Government Committees, Schemes & Bills - Current Affairs for March, 2015

Gujarat Assembly again passed Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organized Crime Bill, which failed to get Presidential assent thrice since 2004. The bill, which is on the lines of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Terrorism and Organized Crime Act was earlier rejected three times by the President.

The new scheme will cover Manipur Sericulture Project Phase-II and Integrated Sericulture Development Programme of the state.

The farmers can avail of its benefit and may get five thousand rupees pension every month.

Under the scheme, a monetary reward is given to trainees on assessment and certification by third party assessment bodies. The average monetary reward would be around Rs.8000 per trainee.

The government has decided to set up Central Sector Projects Coordination Committee, CSPCCs in the states under chief secretaries to remove bottlenecks and to facilitate speedy implementation of major projects.

Government set up a National Tourism Board as a part of the new Tourism Policy to speed up and promote tourism in the country. The new Tourism Policy, 2015 was launched on the 15th of May this year.

The bill bans cow slaughter, sale of beef and prescribes rigorous punishment for its violation and also covers a wide range of administrative measures intended to conserve and improve the livestock.

Chief Minister said that the Special Courts Bill 2015 will ensure prompt disposal of corruption cases against all those who draw salaries or any other money through treasuries-ministers, peoples’ representatives, all officers and employees including of state judicial services.

It is a web-enabled system created by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). It will serve as a robust E-governance tool for protection of interests of consumers through effective implementation of the price of drugs. This pharmacy-literacy initiative would create an awareness among the people and would act as a deterrent against black-marketing, spurious medicines and inflated cost of drugs.

At present, a formal sector worker covered under the EPS-95 can make contributions towards pension scheme till the age of 58 years and can claim pension thereafter. After the amendment to the pension scheme, a formal sector worker can choose to contribute towards it till 60 years of age. This will provide him a benefit of 4 per cent enhanced pension per year.

Bollywood actress Bhagyashree is the brand ambassador of the scheme. The Bhagyashree scheme aims at providing one lakh rupee on maturity after the girl completes 18 years of age.

National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) and SWADESH DARSHAN are the two new schemes of Govt. of India. Under PRASAD, initially, twelve cities namely Amritsar, Ajmer, Amaravati, Dwaraka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Kedarnath, Kamakhya, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi and Vellankani have been identified for development.

On International Women Day in a state level function at Panchkula, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal khattar on 8th Mar’15 launched several schemes to improve sex ratio in the state. These schemes include "Aapki Beti Hamari Beti", Haryana Kanya Kosh of 100 crore rupees and "Haryana Kuposhan Mission".

The aim of the law is to check female foeticide in the state. Haryana government has also decided to give cash prize of one lakh rupees to a person giving information about sex determination cases and of those indulging in practice of female foeticide

The Hyderabad-based National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj would help in developing model villages and provide handholding guidance in implementation of the model village scheme.

Now anyone found to be selling beef or in possession of it, can be jailed for five years and fine upto 10,000 rupees. The new act will however allow slaughter of water buffaloes, which provides carabeef, generally seen as inferior quality meat.