General Awareness

GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES - June 2019

Jun 2019

Jul 09, 2019

RS Passes Aadhaar Bill

The Rajya Sabha passed the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019, with Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserting that the incumbent government will soon bring a comprehensive law on the data protection.
The Bill sought to amend the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
It allowed voluntary use of Aadhaar as proof of identity for opening a bank account and procuring a mobile phone

Jallianwala Bagh Bill

The Congress opposed the introduction of the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha. It sought to remove the Congress president as a permanent member of a trust that runs the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial.
The Bill was moved by Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel and states that it sought to delete the mention of President of the Indian National Congress as a trustee. A similar one was brought by the previous government but it could not get parliamentary nod and lapsed.

Jul 08, 2019

Bill to Speed up Lutyens' Eviction

The Centre would introduce an amendment bill to make it easier for the government to evict squatters, including overstaying former MPs and ministers and even secretary-level officials, from government accommodation in Lutyens' Delhi.
The housing and urban affairs ministry would introduce the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill, which would amend the 1971 legislation and make it easier for the government to evict overstaying officials and free up houses.
Amendments to three major sections in the Act would help the government in starting eviction proceedings within three days of the term of the official ending. At present, the process takes five to seven weeks, and several years if the official files an appeal against eviction in a civil court.

Jul 05, 2019

Bill to Curb Aadhaar Misuse

The Lok Sabha approved the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 that aims to curb misuse of Aadhaar, the unique ID number, and which would allow individuals to voluntarily offer biometric details as identity proof for obtaining services offered by private firms such as telcos and banks.
The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed by a voice vote after Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad assured the lower house that Aadhaar is voluntary and that consent of the biometric identity holder has to be obtained before it is used.
The amendments address privacy and security concerns. They provide that no service or benefit of any scheme would be denied for lack of Aadhaar.

Jul 04, 2019

Teachers' Reservation Bill

Rajya Sabha members supported the bill that seeks to replace an Ordinance passed to provide reservation to scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (ST) and economically weaker sections for teachers post' in central educational institutions.
However, some members blamed the government for delay in bringing the Central Educational Institutions (reservation in teachers' cadre) Bill.
Some others said the government should have given at least a day's notice before introducing the bill in the House to enable them bring amendments to the proposed legislation.
While supporting the bill, Sushil Gupta of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that it was being presented in a hurry.
He told the House that there are 3.14 lakh vacancies for professors in the country including 2,500 in Delhi alone. He asked the government to fill these.

Code on Wages Bill

In its first step towards reviving the labour law reform process, the Union Cabinet approved a draft legislation, which seeks to mandate minimum wages fixed by the central government.
The Code on Wages Bill was tabled in Lok Sabha during the previous tenure of the government in August 2017, and it was referred to the standing committee that had given its comments to the labour ministry, but the Bill lapsed after the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.
The Bill had proposed empowering the states to fix different minimum wages based on geography, skill and occupation, along with a national-level minimum wage which would act as a floor.
At present, the Centre fixes a National Floor-Level Minimum Wage – a non-statutory measure to ensure that states fix their minimum wages beyond this floor level.
The Code on Wages Bill will combine four labour laws — Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

Jul 03, 2019

Projects Related to Water Conservation

The Centre has set a target of completing one million projects linked to water conservation under rural employment scheme MGNREGA in the first 100 days of the government.
Over the past five years, MGNREGA has become the main force that is driving water conservation efforts across rural India.
The scheme has now evolved from being merely a mitigator of rural distress into focused campaign to raise rural incomes through natural resource management (NRM) work.
Approximately 60 per cent of the resources under MGNREGA are spent on NRM work which focuses on ensuring higher incomes to farmers by improving both the area under cultivation and yield of crops.
This is done by improving the productivity of land and increasing water availability.
Out of these 10 lakh projects, more than 2.5 lakh will be built in the 1,192 stressed blocks selected for Jal Shakti Abhiyaan. These projects are also expected to be finished in the first 100 days.

Lok Sabha Clears Bill to Replace MCI

The Lok Sabha cleared the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which would replace an ordinance promulgated on February 21, 2019 that lapsed with the sixteenth Lok Sabha.
The bill aims at ushering transparency, accountability and quality in the governance of medical education in the country and provides for the supersession of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for two years with effect from September 26, 2018.
According to the new bill, during this period, the board of governors would exercise the powers and functions of the MCI as assigned under the IMC Act, 1956.
It also proposes to increase the number of members on the board of governors from seven to twelve.
The bill seeks to fill up more than 7,000 vacancies in institutions of higher education by direct recruitment in accordance with a new quota system.
The system accords reservation to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the socially and educationally backward classes.

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