Q1.
Make lists of different government departments you are familiar with, or whose names you may have seen on boards around your home or on your way to school. What functions do you think they perform?
Answer
How to do this activity. Walk your usual route to school with a notebook, or think back over it, and copy down the exact words on every official board, van, pole and uniform you pass — a police station, a post office, a school, a health centre, an electricity pole, a water tanker, a bus, a road milestone. Then, for each one, write in one line what you think it does, and which level of government it belongs to. Compare lists in class; between thirty students you will collect far more than any one of you could.
What a good list needs: the department’s name exactly as printed on the board; the service you can actually see it providing; and a guess at the level — union, state, or local.
Sample answer:
| What the board says | What it does | Usual level |
|---|---|---|
| Police Station | Maintains law and order, registers complaints, investigates crime and presents cases to court | State |
| Government Higher Primary School / Zilla Parishad School | Runs free schooling; the teachers are government employees | State (with union schemes such as Samagra Shiksha and PM Poshan) |
| Primary Health Centre / Anganwadi | Vaccinations, check-ups, maternal and child care, nutrition for small children | State |
| Post Office (India Post) | Letters, parcels, money orders, small savings accounts | Union |
| Public Works Department (PWD) | Builds and repairs roads, bridges and government buildings | State |
| Municipal Corporation / Nagar Palika / Gram Panchayat | Water supply, drainage, garbage, streetlamps, parks, local roads | Local |
| State Electricity Board | Supplies power, repairs lines, sends the bill | State |
| State Road Transport Corporation bus | Public bus service between towns and villages | State |
| Fire and Emergency Services | Puts out fires, rescue work in accidents and disasters | State |
| Fair Price / Ration Shop | Distributes subsidised foodgrain to card-holders | State, under a union law |
| Railway Station | Runs the trains and the tracks | Union |
| Forest Department | Protects forests and wildlife, plants trees, manages sanctuaries | State (with union laws) |
| Income Tax Office | Collects direct taxes for the union government | Union |
| Regional Transport Office (RTO) | Registers vehicles, issues driving licences | State |
What the list proves: almost every board you wrote down belongs to the executive. As the chapter says, “these departments form part of the executive function of the government. They implement the policies and laws made by the legislature. The judiciary, in turn, ensures that these laws are followed… However, in our daily lives, we primarily interact with the various departments that form part of the executive.” You will rarely pass a board that says ‘Legislature’ — but you pass the executive twenty times before you reach school.
Check it yourself: pick any one department from your list and ask, “which law or scheme is it carrying out?” A ration shop carries out the food security law; a school carries out the Right to Education Act; an RTO carries out the motor vehicles law. That is what ‘implementing the law’ looks like on the ground.