RAS question
The Punchhi Commission was related to:
Correct answer: (C) Centre-State Relations.
The Punchhi Commission was related to Centre-State relations in India.
Explanation
The Punchhi Commission, chaired by Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi, former Chief Justice of India, was set up to examine Centre-State relations after the Sarkaria Commission had considered the same subject more than two decades earlier. The Ministry of Home Affairs document describes it as the Commission on Centre-State Relations and says its terms of reference covered the existing constitutional arrangements between the Union and the States. That is why option C is the right answer. Its mandate included legislative, administrative and financial relations, the role of Governors, emergency provisions, resource sharing and the possible deployment of central forces in States. These are federal governance issues, not a narrow reform agenda in taxation, policing or elections.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Tax reforms are too narrow for this commission; although financial relations appeared in its terms of reference, the commission's subject was the wider Union-State constitutional arrangement.
- (B) Police reforms were associated with the National Police Commission, while the Punchhi Commission dealt with Centre-State relations, including central responsibilities during serious inter-State or security-related situations.
- (D) Electoral reforms were associated with committees such as the Dinesh Goswami Committee, whereas the Punchhi Commission's mandate was federal relations between the Union and the States.
Concept
This tests Indian federalism, especially commissions on Centre-State relations. It recurs in RAS because Governors, Article 356, central forces and Union-State powers are standard governance themes.