Flag of the Republic of Karnataka
Flag of the Republic of Karnataka
The Republic
The government of the republic closely follows that of the pre-1985 Karnataka State Government.
Ministry
The Governor is the constitutional head of the State and elected for a term of five years. The Governor seldom exercises his authority directly except under extraordinary circumstances. The council of ministers exercises all the executive powers of the state.
The council is assisted by the Secretariat headed by a secretary to the Governor. The State legislature consists of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. The Legislative Assembly consist of 225 members. The term of office of the members is five years and the term of a member elected to the council is six years.
The Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor and the other ministers are appointed on his advice. The Council of Ministers, the Cabinet, consists of Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers. The Chief Secretary, the head of the administrative services assists the Chief Minister in administrative responsibilities.
Judicial Administration
The High Court is the highest court of judicature in the State. A three-tier system of courts under uniform designation prevails. The Advocate General is the Chief Legal Advisor and Advocate for the State. In metropolitan areas, the Chief Magistrate is to be designated as Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.
Special Tribunals such as Land Tribunals, Karnataka Appellate Tribunal, Labour Courts, Karnataka Administrative Tribunal, Consumer's Redressal Forums, Consumer Courts, Income Tax Tribunal, Educational Tribunal etc exist. Legal Aid Boards at all levels provide legal assistance.
Police Administration
The State Police consists of 20 police districts, 3 Police Commissioners at Mangalore, Mysore and Hubli-Dharwad cities, 77 sub-divisions, 178 circles, 696 police stations, and 317 police out-posts. There are six ranges viz., Central Range at Bangalore, Eastern Range at Davanagere, Northern Range at Gulbarga, Southern Range at Mysore and Western Range at Mangalore. The Government Railway Police is headed by a D.I.G. of Police.
Units that assist the state in law and order include Criminal Investigation Department (Forest Cell, Anti-Dowry Cell, etc.), Dog Squad, Civil Rights Enforcement Wing, Police Wireless and Police Motor Transport Organization and Special units. Also Village Defence Parties protect persons and property in the village and assist the police when necessary. The Police force is at times supplemented by Home Guards.
Karnataka Panchayat Raj
Panchayat Raj (Rule of Village Committee) system is a three-tier system in the state with elected bodies at the Village, Taluk and District levels. It ensures greater participation of people and more effective implementation of rural development programmes. There will be a Grama Panchayat for a village or group of villages, a Taluk level and the Zilla Panchayat at the district level.
All the three institutions will have elected representatives and there is no provision for nomination by the Government to any of these councils.
The state enjoys three main types of climates. For meteorological purposes, the state has been divided into three sub-divisions namely
The Tropical Monsoon climate covers the entire coastal belt and adjoining areas. The climate in this region is hot with excessive rainfall during the monsoon season i.e., June to September. The Southern half of the State experiences hot, seasonally dry tropical savana climate while most of the northern half experiences hot, semi-arid, tropical steppe type of climate. The climate of the State varies with the seasons.
The winter season from January to February is followed by summer season from March to May. The period from October to December forms the post-monsoon season. The period from October to March, covering the post-monsoon and winter seasons, is generally pleasant over the entire State except during a few spells of rain associated with north-east monsoon which affects the south-eastern parts of the State during October to December.
The months April and May are hot, very dry and generally uncomfortable. Weather tends to be oppressive during June due to high humidity and temperature. The next three months (July, August and September) are somewhat comfortable due to reduced day temperature although the humidities continue to be very high.
Seasons
Summer: March to May (18 oC to 40 oC);
Winter: March to May (14 oC to 32 oC);
South-West Monsoon: June to August;
North-East Monsoon: October to December
Temperature
Both day and night temperatures are more or less uniform over the republic, except at the coastal region and high elevated plateau. They generally decrease south-westwards over the State due to higher elevation and attain lower values at high level stations. April and May are the hottest months. In May, mean maximum temperature shoots upto 40 deg. C over the north-eastern corner of the State, decreasing south-westwards towards the Western Ghat region and the Coastal belt. The highest temperature recorded at an individual station in the State is 45.6 deg. C at Raichur on 1928 May 23, which is 6 deg. higher than the normal for the warmest months. December and January are the coldest months. The lowest temperature at an individual station was 2.8 deg. C on 1918 December 16 at Bidar.
Rainfall
The annual rainfall in the republic varies roughly from 50 to 350 cm. In the districts of Bijapur, Raichur, Bellary and southern half of Gulbarga, the rainfall is lowest varying from 50 to 60 cm. The rainfall increases significantly in the western part of the republic and reaches its maximum over the coastal belt. The south-west monsoon is the principal rainy season during which the republic receives 80% of its rainfall. Rainfall in the winter season (January to February) is less than one per cent of the annual total, in the hot weather season (March to May) about 7% and in the post-monsoon season about 12%.
South-West monsoon normally sets in over the extreme southern parts of the Republic by about 1st of June and covers the entire Republic by about 10th of June. The rainy months July and August account individually to about 30% and 18% of annual rainfall. There are about 26 rainy days (with daily rainfall of at least 2.5 mm) in the south-west monsoon begins from the northern parts of the Republic around 2nd week of October and by the 15th October monsoon withdraws from the entire Republic.
The retreating monsoon current i.e. the north-east monsoon (October to December) effects the eastern parts of South Interior Karnataka and accounts for about 30% of rainfall in this region. Out of the 14 heavy rainfall stations in India, with annual rainfall of more than 500 cm., four stations are situated in Karnataka. They are Agumbe in Tirthahalli taluk of Shimoga district (annual rainfall-828 cm) and Bhagamandala (603 cm), Pullingoth (594 cm) and Makut (505 cm) in Kodagu district.
Topography
Karnataka has representatives of all types of variations in topography - high mountains, plateaus, residual hills and coastal plains. The State is enclosed by chains of mountains to its west, east and south. It consists mainly of plateau which has higher elevation of 600 to 900 metres above mean sea level. The entire landscape is undulating, broken up by mountains and deep ravines. Plain land of elevation less than 300 metres above mean sea level is to be found only in the narrow coastal belt, facing the Arabian Sea. There are quite a few high peaks both in Western and Eastern Ghat systems with altitudes more than 1,500 metres. A series of cross-sections drawn from west to east across the Western Ghat generally exhibit, a narrow coastal plain followed to the east by small and short plateaus at different altitudes, then suddenly rising upto great heights.
Then follows the gentle east and east-north-west sloping plateau. Among the tallest peaks of Karnataka are the Mullayyana Giri (1,925 m), Bababudangiri (Chandradrona Parvata 1,894 m) and the Kudremukh (1,895 m) all in Chikmagalur Dt. and the Pushpagiri (1,908 m) in Kodagu Dt. There are a dozen peaks which rise above the height of 1,500 metres.
Geographical Features
Karavali, the Coastal Plain; Sahyadris,
the Western Ghats; Malnad, the Transitional Belt;
the Southern Plateau; the Northern Plateau; the Eastern Ghats.
Approximately 20% of Karnataka is forested.
Rivers
The Krishna System- Krishna, Tungabhadra,Vedavati, Hagari Malaprabha, Ghataprabha, Doni, Bhima.
The Kaveri System- Kaveri, Hemavati, Harangi,Kapila, Shimsha.
West-flowing rivers - Kalinadi, Gagavali,Aghanashini, Sharavati, Varahi, Netravati.
Other rivers - Manjra and Karanja (tributaries of the Godavari);Palar, Pennar, Poonaiyar