A case for Zonal Governors

A case for Zonal Governors

    The Indian federal system mandates that the Governor assisted by Council of minister helm the executive affairs of the state.The institution of governor plays the dual role of constitutional head of the state as well as that of representative of the Union .The Gubernatorial role and powers in our constitution were mostly derived from Government of India Act 1935.The GoI act introduced provincial governorship appointed directly by crown and as head of autonomous ruler of provinces in British India.Post independence the language based state reorganization took place and several new states were carved out from existing provinces and some princely were merged into newly formed states.The Constitutional demand of a separate Governor for each state had to be relaxed to meet the sudden spurt in the number of states ,thus the seventh constitutional amendment act 1956 introduced a clause under Article 153 to appoint same person as governor of two or more states.

This provision has been used on various occasions eg., to meet the vacancy arising from sudden demise of the sitting governor of a state or to allow for continuity when states are split as seen in Telangana-Andhrapradesh separation Governor E .S.L Narasimhan served both states and ensured smooth transition.

Five Zones ,Five Governor

The role of Governor in any case is mostly symbolic except for those discretionary provisions ,and there have been calls to abolish the institution of governor as well.However considering the unique federal system of India ,it’s still necessary .Yet there could be reforms made and one such proposal is to allow for same individual to exist as governor of multiple states grouped into zones .This model envisages classification of states into five zonal baskets(North,South,East ,West and Central ) and an zone based governor appointment .This system would however retain separate institution header of Governor for each state only the individual postings are limited ,for example Chhattisgarh despite being in central zone would still retain the Institution of Governor of Chhattisgarh.The major advantage of this proposal would be cost cutting measures and regional harmony .

The Zonal Governor could reside in one Raj Bhavan or travel across all,the unused bungalows could be used as museums.Thus the move would serve as great altruistic measure for government especially on the wake of covid19 pandemic.The move would also help us in improving regional integration which was also the objective of Zonal councils .The same individual serving as governor of zone,would act as medium of conciliation and cooperation in inter state issues.

                                  

The challenges with respect to the adoption of thus new zonal model would be in two instances,the Constitutional crisis situation involving discretionary role of governors of constitutional crisis and overlapping events across states where the governor should preside,

With the rising advances in Information technology ,all zonal Governor offices can be easily maintained from a central position,if the situation is too dire ,then the governor can always shift temporarily to oversee the matters.Similarly the overlapping events such as Legislature Governor address across multiple states could either be realigned or instances where it is not possible such as officiating republic day ,then Chief Justice of that particular state could head the ceremony in place of governor.

This concept of zonal or provincial governor is not new to India, from the beginning of Mauryan empire to Mughal and then to British Raj ,the emperor has always delegated powers to Regional Governorship under powerful individuals to ensure consolidation of the empire .Thus the new practice can revive the uniquely Indian administrative model again without any amendments in our Modern Republic Constitution