ take responsibility.
• MLA: every State has a Legislative Assembly; each constituency elects one MLA, so MLAs represent the people. Himachal Pradesh has 68 constituencies.
• Majority = more than half the seats (HP: 35+ of 68); in 2017 one party won 44 and became the ruling party; the other 24 MLAs were the opposition. A group of parties ruling together is a coalition.
• CM and ministers: ruling-party MLAs elect a leader; the Governor (head of the State) appoints the chief minister and the ministers; ministers head departments.
• Legislature vs executive: all MLAs in the Assembly = legislature (question, debate, decide spending, make laws, approve); CM + ministers + departments = executive (‘the government’).
• Beyond the Assembly: press conferences, newspapers, TV, public meetings and protests; the government responds — tankers, an awareness campaign, compensation, an enquiry committee, new laws.

Two schoolgirls, one of them Shirin, follow the news from Patalpuram: water supply at the district headquarters only once in three days; the District Hospital full of children with diarrhoea; on TV, ten people dead. Shirin's mother has warned her not to have iced drinks from the market — ‘you have to be responsible for your health’. Cycling home, they are stopped: the road is blocked by a rally, and the crowd has gheraoed the MLA's residence. A man with a loud voice — ‘a member of the Opposition’, one girl recognises from TV — demands that the authorities act at once to bring the public health situation under control: ‘Our MLA must take the responsibility.’ The girls joke that the crowd seems angrier about what the MLA hasn't done. The book's questions: what is happening, why it is serious, what can be done and who should do it. The chapter then introduces the people who could act — officials such as the Collector and the Medical Officer are familiar, but who is the MLA?

MLAs are elected by the people; they then become members of the Legislative Assembly and also form the government — in this way MLAs represent the people. Every State in India has a Legislative Assembly. Each State is divided into areas called constituencies; the book's example is Himachal Pradesh, divided into 68 Assembly constituencies. From each constituency the people elect one representative, who becomes an MLA. People stand for election in the name of different political parties (or as independents), so MLAs belong to different parties. The book asks: do you know the MLA of your area, and which party she or he belongs to?

A party whose MLAs have won more than half the constituencies is in a majority; it becomes the ruling party and all other members form the opposition. The book's table, Results of the Assembly Elections in Himachal Pradesh in 2017: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 44, Indian National Congress (INC) 21, Communist Party of India (Marxist) 1, Independents 2 — total 68. A party needed more than 34 MLAs; the BJP, with 44, had the majority and became the ruling party; all other MLAs became the opposition, the INC the major opposition party as the next largest, and the opposition also included the independents. After the elections, the ruling party's MLAs elect their leader, who becomes the chief minister — here Shri Jairam Thakur. The chief minister then selects other people as ministers; it is the Governor who appoints the chief minister and the other ministers. The chief minister and ministers run government departments or ministries and have separate offices; the Legislative Assembly is where all MLAs, ruling and opposition, meet to discuss — so some MLAs have dual responsibilities, as MLA and as minister. Two margin notes add: the Governor is the Head of the State, appointed by the Central Government to ensure the State Government works within the rules and regulations of the Constitution; and the ruling side may be a coalition — a group of parties working together.

Afreen, Sujata and their classmates visit the Legislative Assembly in the State capital: an impressive building, security checks, a gallery overlooking a large hall with rows of desks. The Assembly is debating a current problem. During a debate MLAs can express opinions, ask questions on the issue or suggest what the government should do; others may respond; the minister replies and tries to assure the House that adequate steps are being taken. The chief minister and ministers take decisions and run the government, but whatever decisions are taken have to be approved by the members of the Legislative Assembly; members can ask questions, debate, and decide where money should be spent — ‘they have the main authority’. Six MLAs speak: (1) Akhandagaon has had 15 deaths from diarrhoea in three weeks — a shame for a government that calls itself a champion of technology; he calls the health minister's attention to act at once. (2) Why are government hospitals so bad and doctors not appointed? This is an epidemic. (3) In Tolpatti women walk 3 or 4 km for water — how many tankers, how many wells and ponds cleaned and disinfected? (4) Colleagues are exaggerating: tankers are in service, ORS packets distributed. (5) Hospitals have had no doctor or staff for years; one doctor is on long leave; how will ORS reach every family? (6) The opposition is blaming the government unfairly; the previous government ignored sanitation; a drive to clear old garbage has begun.

The MLAs debated the action taken — or not taken — by the government because the MLAs are together responsible for the work of the government. In everyday speech, ‘government’ means the government departments and the ministers who head them, with the chief minister as overall head; more correctly, this is the executive. All the MLAs who gather (‘assemble’) in the Legislative Assembly are the Legislature; they authorise and supervise the executive's work, and the head of the executive, the chief minister, comes from among them. The chief minister and ministers act through departments — Public Works, Agriculture, Health, Education and so on — and they must answer questions in the Assembly and convince the questioners that proper steps are being taken. The government can also make new laws for the State — for example, making it compulsory for municipal corporations to ensure adequate toilets in every urban area, or ensuring a health worker in every village. Laws on such issues are made in the Legislative Assembly of each State and the departments implement them; laws for the entire country are made in Parliament. In a democracy the people elect MLAs and so have the main authority; ruling-party members form the government; some become ministers in charge of departments; and whatever these departments do has to be approved by the members of the Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Assembly is not the only place where people express opinions and demand action: newspapers, TV channels and other organisations regularly discuss the government. Soon after the Assembly debate, the health minister held a press conference: many reporters attended along with officials; the minister explained the steps taken and answered questions, and the discussion was reported. A newspaper report, ‘Government smells the garbage — Chief Minister promises funds for work’, says all collectors and chief medical officers have been asked to take urgent measures; drinking water is the main problem, and tanker trucks will supply every village with funds promised by the chief minister; a campaign will tell people how to prevent diarrhoea; asked about garbage lying around for months, the chief minister said he would look into it. The next week the chief minister and health minister visited Patalpuram, met families who had lost relatives and patients in hospital; the government announced compensation; the chief minister said the problem was not only sanitation but also clean drinking water, that a high-level enquiry committee would study the district's sanitation needs, and that he would ask the minister for Public Works to see to water supply. A photograph shows a large public meeting: in a democracy, people organise meetings to voice their opinions and protest against the government.

A wallpaper is a way of doing research on a topic. The teacher introduces the topic and divides the class into groups; each group decides what to include; children read the material and write stories, poems, case studies or interviews, individually or in pairs; the group reads each other's work, gives feedback, chooses what goes in and plans the layout; each group then presents to the class — more than one member presenting, each group given equal time — followed by feedback on what more they could do, how the work could be better organised and how writing and presentation could improve. The book shows a wallpaper on the 2006 dengue epidemic made by Class VI B of Kendriya Vidyalaya II, Hindon, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), and asks for a similar project on an issue connected with the State Government — an education programme, a law-and-order issue, the midday meal scheme.

Every margin question and activity, in page order. Where the book asks about ‘your State’, the outline tells you what to find and where — no names are given here, because they change.

Five exercises, the fourth with a table, and a four-term glossary. Try first, then open.

Numbers

One-liners

• Every State has a Legislative Assembly made up of elected MLAs.
• Each constituency elects one MLA, who represents its people.
• A party with more than half the seats has a majority and becomes the ruling party.
• All other MLAs form the opposition, which questions the government.
• Ruling-party MLAs choose their leader, whom the Governor appoints chief minister.
• The Governor appoints ministers on the chief minister's choice.
• Ministers head departments; some MLAs are therefore also ministers.
• The legislature authorises and supervises; the executive decides and implements.
• Laws for a State are made in its Legislature; for the whole country, in Parliament.
• Press conferences, newspapers and public meetings also make the government answer.

Traps to avoid

• The Governor is appointed by the President (Art 155), not literally by the Central Government.
• The Governor appoints ministers but the chief minister chooses them — not a discretionary power.
• Collective responsibility is of the Council of Ministers to the Assembly, not of all MLAs.
• Opposition MLAs are part of the legislature, not of the government.
• A majority is more than half the seats in the House — 35 of 68 in Himachal Pradesh, not 34.
• State laws need the Governor's assent; the Assembly alone does not make a law.
• The Assembly's maximum size is 500, not 450 (Art 170).
• Patalpuram, Akhandagaon and Tolpatti are made-up places; their figures are not data.
• The 2017 Himachal table is a dated example; the Assembly was elected again in 2022.
• Ladakh has been a separate Union Territory since 2019 — the book's map shows only Jammu and Kashmir to the north.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• From this chapter: the parliamentary principle — the executive is responsible to the legislature (1979, 1985, 2017, 2020); how a Legislative Assembly is composed (2008: maximum 500 members, minimum age 25); the Governor appoints ministers but does not choose them (2014: discretionary powers).
• Elsewhere: Speaker's resignation (1987, 1989) and Legislative Councils (1979, 1992, 2015) on keps205; President's rule and the Governor's immunities (2017, 2018, 2025) on keps207; the President's election and MLAs' vote value on keps204.

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• From this chapter: GS2 2021 (how far the legislature ensures the executive's accountability) — the Patalpuram debate, questions, press and public meetings as accountability channels; GS2 2024 (has the cabinet system marginalised legislative supremacy?) — the book's ‘MLAs have the main authority’ set against the executive's day-to-day power.
• Elsewhere: the Governor's ordinances (GS2 2022) and assent and discretion (GS2 2026) on keps204 and keps207; Presiding Officers of State legislatures (GS2 2023) on keps205; election disputes and disqualification under the Representation of the People Act (GS2 2019, 2022) on keps203.
• Keep answers neutral: articles and cases exact; positions on Governors, sitting days or anti-defection attributed to named commissions or courts; no characterisation of any present-day party or government.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

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