Wednesday, August 15, 2012

HEADLINES

• West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee comes down heavily on the judiciary, saying a number of judgments were being purchased
• B.V. Acharya, Special Public Prosecutor in the disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa in the Karnataka court resigns saying he is facing pressure from the BJP Govt
• The Union Minister for Science and Technology and former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh passes away

NATIONAL NEWS

• Whistleblower bill moved in Rajya Sabha
  • The Govt moved The Whistleblowers Protection Bill, 2011, which the Lok Sabha has already passed, in the Rajya Sabha with an amendment that seeks to keep issues relating to national security, sovereignty and integrity out of its ambit while seeking to protect public servants exposing corruption;
  • The Special Protection Group has also been kept out of the purview of the Bill, though those raising issues of corruption and violation of human rights in the Defence Ministry and intelligence agencies will be protected under the proposed law;
  • The SPG is responsible for the protection of the Prime Minister of India, other top officials, and their immediate families. The force was established in 1985 after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. It is one of the eight Central Armed Police Forces. The bulk of the personnel were initially drawn from Indian Border Security Force;
  • Once passed by the Rajya Sabha, the Bill will be referred back to the Lok Sabha for considering the amendment.
• Parliamentary panel recommends separate marriage law for NRIs
  • Expressing concern over the rising incidence of fraudulent marriages of Indian girls with non-resident Indian (NRI) men, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended that the government enact a comprehensive legislation or suitably amend existing laws for the protection of women against malicious NRI marriages;
  • In its report on “Problems relating to Overseas Indian Marriages: Scheme for providing Legal/Financial Assistance/ Rehabilitation to Indian Women deserted by their Overseas Indian Spouses”, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs has said that a special NRI matrimonial law that deals comprehensively with marriage, divorce, maintenance, child custody and related issues would provide the distressed and abandoned brides with much needed remedial armour;
  • Tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the report said amending current laws and introducing new rules and regulations would help victims of NRI marriages reclaim their fundamental rights to property, equality in marriage, protection of family, freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment and above all, dignity;
  • The Committee has also said that more reciprocal bilateral treaties, especially with countries with a large number of Indians who continue to be not covered for automatic enforcement of foreign decrees may be worked out;
  • It has further observed that a few States facing problems of NRI marriages have made the registration of marriages compulsory and the government has also introduced the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill 2012, in the Rajya Sabha. The Amendment Bill provides for compulsory registration of marriages without affecting in any manner the State law making provisions for compulsory registration of marriage in their respective States.
• Plan to save Ganga going down the drain
  • Crores of rupees being spent on saving the Ganga from pollution does not seem to be working as bacterial contamination in India’s most sacred river has crossed the maximum permissible limit at several key cities due to discharge of sewage, Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday;
  • The levels of bacterial contamination in terms of faecal coliform are reported to be exceeding the maximum permissible limit at a number of locations. All along the river, the industrial effluent accounts for about 20 per cent; 80 per cent is basically the domestic untreated sewage which flows out from the cities that lie along the river Ganga;
  • The Minister, however, said the water quality in terms of BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) values was reported to have improved, compared to the pre-Ganga Action Plan (GAP) water quality on major monitoring locations;
  • The government is implementing GAP since 1985 for undertaking pollution abatement activities in the identified polluted stretches through implementation of works like interception and diversion of sewage and setting up treatment plants;
  • The project, involving an estimated cost of Rs. 7,000 crore, has been approved under the National Ganga River Basin Authority, while Rs. 1,441 crore has been released for the implementation of various pollution abatement works in towns along the Ganga, and sewage treatment capacity of 1,091 million litres per day has been created.
• After missing the initial opportunity, Goa is now readying a report making out a case for the inclusion of the Goa sector of Western Ghats in the list of world heritage sites by the Unesco. The report, being prepared by the State Forest Department and awaiting the approval of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, will be soon routed through the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) to the UN agency
• The good old house sparrow, which is becoming rarer by the day, has been declared “State Bird of Delhi” by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as part of a new campaign to save the species and enhance awareness about their life and habitat

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• The meeting of political parties represented in the Maldivian Parliament, The Majlis, with Vice-President Mohamed Waheedheen on Tuesday, did not break any new ground
• A decision on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s request for asylum in Ecuador is expected this week. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa was reported to be holding a final round of consultations with his advisers

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this editorial which accurately captures the BJP's intentions of freeriding on civil society movements
• Read this article which discusses how the India-Pak partition impacted punjab and its people
• Read this article on the properties and uses of the Lotus, the national flower of India
• Read this article on INS Dronacharya, the naval gunnery and missile school located at Fort Kochi