Government of Kerala
High Court Kerala High Court | | |
Chief Justice | Ashish Jitendra Desai | |
---|---|---|
Seat | Kochi |
The Government of Kerala (abbreviated as GoK), also known as the Kerala Government, is the administrative body responsible for governing Indian state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. The chief minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, known as the cabinet.
Ministers of the Kerala government are
Under the
Executive branch
Kerala Council of Ministers
Like in other Indian states, the executive arm of the state is responsible for the day-to-day management of the state. It consists of the governor, the chief minister and the Council of Ministers. The chief minister and the council of ministers also have been appointed by the governor. The governor summons prorogues and dissolves the legislature. He can close the legislative assembly on the recommendation of the chief minister. Judiciary has been separated from the executive in Kerala like other Indian states.
The executive authority is headed by the Chief Minister of Kerala, who is the de facto head of state and is vested with most of the executive powers; the Legislative Assembly's majority party leader is appointed to this position by the Governor. The present Chief Minister is Pinarayi Vijayan, who took office on 25 May 2016. Generally, the winning party decides the chief minister. In many cases, the party focuses a chief ministerial candidate during the election.
The Council of Ministers, which answers to the Legislative Assembly, has its members appointed by the Governor; the appointments receive input from the Chief Minister. They are collectively responsible to the legislative assembly of the State. Generally, the winning party and its chief minister chooses the ministers list and submit the list for the Governor's approval.
Governor
The governor is appointed by the
Arif Mohammad Khan is the present governor.
The governor enjoys many different types of powers:
- Executive powers related to administration, appointments, and removals
- Legislative powers related to lawmaking and the state legislature
- Discretionary powers to be carried out according to the discretion of the governor
Council of Ministers
The incumbent chief minister of Kerala is serving his second consecutive term, and was sworn into power on 20 May 2021. The oath-taking ceremony was held at the Central Stadium. The Kerala Governor administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new members. In December 2023, the Kerala Cabinet underwent a reshuffle as part of a mutual agreement among member parties. The reshuffling is in accordance with a pre-election agreement within the Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition. Transport Minister Antony Raju and Ports and Archaeology Minister Ahmed Devarkovil resigned, leading to the appointment of K.B Ganesh Kumar as the new Minister for Transport and Kadannappalli Ramachandran as the Minister for Registration and Archeology.[3]
S.No | Name | Portrait | Constituency | Designation | Department | Party | State Car Number |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chief Minister | |||||||
1. | Pinarayi Vijayan | Dharmadom
|
Chief Minister |
|
CPI(M) | 1
| |
Cabinet Ministers | |||||||
2. | Adv. K. Rajan
|
Ollur
|
Minister for Revenue and Housing |
|
CPI | 2
| |
3. | Roshy Augustine | Idukki
|
Minister for Water Resources |
|
KCM | 3
| |
4. | K. Krishnankutty | Chittur
|
Minister for Electricity |
|
JD(S) Kerala | 4
| |
5. | A. K. Saseendran | Elathur
|
Minister for Forest and Wildlife |
|
NCP | 5
| |
6. | Kadannappalli Ramachandran | Kannur | Minister for Registration,Museum Archaeology & Archives |
|
Congress (S) | 6
| |
7. | K. B. Ganesh Kumar | Pathanapuram | Minister for Transport |
|
KC(B) | 7
| |
8. | V. Abdurahiman | Tanur
|
Minister for Sports, Wakf and Haj Pilgrimage, Minority welfare |
| |||
9. | G. R. Anil | Nedumangad
|
Minister for Food and Civil Supplies |
|
CPI | 19
| |
10. | K. N. Balagopal | Kottarakkara
|
Minister for Finance |
|
CPI(M) | 10
| |
11. | R. Bindu | Irinjalakuda
|
Minister for Higher Education and Social Justice |
|
CPI(M) | 18
| |
12. | J. Chinchu Rani | Chadayamangalam
|
Minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development |
|
CPI | 14
| |
13. | M.B Rajesh | Thrithala
|
Minister for Local Self Governments, Rural Development and Excise |
|
CPI(M) | 9
| |
14. | P. A. Mohammed Riyas | Beypore
|
Minister for Public Works and Tourism | CPI(M) | 17
| ||
15. | P. Prasad | Cherthala
|
Minister for Agriculture |
|
CPI | 13
| |
16. | K Radhakrishnan | Chelakkara
|
Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes and Devaswoms |
|
CPI(M) | ||
17. | P Rajeev
|
Kalamassery
|
Minister for Law, Industries and Coir |
|
CPI(M) | 11
| |
18. | V. Sivankutty | Nemom
|
Minister for General Education and Labour |
|
CPI(M) | 16
| |
19. | V. N. Vasavan | Ettumanoor
|
Minister for Co-operation |
|
CPI(M) | ||
20. | Veena George | Aranmula
|
Minister for Health and Woman and Child Development |
|
CPI(M) | 20
|
Legislative branch
The
The main function of the
The normal term of the legislative assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first meeting. But while a proclamation of state of emergency is in operation, the said period will be extended by Parliament by Laws for a period not exceeding one year at a time.[4]
Administrative divisions
State administrative structure | |
---|---|
Administrative divisions | Total |
Districts | 14 |
Revenue Divisions | 27 |
Taluks | 75 |
Revenue Villages | 1453 |
Local-Self Governments[5] | Numbers |
---|---|
District Panchayats
|
14 |
Block Panchayats | 152 |
Grama Panchayats | 941 |
Municipal Corporations | 6 |
Municipalities | 87 |
Electoral constituencies | Numbers |
---|---|
Lok Sabha constituencies | 20 |
Legislative assembly constituencies | 140 |
For administrative convenience, Kerala State has been divided into 14 districts, 27 revenue divisions, 75 taluks, 152 CD blocks, and 1453 revenue villages. For local governance, the state has 941 gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 6 corporations, and 87 municipalities.[6]
Departments
The business of the state government is transacted through the various secretariat departments based on the rules of business. Each department consists of secretary to the government, who is the official head of the department and such other deputy secretaries, under secretaries, junior secretaries, officers, and staffs subordinate to him/her. The Chief secretary superintending control over the whole secretariat and staff attached to the ministers.
The department is further divided into sections, each of which is under the charge of a section officer. Apart from these sections, dealing with the subjects allotted to them, there are other offices sections, assigned with specific duties. When there is more than one secretary in a department, there shall be a clear separation of work.[7]
At present there are 44 Secretariat Departments as below:
- Agricultural Development and Farmers Welfare Department[8]
- Animal Husbandry Department
- Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and HomeopathyAYUSH) Department
- Archaeology Department
- Backward Communities Development Department
- Department of Coastal Shipping and Inland Navigation
- Co-operation Department
- Department of Consumer Affairs
- Department of Cultural Affairs
- Department of Diary Development
- Department of Environment
- Department of Election
- Department of Electronics and Information Technology
- Excise Department
- Finance Department
- Fisheries and Ports Department
- Forests and Wildlife Department
- Food and Civil Supplies Department
- General Education Department
- General Administration Department
- Higher Education Department
- Home Department
- Health and Family Welfare Department
- Housing Department
- Industries and Commerce Department
- Information & Public Relations Department
- Labour and Skills Department
- Law Department
- Local Self-Government Department
- Minority Welfare Department
- Non Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) Department[10]
- Planning and Economic Affairs Department
- Personnel & Administrative Reforms Department
- Parliamentary Affairs Department
- Power Department
- Public Works Department
- Registration Department
- Revenue Department
- Sainik Welfare Department
- Science & Technology Department
- Social Justice Department
- Sports & Youth Affairs Department
- Scheduled Castes Development Department
- Scheduled Tribes Development Department
- Stores Purchase Department
- Taxes Department
- Tourism Department
- Transport Department
- VigilanceDepartment
- Water Resources Department[11]
- Women and Child Development Department
- Western Ghats Cell
Out of these 44 Secretariat Departments, 42 (aside from the Finance and Law Departments) are commonly referred to as Administrative Departments and are referred to as Administrative Secretariat collectively for administrative convenience and in light of the functions that are distributed among them. The Secretaries in charge of various departments are typically All India Service officers who are members of the
In addition to the Secretariat department, the State Government operates various field departments that function under the purview of their respective Secretariat department. These field departments form an integral part of the administrative structure, working in conjunction with the Secretariat to effectively implement government policies and initiatives at the grassroots level. Line departments (field departments) which are distinct from the Secretariat but operate under almost the same name as the Secretariat dept are commonly known as Directorates and Commissionerates.
State insignias
Mundum neriyathum (women) (men)Mundu |
The
The state animal of Kerala is the
or karimeen (കരിമീന്).Elections
Elections to the state assembly are held every five years. Elections are generally held for
Politics
Kerala has a unique position in India as one of the most politicised states. It has the nation's largest politically aware population, which actively participates in state politics.
Politics in Kerala is dominated by two political fronts: the
The political alliance has strongly stabilised and, with rare exceptions, most of the coalition partners maintain loyalty to the alliance. As a result of this, power has alternated between these two fronts since 1979.
In terms of individual parties, the state has strong leanings towards
The
The Bharatiya Janata Party (the Party that currently leads the Government of India) is also active in Kerala, but is not part of either coalition. It does not have any elected Parliament member, and has lost its one Legislative Assembly member in the 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election and selected members in all the Corporations, several Municipal Councils and a large number of Local Panchayats. The party enjoys popularity in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod.
Other popular regional parties are:
- The Idukki and Pathanamthitta. Today, most of Kerala Congress parties are with the UDF.
- The Kasargod. They form the second largest party within the UDF.
- Socialist groups, consisting of several small fragmented parties like the Congress-S, are mainly centre-left socialist parties having very limited influence in a few pocket areas. Most of the socialist groups are with the LDF, though in a few instances, some of them changed their loyalties to the UDF.
- Communist parties consist of various groups which have broken away from the CPIM. They are mostly centre-left parties, though a few are extreme-left. While a few centre-left parties like the RSP have joined with the UDF, those that broke away from the CPIM, like the CMP and JSS, led by erstwhile CPIM veterans who were expelled from CPIM, have joined with the UDF.
- The National Democratic Alliance.
Awards and honours
Kerala was declared as the first complete digitally administered state of India on 27 February 2016.[14] The India Corruption Survey 2019 by Transparency International declared Kerala the least-corrupt state in India.[15] The state topped in the country to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals according to the annual report of NITI Aayog published in 2019.[16] The Public Affairs Index-2020 released by the Public Affairs Centre, India, designated Kerala as the best governed Indian state.[17]
References
- ^ >pages gad
.kerala .gov .in /index .php /contact-us>pages - ^ "The States". Government of India. Archived from the original on 23 March 2008.
- ^ "Kerala's Transport, Ports ministers resign, pave way for cabinet reshuffle". India Today. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
- ^ "Kerala Government - Legislature". Kerala Niyamasabha.
- ^ "Local Self Government Institutions | Deparyment of Panchayats". dop.lsgkerala.gov.in. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
- ^ "Local Self Government". Archived from the original on 11 April 2011.
- ^ "Organizational and functional details of the Government Secretariat". The official website, Government of Kerala. Archived from the original on 5 October 2010.
- ^ "Karshika Keralam – Department of Agriculture Development and Farmers' Welfare" (in Malayalam). Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ "AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha & Homoeopathy) – National Health Mission". Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ "Home - NORKA". www.norkaroots.org. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ "Kerala State Portal". kerala.gov.in. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
- ^ "Kerala Symbols". kerenvis.nic.in. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008.
- ^ "Red wave trounces UDF in Kerala". The Hindu. 20 May 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
- ^ Special currespondent (28 February 2016). "Kerala the first digital State". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
- ^ India Corruption Survey 2019 - Report (PDF). Transparency International India. 2019. p. 22.
- ^ Gireesh Chandra Prasad (30 December 2019). "Kerala tops sustainable development goals index". Livemint. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
- ^ PTI (30 October 2020). "Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa best governed States: report". The Hindu. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
Further reading
- Chief Ministers, Ministers, and Leaders of Opposition of Kerala (PDF), Thiruvananthapuram: Secratriat of Kerala Legislature, 2018
- Chandran, VP (2018). Mathrubhumi Yearbook Plus - 2019 (Malayalam Edition). Kozhikode: P. V. Chandran, Managing Editor, Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited, Kozhikode.
- Menon, A. Sreedhara (2007). A Survey of Kerala History. DC Books. ISBN 9788126415786.