General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Apr 23, 2019

India Completes Vital Ladakh Road

One of the most treacherous and strategically vital road routes in the Himalayas has been completed, providing the military with an all-weather road access to north-eastern Ladakh.
Building the DS-DBO section of the road was a key thrust area of the Ministry of Defence for this strategic northernmost corner of India — termed Sub-Sector North (SSN) by the military.
A previous effort to build the DS-DBO section of the road (between 2000 and 2012) at a cost of Rs 320 crore had failed.

The Third Phase of the Lok Sabha Elections

The third phase of the Lok Sabha elections will see as many as 117 seats going to vote.
Among the seats will be a solitary seat from Tripura, Tripura East, where elections were delayed by one phase due to security reasons.
The third phase of the Lok Sabha elections will cover the highest number of seats in any phase across 13 states and 2 Union Territories - Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The third phase of the Lok Sabha elections will see all 26 seats of Gujarat, 20 seats of Kerala and both the North and South Goa seats coming out to vote.
In the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, voters from 10 Lok Sabha constituencies will exercise their franchise. In Bihar, where the BJP is in an alliance with the Janata Dal (United), 5 out of the state's 40 seats will go to vote.

Congress Releases All Seven Names for Delhi

The Congress released the names of all seven candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, while the BJP, which had renominated four sitting MPs, announced the names of former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir and incumbent MP Meenakshi Lekhi from East Delhi and New Delhi seats respectively.
Former three-term Chief Minister and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit is the party's candidate from North East Delhi against Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.
Former Union Minister Ajay Maken will fight from the prestigious New Delhi seat and former MPs J.P. Agarwal and Mahabal Mishra have been named from Chandni Chowk and West Delhi constituencies respectively.

Apr 22, 2019

BJP's Amritsar Candidate

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released list of five candidates, nominating Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri from Amritsar and renominating four of its MPs.
The BJP has an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, and it will contest three out of 13 seats of Punjab.
Amritsar-born Puri is a diplomat-turned-politician was inducted as a minister for housing and urban affairs in the Narendra Modi government in September 2017. He later became a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in January 2018.
The BJP also fielded Shankar Lalwani from Indore, replacing Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who opted out of the race after the party decided not to field any 75-plus leaders.
In Delhi, the party has fielded Harsh Vardhan from Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, Pravesh Verma from West Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi and Harinarayan Rajbhar from Ghosi.

BJP Finds Itself on Slippery Terrain

With hardly four days to go for election to the two Lok Sabha seats in Goa, the ruling BJP in Goa is struggling to retain the seats it won with big margins in 2014. By-elections to three Assembly seats are also being held on April 23 in the State. The biggest setback to the BJP is the leadership void in the government and the organisation following the death of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

Apr 21, 2019

Child Rights Body to List Schools

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has started a drive to identify the private schools that are denying admission to students in entry-level classes, nursery, KG and class 1, under the 25% Economically Weaker Section and disadvantaged group quota mandated by the Right to Education Act.
The move comes after the child rights' body received multiple complaints from parents whose wards qualify for the EWS/DG category, saying several private schools are not enrolling their children, even after their names appeared in the selected lists.
The admissions for students under the EWS/DG quota in private schools are still in progress for the new academic session which commenced on April 1.

J&K Govt. Partially Relaxes Highway Ban

The Jammu & Kashmir government allowed civilian traffic to ply on the 35-km-long Srinagar-Baramulla highway six days a week instead of the earlier five days. However, the 132-km Srinagar-Udhampur highway in south Kashmir will continue to have restrictions two days of a week.
The government said that a complete review of the restrictions on the highway would be done after the last phase of elections on May 6.

Pitched Battle between BJP and Congress

With eight of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the State, the Saurashtra region is Gujarat's main electoral battleground, where the BJP wants to regain the ground it lost in the 2017 Assembly election and the Opposition Congress is trying to repeat its impressive performance.
The Congress has fielded five of its MLAs to deny the BJP a cakewalk and prevent a repeat of 2014 when that party swept the State on the Modi wave.

Apr 20, 2019

Punjab to Sieze Cars without 3rd Party Insurance Cover

The Punjab government has decided not to release vehicles involved in accidents resulting in death or injuries unless they have third party insurance cover or the owner furnishes "sufficient security" to the court, enough to pay compensation to the victims.
Setting an example for other states, the Punjab transport department has notified that vehicles will be auctioned in three months, if either of these conditions are not met and the proceeds of auction will be deposited in claims tribunal for paying compensation.
The department made the changes in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules on April 3, which is being seen as a major reform to rein in owners who don't renew third party insurance .

Apr 19, 2019

India to Skip Second BRI Meet

India will skip the second Belt and Road Forum being hosted by China to boost President Xi Jinping's five-year-old flagship connectivity project.
The reasons behind the decision to decline the invitation for the second iteration of the forum are the same ones that drove a boycott of the first event in May 2017 – core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity and the uneven playing field created by the Chinese.
As per Chinese officials, about 40 foreign government leaders and representatives of more than 100 countries have confirmed their participation in the forum, expected to be held in Beijing during April 26-27.

AAP to Contest Three Lok Sabha Constituencies in Haryana

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) named three Lok Sabha constituencies in Haryana from where it will contest, while its ally, the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), named four of its candidates.
In the state's 10 seats, JJP will contest in seven and the AAP in three. The state will go to polls on May 12, the same day as Delhi.
AAP said that it is contesting in Faridabad, Karnal and Ambala (reserved) seats, but did not disclose their candidates.
JJP chief Dushyant Chautala will contest from Hisar, Nirmal Singh Malhadi from Sirsa, Pradeep Deswal from Rohtak and Swati Yadav from Bhiwani-Mahendergarh.
JJP is yet to field candidates in Kurukshetra, Sonipat and Gurugram.

Mayawati to Seek Votes for Mulayam

After having been bitter political rivals for 24 years, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav will be seen together when the BSP chief, along with her SP and RLD counterparts Akhilesh Yadav and Ajit Singh, will seek votes for the senior Yadav at a joint rally in Mainpuri.
It will be the first time that Mulayam will share the stage with Mayawati since 1995 when the infamous guesthouse incident took place in Lucknow.

Second Phase of LS Poll

The second phase of the Lok Sabha election for 95 constituencies registered a tentative voter turnout of 67.6% across 11 States and one Union Territory.
The overall figure was 69.62% in 2014.
The highest turnout of 78% was reported from Puducherry, followed by Manipur with 77.86% and West Bengal with 76.42%.

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