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National Issues June 2012
National Issues June 2012
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COAL BLOCKS
industries such as power, steel and cement. An estimate of the cost of production for each block was arrived at first by taking into account the actual cost of production in a similar Coal India mine for the same year. Difference between CILs sale price and cost
According to comptroller and auditor generals draft report titled Performance Audit Of Coal Block Allocations, the government lost Rs 10.67 lakh crore by not auctioning coal blocks between 2004 and 2009. 155 coal blocks were given to commercial entities without auction between 2004 and 2009 thereby causing the exchequer a loss of Rs 10.67 lakh crore at 31 March 2011 prices . The estimated loss is six times higher than the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore suffered for the 2G scam. The government extended undue benefits totalling a mind-boggling Rs 10.67 lakh crore to commercial entities between 2004 and 2009. The beneficiaries include some 100 private companies, as well as some public sector units, in
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of production was then multiplied by 90% of the reserves in each block. The figure obtained was the windfall gain for that block. CAG also specified the reason behind taking 90% of the total reserves rather than the entire lot. According to CAG, detailed exploration establishes reserves at
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a confidence level of 90%. CAG report listed both private entities and public utilities as beneficiaries of the alleged largesse. private companies were believed to have benefitted more than Rs 4.79 lakh crore of the giveaway, while around Rs 5.88 lakh crore went to central and state government utilities. The list did not name Reliance Power, which is setting up the Sasan and Tilaiya ultramega power projects. Reliance Power is missing from the list because the section on Windfall benefit to private companies does not include 12 coal blocks given for the governments showpiece power projects since they were allocated through a tariff based competitive bidding route.
government hospitals (41%) as against private hospitals (19.4%). Kerala recorded the highest deliveries in private hospitals while Odisha recorded the least. Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of women who delivered in a government hospital while Jharkhand recorded the least (19%). 55% of women in Delhi delivered in government hospitals while 23% went to private hospitals. 17% of births at home were carried out by a qualified professional. Deliveries conducted by a qualified professional at home were as low as 4.5% in Maharashtra. Untrained functionary deliveries were as high as 47% in Bihar, 35% in UP, 25% in West Bengal and 27% in Madhya Pradesh. Institutional deliveries (children being born in health centres or hospitals and not in their homes) were found to have picked up in India. As per the data released, more than three-fourths of deliveries in India were found to be occurring in institutional and by qualified professionals at present. Several states recorded very low births by untrained functionaries. They include Kerala (0.2%), Tamil Nadu (0.9%), Andhra Pradesh (1%), Punjab (2.6%), Delhi (5.3%), Gujarat (8.8%), Haryana (6.3%) and Karnataka (9.3%). Rural regions in several states recorded high rates of delivery in private hospitals. Like Kerala, where 52% of births in rural settings took place in a
private hospital, followed by 35% in Andhra, 23% in Delhi, 36% in Gujarat, 32% in Haryana, 20% in Karnataka, 36% in Maharashtra, 35% in Punjab and 24% in TN.
AMENDMENT IN THE REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS ACT, 1969 BILL APPROVED
The Union Cabinet on 12 April 2012 gave its approval to the introduction of a Bill seeking an
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amendment in the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 to include registration of marriages as well, so that the existing administrative mechanisms will be able to carry out such registration of marriages in accordance with the specified procedures and be able to maintain necessary records and statistics for registration of marriages also. The Cabinet also approved introducing a Bill in Parliament to further amend the Anand Marriage Act, 1909 to provide for registration of marriages under the Act. The proposed Bill is set to benefit the women from unnecessary harassment in matrimonial and maintenance cases. It also seeks to provide evidentiary value in the matters of custody of children, right of children born from the wedlock of the two persons whose marriage is registered and the age of the parties to the marriage.
government and central public sector enterprises. The General Financial Rules, 2005, govern procurements made by the Centre. The present bill provides for a jail term ranging from six months to five years for public servants found guilty of demanding and accepting bribes from bidders of government contracts. The legislation is largely based on the suggestions made by Committee on Public Procurement headed by former bureaucrat Vinod Dhall which were accepted by a Group of Ministers to tackle corruption on 22 February 2012. The GoM headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had sent the bill for the approval of the Union Cabinet.
THE THE
The Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2009, which mandates 25 per cent free seats to the poor in government and private unaided schools uniformly across the country. The apex court clarified that its judgment will come into force from 12 April 2012. However, the act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private schools except unaided private minority schools. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar gave the ruling. The bench had reserved
its verdict on 3August 2012 on a batch of petitions by private unaided institutions which had contended that the section 12 (1)(c) of RTE Act violates the rights of private educational institutions under Article 19(1) (g) which provided autonomy to private managements to run their institutions without governmental interference. Right to Education Act (RTE) was passed by the Indian parliament on 4 August 2009.The act came into force on 1 April 2010. It has the provision of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. India became one of 135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child. Section 12(1)(c) of the RTE act says that every recognized school imparting elementary education is obliged to admit underprivileged children even if it is not aiaded by the government to meet its expenses.
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The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court directed the Union government of India and the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that there is no reporting on movement of troops by the print or electronic media. Acting on a PIL, a bench comprising justices Uma Nath Singh and Virendra Kumar Dixit ruled that the issue of movement of army troops does not require 17
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public discussion at the cost of defence secrecy and the security of the country. The court, however, dismissed the plea for a high-level probe into the report by a national daily alleging unusual movement of troops on the night of 16 January 2012, the day the Army Chief Gen VK Singh approached the Supreme Court on the issue of his date of Birth.
Supreme Court bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya also asked Ram Jethmalani, amicus curiae, to file written submissions on whether the President should objectively apply mind while deciding mercy petitions. The apex court observed that the role of the state was perhaps advisory and the final verdict lies with the President. The court directions came while hearing a plea filed by death convict Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, challenging the undue delay in disposal of his mercy petition by the President.
Shyamala Gopinath as its chairman, will help CBI in investigating cases of bank, commercial and financial frauds. The six-member board, which is the part of the organizational set up of CBI, will have a tenure of two years. The board will be provided with the operational funding by the RBI. The other members on the reconstituted board include retired Indian Administrative Service officer Vivek Mehrotra, retired Indian Police Service officer Balwinder Singh, former Chairman and Managing Director, Bank of Maharashtra, A S Bhattacharya, ex Executive Director of Corporation Bank, Asit Pal and Chartered Accountant, T N Manoharan.
government to provide records of all 18 mercy pleas, pending before the President of India. The court asked Additional SolicitorGeneral Harin Raval to furnish details of all the mercy pleas pending consideration before the President for periods ranging from one to seven years. A 18
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Article 32, it cannot be entertained as in no way, any fundamental right of the petitioner was violated. The bench ruled that the Article 32 of Indian Constitution could only be invoked by a person whose fundamental right is violated.
Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010 to further amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954, to provide therein irretrievable break down of marriage as a ground of divorce. The Bill would provide safeguards to parties to marriage who file petition for grant of divorce by consent from the harassment in court if any of the party does not come to the court or try to avoid the court to keep the divorce proceedings inconclusive.
Act. It will work as an integral part of Intelligence bureau. The notification mandates the terrorfighting agencies to share their inputs with NCTC and it also appoints the director and his core team. Director of NCTC will have full functional autonomy and he will have the power to seek information on terror from National Investigation Agency, NATGRID, intelligence units of CBI, National Technical Research Organisation and directorate of revenue intelligence in addition to all seven central armed police forces including NSG. He will report to the IB chief and the home ministry. The notification was issued under the Article 73 of the Constitution of India.
power to carry out operations including arrest, search and seizure. It will draw its functional power of search and seizures under the provisions of the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention)
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