RAS question
Which of the following is a State List subject?
Correct answer: (C) Police, public order, public health, agriculture, land revenue, local government.
Police, public order, public health, agriculture, land revenue and local government are State List subjects under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.
Explanation
The State List in the Seventh Schedule contains subjects on which states normally legislate. The cited Constitution text lists public order as Entry 1, police as Entry 2, local government as Entry 5, public health and sanitation as Entry 6, agriculture as Entry 14, land as Entry 18, and land revenue as Entry 45. That matches option C's cluster: police, public order, public health, agriculture, land revenue and local government. The logic is not just memorising a list; these are subjects tied closely to local administration, day-to-day governance and state-level regulation. The other options mix in Union List subjects such as defence, foreign affairs, atomic energy, banking and railways, or Concurrent List subjects such as criminal law, forests and education.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Criminal law, forests and education are placed in the Concurrent List in the cited Seventh Schedule text, so this option is not a pure State List set.
- (B) Foreign affairs and atomic energy are Union List subjects, not State List subjects, because the Constitution places them in List I.
- (D) Defence, banking and railways are all Union List subjects in the cited Seventh Schedule, so they fall under Parliament's legislative field rather than the State List.
Concept
This tests the Seventh Schedule distribution of legislative subjects among the Union, State and Concurrent Lists. It recurs in RAS because questions on federalism often ask candidates to distinguish state administration subjects from national and shared legislative fields.