Indian Polity - Current Affairs for September, 2016

Union government has approved the change of the name from Gurgaon to Gurugram
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on 27th Sept 2016 announced the city and district of Gurgaon will now be known as Gurugram.

• Gurgaon is also called the Millennium City
• It is recognised globally and nationally as a business and corporate hub
• Haryana decided to rename Gurgaon as Gurugram in April 2016
• Mewat is being renamed Nuh as well
• Decision was taken on the basis of representations by people
• City’s name change stems from a proposal by the municipal corporation in 2012

CM of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar on 18th September 2016 announced Charkhi Dadri as the 22nd district of the state

• The announcement was made at a Dadri rally in Bhiwani district
• Developmental projects worth INR 112 crore have been completed in the Dadri assembly segment
• Khattar also inaugurated nine development projects worth INR 45 crores in Dadri.
• Charkhi Dadri is a district in the state of Haryana; it was earlier a town in Bhiwani district
• Town was made by joining the villages of Charkhi and Dadri following urban development
• Charkhi Dardi is on Narnual Bathinda pass through the city on NH 148B
• It is located in southern Haryana 110 km from the NCT of New Delhi

• At present, only 7 states have two Houses (bicameral). These are Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Tamil Nadu Legislative Council Act, 2010 has not come into force. The Legislative Council in Andhra Pradesh was revived by the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Act, 2005.
• The 7th Amendment Act of 1956 provided for a Legislative Council in Madhya Pradesh.
• However, a notification to this effect has to be made by the President. So far, no such notification has been made. Hence, Madhya Pradesh continues to have one House only.

Around two months after SC restored it to power in the NE state, Congress on 16th Sept lost its government in Arunachal Pradesh when its entire Legislature Party barring former CM Nabam Tuki joined the People’s Party of Arunachal Pradesh.

• PPA in turn will become the part of BJP led North East Democratic Alliance


• As PPA is part of NEDA, deputy CM Chowna Mein said this was a chance to work for the larger interest and overall development of the state


• Now the new CM of AP will be Pema Khandu. Besides Nabam Tuki has not joined the PPA


• Congress has a strength of 44 in the 60 member while PPA has a strength of 43 because former CM Nabam Tuki refused to leave INC


• On July 16, Khandu became CM after months of political turmoil that unseated Tuki who himself was reinstated as CM by the apex court two days before


• Pul was forced to resign on July 13 following an SC judgement


• On March 3, Pul along with 29 Congress MLAs joined PPA

Task Force headed by the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman prepared a road map for eliminating poverty to the PMO on Sept 11, 2016..

• The other members of the task force were Aayog Member Bibek Debroy and ministry of rural development, housing and urban poverty alleviation secretaries
• The report asked for a constitution of a new committee that would participate with states and other stakeholders for defining the BPL population and identifying them
• It asked the State to continue with the Tendulkar poverty line
• It also asks to switch to Rangarajan or other higher rural and urban poverty lines
• It has called out for tracking progress over time of the bottom 30 percent of the population
• It also asks the Centre to track progress along specific components of poverty such as housing, nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, electricity and connectivity
• Task force was constituted in March 2015 with an initial mandate to finalise report by 30th June 2015
• The main task is to prepare a road map for eliminating poverty and suggesting strategies and anti poverty programmes
• In terms of reference, the report included a working definition of poverty and stresses the need for synergy between Centre and state to combat poverty

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs initiated the third phase of the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme.

• Project will be implemented as CSS with total project outlay of INR 3600 crore
• Project will be initiated with a cost of INR 2660 crore with additional financing possible at a later stage
• Of the INR 2660 crore, central share will be INR 1330 crore and external assistance through WB credit of INR 1330 crore
• Project will be implemented by Direct Funds Transfer to beneficiary institute accounts
• Project will be initiated in the current year and be co-terminus with the Fourteenth Finance Commission
• Better academic standards, measures of student learning and educational administration are the focus of this programme
• Close to 200 government or aided engineering institutes and ATUs including CFTIs will be selected
• Focus is on 7 low income states- Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh; the 3 hill states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand; the 8 north eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• TEQIP began in 2003 with WB assistance
• Its first phase ended in march 2009
• It covered 127 institutes through 13 states
• TEQIP-II commenced in 2010 covering 23 states UTs and 191 institute
• It is scheduled to conclude in October 2016

NDA government removed AP governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa after his refusal to quit

• Rajkhowa’s stint came to an end when the President passed the directive in the centre’s recommendation
• Meghalaya governor V Shanmuganathan has been appointed additional charge over the state for the time being
• Rakjhowa was appointed Governor in May 2015
• He is a former IAS officer from Assam
• Appointed governor of the border state on May 12, 2015, be recommended imposition of President’s rule in AP
• This decision was later overturned by the SC which also restored Congress government in the state and declared imposition of central rule as unconstitutional
• Andhra Pradesh is also called the land of the rising sun and the Last Shangri la on earth

Governor of Gujarat Om Prakash Kohli took oath of office as the 26th governor of MP at Raj Bhavan following the end of the tenure of Ram Naresh Yadav

• Acting Chief Justice of MP HC Rajendra Mohan administered the oath to Governor Kohli who has just been assigned additional charge of MP by President Pranab Mukherjee till a new Governor is appointed
• Governor Kohli retired as a reader and was president of DUTA and National Democratic Teacher’s Front
• He was arrested under MISA and jailed
• Following his retirement, he was nominated to the RS when he was member of the standing committees of finance, urban and rural development
• He was also president of the Delhi State BJP for two terms from 1991-1995 and 2009-2010
• As national secretary of the BJP, he was in charge of party affairs in states of Punjab, Haryana, J&K, HP and Rajasthan
• He was appointed Gujarat Governor on July 16, 2014

Election Commission of India accorded national party status to All India Trinamool Congress making it the seventh party contesting Lok Sabha and assembly polls across the country on its own symbol.

• Recognition comes when TMC chief and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is looking to expand beyond her home state and secure a larger role in federal politics for herself and her party
• A recent amendment of rules by EC helped the TMC to live up to its name and secure recognition as a national party
• The other six national parties are INC, BJP, BSPP, SP, CPI and CPI (M)
• Under the revised rule of EC, party’s performance over two consecutive Lok Sabha or assembly elections is considered as opposed to one previously for granting recognition as a national party
• TMC will not have qualified as a state party in AP had this not happened- it had performed poorly in the 2014 general elections there
• Recognition as a national party also means TMC will get an audience with the EC more frequently according to Chattopadhyay
• EC invites national parties only to certain sessions

To get stalled construction projects moving, Indian cabinet has approved new arbitration norms resulting in quicker resolutions for companies.

• As per the fresh norms, government of India will release 75 percent of amounts against margin free guarantees in cases where arbitral awards have been given yet contested
• Amount released will be used by contractors to complete projects or pay off debts
• RBI and Department of Financial Services will develop a policy to deal with stressed assets in the realty sector
• Conciliation board has also been suggested by all new construction projects
• Government also approved the dissolution of the Central Inland Water Transport Corp as part of the move to close down irretrievable cases
• Voluntary retirement scheme was implemented for this corp in 2015; it was incorporated in February 1967
• Cabinet also approved radical changes in the FDI regime that sought to increase FDI to 100 percent in defence and liberalised the policy for several other sectors