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Pulling up States for the delay in completion of Narendra Modi government’s flagship rural household scheme — Pradhan MantriAwasYojana (Gramin)— the Union Ministry of Rural Development has come up with a set of penalties that the State governments will have to bear for any further delay.
Opposition-ruled West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Odisha along with BJP-ruled Assam are the leading four laggard States who are far behind their targets.
This is the first time, since the scheme started in April 2016 with a target of constructing 2.95 crore houses, that the Union Government has introduced a penalty clause.
Under the scheme, the government has set itself a target of 2.95 crore houses. This number was deduced from the Socio-Economic Caste Survey, 2011.
The initial deadline for the scheme was March 2022, which owing to the COVID pandemic was extended by another two years till March 2024. As per the statistics available with the Union Ministry of Rural Development, till August 2022, 2.02 crore houses have been constructed.
On September 13, the Ministry has sent a circular to all State governments listing out six penalty clauses. If the sanction of the house is delayed for more than one month from the date of issue of the target, the State government will be penalised ₹10 per house for the first month of delay and ₹20 per house for each subsequent month of delay.
Similarly, if the first instalment due to the beneficiary is delayed for more than seven days from the date of sanction, then the State governments will have to pay ₹10 per house per week of delay. The circular has specified that no penalty would be imposed if the central funds are not available with the State.
The order is only to ensure that the States pay more attention to the programme. Because of the COVID pandemic, we have already missed one deadline and now we have only 19 months till March 2024 to complete all the pending houses.
Out of the remaining 93 lakh houses, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal are the biggest offenders. The Union Government is yet to release funds for 12 lakh houses in Chhattisgarh and 11 lakh houses in West Bengal. Funds to both these States for this financial year was withheld for various lapses.
Aim is conciliation with all armed groups in N-E’ (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Internal Security)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that it was the government’s aim to resolve inter-boundary disputes in the northeast and strike a conciliation with all armed insurgent groups in the region before 2024.
Mr. Shah was speaking at the signing of a tripartite memorandum of settlement between the Government of India, the Assam government and eight armed Adivasi groups of Assam.
He said that in the past three years, many agreements had been signed with the armed groups and 93% pacts had been implemented on the ground.
At the signing of the settlement on Thursday, Mr. Shah said care had been taken to preserve the ethnic, cultural, and economic identity of the tribal groups.
He said the number of insurgency-related incidents in the northeast had decreased from 824 in 2014 to 158. The number of civilian killings in the region had declined from 212 in 2014 to six, and the number of security forces killed during the same period had reduced to two from 20 earlier.
More than 10,000 cadres had surrendered and joined the mainstream after 2014 and more than 7,000 weapons had been surrendered. Mr. Shah said it was the aim of the government to make the northeast “terrorism-free.”
The Home Minister said that because of the improvement in the security situation, the disturbed areas under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) had been reduced from a large part of the northeast.
“About 60% of Assam is now free from the AFSPA. In Manipur, 15 police stations in six districts were taken out of the periphery of the disturbed area.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the AFSPA remains in only three districts and two police stations in one district. In Nagaland, the disturbed area notification was removed from 15 police stations in seven districts and in Tripura and Meghalaya, the AFSPA was withdrawn completely.
The Home Ministry said that as per the agreement, the eight tribal groups had consented to abandon armed group violence, to follow the rule of law established by the Constitution and join the peaceful democratic process.
Mr. Shah said the major provisions of the agreement included fulfilling political, economic, and educational aspirations and protecting, preserving, and promoting social, cultural, linguistic, and ethnic identities.
He said an Adivasi Welfare and Development Council would be established by the Government of Assam and necessary measures would be taken for the rehabilitation of cadres of armed groups and for the welfare of tea garden workers.
A special development package of ₹1,000 crore would be provided over a period of five years for infrastructure development in Adivasi-populated villages and areas.
States
Amidst protests, Karnataka passes anti-conversion Bill (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Setting the stage for clearance of the Karnataka Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, the Legislative Council on Thursday passed the controversial legislation by voice vote amidst vociferous protest and walkout from Congress members.
High drama prevailed before the passage of the Bill, popularly called the anti-conversion Bill, as the ruling BJP and Opposition members sparred while some key questions asked by the Congress went unanswered.
Despite repeated questions on the number of cases registered since the Ordinance was promulgated in May, Home Minister AragaJnanendra did not answer.
While Congress members were on their feet with doubts yet to be clarified by the treasury benches, Chairman Raghunath Rao Malkapure put the Bill to vote, enraging the Congress members.
As the Bill was being cleared with the BJP having majority in the Upper House, several Congress members, including Leader of the Opposition B.K. Hariprasad, raised slogans and tore copies of the Bill before walking out of the House.
The Bill, which was passed in Legislative Assembly during the winter session in Belagavi in December, 2021, had not been cleared in the Upper House as the Opposition had protested its introduction at the last moment.
The BJP, which did not have majority in the Council then, deferred its introduction twice early this year only to promulgate an Ordinance in May.
While the Council passed the Bill on Thursday, it will be introduced in the Legislative Assembly later during this session.
During the over four hours of debate, sparks flew as the members from the Opposition and treasury benches engaged in arguments several times.
The Law Minister and the Leader of Opposition were also involved in a heated debate as the Opposition charged the government with having a “hidden agenda” to bring in the legislation. Members also raised objection to the punishment prescribed and the burden of proof on the witness.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy, who was engaged in verbal exchanges with the Opposition benches, said that the Bill was not “anti-conversion bill”, but “a Bill to protect religions”, which was within the ambit of the Constitution.
While the Congress member P.R. Ramesh pointed out that the Bill was against the 1977 Supreme Court order, the Law Minister justified, saying there had been no direction nor restriction from the court.
Demolition of resort begins in Kerala island (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
The demolition of the illegally constructed villas of Kapico Resorts Pvt. Ltd on Nediyathuruthuisland on Vembanad Lake.
The move comes 32 months after the Supreme Court ordered the razing of the high-end resort, citing that the constructions on the backwater island at Panavallygrama panchayat in Alappuzha violated coastal and environmental regulations.
A demolition plan submitted by the resort management was accorded approval by the panchayat on Wednesday, paving the way for bulldozing the resort. Among the buildings to be torn down include 54 villas and a main block among other facilities spread over 35,000 sq ft.
The structures are dismantled by the resort management under the watchful eyes of the Alappuzha district administration and the local panchayat authorities.
The demolition and transportation of reusable materials along with debris, carried out in an environmentally safe manner, are expected to be completed in six months.
In the initial phase of the demolition, the compound walls of the cottages are removed. Roofs of the buildings will be pulled down in the next stage.
"All the structures will be razed to the ground in six months. It will be done without using public money. The resort management will bear the entire cost of the operations.
Both the demolition and transportation of waste will be carried out without causing environmental pollution. Measures have been taken to check air and water quality at regular intervals along with steps to prevent sound pollution.
The razing of the resort is a major victory for the fishing community and a message against constructing structures violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Act and other norms.
It was in 2007 that the 11.5-acre island was bought by Kapico. It soon began work on the resort. The project, however, changed the life of fisher families in the area after 13 licensed stake nets got removed for building villas.
The legal battle began after a fisherman moved the CherthalaMunsiff Court in 2008 demanding the demolition of villas constructed in violation of the CRZ Act.
Restored QutbShahi tombs will make case for Heritage City: KTR (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, History)
Connecting the Golconda Fort and the restored QutbShahi tombs complex will turn into a tourist magnet, hoped K.T. Rama Rao, Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development.
Dedicating the six restored wells inside the QutbShahi Tombs Complex in Hyderabad, the Minister said the restored heritage site will help make a strong case for Unesco World Heritage City.
The restored medieval wells include the 16.5 metre deep (about five storeys) 3.5 million litre capacity BadiBaoli and an equally massive stepwell near JamshedQuli’s tomb as well as the 4.7 million litre capacity HammamBaoli. Mr. Rao also listed out a series of monuments that the State Government is planning to restore including the JilauKhana near Laad Bazaar.
“These tombs and the architecture of the city represent the pluralist ethos. We are glad to be part of this restoration,” said AKTC Director-General Luis Monreal.
The QutbShahi tombs complex dating back to 15th century has numerous tombs, funerary mosques, wells and manicured gardens.
The restoration has been a collaborative effort by the State Department of Archaelogy and Museums, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Tata Trusts and other institutions.
Editorial
Parliamentary business and an essential pit stop (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
It was heartening to have the recently concluded monsoon session of Parliament (July-August), even though it was adjourned sine die on August 8, 2022, witnessing the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 being sent to the Standing Committee of Parliament for detailed examination and a report thereon.
This is a significant step in light of the fact that Parliament had only limited legislative time this session and could pass only five pieces of legislation.
This has also come in the wake of constant criticism by the Opposition that has been alleging that the Government has been trying to steamroll various pieces of legislation in the last few sessions.
The worry of the Government has been that so much time is lost in disruptions in Parliament that the legislative process, as it is, becomes unduly delayed and therefore, referring the bills to the Standing Committees may be counterproductive — that could only add to this delay.
The functioning of the monsoon session of Parliament this year bears testimony to this fact: the Lok Sabha’s productivity was 47% and the Rajya Sabha only 42%.
It may be mentioned here that Parliament has 24 Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRSC), comprising members of the Parliament of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha in the ratio 2:1, which are duly constituted by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, jointly.
The mandate of these committees is to examine various legislations referred to it, the budget proposals of different Ministries, and also to do policy thinking on the vision, mission and future direction of the Ministries concerned.
The objective of this article is to examine whether these committees have been able to achieve their stated objectives, and if not or if done inadequately, what the corrective actions could be to increase their efficacy and their relevance.
The percentage of Bills having been referred to the DRSCs during the tenures of the 14th (2004-2009), 15th (2009-2014) and 16th LokSabhas (2014-2019) has been 60%, 71% and 27%, respectively.
The fall in this percentage during the 16th Lok Sabha was witnessed largely in the second half of its session, when the Government was in a hurry to push its big ticket reforms through and the Opposition was equally adamant to stall it in view of high stakes involved in the 2019 elections.
Climate action that runs on cooperative federalism (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
India’s procurement of 5,450 electric buses and subsequent increase in ambition to have 50,000 e-buses on the country’s roads by 2030 represent the immense potential for progress on climate and development goals through close collaboration between the Union and State governments.
With the shared aim to rapidly electrify a key pillar of India’s public transportation, recent governance efforts have created a new business model for e-buses. If this sector is further developed, it can reduce air pollution in cities and fuel import bills, improve the balance sheets of State transport companies, and spur domestic manufacturing and job creation.
There are currently around 1,40,000 registered public buses on India’s roads, with large numbers of them having sputtering engines that spew planet-warming fumes into the atmosphere. At least 40,000 of these buses are at the end of their lifespan and must be taken off the roads immediately.
However, most buses are owned and operated by State transport undertakings, which are in poor financial health. In part, they incur large losses because they play an important social function by providing subsidised fares to crores of Indians each day.
With a few exceptions such as Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking (BEST) of the BrihanmumbaiMahanagarpalika, when State transport undertakings go to the market to buy buses, they face problems of fragmented demand and high prices.
Furthermore, there are limitations to nation-wide action on this issue as State governments control issues such as transit, urban governance and pollution control.
Until recently, there had never been a unified tender to address some of these challenges. Cooperative federalism can easily become a fraught issue. However, in the case of the Grand Challenge 1, a tender for 5,450 buses (across five major Indian cities — Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Surat), the opposite happened. Instead of a race to the bottom, the respective expertise, strengths and needs of Union Ministries and States informed the process and the successful outcomes.
Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), a nodal agency of the Union government, acted as the programme manager in this effort at centralised procurement in concert, with State-led demand and customisation.
Arbitrary and exclusionary (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit is now examining the validity of the 103rd Constitutional Amendment, which provides for 10% reservation to the economically weaker sections (EWS), excluding Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who already have reservation in higher education institutions and government jobs.
The Bench has finalised three issues for hearing — whether the amendment has breached the Constitution’s basic structure by permitting the state to make special provisions; whether it does so in relation to admissions to private unaided institutions and, lastly, if the exclusion of OBC/SC/ST communities from the scope of the quota tramples on the basic structure.
These are valid questions and it could be argued that the legislation of the reservation in 2019 was done hastily without due diligence of the criteria adopted.
For example, the setting of an annual family income of ₹8 lakh as a ceiling to determine if someone belongs to the EWS is clearly problematic. If available consumer expenditure surveys such as the NSSO report, ‘Key Indicators of Household Consumer Expenditure, 2011-12’, are relied on, a large chunk of the population will be eligible for reservations in the “below Rs. 8 lakh” EWS category and not just the truly deserving sections of the poor.
A government-appointed committee submitted that this ceiling was reasonable, but it could not adequately explain how the income criterion was “more stringent” than the one for the OBC creamy layer.
Also, the ₹8 lakh figure did not correspond to any data on the estimated number of EWS persons in the population with incomes related to it.
Petitioners have also argued that the net effect of the exclusion of Backward Classes and SC/ST aspirants from the EWS has been that they are now denied an opportunity to compete in the general category to the extent of 10%, in effect, limiting the quota to the “forward classes”.
This is a valid argument. Even if the Court agrees to maintain that reservations can be provided on economic basis — something that has been explicitly denied so far with only social and educational backwardness being mentioned in the Constitution and reiterated in several judgments — excluding people of certain communities from this benefit despite their belonging to the EWS renders the legislation discriminatory.
OPED
Should India choose manufacturing over services? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Earlier this week, the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, RaghuramRajan, questioned the Central government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, arguing that it works against the interests of Indian consumers. In doing so, he revived the larger debate on the government’s efforts to promote the country’s manufacturing sector through subsidies, and on its relative importance vis-a-vis the services sector.
I’m sceptical of the state bureaucracy being able to understand and anticipate which sectors will do well and which sectors will do badly. It is very difficult to forecast the future.
Only risk-taking entrepreneurs can take speculative bets, such as saying the computer hardware industry or automobile component manufacturing will do well in India.
Who could have predicted that two-wheelers in India would fight off foreign competition pretty well while dozens of other manufacturing businesses would get butchered by foreign competition? It is not feasible for officials in bureaucracies to look at the industrial landscape and make speculative calls.
That’s because they do not have the necessary information or the forecasting ability. Nor do they have the incentive, like private businesses do. Also, there is nobody to protect them if their speculation goes wrong; when their speculation goes wrong, they will be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate.
So, which official is ever going to take a risk? For all these reasons, the task of figuring out which sector to focus on is best left to the private sector. The job of the government is to create a broad enabling environment.
I have a slightly different view. I think the history of development not just in developing countries, but also in industrialised countries today tells a different story.
They all made strategic interventions, or had an industrial policy. While I agree that the government can’t do everything, prioritising certain sectors that have desirable features such as higher job creation or greater industrialisation is welcome. There was a time when industrial policy had become a bad word, but it has resurfaced in an aggressive manner with different countries favouring certain industries.
Explainer
The Eastern Economic Forum and India’s balancing act (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, International Groupings & Agreements)
Russia hosted the seventh Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) Vladivostok from September 5 to 8. The four-day forum is a platform for entrepreneurs to expand their businesses into Russia’s Far East (RFE).
The EEF was established in 2015 to encourage foreign investments in the RFE. The EEF displays the economic potential, suitable business conditions and investment opportunities in the region.
Agreements signed at the EEF increased from 217 in 2017 to 380 agreements in 2021, worth 3.6 trillion roubles. As of 2022, almost 2,729 investment projects are being planned in the region. The agreements focus on infrastructure, transportation projects, mineral excavations, construction, industry and agriculture.
This year, the Forum aimed at connecting the Far East with the Asia Pacific region. China is the biggest investor in the region as it sees potential in promoting the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative and the Polar Sea Route in the RFE.
China’s investments in the region account for 90% of the total investments. Russia has been welcoming Chinese investments since 2015; more now than ever due to the economic pressures caused by the invasion in Ukraine.
The Trans-Siberian Railway has further helped Russia and China in advancing trade ties. The countries share a 4000-kilometer-long border, which enables them to tap into each other’s resources with some infrastructural assistance.
China is also looking to develop its Heilongjiang province which connects with the RFE. China and Russia have invested in a fund to develop northeastern China and the RFE, through collaborations on connecting the cities of Blagoveshchensk and Heihe via a 1,080 metre bridge, supplying natural gas, and a rail bridge connecting the cities of Nizhneleninskoye and Tongjiang.
Besides China, South Korea has also been gradually increasing its investments in the region. South Korea has invested in shipbuilding projects, manufacturing of electrical equipment, gas-liquefying plants, agricultural production and fisheries.
In 2017, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and the Far East Development Fund announced their intention to inject $2 billion in the RFE in a span of three years.
Japan is another key trading partner in the Far East. In 2017, Japanese investments through 21 projects amounted to $16 billion. Under Shinzo Abe’s leadership, Japan identified eight areas of economic cooperation and pushed private businesses to invest in the development of the RFE.
Japan seeks to depend on Russian oil and gas resources after the 2011 meltdown in Fukushima which led the government to pull out of nuclear energy. Japan also sees a market for its agro-technologies which have the potential to flourish in the RFE, given similar climatic conditions.
However, the momentum of trade that existed with Shinzo Abe was lost with the leadership of YoshihideSuga and Fumio Kishida. The trade ties between Japan and Russia are hindered by the Kuril Islands dispute as they are claimed by both countries.
Tamil Nadu’s new breakfast scheme in schools (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Welfare Schemes)
The story so far: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin on Thursday, at the Madurai Corporation Primary School Aathimoolam II in Simmakal, Madurai, launched the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme for students of Class I to V in government schools.
The scheme covers around 1.14 lakh students in 1,545 schools which include 417 municipal corporation schools, 163 municipality schools and 728 taluk and village panchayat-level schools.
A sum of ₹33.56 crore has been set apart for the scheme. The inauguration of the scheme marks an important milestone in the State’s history of providing free meals to school students.
In November 1920, the Madras (now Chennai) Corporation Council approved a proposal for providing tiffin to the students of a Corporation School at Thousand Lights at a cost not exceeding one anna per student per day. P. TheagarayaChetty, the then President of the Corporation (the modern-day equivalent of which is Mayor) and one of the stalwarts of the Justice Party, said the boys studying at the school were poor, which affected the strength of the institution ‘greatly’.
The scheme, which was extended to four more schools and facilitated higher enrollment of students, suffered a setback in 1925 when the British government disallowed the expenditure on the supply of mid-day meals to students from the Elementary Education Fund. It was revived two years later, benefitting around 1,000 poor students in 25 schools.
The concept saw a State-wide application in 1956 when the then Chief Minister K. Kamaraj decided to provide free noon meal to poor children in all primary schools across the State.
The Budget for 1956-57 contained a provision for supplying mid-day meals to schoolchildren for 200 days a year, initially covering 65,000 students in 1,300 feeding centres.
In July 1982, it was left to the then Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran to extend the programme to children in the 2-5 age group in Anganwadis and those in 5-9 age group in primary schools in rural areas. Subsequently, the scheme — now called PuratchiThalaivar M.G.R. Nutritious Meal Programme — was extended to urban areas as well. Since September 1984, students of standards VI to X have been covered under the scheme.
Over the years, there have been improvements to the programme. M. Karunanidhi, as Chief Minister during the short-lived DravidaMunnetraKazhagam Ministry (1989-91), introduced the provision of boiled eggs once every fortnight, starting June 1989. His successor, Jayalalithaa, in March 2013, extended the scheme by including variety meals along with masala eggs as per the children’s choice.
World
Armenia¬-Azerbaijan border clashes toll rises to over 170 (Page no. 19)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
Azerbaijan said that 71 of its troops had died in border clashes with Armenia over the last two days in the worst fighting since 2020.
Yerevan said a ceasefire was holding on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, with no fresh violence reported overnight.
The earlier death toll given by Azerbaijan was 50.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry published a list of 71 servicemen killed in clashes between the historic rivals since Tuesday while Yerevan said 105 of its troops were killed.
The clashes ended “thanks to the international involvement” overnight, Armenia’s security council said, after earlier failed attempts from Russia to broker a truce.
The European Union welcomed the ceasefire, which it said was “being respected so far.”“The EU remains strongly involved in the normalisation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Peter Stano, the bloc’s spokesman for foreign affairs and security policy, said in a statement.
EU Special Representative, ToivoKlaar, was holding consultations in Baku on Wednesday and in Yerevan on Thursday, he said.
Baku and Yerevan have traded accusations of initiating the violence, which saw hundreds of Armenian civilians flee their homes.
Business
Monitor financial sector risks for timely action, urges FM (Page no. 20)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stressed the need for the government and regulators to monitor financial sector risks and market developments on a continuous basis and take timely actions to mitigate vulnerabilities at a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC).
Among the systemic issues deliberated upon by the council, chaired by Ms. Sitharaman, were early warning indicators for the economy and the administration’s preparedness to deal with them.
The council, which includes all financial sector regulators and top officials of the Finance Ministry, met in Mumbai.
“The council also took note of the preparation in respect of financial sector issues to be taken up during India’s G20 Presidency in 2023,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
Improving the efficiency of the existing financial and credit information systems, issues of governance and management in Systemically Important Financial Institutions including Financial Market Infrastructures, and the strengthening of the cybersecurity framework in the financial sector were also discussed.
A common KYC for all financial services, update and next steps on account aggregators, issues relating to power sector financing were also discussed along with the need for utilisation of the services of registered valuers by all government departments.