From October 31, 2019, India will have two more union territories – Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
The central government on August 5 had scrapped Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two UTs – Jammu and Kashmir with a legislature and Ladakh without it.
Presently, India has 29 states and 7 UTs. But after the inclusion of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh as UTs there will be a total of 28 states and 9 UTs.
What is the difference between a state and a union territory?
States
- A state is a division under Indian constituency, which has a separate government.
- It has an elected government which has the right to frame its laws.
- A state has its own Legislative Assembly and the Chief Minister, for administration.
- In states, the Governor acts as the representative of the President.
- Sovereign legislative and executive powers are distributed between the Centre and state, regarding the territory of that state.
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Union territory
- Union Territories are directly ruled by the central government.
- A UT has a Lieutenant Governor as an administrator, who is the representative of the President of India and appointed by the Centre.
- Except for Delhi and Puducherry, UTs have no representation in the upper house of the Parliament – Rajya Sabha.