General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Apr 13, 2019

AAP Ties Up with JJP

The Aam Aadmi Party and the Jannayak Janta Party formed an alliance for the Lok Sabha election in Haryana and announced that the latter would contest seven of the 10 seats in the State. The distribution of constituencies and the names of the candidates would be declared later.
The JJP was launched in December 2018 by Dushyant Chautala, grandson of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala.
Mr. Dushyant Chautala said that it would be a long-term alliance and the two parties will fight together in the Haryana Assembly elections as well.
The decision came two days after AAP called off discussions for an alliance with the Congress as the latter was not ready to give AAP seats in Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana.

MGP to Withdraw Support in Goa

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) has resolved to withdraw support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government in Goa.
The MGP had been in alliance with the BJP since 2012, it was allied with the Congress from 2007-12. But after the death of late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, differences emerged between the two parties.
Soon after the new Chief Minister Pramod Sawant appointed MGP's senior leader Sudin Dhavalikar as his deputy, the BJP in a midnight raid in March, engineered a split in the three-member MGP legislative unit and inducted two of its lawmakers into the BJP.
In the Goa Assembly, which currently has 36 members, the BJP-led coalition will continue to be in a majority, despite the MGP's decision to break away from the treasury benches.
While the BJP has 14 lawmakers, it has the support of three lawmakers from the Goa Forward Party and three Independent lawmakers, which takes the coalition's tally to 20 seats, just taking it across the simple majority mark of 19.

Apr 12, 2019

BJP to Contest Highest Number of Lok Sabha Seats

As per reports, the Bharatiya Janata Party may end up contesting the highest number of Lok Sabha seats in its history. It has so far announced 408 Lok Sabha candidates, which is 20 less than its 2014 tally of 428.
According to the party leader, there will be at least 30 more names.
The BJP fielded candidates for 433 seats in 2009, 364 in 2004 and 339 seats in the 1999 polls. Lok Sabha has 543 seats.
The BJP is yet to announce its seven candidates for Delhi and another eight nominees for Uttar Pradesh.
It is yet to finalise names for eight seats in Madhya Pradesh, including Indore and Bhopal.
The BJP's announcement of candidates for the three seats it will contest in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, two seats in Haryana and one in Rajasthan, too, is pending.

Lok Sabha Election Phase 1

Phase I of the Lok Sabha election was held across 91 Parliamentary constituencies in 18 States and two Union Territories.
According to the Election Commission, the turnout reported till 6 p.m. stood at 63.69% in Uttar Pradesh. In Andaman and Nicobar, it was 70.67%; 60% in Telangana; 57.85% in Uttarakhand; 69% in Sikkim; 60% in Mizoram; 78% in Nagaland; 78.2% in Manipur; 81.8% in Tripura; 68% in Assam and 81% in West Bengal.
Maharashtra reported 56% turnout, while in Arunchal Pradesh the figure was 66%. The minimum of 50% was reported in Bihar.

Apr 11, 2019

NGT Sets up Central Monitoring Panel

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has constituted a Central Monitoring Committee to ensure the implementation of action plan meant for reducing pollution stretches across the country.
A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said that it is necessary to constitute a Central Monitoring Committee to undertake a national initiative by way of preparation and enforcement of a national plan to make river stretches pollution-free.
Senior representatives of NITI Aayog, Secretaries of the Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change will be a part of the panel, apart from the Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board and Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga.
The panel will coordinate with States to oversee the action plans and ensure execution of the same.

SC Rejects Centre's Plea

The Supreme Court dismissed the government's plea to declare the Rafale jets' purchase documents a secret, while upholding the right of free speech of The Hindu to publish the defence papers in a series of articles since February 2019.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who shared the lead judgment with Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, said that The Hindu's right to publish the Rafale documents was in consonance with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech.
With this, the apex court has dismissed preliminary objections raised by the government against petitions seeking a review of the December 14, 2018 judgment of the Supreme Court, which upheld the deal for purchase of 36 Rafale jets.
The government had claimed that the review pleas were based on secret Rafale documents unauthorisedly removed from the Ministry of Defence and leaked to the media.

Apr 10, 2019

Phase 1 Campaign Ends

Campaigning ended for the first phase of polling for the 17th Lok Sabha election scheduled for 11/04/2019.
Ninety-one Lok Sabha constituencies across 20 States and Union Territories will vote in the first of the seven phases. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and parts of Odisha will be voting to elect new Assemblies also.
Counting of votes of all phases will be on May 27.

Body Scanners to Replace Metal Detectors

According to the aviation security regulator, starting in April 2020, air travellers will be examined by body scanners at Indian airports, which has directed airport operators to replace metal detectors with superior technology.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) asked airport operators and security agencies to install the devices at pre-embarkation security check points of all airports in a phased manner.
Body scanners detect objects being carried by a traveller without the need for physical contact such as frisking.
The government communication does give air travellers the option of refusing to go through body scanners.
In that case, the traveller will be subjected to a full pat-down search. Air travellers with medical conditions will also be exempt from security screening by body scanners.
They will be screened using door frame metal detectors (DFMDs).

Centre Denies RTI Plea

The Centre has denied a Right to Information (RTI) request for details of the ongoing recruitment process for four vacancies in the Central Information Commission (CIC), despite a recent Supreme Court order mandating that such information be made public.
The CIC is the RTI Act's highest appellate body.

Apr 09, 2019

Third Front Government a Possibility

According to Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) leader Kamal Haasan, the Lok Sabha election will result in a hung Parliament and there is a possibility of the Third Front forming the government.
The way the election is going, the MNM predicts a hung Parliament, and a Third Front will eventually form the government.

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