Single line Adminstration in Himachal Pradesh :

The tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh continue to receive special attention of the present government in the State primarily on account of their tough topography and geographical conditions. The State government has accelerated the socio-economic development of these areas by making available adequate funds under various schemes. The consistent efforts of the state government have brought fruitful results as the tribal areas of the State today are equal to other areas in terms of economic growth, development and prosperity which is evident from various indicators.

Single Line Administration :

The chief administrative authority within the district vests in the Deputy Commissioner, who more due to single line administration is not only District Magistrate and Collector but for all intents and purposes is also the head of all the district level offices. In addition to the usual and traditional role as Deputy Commissioner he has multifarious duties. As Deputy Commissioner, he is the executive head of the District looking after development, Panchayats, local bodies and civil administration.

As District Magistrate, he is responsible for the maintenance of law and order and is the head of Police and prosecuting agency in the district. As Collector he is at the apex of the revenue administration and is responsible for the collection of land-revenue and all dues recoverable as arrears of land-revenue. He is also revenue-applause authority. He ensures the successful  execution of plan-schemes and co-ordinates the functions of all development departments and in fact due to the peculiar circumstances and situation of the area his functions are largely those of a Development Officer. In order to avoid procedural delays and in the interest of early disposal of work, he has been given special and enhanced powers. He has been declared Head of Department for all offices functioning in the district.  In addition to the above the Deputy Commissioner has been invested with so many other administrative and financial powers. He can effect transfers of non-gazetted staff within the district in respect of staff of all the departments.

 Objective  :

The objective of single line administration is to accelerate economic development. To further minimize the bottlenecks, single line administration approach was adopted.

Powers :

• Because of local demand single line administration was introduced in Himachal Pradesh for the first time in April , 1986 when an officer of rank of resident commissioner from Indian Administrative Services was posted in Pangi comprising only C.D. ( Community Development ) Block.
• He was declared head of all departments in distt.  and vested with full powers to accord administrative approval and financial sanctions  to original works among others.
• He was authorized to correspond direct with the concerned administrative secretary to obviate delay with the result that single line administration was establish between R.C. ( Resident Commissioner ) on the one side and the state government on the others.

Organisation :

The tribal areas in the State have well-defined administrative units. The ITDP ( Integrated Tribal Development Project )  Kinnaur comprises the whole district; the ITDP Lahaul comprises tehsil Lahaul and tehsil Udaipur and the rest of the three ITDPs are by the name of Spiti, Pangi and Bharmour(Now sub-tehsil Holi and tehsil Bharmour) comprise tehsils by the same name. In terms of CD Blocks, ITDP Kinnaur consists of three Blocks namely Kalpa, Pooh and Nichar and the rest of the four ITDPs are constituted of one C.D. Block each by the name of Lahaul, Spiti, Pangi and Bharmour respectively.

The pattern of administration in the tribal areas as also in the rest of the Pradesh had been identical except that in April, 1986, the ITDP Pangi was put under the charge of an officer of the rank of Resident Commissioner and all offices there were merged with his office and he was made Head of Department for every department in the State so that he was the epitome of ultimate authority in the ITDP area and inter-alia, single-line administration was established between the ITDP on the one side and the Government on the other. He exercises powers of Commissioner for revenue matters and that of District Magistrate in Pangi sub-division. ACRs initiated/reviewed by him were to be sent by him direct to the concerned Administrative Secretary in respect of gazetted officers and he was the final accepting authority in relation to non-gazetted establishments. He was made disciplinary authority in respect of all non-gazetted establishment and also vested with powers of imposing minor penalty with respect to gazetted officers. He was also delegated full powers to accord administrative approval and financial sanction for all works. This experiment was a great success and there was demand from the public representatives for introduction of such type of administration in other ITDPs also and, accordingly, single-line administration has now come to prevail in all the ITDPs alike with effect from the 15th April 1988. This arrangement has cut down delays and improved the delivery system.

Under the new pattern of administration in the tribal areas effectively from 15th April, 1988, the specified authorities in the ITDPs are as under:

ITDP                                                     Specified Authority

1.Pangi                                           Resident Commissioner Pangi at Killar

2.Kinnaur                                       Deputy Commissioner, Kinnaur at Reckong Peo

3.Lahaul                                         Deputy Commissioner , Lahaul-Spiti at Keylong

4.Spiti                                             Additional Deputy Commissioner, Spiti at Kaza

5.Bharmour                                     Additional District Magistrate ,Bharmour

Officer at serial No. 2 to 5 enjoy all powers previously enjoyed by the Resident Commissioner, Pangi. In addition to this divisional officers and also the circle-level officers were made to enjoy one-step up powers.

   As a result of achievement in socio economic development in Pangi, H.P.  govt. has further introduced single line administration in Kinnaur , Lahaul Spiti and Bharmour of Chamba distt.  Later the sytem of single line administration was withdrawn in July, 1996 only in Kinnaur and again restored in 1998.  

The tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh continue to receive special attention of the present government in the State primarily on account of their tough topography and geographical conditions. The State government has accelerated the socio-economic development of these areas by making available adequate funds under various schemes. The consistent efforts of the state government have brought fruitful results as the tribal areas of the State today are equal to other areas in terms of economic growth, development and prosperity which is evident from various indicators. Undoubtedly, various development plans, policies and programmes have brought forth a perceptible improvement in the socio-economic status of the Scheduled Tribes at par with the rest of the population.