UPSC IAS Mains Public Administration Solved Exam Paper - 2013 (Paper -II)

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Online Course

UPSC IAS Mains Public Administration Solved Exam Paper - 2013

Paper - II

Time Allowed: Three Hours

Maximum Marks: 250

SECTION A

Q1. Attempt the following in about 150 words each: 10x5=50

(a) "The Charter Act of 1853 marked the beginning of parliamentary system in India." Explain.(for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(b) "Civil service neutrality is founded on the application of the principles of Rule of Law."Comment (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(c) "The second generation reforms in the Panchayati Raj institutions have changed Panchayats from an agency of development at local level into a political institution." Discuss. (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(d) "Finance Commission in India performs the job of statistics aggregation." Comment (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(e) "Planning enables comprehensive and scientific understanding of problems." Examine the statement in the context of planning methodology. (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)

Q2.

(a) "Bureaucratic agencies, characterized by established procedures, specialization, leadership, clear objectives are not ideal to handle disaster management." Examine with reference to the need for administrative flexibility in managing disasters. (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(b) "The liberal-democratic ideology of the West influenced the shaping of value premises of the Indian Constitution." Discuss. (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(c) "Autonomy to public sector undertakings is a myth." Analyse in the context of the use of government expenditures by politicians who control governments at different levels. (In about 150 words) 10 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)

Q3.

(a) "Laws are enacted without involving the police in the conception stage, with the result implementation of these laws leaves much to be desired." Examine the role of police in protection of children. (In about 250 words) 20.
(b) "Central Secretariat is the nodal agency for administering the Union subjects and establishing coordination among the various activities of the government." Discuss. (In about 250 words) 20
(c) Is there a need to dispense with the Office of the Governor? Examine in the context of coalition governments. (In about 150 words) 10

Answer:

Under no circumstances is a juvenile to be kept in a police lock-up or jail. This has been the sentiment of juvenile legislation since the enactment of the children Acts. Reformation and rehabilitation, rather than penalizing the kid, is the essence of juvenile jurisprudence. Towards this end it is necessary to place the juvenile in a specialized setting where his development is of paramount importance. If adult wrongdoer and juvenile are kept along there is a danger of the juvenile being corrupted by hardened criminals or being abused by them. Is not treatment meted to inmates in police lock-ups and a jail isn’t commensurate with the juvenile’s age and is probably going to scar him.

In every police headquarters a minimum of one officer with ability and appropriate training and orientation is also designated as the ‘juvenile or the child welfare officer’who can handle the juvenile or the child in co-ordination with the police. Special juvenile police unit, of which all the law enforcement officials designated as above, to handle juveniles or youngsters will be members, may be created in each district and town to co-ordinate and to upgrade the police treatment of the juveniles and the children.

The job of special juvenile officers include taking missing children reports; probing runaway cases; investigating juvenile crimes; contacting and interviewing juveniles, their parents, school officials, and complainants regarding the situation of an offense; maintaining juvenile records; and appearing in juvenile court.

Juveniles are less knowable than adults, and time and again exhibit fewer respect for the authority of officers. The infantile behavior of many children and youth means that they are more at risk to the dares of other youth, and they often engage in unusual behaviour when in the company of their peers.

The immaturity of youth coupled with limited parental supervision and negative peer pressure presents special problems for police, who repeatedly encounter juveniles with little respect for law and authority. Juveniles also present a special trouble for law regulators as they are less mindful of the consequences of their actions and of the effects of their delinquent behaviour on their victims, their parents and families, their peers, and themselves.

(b) "Central Secretariat is the nodal agency for administering the Union subjects and establishing coordination among the various activities of the government." Discuss. (In about 250 words) 20

The Central Secretariat is a collection of various ministries and departments. But the Cabinet Secretariat, which is in reality a ministry comprising more than one department, is still known as the secretariat. A ministry is the charge allotted to ministers. This may include one or more departments depending upon administrative convenience, each under the charge of a secretary. A department on the other hand is an organizational unit consisting of a secretary to government together with a part of the central secretariat under his administrative control on which the responsibility of performing specific functions has been conferred.

The Central Secretariat is a policy making body of the government and is not, to undertake work of execution and based on task of policy formulation needs to be separated from policy implementation, unless necessitated by the lack of official agencies to perform certain tasks. The Central Secretariat normally performs the following functions:

(1) Assisting the minister in the discharge of his policy making and parliamentary functions.
(2) Framing legislation, rules and principles of procedure.
(3) Sect oral planning and programme formulation.
(4) (a) Budgeting and control of expenditure in respect of activities of the Ministry/department.
(b) Securing administrative and financial approval to operational programme and their subsequent modifications.
(c) Supervision and control over the execution of policies and programmes by the executive departments or semi-autonomous field agencies.
(d) Imitating steps to develop greater personnel and organizational competence both in the ministry/department and its executive agencies.
(e) Assisting in increasing coordination at the Central level.

(c) Is there a need to dispense with the Office of the Governor? Examine in the context of coalition governments. (In about 150 words) 10

What Article 156 (1) of the Constitution (under which a Governor holds office during the pleasure of the President) dispenses with is the need to assign reasons or the need to give notice, but the need to act fairly and reasonably cannot be dispensed with by Article 156(1).

The President, in exercising power under Article 156(1), should act in a manner that is not arbitrary or unreasonable. Where a prima facie case of arbitrariness or mala fides is made out, the court can require the Union government to produce records/materials to satisfy itself that the withdrawal of pleasure was for good and compelling reasons. What will constitute good and compelling reasons would depend upon the facts of the case. The “pleasure” mentioned in Article 156 was not whim and caprice of the party in power and political considerations should be kept out.

According to the court, if the aggrieved person was able to demonstrate prima facie that his or her removal was arbitrary, mala fide, capricious or whimsical, it would call upon the Union government to disclose to it the material upon which the President took the decision to withdraw the pleasure. If the Union government did not disclose any reason, or if the reasons disclosed were found to be irrelevant, arbitrary, whimsical, or mala fide, it would interfere with such a decision.

The previous UPA government, which removed some Governors soon after assuming office in 2009, took the stand that if after an election a party came to power with a social and economic agenda and if it was found that the Governor of a State was not in sync but would rather be antithetical to its policies, then it could remove such a Governor. The government asserted that it had the right to remove a Governor without any attribution or fault if it did not have confidence in him or her. It had said, “If the views of a Governor came in conflict with the national policy, there could be a ground for his removal.” The court, however, rejected this stand.

Q4.

(a) "There is a tendency of centralism in Indian federalism, but it is not because of its institutional framework but because of its socialist goals and centrally devised plan development." Explain the statement in the context of Union-State relationship. (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(b) "Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Panchayat's function enhances efficiency, transparency and accountability and also induces mass ICT culture." Examine. (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(c) "Judicial review of administrative tribunal's decisions defeats the very objective of establishing tribunals." Comment with reference to Central Administrative Tribunal. (In about 150 words) 10 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)

Section B

5. Attempt the following in not more than 150 words each: 10x5=50

(a) "Public Administration today tends to be less public in quantitative terms, but more responsive to public needs than before in qualitative terms." Examine with reference to citizen-centric administration. (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(b) Performance budgeting failed because it was applied to sectors/programmes where quantitative 'evaluation was not feasible." Examine the principles underlying performance budgeting techniques. (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(c) The design of the Indian Police was to subjugate the Indian People in the aftermath of 1857." Analyse in the context of the Indian Police Act of 186l. (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(d) "Reducing the size (geographical area) of the district will provide relief to the overburdened and overworked collector." Comment (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(e) "The concept of social audit is more comprehensive than that of traditional audit." Comment (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)

Q6.

(a) "Gandhian model of decentralization is similar to the process of reinventing governance." Analyse in the context of good governance. (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(b) "Accounting is the essence of producing promptly and clearly the facts relating to financial conditions and operations that are required as a basis of management." Substantiate the statement in the context of accounting methods and techniques in government. (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(c) Explain the important recommendations of V. T. Krishnamachary Committee (1962) on Indian and State Administrative Services and problems of District Administration. (In about 150 words) 10 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)

Q7.

(a) "The 73rd Amendment, it is felt, may accentuate fiscal indiscipline by establishing between States and Local Governments a system of transfers similar to the one in place between the Central and State Governments." (World Bank) Comment (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(b) "Municipal Administration in India faces both structural and operational challenges." Examine in the context of post-74th Amendment Act. (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(c) "Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have contributed to a change in the role of rural women in development-from symbolic participation to empowerment." Discuss. (In about 150 words) 10 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)

Q8.

(a) "There is both criminalization of politics and politicization of criminals in India." Examine and identify the challenges they cause for law and order administration. (In about 250 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(b) "The basic ethical problem for an administrator is to determine how he/she can use discretionary power in a way that is consistent with democratic values." Comment with reference to corruption in administration. (In about 50 words) 20 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)
(c) Justify the constitutional provision to treat certain expenditure as charged upon the Consolidated Fund of India. (In about 150 words) 10 (for Answer Join Public Administration Online Coaching)