Government Secretariat consists of the offices of all the members of the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and the Secretaries in various ranks heading the Secretariat Departments. At present there are 44 Secretariat Departments as below:
- Agriculture Department
- Ayush Department
- Backward Classes Development Department
- Coastal Shipping and Inland Navigation Department
- Consumer Affairs Department
- Co-operation Department
- Cultural Affairs Department
- Election Department
- Electronics and Information Technology Department
- Environment Department
- Finance Department
- Fisheries and Ports Department
- Food and Civil supplies Department
- Forest and Wildlife Department
- General Administration Department
- General Education Department
- Health and Family Welfare Department
- Higher Education Department
- Home Department
- Housing Department
- Industries Department
- Labour and Skills Department
- Law Department
- Local Self Government Department
- Minority Welfare Department
- Non-Resident Keralites Affairs Department
- Parliamentary Affairs Department
- Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department
- Planning and Economic Affairs Department
- Power Department
- Public Works Department
- Revenue Department
- Sainik Welfare Department
- Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Department
- Science and Technology Department
- Social Justice Department
- Sports and Youth Affairs Department
- Stores Purchase Department
- Taxes Department
- Tourism Department
- Transport Department
- Vigilance Department
- Water Resources Department
- Woman and Child Development Department
Out of these 44 Secretariat Departments, 42 Secretariat Departments (other than Finance Department and Law Department) are usually called Administrative Departments and is collectively called Administrative Secretariat, for the sake of administrative convenience and in consideration of the nature of functions distributed among them. General Administration Department is one among the administrative departments in the Administrative Secretariat.
Each Department of the Secretariat shall consist of a Secretary to the Government. The Secretaries in charge of different departments may be in the rank of Additional Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary or Secretary and generally are All India Service officers belonging to IAS. They are assisted by Special Secretaries, Additional secretaries, Joint Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries, Under Secretaries and Section Officers.
Hierarchy:
A Secretariat Department is divided into several Sections. A Section under the charge of a Section Officer is the basic unit of administration in Secretariat. All files originate, being processed and the communications prepared and sent, usually in Sections. A Section consists of Assistants, usually 2-4 in number; Computer Assistants; Office Attendants and is supervised by a Section Officer who is in overall charge of matters and staff of that Section.
The files originated in Sections go to higher levels for decision making and comes back to Sections for issuing the communications, The decisions in each case is made in higher levels as prescribed in the Rules of Business. The Hierarchy of file movement and decision making is as follows:
Assistants ► Section Officer ► Under Secretary ► Deputy Secretary / Joint Secretary / Additional Secretary / Special Secretary ► Secretary / Principal Secretary/Additional Chief Secretary ► Minister
Structure of General Administration Department:
General Administration Department is headed by the Principal Secretary with Special Secretaries.
