Uttarakhand Secretariate and Directorate | Uttarakhand State PSC (UKPSC): Preparation - UKPSC (Uttarakhand) PDF Download

 Page 1


Uttarakhand Secretariate and Directorate
Uttarakhand Secretariate comprises of various departments of Government of
Uttarakhand. It is composed of Political as well as administrative heads of the
departments, ministers and secretaries respectively, and secrtaiate staff.
Major policies and programmes of the government are framed here. It
provides secretarial assistance to political executive. The Council of
Ministers at the state level, being a body of political leaders cannot be
expected to perform the detailed administrative functions themselves.
Therefore, they need the advice of professional administrators in the
performance of these functions. This advice is tendered to them by a body of
officers known as the secretariat. Although each department or groups of
departments has a secretary, who is called the Secretary to the Government of
a state and not the secretary to a particular department or individual Minister.
Meaning
The term “Secretariat” is used to refer to the complex of departments whose
administrative heads are secretaries and political head the Ministers. The
secretariat departments must be distinguished from the executive department.
Not all departments attached to them. Some of the secretariat departments are
engaged in advisory and controlling functions and do not, therefore have
executive departments reporting to them. Generally, the head of the executive
department is a specialist and the secretary, the administrative head, who
supervises his work is the generalists civil servant, normally a senior member
of the I.A.S.
Organisation
The number of secretariat departments usually greater than the number of
secretaries. The practice normally, is to entrust more than one department to
the charge of one secretary like his counterpart at the union level. The
officers in a secretariat department are grouped into various categories—
Principal Secretary, Secretary, Special/Additional Secretary, Deputy
Secretary/Joint Secretary, Under Secretary.
The Secretary is in overall charge of the department. He is the principal
Page 2


Uttarakhand Secretariate and Directorate
Uttarakhand Secretariate comprises of various departments of Government of
Uttarakhand. It is composed of Political as well as administrative heads of the
departments, ministers and secretaries respectively, and secrtaiate staff.
Major policies and programmes of the government are framed here. It
provides secretarial assistance to political executive. The Council of
Ministers at the state level, being a body of political leaders cannot be
expected to perform the detailed administrative functions themselves.
Therefore, they need the advice of professional administrators in the
performance of these functions. This advice is tendered to them by a body of
officers known as the secretariat. Although each department or groups of
departments has a secretary, who is called the Secretary to the Government of
a state and not the secretary to a particular department or individual Minister.
Meaning
The term “Secretariat” is used to refer to the complex of departments whose
administrative heads are secretaries and political head the Ministers. The
secretariat departments must be distinguished from the executive department.
Not all departments attached to them. Some of the secretariat departments are
engaged in advisory and controlling functions and do not, therefore have
executive departments reporting to them. Generally, the head of the executive
department is a specialist and the secretary, the administrative head, who
supervises his work is the generalists civil servant, normally a senior member
of the I.A.S.
Organisation
The number of secretariat departments usually greater than the number of
secretaries. The practice normally, is to entrust more than one department to
the charge of one secretary like his counterpart at the union level. The
officers in a secretariat department are grouped into various categories—
Principal Secretary, Secretary, Special/Additional Secretary, Deputy
Secretary/Joint Secretary, Under Secretary.
The Secretary is in overall charge of the department. He is the principal
adviser to minister and responsible for carrying out the policies and decision
made by the political chief and finally, represents his departments before the
committees of the legislature. Posts of Special Secretaries/Additional
Secretaries have been created to relieve the Secretary of some of the burden
of his work. They can perform some of the functions of the secretary and may
submit files directly to the minister in respect of the delegated functions
performed by them. The Deputy Secretaries/Joint Secretaries are placed in
charge of a definite Department. A Deputy secretary is also delegated some
powers to dispose of certain routine cases at his level. Under Secretaries are
the lower level officers. They are placed incharge of a number of sections
each headed by a section officer.
Section Officer heading a particular section of the Department, is
responsible for the distribution of work among the various functionaries of
the section and to ensure timely submission of files to the officers. He
supervises Review Officers, Assistant Review Officers and other lower level
staff working in his section and makes them present the case suitable
docketed and referenced.
Functions
The secretariat is a policy-making body of the government and normally
performs the following functions:
1. Assisting the minister in policy-making and modifying policies from time
to time, as and when necessary;
2. Framing legislation and rules and regulations;
3. Budgeting and control of expenditure in respect of activities of the
ministry;
4. Supervising and control over the execution of policies and programmes by
the executive departments;
5. Coordination and interpretation of policies;
6. Assisting other branches of Government and maintaining contact with
central and other state governments and outside agencies;
7. Assisting the minister in the discharge of his parliamentary responsibilities;
8. The secretariat acts as the spokesman of the Government.
9. All matters of general policy;
10. Inter-department coordination;
11. Matters involving the framing of new legal enactments of rules of
Page 3


Uttarakhand Secretariate and Directorate
Uttarakhand Secretariate comprises of various departments of Government of
Uttarakhand. It is composed of Political as well as administrative heads of the
departments, ministers and secretaries respectively, and secrtaiate staff.
Major policies and programmes of the government are framed here. It
provides secretarial assistance to political executive. The Council of
Ministers at the state level, being a body of political leaders cannot be
expected to perform the detailed administrative functions themselves.
Therefore, they need the advice of professional administrators in the
performance of these functions. This advice is tendered to them by a body of
officers known as the secretariat. Although each department or groups of
departments has a secretary, who is called the Secretary to the Government of
a state and not the secretary to a particular department or individual Minister.
Meaning
The term “Secretariat” is used to refer to the complex of departments whose
administrative heads are secretaries and political head the Ministers. The
secretariat departments must be distinguished from the executive department.
Not all departments attached to them. Some of the secretariat departments are
engaged in advisory and controlling functions and do not, therefore have
executive departments reporting to them. Generally, the head of the executive
department is a specialist and the secretary, the administrative head, who
supervises his work is the generalists civil servant, normally a senior member
of the I.A.S.
Organisation
The number of secretariat departments usually greater than the number of
secretaries. The practice normally, is to entrust more than one department to
the charge of one secretary like his counterpart at the union level. The
officers in a secretariat department are grouped into various categories—
Principal Secretary, Secretary, Special/Additional Secretary, Deputy
Secretary/Joint Secretary, Under Secretary.
The Secretary is in overall charge of the department. He is the principal
adviser to minister and responsible for carrying out the policies and decision
made by the political chief and finally, represents his departments before the
committees of the legislature. Posts of Special Secretaries/Additional
Secretaries have been created to relieve the Secretary of some of the burden
of his work. They can perform some of the functions of the secretary and may
submit files directly to the minister in respect of the delegated functions
performed by them. The Deputy Secretaries/Joint Secretaries are placed in
charge of a definite Department. A Deputy secretary is also delegated some
powers to dispose of certain routine cases at his level. Under Secretaries are
the lower level officers. They are placed incharge of a number of sections
each headed by a section officer.
Section Officer heading a particular section of the Department, is
responsible for the distribution of work among the various functionaries of
the section and to ensure timely submission of files to the officers. He
supervises Review Officers, Assistant Review Officers and other lower level
staff working in his section and makes them present the case suitable
docketed and referenced.
Functions
The secretariat is a policy-making body of the government and normally
performs the following functions:
1. Assisting the minister in policy-making and modifying policies from time
to time, as and when necessary;
2. Framing legislation and rules and regulations;
3. Budgeting and control of expenditure in respect of activities of the
ministry;
4. Supervising and control over the execution of policies and programmes by
the executive departments;
5. Coordination and interpretation of policies;
6. Assisting other branches of Government and maintaining contact with
central and other state governments and outside agencies;
7. Assisting the minister in the discharge of his parliamentary responsibilities;
8. The secretariat acts as the spokesman of the Government.
9. All matters of general policy;
10. Inter-department coordination;
11. Matters involving the framing of new legal enactments of rules of
amendments in the existing ones. Cases involving interpretation or
relaxation of existing rules or government orders;
12. Correspondences with the Government of India and other State
Governments;
13. All matters relating to the preparation or adoption of new plan schemes,
and important modifications in the existing schemes;
14. Review of the progress of the plan schemes both physical and financial.
15. Inspection reports and tour notes recorded by heads of departments;
16. Public accounts committee, Estimates committee, Assembly/Parliament
questions;
17. Delegation of powers;
Financial Matters
1. Scrutiny and approval of departmental budget estimates, major
appropriation of accounts, surrender of funds and supplementary grants;
2. All proposals involving new items of expenditure;
3. Financial sanctions not within the competence of the head of department;
4. Sanction of expenditure from contingency fund;
5. Write-off cases beyond the powers of heads of department and audit
objections regarding the officer of the heads of department.
Service Matters
1. Approval of service rules and amendment thereto;
2. Papers relating to senor appointments/promotions/transfers of deputy heads
of department and above, plus, cases of disciplinary proceedings against
their officers;
3. Initial appointment of officers belonging to the state service and inflection
of major punishments on them;
4. Creation of posts, their extension and continuance, re-employment,
resignations, special pay and allowances and positions; not within the
powers of heads of departments.
Criticism of the Secretariat
The general complaint against the Secretariat is that it has been concentrating
most of the powers. The executive heads of departments generally complain
that even for a small matter they have to approach the Secretary for getting
Page 4


Uttarakhand Secretariate and Directorate
Uttarakhand Secretariate comprises of various departments of Government of
Uttarakhand. It is composed of Political as well as administrative heads of the
departments, ministers and secretaries respectively, and secrtaiate staff.
Major policies and programmes of the government are framed here. It
provides secretarial assistance to political executive. The Council of
Ministers at the state level, being a body of political leaders cannot be
expected to perform the detailed administrative functions themselves.
Therefore, they need the advice of professional administrators in the
performance of these functions. This advice is tendered to them by a body of
officers known as the secretariat. Although each department or groups of
departments has a secretary, who is called the Secretary to the Government of
a state and not the secretary to a particular department or individual Minister.
Meaning
The term “Secretariat” is used to refer to the complex of departments whose
administrative heads are secretaries and political head the Ministers. The
secretariat departments must be distinguished from the executive department.
Not all departments attached to them. Some of the secretariat departments are
engaged in advisory and controlling functions and do not, therefore have
executive departments reporting to them. Generally, the head of the executive
department is a specialist and the secretary, the administrative head, who
supervises his work is the generalists civil servant, normally a senior member
of the I.A.S.
Organisation
The number of secretariat departments usually greater than the number of
secretaries. The practice normally, is to entrust more than one department to
the charge of one secretary like his counterpart at the union level. The
officers in a secretariat department are grouped into various categories—
Principal Secretary, Secretary, Special/Additional Secretary, Deputy
Secretary/Joint Secretary, Under Secretary.
The Secretary is in overall charge of the department. He is the principal
adviser to minister and responsible for carrying out the policies and decision
made by the political chief and finally, represents his departments before the
committees of the legislature. Posts of Special Secretaries/Additional
Secretaries have been created to relieve the Secretary of some of the burden
of his work. They can perform some of the functions of the secretary and may
submit files directly to the minister in respect of the delegated functions
performed by them. The Deputy Secretaries/Joint Secretaries are placed in
charge of a definite Department. A Deputy secretary is also delegated some
powers to dispose of certain routine cases at his level. Under Secretaries are
the lower level officers. They are placed incharge of a number of sections
each headed by a section officer.
Section Officer heading a particular section of the Department, is
responsible for the distribution of work among the various functionaries of
the section and to ensure timely submission of files to the officers. He
supervises Review Officers, Assistant Review Officers and other lower level
staff working in his section and makes them present the case suitable
docketed and referenced.
Functions
The secretariat is a policy-making body of the government and normally
performs the following functions:
1. Assisting the minister in policy-making and modifying policies from time
to time, as and when necessary;
2. Framing legislation and rules and regulations;
3. Budgeting and control of expenditure in respect of activities of the
ministry;
4. Supervising and control over the execution of policies and programmes by
the executive departments;
5. Coordination and interpretation of policies;
6. Assisting other branches of Government and maintaining contact with
central and other state governments and outside agencies;
7. Assisting the minister in the discharge of his parliamentary responsibilities;
8. The secretariat acts as the spokesman of the Government.
9. All matters of general policy;
10. Inter-department coordination;
11. Matters involving the framing of new legal enactments of rules of
amendments in the existing ones. Cases involving interpretation or
relaxation of existing rules or government orders;
12. Correspondences with the Government of India and other State
Governments;
13. All matters relating to the preparation or adoption of new plan schemes,
and important modifications in the existing schemes;
14. Review of the progress of the plan schemes both physical and financial.
15. Inspection reports and tour notes recorded by heads of departments;
16. Public accounts committee, Estimates committee, Assembly/Parliament
questions;
17. Delegation of powers;
Financial Matters
1. Scrutiny and approval of departmental budget estimates, major
appropriation of accounts, surrender of funds and supplementary grants;
2. All proposals involving new items of expenditure;
3. Financial sanctions not within the competence of the head of department;
4. Sanction of expenditure from contingency fund;
5. Write-off cases beyond the powers of heads of department and audit
objections regarding the officer of the heads of department.
Service Matters
1. Approval of service rules and amendment thereto;
2. Papers relating to senor appointments/promotions/transfers of deputy heads
of department and above, plus, cases of disciplinary proceedings against
their officers;
3. Initial appointment of officers belonging to the state service and inflection
of major punishments on them;
4. Creation of posts, their extension and continuance, re-employment,
resignations, special pay and allowances and positions; not within the
powers of heads of departments.
Criticism of the Secretariat
The general complaint against the Secretariat is that it has been concentrating
most of the powers. The executive heads of departments generally complain
that even for a small matter they have to approach the Secretary for getting
sanction. The reason for this tendency is inherent in the Parliamentary form
of Government. The Minister is responsible to the Parliament for omissions
and commissions of the department under his charge. Hence, he has to keep
himself informed of all the developments of his department. This leads to the
concentration of functions in the Secretariat. Certain human and
psychological factors are also responsible for this monopolization of power.
But this type of concentration leads to inefficiency in the working of the
Government. Second, the Secretariat being far away from the field are not
aware of the problems in the field. Therefore, their examination of proposal
put forth by field staff is not only superficial, but also leads to too many
queries. This slow and tardy processing of the cases impairs the efficiency of
the field agencies. Third, the posting in the Secretariat these days are
important and attractive and the condition in the field is difficult. The field
officers have to face political pressures and have greater chance of coming
into conflict with the political matters. While the Secretariat officers have a
very good existence. They work close to the centre of power and are able to
develop better equation with them. Moreover, the Secretariat posts carry
additional remuneration which make them more attractive to the officers;
have better educational and medical facilities and other amenities. Therefore,
most of the officers wish to remain in the Secretariat. By staying for a long
period in the Secretariat these officers lose touch with the field and do not
realise the field problems. It is, therefore, essential to have a balance between
the field level and Secretariat level experience of the officers.
Departments
Uttarakhand Secratriate is composed of following departments
1. 20 Point Programme & Implementation (Department of Planning)
2. Agriculture
3. Accounts & Entitlement
4. Animal Husbandry
5. Budget
6. Chief Development Officer
7. Commercial Tax
8. Dairy development
9. Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre
10. Election
Page 5


Uttarakhand Secretariate and Directorate
Uttarakhand Secretariate comprises of various departments of Government of
Uttarakhand. It is composed of Political as well as administrative heads of the
departments, ministers and secretaries respectively, and secrtaiate staff.
Major policies and programmes of the government are framed here. It
provides secretarial assistance to political executive. The Council of
Ministers at the state level, being a body of political leaders cannot be
expected to perform the detailed administrative functions themselves.
Therefore, they need the advice of professional administrators in the
performance of these functions. This advice is tendered to them by a body of
officers known as the secretariat. Although each department or groups of
departments has a secretary, who is called the Secretary to the Government of
a state and not the secretary to a particular department or individual Minister.
Meaning
The term “Secretariat” is used to refer to the complex of departments whose
administrative heads are secretaries and political head the Ministers. The
secretariat departments must be distinguished from the executive department.
Not all departments attached to them. Some of the secretariat departments are
engaged in advisory and controlling functions and do not, therefore have
executive departments reporting to them. Generally, the head of the executive
department is a specialist and the secretary, the administrative head, who
supervises his work is the generalists civil servant, normally a senior member
of the I.A.S.
Organisation
The number of secretariat departments usually greater than the number of
secretaries. The practice normally, is to entrust more than one department to
the charge of one secretary like his counterpart at the union level. The
officers in a secretariat department are grouped into various categories—
Principal Secretary, Secretary, Special/Additional Secretary, Deputy
Secretary/Joint Secretary, Under Secretary.
The Secretary is in overall charge of the department. He is the principal
adviser to minister and responsible for carrying out the policies and decision
made by the political chief and finally, represents his departments before the
committees of the legislature. Posts of Special Secretaries/Additional
Secretaries have been created to relieve the Secretary of some of the burden
of his work. They can perform some of the functions of the secretary and may
submit files directly to the minister in respect of the delegated functions
performed by them. The Deputy Secretaries/Joint Secretaries are placed in
charge of a definite Department. A Deputy secretary is also delegated some
powers to dispose of certain routine cases at his level. Under Secretaries are
the lower level officers. They are placed incharge of a number of sections
each headed by a section officer.
Section Officer heading a particular section of the Department, is
responsible for the distribution of work among the various functionaries of
the section and to ensure timely submission of files to the officers. He
supervises Review Officers, Assistant Review Officers and other lower level
staff working in his section and makes them present the case suitable
docketed and referenced.
Functions
The secretariat is a policy-making body of the government and normally
performs the following functions:
1. Assisting the minister in policy-making and modifying policies from time
to time, as and when necessary;
2. Framing legislation and rules and regulations;
3. Budgeting and control of expenditure in respect of activities of the
ministry;
4. Supervising and control over the execution of policies and programmes by
the executive departments;
5. Coordination and interpretation of policies;
6. Assisting other branches of Government and maintaining contact with
central and other state governments and outside agencies;
7. Assisting the minister in the discharge of his parliamentary responsibilities;
8. The secretariat acts as the spokesman of the Government.
9. All matters of general policy;
10. Inter-department coordination;
11. Matters involving the framing of new legal enactments of rules of
amendments in the existing ones. Cases involving interpretation or
relaxation of existing rules or government orders;
12. Correspondences with the Government of India and other State
Governments;
13. All matters relating to the preparation or adoption of new plan schemes,
and important modifications in the existing schemes;
14. Review of the progress of the plan schemes both physical and financial.
15. Inspection reports and tour notes recorded by heads of departments;
16. Public accounts committee, Estimates committee, Assembly/Parliament
questions;
17. Delegation of powers;
Financial Matters
1. Scrutiny and approval of departmental budget estimates, major
appropriation of accounts, surrender of funds and supplementary grants;
2. All proposals involving new items of expenditure;
3. Financial sanctions not within the competence of the head of department;
4. Sanction of expenditure from contingency fund;
5. Write-off cases beyond the powers of heads of department and audit
objections regarding the officer of the heads of department.
Service Matters
1. Approval of service rules and amendment thereto;
2. Papers relating to senor appointments/promotions/transfers of deputy heads
of department and above, plus, cases of disciplinary proceedings against
their officers;
3. Initial appointment of officers belonging to the state service and inflection
of major punishments on them;
4. Creation of posts, their extension and continuance, re-employment,
resignations, special pay and allowances and positions; not within the
powers of heads of departments.
Criticism of the Secretariat
The general complaint against the Secretariat is that it has been concentrating
most of the powers. The executive heads of departments generally complain
that even for a small matter they have to approach the Secretary for getting
sanction. The reason for this tendency is inherent in the Parliamentary form
of Government. The Minister is responsible to the Parliament for omissions
and commissions of the department under his charge. Hence, he has to keep
himself informed of all the developments of his department. This leads to the
concentration of functions in the Secretariat. Certain human and
psychological factors are also responsible for this monopolization of power.
But this type of concentration leads to inefficiency in the working of the
Government. Second, the Secretariat being far away from the field are not
aware of the problems in the field. Therefore, their examination of proposal
put forth by field staff is not only superficial, but also leads to too many
queries. This slow and tardy processing of the cases impairs the efficiency of
the field agencies. Third, the posting in the Secretariat these days are
important and attractive and the condition in the field is difficult. The field
officers have to face political pressures and have greater chance of coming
into conflict with the political matters. While the Secretariat officers have a
very good existence. They work close to the centre of power and are able to
develop better equation with them. Moreover, the Secretariat posts carry
additional remuneration which make them more attractive to the officers;
have better educational and medical facilities and other amenities. Therefore,
most of the officers wish to remain in the Secretariat. By staying for a long
period in the Secretariat these officers lose touch with the field and do not
realise the field problems. It is, therefore, essential to have a balance between
the field level and Secretariat level experience of the officers.
Departments
Uttarakhand Secratriate is composed of following departments
1. 20 Point Programme & Implementation (Department of Planning)
2. Agriculture
3. Accounts & Entitlement
4. Animal Husbandry
5. Budget
6. Chief Development Officer
7. Commercial Tax
8. Dairy development
9. Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre
10. Election
11. Employment
12. Entertainment tax/ trade tax
13. Excise
14. Firms, Societies and Chitfunds
15. Fisheries
16. Food and Civil Supplies
17. Forest
18. Geology and geomining unit
19. Higher Education
20. Information
21. Irrigation
22. ITDA
23. Labour
24. Medical Education
25. Medical, Health and Family Welfare
26. Minor Irrigation Department
27. Panchayati Raj
28. Police
29. Public Works
30. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan
31. Revenue
32. Rural development
33. Rural Engineering Service
34. Sanskrit Education
35. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan
36. school education
37. Sericulture
38. Social welfare
39. Sports
40. Stamps & Registration
41. State Horticulture Mission
42. State Planning Department, Govt. of Uttarakhand
43. Tourism
44. Town and Country Planning
45. Transport
46. Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan