Structural Issues

♤ Responsibility v/s resources: The state government is responsible and accountable for basic services like health, education, sanitation, police, electricity etc. However, they have constrained access to resources.

♤ Lack of expertise: The members of All-India services protected by Article 311 are generalist and all-purpose but lack specialized skills required to manage various services while enjoying a monopoly over all key public offices.

♤ Failure of third tier of federalism: Part IX of the Constitution created a scheme of local government. However, this tier remains constrained due to lack of funds, functions and functionaries.

♤ Rigidity at centre: There exists rigidity in Union legislation on subjects like education with resultant failure to improve outcomes despite vast expenditure.

♤ Interference by centre: Nominated governors still viewed as controlled by the centre.

Thus, these structural issues need to be addressed. Apart from these there are some low hanging fruits which may be considered such as streamlining of central schemes with administrate control given to the states, making Inter-state council functional that largely remains unutilized hitherto and participative policymaking by involving both rural and urban local government.