Chief Secretary
The post of Chief Secretary is the senior-most position held in the civil services of the states and union territories of India. The position is a cadre post for the Indian Administrative Service. The State Secretariat is the principal executive instrument of the State government and is responsible for administering the State Subjects. Each Secretariat Department has a civil servant as its head, who assists the Minister concerned in execution of policies. The chief secretary is the head of these permanent executives and is referred to as executive head of Secretariat.
Powers and functions of Chief Secretary:
The principal functions of the Chief Secretary are:
- Principal advisor to the Chief Minister on all the matters of the State administration.
- Adviser to the CM: The chief secretary acts as the principal advisor to the chief minister on all matters of state administration. The chief minister consults him on all policy issues related to the governance of state. He explains to the chief minister about the administrative implications of the proposals forwarded by the state ministers.
- Secretary to the Cabinet: The chief secretary acts as a secretary to the state cabinet. He is the administrative head of the cabinet secretariat and attends the meeting of the cabinet and its sub-committees. He prepares the agenda for cabinet meetings and keeps records of its proceedings.
- Secretary to the State Council of Ministers.
- Administrative head of the State Secretariat and attends the meeting of the Cabinet and its sub- Committees, if necessary.
- Prepares the agenda for the Cabinet meetings and keeps records of its proceedings.
- Acts as the head of the State Civil Services. In this capacity, deals with all the cases related to appointment, transfers, promotion of senior State Civil Servants. Conscience-keeper to all the State Civil Servants.
- Chief coordinator of the State administration and ensures inter-departmental co-ordination.
- The Chairman of co-ordination committees set up for inter-departmental disputes. Presides over the meetings of the departments’ Secretaries.
- Presides over the conferences attended by the Divisional Commissioners, the District Collectors and the heads of the departments of district administrations to effect coordination.
- Acts as the administrative head of some secretariat departments.
Chief Secretary of Rajasthan:
First: Sh. K. Radhakrishnan
Current: Shri D.B.Gupta
State Secretariat
The Council of Ministers being a body of political leaders cannot be expected to perform the detailed administrative functions themselves. They need advice of professional administrators in performance of these functions. This advice is provided by a body of officers known as the Secretariat.
Secretariat Definition: The expression “Secretariat” is used to refer to the complex of departments whose political heads are ministers while the administrative heads are Secretaries to the Government. The entire administrative machinery of the state is divided into several departments. The ministers are incharge of these departments and are answerable to the legislature for the activities. Below the ministers are posted in each department several career civil servants who carry out the orders of their respective ministers, advise them and help them by providing necessary information required for facing the legislature and its committees.
Some of the following functions are usually found in most of the state secretariats:
1. General Functions:
(1) Correspondence with the Government of India and other governments;
(2) Matters involving the framing of new legal enactments or rules or amendments in the existing ones, involving interpretation or relaxation of existing rules of government orders;
(3) Interdepartmental coordination;
(4) All matters of general policy;
(5) Inspection, reports and tour notes, recorded by the heads of departments;
(6) All matters relating to the preparation or adoption of new plan schemes and important modification in the existing schemes;
(7) Review of the progress of plan schemes, both physical and financial;
(8) All-India conferences and important conferences of state level;
(9) Delegation of powers;
(10) Public Accounts Committee, Estimates Committee, assembly and parliamentary questions;
2. Finance Related Functions:
(1) All proposals involving new items of expenditure;
(2) Sanction of expenditure from the Contingency Fund;
(3) Scrutiny and approval of development budget, estimates, major appropriation of accounts, surrender of funds, and supplementary grants;
(4) Write-off cases beyond powers of heads of departments and audit objections regarding the offices of heads of departments, etc.;
(5) Financial sanctions not within the competence of the heads of departments.
3. Service Related Functions:
(1) Initial appointment of officers belonging to the state service of infliction of major punishments upon them;
(2) Creation of posts, their extensions and continuance re-employment, resignations, special pay, allowances and pensions not within the powers of the head of department;
(3) Matters relating to senior appointments, promotions, transfers and cases of disciplinary proceedings against gazetted officers;
(4) Approval of service rules and amendments thereto.
Relation between Secretariat & Directorate:
The three components of government at the state level are:
(i) The minister;
(ii) The secretary, and
(iii) The executive head. (The last one in most cases is called the director, although other nomenclatures are also used to refer to the executive head).
The minister and the secretary together constitute the Secretariat, whereas the office of the executive head is designated as the Directorate. The Agriculture Department in the secretariat, for instance is headed by the Secretary Agriculture, but has the Director of Agriculture as its head of the department (Directorate).
Organisation of State Secretariat
The entire administrative machinery of the state is divided into several departments. The Business of the State Government is transacted in Secretariat Departments and distributed between these Departments.
Chief Minister (Political Head)
↓
Chief Secretary (Administrative Head)
↓
Department – Secretary
↓
Special/Additional Secretary
↓
Joint Secretary
↓
Division – Deputy Secretary
↓
Branch – Under Secretary
↓
Assistant Secretary
↓
So ON
The Secretary is overall in-charge of the department. He is the principal advisor to the minister and responsible for carrying out the policies and decisions made by political chief. Each secretary is normally in charge of more than one department. The number of secretariat departments is usually larger than the number of secretaries.