I. State Secretariat:

(a) Like the Central Secretariat, there is a state secretariat at the level of each state. It is the nerve centre of state administration. It consists of several ministries and departments of state government. The ministries are headed politically by the ministers and administratively by the secretaries.

(b) The chief secretary is the head of the entire state secretariat, while a secretary is head of one or two departments. He is usually a senior IAS officer. Here, it should be noted that the secretary is a secretary to the state. government as a whole and not to the individual minister's concern. The number of secretariat departments vary from state to state. It ranges from 15 to 35 departments.

(c) There are certain departments which are found common to all the states.These are mainly,General Administration,Home,Finance, Jail,Forest, Agriculture,Labour and Employment,Panchayati Raj, Public Works,

Education,Planning,Social Welfare,Housing,Transport, Irrigation and Power,Law,local government,Health, Excise and Taxation,Industries Publicity and Informations, Cooperation etc.

(d) Secretariat department consists of officers who are appointed for a fixed tenure.The hierarchy of the secretariat officers is similar to the Central Secretariat.

II. Importance of State Secretariat: The State Secretariat performs mainly the following functions:

(i) Assist the Minister in the fulfilment of his task.

(ii) To formulate the policies and programmes of the state government.

(iii) To coordinate amongst the programmes of the state government.

(iv) To prepare the state budget.

(v) To frame legislation,rules and regulations.

(vi) To review the results of the execution of the policy.

(vii) To maintain contacts with Central and other State governments.

(viii) To receive the complaints,representations and appeals from the people and solve them.

(ix) To serve as a think-tank of the state government.