Commissions In India

States Reorganisation Commission

Central Government took an initiative in the year 1953 to constitute the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) which should work as an integral body of the government. This Commission took initiatives for the thorough assessment of all the factors pertaining to reorganization of states on various grounds. It has taken several steps over the period and contributed a lot for the reorganizing of States & Union Territories of the Indian Union.

About States Reorganisation Commission

SRC had been constituted by the Indian government soon after country was freed from the British and democratic system was adopted. It was founded in the year 1953 itself. This Commission had worked extensively as an important body of the country’s administrative system ever since its inception and it also played the key role to recommend guidelines for state boundary reorganizations on the particular basis—including on the linguistic grounds.

This Commission submitted its recommendation within two years of formation in the year 1955 with certain important guidelines for the state reorganization for that thorough study was done. The idea was that Indian states should be reorganized by boundaries whose base would be on the basis of linguistic division of the country. The Commission offered proposal for the reorganization with 16 states and 3 union territories in its primary report.

Composition of the States Reorganisation Commission

SRC composed of the Commission chairperson former Justice Fazal Ali and the members including Mr. Kavalam Madhava Panikkar and H.N. Kunzru. It submitted its report to the Central Government which reviewed and thoroughly studied all the factors for recommendation to implement in the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 for further application.

Mandate

SRC was constituted with an important mandate to work for country’s reforms to assure better administration for divisions for that reorganization of states was assumed mandatory step. Its major roles were to identify constituent units in the country under proper classification on the basis of several grounds including the most notable one of linguistic grounds. Some of the notable roles were as follows:-

• Reorganization of former British provinces   
• Merging of former princely states for the statehood purpose  
• Bordering of states on numerous backgrounds including linguistic background

Recommendation Reports

SRC submitted its final report to Central Government on September 30, 1955 and suggested multiple recommendations for the implementation purpose. Commission submitted its report with numerous ideas to implement through recommendations. An important proposal which the Commission gave was to reorganize the states by keeping in consideration the languages spoken as a key basis. Such options were chosen with the idea for recommendation through which it would smoothen all sorts of administration system for the easy and effective governance of the country.

This Commission replaced languages upon caste based and or religious identities used for the reorganization of states. This new idea was definitely considered an effective one in terms of keeping all sorts of controversies at bay or at least lessen them to the maximum extent. The key recommendations were as follows:-

• There should be complete abolition of three-tier (Part-A/B/C) state system
• Total abolition of the Rajapramukh or any type of special agreement with the formerly princely states
• Suggestions for abolition of Article 371 for the general control of provinces
• Number of Union territories would be three only which included Andaman & Nicobar, Delhi and Manipur
• Rest Part-C/D territories were included into adjoining states for the effective governance system

Implementation of Recommendations

Soon after the SRC submitted its report to Central Government it was tabled in the Lok Sabha on December 14, 1955 for discussion to implement recommendations for action. Various issues came under discussion and it was finally understood that by making linguistic base the problem won’t solve so purpose will remain incomplete. It was therefore suggested to undergo certain modifications through keeping both linguistics and other aspects under consideration for states reorganization.

By the time Linguistic Provinces Commission or Dar Commission had already been established and in the due course SRC suggestions for reorganization was also brought into practice with little modifications. Implementation was completed on the basis of linguistics and geographical factors as applicable. Other factors besides geographical contiguity were financial self-sufficiency of region to be reorganized for the full-fledged statehood status.

The related issues which remain into focus while SRC submitted its final report for implementation were the steps to maintain national unity for that official languages of most states were kept the same like it was for the Center except for the few states where the division was solely on linguistic basis.

Not all recommendations were accepted but most of them were implemented in due course of time. The report was further discussed to pave the way for the addition of other proposed Union Territories including Laccadive, Minicoy & Amindivi Islands, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura et al.