Central Secretariat

The Central Secretariat system in India is based on two principles:
(1) The task of policy formulation needs to be separated from policy implementation.
(2) Maintaining Cadre of Officers operating on the tenure system is a prerequisite to the working of the Secretariat system.
The Central Secretariat is a policy making body of the government and is not, to undertake work of execution, 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.

| Structure of Central Secretariat
Structure of Central Secretariat is such that the entire system is divided into a number of secretaries, deputy secretaries, joint secretaries and so on. The division of posts is hierarchical in nature. | | | | | | | | 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. Thus technically, a department should be identified with a secretary`s charge and a ministry with a minister`s charge. However, this distinction is not always maintained. Thus, if a ministry has more than one department within itself, it may have more than one secretary in which case there will arise the need for making one secretary superior to other secretaries who will represent the ministry.

A ministry is responsible for the formation of the government policy within its sphere of responsibility as well as for the execution of that policy. Thus in terms of internal organisation, a ministry is divided into the following segments within an officer in charge of each of them to expedite matters:

Department- Secretary/Additional/Special Secretary
Wing- Joint/Additional Secretary.
Division- Under Secretary.
Section- Section Officer

The lowest of such units is the section in charge of a Section Officer and consists of a number of assistants, clerks, "Daftaries," typists and peons. It deals with the work relating to the subject allotted to it. It is also referred to as the Office. Two sections constitute the branch which is under the charge of an under secretary, also known as the Branch Officer. Two branches ordinarily form a division which is normally headed by a deputy secretary. When the volume of work in a ministry exceeds the manageable charge of a secretary, one or more wings are established with a joint secretary in charge of each wing. At the top of the hierarchy comes the department which is headed by the secretary himself or in some cases by an additional/ special secretary. In some cases, a department may be as autonomous as a ministry and equivalent to it in rank. | | |

FUNCTIONS