Sniawbhalang Dhar

What they do

• Running the specific state departments/portfolios assigned to them (varies by person and state — e.g. Finance, Home, Health, Public Works, Urban Development)
• Taking government decisions as a member of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet)
• Piloting bills, the budget and policies for their departments in the legislature
• Answering questions, motions and debates in the Assembly about their departments
• Overseeing the schemes, spending and officials of the departments they hold
• Taking a higher ceremonial/protocol rank at official state events because of the 'deputy' designation (protocol only, not extra power)
• Serving their own constituents as an elected MLA (or MLC)

Not their job — ask instead

• National subjects like defence, railways, income tax, foreign affairs and passports — these belong to the central government and your MP
• Departments the Deputy CM does not hold — ask the minister who actually holds that portfolio, or the Chief Minister
• Final authority over the whole government or over other ministers — that rests with the Chief Minister; 'deputy' gives no power to command colleagues
• Everyday local works like garbage, street lights, local roads, local water and drains — your Municipality or Panchayat
• Automatically becoming acting Chief Minister when the CM is away or resigns — there is no automatic succession; the ruling party's legislators and the Governor (or Lieutenant Governor in a UT) decide
• Court cases and judgments — these are decided by the judiciary, not by any minister

What they do

• Debating and voting on state bills and laws in the Legislative Assembly, and proposing amendments.
• The subjects a state can legislate on — the State List and the shared Concurrent List — e.g. police and public order, prisons, public health and hospitals, school education, agriculture and land, water, local government, and roads and buildings, plus state taxes (on Concurrent subjects like education, a central law wins if the two clash).
• Passing the state budget and approving how the state taxes and spends public money (money bills start in the Assembly).
• Deciding who governs the state — the Assembly's majority decides who becomes Chief Minister (the Governor formally appoints whoever can hold the Assembly's confidence), and MLAs can move, or must face, confidence and no-confidence motions.
• Recommending local development works through the MLA-LAD constituency fund, where the state runs one (the MLA recommends; district officials execute).
• Parliamentary tools to question the executive: Question Hour, calling-attention motions, adjournment/short-duration debates, resolutions, and private member's bills.
• Membership and scrutiny work on Assembly committees such as Public Accounts, Estimates, and subject committees.
• Raising constituency grievances and demands directly with ministers, the district administration, and departments.
• Acting as part of electoral colleges: elected MLAs help elect the President of India (Article 54) and elect the state's Rajya Sabha members (Article 80); in states with a second house they also elect some Legislative Council members.
• Helping decide some changes to the Constitution — for certain amendments that affect the states' powers, the state Assembly must approve (ratify) them (Article 368).
• In states that have two houses, taking part in how the Assembly and the Legislative Council work together on laws — though the Assembly has the final say (Article 197).
• If appointed a Minister/CM: exercising executive powers over the assigned department(s) and the state administration.

Not their job — ask instead

• National / Union subjects — defence, foreign affairs, railways, national highways, income tax, currency, telecom, and citizenship. Ask your Member of Parliament (MP) and the Union government; these are decided in Parliament, not the state Assembly.
• Everyday city/village civic services — garbage collection, street lights, local drains, ward roads, and property tax within a municipal or panchayat area. These belong to your Municipal Corporator/Councillor or Panchayat member and the Mayor/Sarpanch and the local body, not the MLA.
• Actually executing works and running government offices — an ordinary MLA only recommends and demands. Delivery is done by the bureaucracy: the District Collector/Magistrate (called Deputy Commissioner in some states) and department officers, answerable through the government, not directly to the MLA.
• Court cases, verdicts, bail, and interpreting the law — that is the judiciary (courts), which is independent of legislators.
• Petrol/diesel pump prices, GST rates, and bank interest rates are not set by one MLA. Fuel prices mostly follow global crude-oil costs plus central excise duty and state VAT; GST rates are fixed jointly by the Union and all the states together in the GST Council; interest rates are set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Your state government does set its own VAT on fuel, but that is a government and budget decision, not something a single MLA controls.
• Giving someone a government job or transferring an official — recruitment is done by public service commissions and recruitment boards on merit; postings are administrative decisions, and pressuring for them can itself be misconduct.
• Ground-level policing and law-and-order enforcement decisions — handled by the police and the state Home department (an MLA can raise concerns but does not command the police unless serving as the relevant minister).