Q. How the Chief Minister of State is appointed? Critically examine the powers, functions and achievements of present Bihar Chief Minister. [BPSC- 2002]
The Chief Minister is the real executive authority at the state level. He is the head of the government.
Appointment of the Chief Minister:
- The Constitution does not contain any specific procedure for the selection and appointment of the Chief Minister. Article 164 only says that the Chief Minister shall be appointed by the governor.
- However, this does not imply that the governor is free to appoint any one as the Chief Minister. In accordance with the conventions of the parliamentary system of government, the governor has to appoint the leader of the majority party in the state legislative assembly as the Chief Minister. But, when no party has a clear majority in the assembly, then the governor may exercise his personal discretion in the selection and appointment of the Chief Minister. In such a situation, the governor usually appoints the leader of the largest party or coalition in the assembly as the Chief Minister and ask him to seek a vote of confidence in the House within a month.
- The governor may have to exercise his individual judgement in the selection and appointed of the Chief Minister when the Chief Minister in office dies suddenly and there is no obvious successor.
- However, on the death of a Chief Minister, the ruling party usually elects a new leader and the governor has no choice but to appoint him as Chief Minister.
- The Constitution does not require that a person must prove his majority in the legislative assembly before he is appointed as the Chief Minister. The governor may first appoint him as the Chief Minister and then ask him to prove his majority in the legislative assembly within a reasonable period.
- A person who is not a member of the state legislature can be appointed as Chief Minister for six months, within which time, he should be elected to the state legislature, failing which he ceases to be the Chief Minister.
- According to the Constitution, the Chief Minister may be a member of any of the two Houses of a state legislature.
The powers and the functions: The powers and functions of the Chief Minister can be studied under the following heads:
- In Relation to Council of Ministers: The Chief Minister enjoys the following powers as head of the state council of ministers:
- The governor appoints only those persons as ministers who are recommended by the Chief Minister.
- He allocates and reshuffles the portfolios among ministers.
- He can ask a minister to resign or advise the governor to dismiss him in case of difference of opinion.
- He presides over the meetings of the council of ministers and influences its decisions.
- He guides, directs, controls and coordinates the activities of all the ministers.
- He can bring about the collapse of the council of ministers by resigning from office. Since the Chief Minister is the head of the council of ministers, his resignation or death automatically dissolves the council of ministers.
- The resignation or death of any other minister, on the other hand, merely creates a vacancy, which the Chief Minister may or may not like to fill.
- In Relation to the Governor:
- Article 167: He is the principal channel of communication between the governor and the council of ministers. It is the duty of the Chief Minister:
- to communicate to the Governor of the state all decisions of the council of ministers relating to the administration of the affairs of the state and proposals for legislation;
- to furnish such information relating to the administration of the affairs of the state and proposals for legislation as the governor may call for; and
- if the governor so requires, to submit for the consideration of the council of ministers any matter on which a decision has been taken by a minister but which has not been considered by the council.
- He advises the governor with regard to the appointment of important officials like advocate general, chairman and members of the state public service commission, state election commissioner, and so on.
- Article 167: He is the principal channel of communication between the governor and the council of ministers. It is the duty of the Chief Minister:
- In Relation to State Legislature: The Chief Minister enjoys the following powers as the leader of the house:
- He advises the governor with regard to the summoning and proroguing of the sessions of the state legislature.
- He can recommend the dissolution of the legislative assembly to the governor at any time.
- He announces the government policies on the floor of the house.
- Other Powers and Functions:
- He is the chairman of the State Planning Board.
- He acts as a vice-chairman of the concerned zonal council by rotation, holding office for a period of one year at a time.
- He is a member of the Inter-State Council and the National Development Council, both headed by the prime minister.
- He is the chief spokesman of the state government.
- He is the crisis manager-in-chief at the political level during emergencies.
- He is the member of the GST council.
- As a leader of the state, he meets various sections of the people and receives memoranda from them regarding their problems, and so on.
- He is the political head of the services.
Thus, he plays a very significant and highly crucial role in the state administration. However, the discretionary powers enjoyed by the governor reduces to some extent the power, authority, influence, prestige and role of the Chief Minister in the state administration.
The achievementsof present Bihar Chief Minister:
- He is known as his dedication towards his duties, developmental works and maintaining law and order. For this he has earned various names like VIKASH PURUSH, Sushasan etc.
- Under him, Bihar has been continuously registering double digit GDP growth rate.
- The state government has improved its budgetary allocation and operational efficiency too through CFMS (Comprehensive Financial Management System) since 2019.
- Electricity:
- The per capita consumption of the electricity in the state has risen from 145 kwh in 2012-13 to 311 kwh in 2018-19, implying growth of 114 % in six years.
- The availability of power has increased from an average of 6-8 hours to 20-22 hours in rural areas and from 10-12 hours to 22-24 hours in urban areas.
- the power capacity availability in the state was 3889 MW in 2018 which increased to 4767 MW in 2019 and in order to meet the increased demand of power, the state government has also planned for additional capacity of 5335 MW from different sources in a phased manner by 2021-22.
- Climate change:
- The state government have also launched flagship programme of Jal-Jivan-Hariyali to “tackle issues related to climate change and environmental degradation”.
- Women empowerment:
- Under him, Bihar is the first state to give 50 per cent reservation to women (in 2005) in Panchyati Raj institutions which many states followed and now the Centre is also thinking over it.
- 35% reservation for women in state government jobs.
- He made girls education a priority. He started Cycle scheme for girls in BIHAR. His scheme is applauded the world over.
- He started loan scheme for poor students of bihar without any bank guarantee, STUDENT CREDIT CARD SCHEME
- Similarly, mention about the other schemes for different sectors by state government and the results of such schemes.
