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Our team of subject expert teachers has prepared and reviewed the NCERT Solutions for Class 7 Social Science Civics Chapter 3 How the State Government Works are given here will help you to prepare well and score good numbers in exams.
Class 7 SST Civics Chapter 3 How the State Government Works Questions And Answers CBSE
Civics Class 7th Chapter 3 Question Answer
Text Book Page No. 31
Question 1.
What is happening in Patalpuram?
Answer:
In Patalpuram the District Hospital is full of patients with acute diarrhoea and ten of them have died.
Question 2.
Why is this problem serious ?
Answer:
This problem is serious because there is shortage of water and the people receive water supply once in three days. As a result, the people are drinking unclean water.
Question 3.
What action do you think can be taken in the above situation and who do you think should take this action ? Discuss.
Answer:
(1) In the above situation, various actions can be taken. There must be regular and clean drinking water supply in the district. The sanitation issue of the district must be taken seriously.
(2) This action should be taken by the district administration headed by the District Collector, Medical officer of the district and the Zila Parishad’s Committee on sanitation.
Text Book Page No. 32
Question 1.
Discuss the following terms with your teacher Public meeting, States in India, Constituency, Majority, Ruling party and Opposition.
Can you explain the following terms majority, ruling party, opposition with reference to your state.
Answer:
Public meeting: When the general people gather at a place and discuss an issue of public interest, such a gathering and discussion is called public meeting. The issue may be related to politics, social problems, etc. For example, gathering of the people of a locality to decide to whom they will favour in coming election or discuss the irregular water supply in the locality.
States in India : Our country, i.e., India has been divided into twenty eight political units on the basis of region and languages for the convenience of running their administration and development. These units are given some areas of functions mentioned in the Constitution of India. Each unit has its own Chief Minister, a Governor appointed by the President of India. These units are called States in India. For example, Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, etc.
Constituency : It is a particular area from which all the voters cast their votes to elect their representatives for a legislative body. The area of a constituency vary according to the r level of legislative body. For example, constituency for a panchayat has smaller area than for legislative assembly of a State or for .the Parliament of India.
Majority : Majority is a situation when more than half the number in a group supports a decision or an idea. This is also called a simple majority. Suppose there are 90 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly of Haryana. Government has introduced a bill in the Assembly to make an Act for the establishment of a Sports University, in Gurgaon. This bill requires the consent of a majority of the MLAs, i.e., 46 MLAs out of 90. Such a consent of 46 MLAs is called majority decision.
Ruling Party : The political party which has won the majority of seats, i.e., more than half of the total seats in a legislature, of State or the Centre form the government to run the State or the Country. Such a political party is called ruling party.
Opposition : Opposition are the elected representatives who do not belong to the ruling party. They play the role of questioning government decisions and actions as well as raise new issues for consideration in the Assembly.
Text Book Page No. 33
Question 1.
Construct a table, similar to the one given for Himachal Pradesh, for your state.
Answer:
Students do themselves.
[Hints : For their convenience a description is given below. This may vary from student’s state to other state.]
Question 2.
At times, the ruling party may not be a single party but a group of parties working together. This is called a coalition. Discuss with your teacher.
Answer:
Student: Sir! In what situation a coalition is formed?
Teacher: When there is no single party which has won more than half of the total seats in a State Legislative Assembly, two or more political parties come together to muster the required seats. These parties together form the government. This is called a coalition government.
Student: Sir Is the coalition government successful in India?
Teacher: At present, it is successful. Because no single party is winning a majority of seats either in Parliament or in States. It has become a compulsion for political parties to work on the principle of coalition politics.
Text Book Page No. 35
Question 1.
Can you identify the MLAs of the ruling party and the opposition in the illustration (Textbook Page 35)? Colour the ruling party in one colour and the opposition in another.
Answer:
Students do themselves.
Text Book Page No. 36
Question 1.
What were the main arguments put forward by different MLAs who thought that the government was not taking the situation in a serious manner?
Answer:
The main arguments put forward by different MLAs were the following :
- The government is not able to prevent the problem like diarrhea that has caused 15 deaths in Akhandagaon.
- There is a bad condition in government hospitals, but the government is not appointing a sufficient number of doctors and other medical staff there.
- There is a serious shortage of water in the Tolpatti constituency. Women have to travel up to 3 to 4 kilometers to fetch water. The government is not providing the tankers required to supply water. Ponds and wells have not been cleaned and disinfected.
Question 2.
If you were the health minister, how would you respond to the above discussion?
Answer:
If I were the Health Minister, I would have responded to the above discussion in the following steps :
- I would have called upon all the District Magistrates, Chief medical officers, and Chairman of all the Zilla Parishad in the state too.
- I would give ten days to these officials of affected districts to control the situation otherwise they would be suspended for six months.
- The officials of other districts would also be warned to take care of their district properly.
- I would allocate emergency funds and other required materials to control the situation instantly.
Question 3.
Do you think the above debate would have been useful in some ways? How? Discuss.
Answer:
- Yes. The above debate would have been useful in various ways. Because of the debate, the minister for health and chief minister visited the Patalpuram district.
- They also met the families who had lost their dear ones and also met the people in the hospitals.
- They announced some compensation for these families.
- They also requested the minister for Public Works for a proper water supply.
Question 4.
In the working of the government, explain the difference between being an MLA and an MLA who is also a minister.
Answer:
An MLA and an MLA who is also a minister have different roles to play in the working of the government.
An MLA: An MLA has the duty to raise the problems of the people of different localities and groups both in the legislative assembly and outside it in media like newspapers, TV channels, etc. Thus, an MLA can draw the attention of the government towards a particular problem.
An MLA as a minister: A minister has an active role in the working of the government. The government of a State consists of various departments/ministries headed by ministers. Each minister forms the policy for the working of his ministry on the basis of agenda/manifestoes of the party and the promises made by the minister to the people of his constituency during the election.
Text Book Page No. 37
Question 1.
Write two measures that the government- undertook for controlling diarrhea?
Answer:
- The government asked the collectors (District Magistrates) and Chief Medical Officers to take urgent measures.
- The Chief Minister also asked the Minister for Public Works to take care of the proper supply of clean water in the region. The minister said that clean drinking water would be made available to every village.
Question 2.
What is the purpose of a press conference? How does the press conference help you get information on what the government is doing?
Answer:
- The purpose of a press conference is to gather the news reporters of various media like newspapers and T.V. channels to report the news related to the government’s action or steps taken to solve different problems.
- The actions/steps announced in the press conference by the ministers are reported in the newspapers and TV channels. We get information from these newspapers and TV channels about what the government is doing.
Text Book Page No. 39
Question 1.
Find out with the help of your teacher, the work done by the government departments mentioned above,’ and fill in the table.
Answer:
Name of department |
Examples of their work |
School Education | (i) It Provides free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14 years (ii) It results in teachers, gives them emoluments, and provides them training. (iii) It conducts the examinations for various boards ex. X to XII |
Public Works Department | It. manages and directs the policies, programmes, and activities for Engineering, road and bridge making, park, sanitation, street, and traffic. |
Agriculture | It is responsible for land measurements and the collection of land revenue. It arranges for the fertilizers and irrigation of the crops. For this, it builds canals and. provides electricity to the farmers. It also buys wheat, rice, pulses, sugar, etc. from the farmers and stores and re-distributes to the people in need through the public distribution system (PDS) i.e., a Sarkari ration shop to the people. |
Text Book Page No. 40
Question 1.
Do a similar wallpaper project as done on page 40 about any issue connected with the working of your State Government like an education programme, any law and order issue, midday meal scheme, etc.
Answer:
Students do this themselves.
[Hints: Students, go through different Hindi and English newspapers. Search the topics related to ‘Midday Meal’ and cut them. They may also use written matters. Paste all these cuttings on a large drawing sheet. Your wallpaper on the topic “Midday Meal Scheme” is now ready for display.]
Class 7 Civics Chapter 3 How the State Government Works Exercise Questions and Answers
Question 1.
Use the terms ‘constituency’ and ‘represent’ to explain who an MLA is and r how is the person elected?
Answer:
A state is divided into several constituencies on the basis of population. Every constituency elects one representative for the Legislative Assembly. The person elected as representative represents that particular constituency. He/She is called as a Member of Legislative Assembly Le. MLA. An MLA is elected through a general election. He/She may be a member of a recognized political party or independent. One who gets the maximum votes becomes the MLA of that constituency.
Question 2.
How did some MLAs become Ministers? Explain.
Answer:
- When the MLAs of the majority party elect their leader, he/she is appointed as the Chief Minister of the State by the Governor.
- The Chief Minister selects some MLAs from the ruling party to head different Ministries.
- These MLAs are appointed by the Governor as Ministers and are allocated different departments/ministries.
Question 3.
Why should decisions are taken by the Chief Minister and other ministers be debated in the Legislative Assembly?
Answer:
The decisions taken by the Chief Minister and other ministers must be debated in the Legislative Assembly. It is because during the debate it is discussed whether a particular decision is in the interest of the people at large or not. It is also discussed whether it is urgent or not, how much would it cost the government, is there anything objectionable for any particular community, etc.
Question 4.
What was the problem in Patalpuram? What discussion/action was taken by the following? Fill in the table.
Answer:
(1) Problem in Patalpuram:
- There was a shortage of drinking water in Patalpuram and it was supplied once in three days.
- Women had to travel up to 3 to 4 kms. to fetch water
- There was an outbreak of diarrhea and the people were dying from it.
- The hospital was not clean and there were only a few doctors and other medical staff and also there was a shortage of medicines.
(2) Discussion/action taken by
Public: In this meeting, the people raised their voice against the Government’s failure in controlling diarrhea, providing clean drinking water, and the required doctors and other medical staff.
Lative Assembly: The Legislative Assembly discussed the problems noticed in Patalpuram with the help of six MLAs. The Minister for Health was addressed by these MLAs that what was the government doing to control the epidemic of diarrhea, shortage of clean drinking water, sanitation of locality.
Press conference: Different news reporters raised the issue of deaths that occurred due to diarrhea in Patalpuram. The Health I Minister announced that his Government has directed all the Collectors and the Chief Medical Officers to take urgent measures to control the situation.
Chief Minister: The Chief Minister visited Patalpuram and met the families who had lost their relatives. He also visited. hospitals and assured the patients of better treatment and compensation for their families. He requested the Minister for Public Works to take care of the proper supply of water. He had also promised funds to arrange for the supply of drinking water to every village through tankers.
Question 5.
What is the difference between the work that MLAs do in the Assembly and the work done by government departments?
Work that MLAs do in Assembly | Work that MLAs do in government departments |
MLA s take part in different debates/discussions on the issue of urgent need. | They take action and direct the officials to do what is needed. |
They ask questions to different ministers of related departments. | They reply to the Question, asked in the Assembly. |
They raise the issues in the assembly and draw the attention of the government for urgent measures. | They measure the House/Assembly members for urgent measures to control the situation. |
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