Which region of the country was conferred special status under Article 371-J of the Constitution of India?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, Hyderabad and Karnataka. Article 371-J was inserted by the 98th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2012, to give special status to the Hyderabad-Karnataka region (renamed Kalyana-Karnataka in 2019). It provides for a separate development board and reservation in education and State-government jobs for the region's six districts — Kalaburagi (Gulbarga), Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Ballari (Bellary).

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Nagaland's special provisions are under Article 371-A (protection of Naga religious/social practices, customary law and land), not 371-J.  (c) These are covered by the plain Article 371 — special responsibility of the Governors and development boards for Vidarbha/Marathwada and Saurashtra/Kutch — not by 371-J.  (d) Ladakh has no Article 371 provision; it became a Union Territory in 2019 through the reorganisation of Jammu & Kashmir, a wholly different constitutional route.

Concept: Articles 371 to 371-J are 'special provisions' for particular States or regions, each added at a different time for a specific local need. Article 371-J (2012) is distinctive because it targets a backward region within a State — the Hyderabad-Karnataka area — with a statutory development board and quotas in education and public employment to correct regional imbalance.

State PCS 2020 Q108 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2020 Q108 — Polity & Governance PYQ with Answer