General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Jul 18, 2019

TMC, NCP and CPI May Lose National Status

The Mamata Banerjeeled Trinamool Congress (TMC), Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) could lose their national party status with the Election Commission of India preparing to issue them show cause notices highlighting their ineligibility for this tag as established after the recent Lok Sabha elections.
As per the EC rulebook, Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, 'national status' is conferred on a party if its candidates secure at least 6% of the votes polled in a state in a Lok Sabha election, or if four of its MPs get re-elected from any state, or if it wins at least 2% of the seats in the Lok Sabha in the last general elections, or if the party is recognised as a state party in at least four states.
However, this time, it is gathered that the Commission may not take a lenient view again, like after the 2014 polls, when it allowed political parties to retain the status. This may bring down the total number of national parties to five from eight, if effected.
There are currently eight national party status holders –– Congress, BJP, CPM, CPI, BSP, NCP and AITC.
The latest entrant is the National People's Party –– a recognised state party in Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland.
The three political parties (TMC, NCP and CPI) and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were issued show cause notices in 2014 on their ineligibility.
However, following representations from the parties concerned, the EC decided to take a less stringent view and amended the rules to assess the national party status eligibility over two elections rather than just one.
However, only BSP is not in the red this time, having marked its presence in several other states, as required.
The remaining three parties are once again ineligible for the national party status in terms of the proportion of votes earned and state-wide presence.

Govt Extends Finance Commission's Term

The government tasked the 15th Finance Commission with suggesting ways to provide "assured allocation of resources" for defence and internal security and examine if a separate funding mechanism was required.
The move came along with a decision to extend the constitutional body's term by a month to November, 2019.
The move comes at a time when the defence establishment has been complaining of lack of funds and the Centre's commitment to social sector schemes, many of which are in the domain of the states, has increased, creating pressure on resources.
The panel headed by NK Singh will have the task of working out a mechanism and how it can be operationalised to ensure that the country's sovereignty is not compromised for want of funds.

Green Signal to Dibang Dam

The Centre has given a green signal to the Dibang dam — set to be the largest hydropower project in India at 278 metres — which was put on hold during the United Progressive Alliance regime due to environmental concerns.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved Rs. 1,600 crore for pre-investment activities and clearances for the Dibang multipurpose project in Arunachal Pradesh, which is estimated to cost Rs. 28,080.35 crore to build, and once completed, will generate 2880MW power.
Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar hailed the hydro-electric multipurpose project as a "major contribution of India" to the world which is battling climate change. This project will produce 2880 MW of power but not use any coal.
The project has received statutory clearances, including the environment clearance, forest clearance (stage l) and defence clearance. Only forest clearance (stage II) remains, for the project to seek investment sanction from Centre.

Jul 17, 2019

End to Manual Scavenging

The Centre cited rising deaths during hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks while directing states and union territories (UTs) to urgently stop the undesirable practices of manual scavenging.
The ministry of housing and urban affairs has advised them to set up Emergency Response Sanitation Units (ERSUs) in major cities on the lines of fire stations in capital cities of each state and major cities.
A letter, written by ministry of housing and urban affairs' secretary Durga Shanker Mishra to all state chief secretaries directed all state Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to set up ERSUs in cities having a municipal corporation and a water & sewerage board with population of more than one lakh.
ERSUs will also be responsible to meet sanitation emergency requests from all smaller towns within a cluster of about 75 km radius.
Union social justice minister Ramdas Athwale told Rajya Sabha that the states have until June 30, 2019 reported 620 deaths of sanitation workers while cleaning sewers or septic tanks since 1993 while 88 were reported in the past three years.
Hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks is banned under the Prevention of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act (PEMSRA), 2013.
The law bars individuals, local authorities or agencies from engaging or employing directly or indirectly anyone for hazardous cleaning of sewers or septic tanks.

Govt. Names AAP Leaders to Metro Directorial Board

In a first, the Delhi government nominated members from the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as directors of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), instead of bureaucrats.
This came at a time when the Arvind Kejriwal-led government locked horns with the BJP led central government over offering free rides on the metro to women, the metro's phase-4 expansion plan and, previously, over fare hikes.
The Delhi government and the Centre have equal stake in the DMRC, and equal representation of five directors each on the 17-member DMRC board of directors.
The Delhi government nominated prominent AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Atishi, party Rajya Sabha member ND Gupta's son Naveen Gupta, and Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDCD) vice-chairperson Jasmine Shah.
Chadha and Atishi had fought and lost the recent Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, while DDCD is a policy think-tank of Delhi government.
Delhi government's directive was issued by transport minister Kailash Gahlot in which he had asked the DMRC to appoint the four new directors to the corporation's board with immediate effect.

BJP Appoints New Chiefs

The Bharatiya Janata Party named Swatantra Dev Singh and Chandrakant Dada Patil as the presidents of its Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra units, respectively.
Samajwadi Party leader Neeraj Shekhar, who quit as the party's Rajya Sabha member, also joined the BJP.
Son of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Neeraj Shekhar was purportedly upset with the SP president Akhilesh Yadav after he was denied ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election from Ballia.
Maharashtra public works minister Patil takes charge of the party ahead of the state assembly elections which are due in September-October 2019.
Mangal Prabhat Lodha, BJP legislator from Malabar Hills, was appointed to lead the party's Mumbai unit.
Swatantra Dev Singh, another backward classes (OBC) leader who hails from Mirzapur, is UP's transport minister.
He replaced Mahendra Nath Pandey, a Brahmin who was inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers in May 2019 as the skill development minister.
The decision came a day after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met party chief Amit Shah and working president JP Nadda in Delhi.

President Appoints new Governors

President Ram Nath Kovind appointed senior BJP leader Biswa Bhusan Harichandan as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Anusuiya Uikey as the Governor of Chhattisgarh.
Harichandan began his political career in 1971 as a member of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS). Later, he went to become BJS' national executive member and its state general secretary.
The new Governor of Chhattisgarh Anusuiya Uikey is a member of the BJP and was an MP in the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh.
Uikey previously held the post of Minister for Women and Child Development in the Madhya Pradesh government.

Jul 16, 2019

Gahlot Given Charge of Environment Ministry

The Delhi Cabinet witnessed a reshuffle with the environment portfolio, which was earlier with minister Imran Hussain, being transferred to minister Kailash Gahlot.
This was done on the direction of the Chief Minister in order to bring synergy between the environment, transport and law departments.
At present, Gahlot holds the transport and law portfolios — both of which are now inter-related with environment given that pollution levels are alarming in the city.
With this notification Gahlot would now hold as many as six cabinet portfolios including revenue, administrative reforms and information technology.
Minister Imran Hussain, on the other hand, would now handle two portfolios — food and supplies and election.

India and Russia Seek to Skirt US Sanctions Threat

India and Russia have agreed on a new payment method through their national currencies for multi-billion-dollar defense deals, in a bid to avoid risks created by the US threat of sanctions and banking restrictions.
The arrangement would enable India to pay the first instalment soon for two warships that Russia is building for its navy. Defense contracts would be settled in rubles and rupees under a payment agreement reached by the central banks of Russia and India.
While the new mechanism potentially opens the way for releasing billions of dollars in contract payments to Russia, it may still be dependent on India winning agreement from U.S. President Donald Trump not to impose sanctions in retaliation.

Trust motion to Decide Fate of Kumaraswamy's Government

The uncertainty surrounding the future of the Congress-Janata Dal Secular government in Karnataka may finally end in July 2019.
A Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting, which was also attended by Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh, announced that the Karnataka assembly would go for a floor test on 18 July 2019 .
On the same day, the trust motion would be taken up in the Vidhan Soudha in Bengaluru.
Post the debate, the MLAs would vote to decide whether the Congress-JDS government stays or falls.

Jul 15, 2019

Law Commission to be Formed Soon

With the country left without a Law Commission since September 2018, the Law Ministry has initiated the process of setting up the body which gives advice to the government on complex legal issues.
The three-year term of the 21st Law Commission ended on August 31 last year (2018). On at least one occasion, the Ministry had moved the proposal to reconstitute the panel.
But the proposal could not move further, and the government later went into election mode. Sources said that the proposal to reconstitute the panel would be before the Union Cabinet in the next few days.
The 21st commission, under Justice B.S. Chauhan (retd), had submitted reports and working papers on key issues such as simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies and a uniform civil code.
While the Law Commission had supported simultaneous polls, it had said that the time was not ripe for a common code.
The Cabinet approves reconstitution of the law panel for a period of three years. It is usually headed by a former Supreme Court judge or a former Chief Justice of a High Court.

Sidhu Quits Punjab Cabinet

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has been at loggerheads with Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and was stripped off key portfolios in the cabinet reshuffle in June 2019, resigned from the state cabinet.
In June 2019, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had divested Sidhu of the Local Government and Tourism and Cultural Affairs Departments and allotted him the power and new and renewable energy portfolio.
Portfolios of several other ministers too had been changed in the reshuffle exercise.
In an apparent snub, Sidhu, the Congress MLA from Amritsar East, was also left out of the consultative groups formed by the chief minister on June 8, 2019, two days after the cabinet reshuffle, to accelerate implementation of government's flagship programmes.

Jul 14, 2019

India Builds to Assist Rohingya

Two years after more than 700,000 Rohingya fled to camps in Bangladesh alleging ethnic cleansing by Myanmar forces, the Indian government stepped up efforts to help them return to their villages.
On July 9, 2019, Ambassador to Myanmar Saurabh Kumar handed over 250 completed pre-fabricated homes to the Myanmar government for use by the refugees when they return.
The project is part of an agreement signed by the two governments in 2017, under which the government had committed to spending $25 million over five years.
The houses, measuring 40 square metres each, are designed to survive quakes and cyclonic storms, according to a presentation by the Ministry of External Affairs.

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