Indian Polity - Current Affairs for August, 2015

The aspirants’ cities were selected by the States and Union Territories on the parametres set by the Centre. Announcing the list in New Delhi, Union Urban Development Minister, M Venkaiah Naidu said, it include 13 cities from Uttar Pradesh, 12 from Tamil Nadu, 10 from Maharashtra, 7 from Madhya Pradesh, 3 each from Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. All other states have also got one or two cities for the purpose.

Out of these 98 cities, 24 are capital cities, 24 are business and industrial centres, 18 are of cultural and tourism importance, 5 are port cities and three are educational and healthcare hubs. 9 capital cities including Patna, Shimla, Bengaluru, Daman, Kolkata did not find place for smart city development. Two more cities will be announced in due course since the Government of Jammu and Kashmir sought more time to firm up their choice and there was tie between Meerut and Raibarelly in Uttar Pradesh.

A government spokesman said that the motive behind opening the police stations for women is to ensure their safety and instill among them a sense of security and confidence.

Justice Madanlal Laxmandas Tahaliyani, a retired judge of the Bombay High Court was sworn in as the new Lokayukta of Maharashtra. Governor Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office to Justice Tahaliyani at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai. . Justice Tahaliyani succeeds Justice PB Gaikwad, whose term as Lokayukta ended on July 1, 2014.

In an affidavit, Department of Personnel and Training said that bringing political parties under the RTI will not only hamper their smooth working but help political rivals to file pleas with malicious intention to seek information. The government said, when the RTI Act was enacted, it was never visualised that political parties would be brought within the ambit of the transparency law.

The affidavit said, there are provisions in Representation of the People Act 1951 and Income Tax Act which brought necessary transparency about the financial aspects of a political party.

This was indicated by the state Government in a full page advertisement published in the leading news papers of the state. Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel has also issued similar audio visual message on the electronic media ahead of rally called by Patidar community on next Tuesday to press their demand for reservation. In a bullet point advertisement, Government says that the 1992 Supreme Court verdict limits reservation provision only up to 50 percent in any state. According to advertisement, Gujarat has 27 percent reservation for OBCs and 15 percent and 7 percent for STs and SCs respectively.

The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Nabam Tuki violated norms to allot construction works to his family members during his tenure as PWD minister of the state. On 21st Aug’15 acting Chief Justice of Gauhati High court K Sreedhar Rao and Justice P K Saikia passed this order.

A bench headed by acting Chief Justice Jayant Patel admitted the case and stayed operation of notification of compulsory voting till final disposal of the case. Gujarat became the first state to make voting compulsory in local-municipal as well as panchayat polls after governor OP Kohli approved the Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009, which had been rejected by earlier governor, Kamla Beniwal.

In his opening remarks in the 2nd India -Pacific Islands Cooperation, FIPIC Summit in Jaipur on 21st Aug’15, the Prime Minister said that the member countries must together press for reform in the UN Security Council to ensure its relevance and effectiveness in the 21st century. The island nations participated in the FIPIC summit included Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Micronesia, Solomon Islands and Tonga.

While hearing a petition filed by Shiv Kumar Pathak and others, Justice Sudhir Agarwal severely criticized the condition of junior basic schools in the state and said until wards of Judges, people's representatives and bureaucrats would study compulsorily in these schools the condition will not improve. Justice Agarwal ordered the chief secretary to ensure that children of all government and quasi government employees, People's representatives, judges and bureaucrats study in government schools and if they not obey the order some punitive actions will also be taken against them.

About half of the Prime Minister's Bihar Package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore will be spent on construction of highways and bridges. A press release issued by the PMO said that around 55 thousand crore rupees will be spent on four-laning and widening of highways, construction of bridges across Ganga, Sone and Kosi rivers and 12 Rail overbridges.

He will meet the ruler, the vice president and also the prime minister of the country.

The court made it clear that even for availing facilities PDS, kerosene and LPG distribution system the card will not be mandatory. It barred the authorities from sharing personal biometric data collected for enrollment under the scheme. It directed that the information received by UIDAI shall not be used for any other purposes, except in criminal investigation with the permission of the court. A Constitution bench of the apex court will also decide the larger question of whether collecting biometric data for preparing Aadhar cards infringeds an individual's privacy and if right to privacy was a fundamental right.

Centre signed a landmark peace accord with National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) at the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. On the occasion, NSCN (I-M) leader T Muivah said the accord has ushered in a new relationship between the Centre and the NSCN (I-M).

The suspended leaders were protesting against the government over the Lalit Modi and Vyapam scams. Taking tough action against the agitating members, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said they were suspended for persistently and willfully obstructing the House. She ruled that the 'named' members will not attend five sittings of the House.