(Current Affairs) National Events | July: 2014

National Events

New PM Appointed

  • Narendra Modi who steered the BJP-led NDA to a stunning victory will be sworn in as Prime Minister on May 26 at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
  • Mr. Modi was appointed as the Prime Minister by the President and was asked to advise the names of others to be appointed Members of the Council of Ministers.
  • Stepping out after his meeting with the President, he addressed the media briefly and held-up the formal letter of appointment as Prime Minister.
  • Mr Modi’s call on the President came after he was unanimously elected leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and later at a combined meeting of the BJP and its allies constituting the NDA as leader of the coalition.
  • Later, a Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said as Mr Modi has been elected leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party and BJP has majority support in the House of the People, the President appointed him the Prime Minister of India and requested him to advise the names of members of the council of ministers.
  • Today’s scene was vastly different from the summer of 1996 when the then President Shankar Dayal Sharma appointed Atal Bihari Vajpayee as Prime Minister of a minority government that fell in 13 days.
  • Later, after the 1998 and 1999 elections Mr Vajpayee was again called to form govern-ments only after the then President K R Narayanan was satisfied with letters of support from parties backing the NDA coalition on the numbers.

Modi’s Council of Ministers

The following is the list of council of ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet:

Cabinet Ministers

  • Rajnath Singh: Home Minister
  • Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs & Overseas Indian Affairs
  • Arun Jaitley: Finance Corporate Affairs & Defence
  • M. Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation & Parliamentary Affairs
  • Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways Shipping
  • D.V. Sadananda Gowda: Railways
  • Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
  • Dr. Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs
  • Gopinathrao Munde: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water and Sanitation
  • Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
  • Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
  • Maneka Gandhi: Women and Child Development
  • Ananthkumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers
  • Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communi-cations and Information Technology & Law and Justice
  • Ashok Gajapathi Raju: Civil Aviation
  • Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
  • Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries
  • Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines & Steel Labour and Employment
  • Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs
  • Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture
  • Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment
  • Smriti Zubin Irani: Human Resource Development
  • Dr. Harsh Vardhan: Health and Family Welfare ‘Super City’

In line with the principles of sustainable development advocated in the Medellin Declaration, Gravity 2.0 Research Foundation recommended that a capital city region be considered rather than a single urban agglomeration for the location of a new capital for the State of Andhra Pradesh post bifurcation.

In a representation sub-mitted to the Expert Committee on identification of location of new capital for the State of Andhra Pradesh, the Gravity 2.0 Research Foundation, suggested that the new capital be located in the Visakhapatnam-Rajahmundry-Vijayawada ‘Super City’ ensuring inclusive growth.

They also suggested that coastal shipping be promoted and the National Waterway 4 be extended to Visakhapatnam.

Mining Ban issue

  • The Meghalaya Government has constituted a one-man Committee to guide the State Government prepare the compliance report to be submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on rat-hole mining ban in Meghalaya.

  • The Committee would be headed by additional chief secretary KS Kropha and the report and other points would be prepared before the NGT holds its next hearing in New Delhi on May 19.

  • The Tribunal, on April 17, in its interim order banned rat-hole mining and transportation of coal in Meghalaya in the interest of people working in the mines as well as for protection of the environment.

  • The order was passed after the Assam-based All Dimasa Student’s Union and Dima Hasao District Committee filed a petition stating that the illegal rat-hole mining in Jaintia Hills is polluting Kopili river by turning its water acidic. They also placed before the Tribunal two survey reports of 2006 and 2010 in which pH level of the water in Kopili river showed considerable difference.

Constitutional Validity of RTE Act

  • The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of Articles 15(5) and 21-A of the Constitution in so far as it relates to unaided educational institutions to provide compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 years.

  • A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice R.M. Lodha and Justices A.K. Patnaik, Dipak Misra, S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Ibrahim Kalifulla also upheld the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010.

  • The Constitution 93rd Amendment Act, 2005, inserting clause (5) in Article 15 enables the State to make special provisions for members of the SCs, STs and socially and educationally backward classes, for admission to all educational institutions, including private unaided institutions, but except minority institutions. The right to education law was enacted by Parliament in 2009 by inserting Article 21A to provide free and compulsory education to children between 6 and 14 years.

  • It imposed obligations on the schools, which included privately-managed unaided educational institutions to admit at least 25% students from weaker sections. A three-judge Bench upheld the constitutional validity of this Act by a majority of 2:1. On a reference that the matter ought to have been decided by a Constitution Bench, it was heard by a five-judge Bench.

  • Writing the judgment, Justice Patnaik, however, said the minority unaided educational institutions could not be compelled to provide free and compulsory education to children belonging to weaker sections. To this extent the Bench overruled the three judges’ decision upholding the RTE law.

  • The Bench held that the 93rd Constitution Amendment inserting clause 5 in Article 15 to provide for reservation to weaker sections in admission to unaided private educational institutions did not violate the basic structure of the Constitution.

INS Vikrant’s another lifeline

  • India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which was headed for the scrap yard, got another breather from the Supreme Court as it blocked the vessel’s journey to ignominy.
  • The ship was due at the scrapyard on May 17 after it was sold for Rs.60 crore through an e-auction to the Mumbai-based IB Commercials Pvt Ltd.
  • Through the ‘Save Vikrant Committee’, Mr. Paigankar and other activists last month moved the apex court in a bid to save the vessel which saw action in the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
  • The imposing vessel, commissioned in the Indian Navy in 1961, was decommissioned in 1997 and has been kept anchored at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai.
  • During the hearing of Mr. Paigankar’s public interest litigation in January, the Central government informed the Bombay High Court that the 15,000-tonne ship had completed its operational life.
  • The Maharashtra government expressed its inability to preserve it as a floating museum owing to financial constraints, following which the Bombay High Court dismissed Mr. Paigankar’s PIL.
  • The 70-year-old vessel, purchased as HMS Hercules from Britain in 1957 and rechristened as ‘INS Vikrant’, helped enforce a naval blockade of East Pakistan — now Bangladesh — during the 1971 war.

Mother tongue in primary schools

  • The Supreme Court recently held that the government cannot impose mother tongue on linguistic minority for imparting primary education.

  • The bench, also comprising justices A.K. Patnaik, S.J. Mukhopadhaya, Dipak Misra and F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, was hearing the issue which had come before the apex court as two Karnataka government orders of 1994 making mother tongue or regional language compulsory for imparting education from class I to IV, had come under challenge.

  • In July 2013, a two-judge bench of the apex court had said its Constitution Bench will examine whether government can impose mother tongue or regional language as the medium of instruction at the primary education stage as it has a far-reaching significance on the development of children.

  • The court, which was of the opinion that it was a fit case for consideration by a larger bench, had said that the issue involved in this case concerns the fundamental rights of not only the present generation but also the generations yet to be born.

  • It had said that the issue had to be referred to a larger bench as a two-judge bench of the court in 1993 had refused to interfere with a Karnataka government order specifying mother tongue Kannada as the medium of instruction at the primary school level and making it mandatory for every child.

Saradha Chit Fund Scam

  • In a setback for the West Bengal government, the Supreme court has  handed over investigation into Saradha chit fund scam to the CBI.
  • The court also asked the CBI to investigate ponzi scheme scams in Odisha, Assam and Tripura.
  • The West Bengal government, all through the hearing of the matter, had strongly resisted the plea for handing over the investigation to the CBI.
  • The apex court asked the West Bengal government to hand over all Saradha chit fund scam cases to CBI.
  • It also said that the CBI will investigate all cases against 44 chit fund companies in Odisha.
  • The SC said the state police have not yet been able to trace the money trails that clearly had an inter-state as well as possible international links.
  • The SC also asked the Enforcement Directorate to join CBI in finding the money trail. The ED is already conducting a probe into the scam.
  • The apex court said it wanted the chit fund scam in these states to be probed by an independent agency like CBI because of involvement of politicians and influential persons in the cases.
  • Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen was arrested from Sonmarg in Kashmir on April 23,2013 along with two close associates.

Togadia’s ‘hate speech’

  • A first information report (FIR) has been registered against VHP leader Pravin Togadia for “inciting communal passions” after he allegedly asked  locals of a society  to forcibly occupy a house purchased by a Muslim man in Hindu majority area.
  • An FIR has been filed against him under sections 153(A), 153(B) and under 188 for violating notification of the Election Commission.
  • Section 153(A) of the IPC deals with ‘intention to cause disorder, promoting enmity between religious groups and incite people to violence’, Section 153 (B) of the IPC deals with those who assert, propagate or publish that any class of persons by reasons of their being members of any religious, racial, language or regional group or caste or community be denied, or deprived of their rights as citizens of India.
  • Section 188 deals with disobedience to order duly promulgated by the Election Commission by way of its notification of elections.
  • The poll panel had asked the district administration to take action against Mr. Togadia over his hate speech and also directed it to submit action-taken report as soon as possible.
  • Mr. Togadia had allegedly asked his supporters to get vacated the house a Muslim man had purchased in the Hindu-majority locality near Meghani Circle area of Bhavnagar city.

Course for Safe Roads

  • Indian roads have proved to be giant killers demanding immediate attention and remedial action, the Supreme Court observed recently and appointed a panel to suggest measures to prevent road accidents and to ensure accountability.

  • Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, who retires as Supreme Court judge soon will be part of this panel along with S. Sundar, Former Transport Secretary and Dr. Nishi Mittal, formerly HoD, Traffic Engineering and Safety (TES)

  • A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana, gave this direction acting on a public interest writ petition (PIL) filed by renowned orthopaedician Dr. S. Rajasekaran.

  • The bench quoted figures furnished by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in the volume “Road Accidents in India 2010” highlighting the extent of increase of road accidents and fatal cases between 1970-2010.

  • It is reported that road traffic accidents in 2010 numbered 4,30,654 resulting in 1,26,896 deaths and serious injuries 4,66,600 that includes amputation of limbs. One serious road accident in the country occurs every minute; and one person dies in a road traffic accident every 4 minutes.

  • In his judgment Justice Gogoi said: “Road traffic accidents have the potential of being one of the largest challenges to orderly human existence necessitating immediate and urgent intervention.

  • The Bench asked the three-member panel to submit a report to the apex court after receipt of reports from Centre and States on the status of implementation and enforcement of various road safety laws.

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