Role of inter-governmental agencies in Indian federalism

Abstract

A federal constitution has two sets of governments- federal and regional which are constitutionally allocated exclusive as well as shared jurisdictions, to say nothing of residual powers. For this reason, inter-governmental agencies are an essential mechanism to negotiate, regulate and formulate common policies at least in the policy areas of shared jurisdictions. Besides, such agencies may also be necessary for exclusive jurisdiction for the obvious reasons that in the era of cooperative federalism the federal government often use its generally larger revenues to initiate centrally sponsored schemes of development and social policies with the consent of state government. Such schemes may be fully or partly funded by the union and implemented by the states.One particular aspect of the institutional working of federal system is the role of inter-governmental agencies that facilitate a policy making by the Federal and Regional Governments."The founding fathers gave India a union model of federalism, which critically blends the best features of all the important types of federation. The emerging Indian model reconciles the imperatives of a strong centre with the need of state autonomy. It distributes power, yet does not effect a rigid compartmentalization. Functionally, it is an inter- dependent arrangement, where centre and states collectively aspire and work towards the welfare of the people. Working aberrations have caused functions in the centre-state relations, therefore demands for decentralization. This, however, does not require major changes but functional modifications in the constitution. Necessity of autonomy needs to be balanced with the imperatives of integration. The Indian constitution was framed when the idea of co-operative federalism was prevalent. Therefore, the constitution framers were aware of the need for such forums and thus incorporated Article 263. This Article in our constitution was borrowed from a similar provision in the government of India Act 1935, providing for the creation of an Inter Provisional Council. However, Article 263 was rarely used before the V.P. Singh Government set up a regular Inter-State Council (ISC) in 1990 by a presidential ordinance. But there has been another inter governmental forum in India that is Planning Commission, which is set up outside the framework of the constitution by a cabinet resolution of the Nehru Government in 1950 that has been very significant in many ways in the field of economic–policy making and planning than the Inter State Council has been in the political field.