Round The States
New Delhi, 15 April 2017
Assembly
By-polls
BJP
SMILES MOST OF THE WAY
By Insaf
The Modi-Shah team has every reason
to preen having bagged five of the 10 by-elections in eight States. Its cup of
joy is spilling over post its victory in high voltage election in Delhi specially as it
comes just eight days before the crucial poll to the three municipal
corporations. The AAP candidate losing his security deposit gives the BJP hope
of retaining its hold on ensuing civic polls. Perhaps, its win in Himachal
could be a precursor to the return of the Saffron Sangh in the hilly State, where
Assembly elections are due in December. As it stands Chief Minister Virbhadra
Singh is on a shaky wicket, enmeshed in a disproportionate asset case by the
CBI. The win in Madhya Pradesh, one of two, may not have gone too well for
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. For the Congress, the only saving grace
is that it has been able to retain its two seats in Karnataka, reinforcing
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s governance model and populist schemes and
retaining its seat in MP. In Assam,
Sonawala and Hemant Biswas’ jugalbandi
continues to hold sway. Trinamool’s win in West Bengal
emphasises that Mamata is no push over. All in all, it is a steep uphill for
the Congress-led Opposition, wherein it needs to tighten its belt before the next
round of Assembly and 2019 General Elections.
* * * *
New Delhi Petitions SC
The Centre and Supreme Court are one
again at logger heads over the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA). New Delhi
has red flagged a July 2016 order of the apex court whereby filing an FIR was
mandatory for encounter deaths during counter insurgency operations. New
Delhi argued that if this provision continues it would
be very hard to maintain peace and national security. The Centre’s decision to
move court arises from the recent resurgence of violence in Jammu and Kashmir,
wherein last week’s by-polls for Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency had to be
deferred by a month following violence and stone pelting in the Srinagar-Budgam
constituency which saw a voter turnout of a mere 6.5 per cent. Moreover, New Delhi underscored the
Army Chief’s tough stance of treating stone pelters as terrorists, in the hope
that the court would reverse its earlier order. Even as chances appear bleak,
North Block is keeping its fingers crossed.
* * * *
Bihar’s Watergate
The undercover turf war in Bihar between compatriots Nitish’s JD(U) and Lalu Prasad
Yadav’s RJD is getting uglier by the day. It all started by arch rival BJP
accusing Lalu’s family of irregularities in acquiring prime land in Patna,
where the RJD’s deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister are putting up a Rs
500 crore mall. Reportedly, the controversial land was gifted to Lalu’s wife,
ex-CM Rabri Devi by a hospitality firm in 2005 in lieu of the leasing out of
railways two hotels to the firm, when Lalu was Railway Minister in 2006. Additionally, another piece of land was
gifted to Lalu’s family by a beer baron for the State government’s help in setting
up a brewery. Adding to the Yadav family’s discomfiture are charges of
undisclosed nefarious land deals worth hundreds of crores. Even as Lalu
confessed that Rabri got the land in lieu of sale of her shares in a family
company, what is worrying the RJD boss is the ‘deep throat’ within his ally
JD(U) which is unravelling Bihar’s Watergate,
by handing over documents to foe BJP!
* * * *
Kerala’s
School Language
Kerala joins other States in making
its local language compulsory in schools. On Tuesday last, Pinarayi Vijayan
government promulgated an Ordinance to make teaching of Malayalam mandatory in
all schools up to Class Xth. The new law is to come into effect this academic
year and will be applicable to Government, aided and unaided and self-financing
institutions following the State, CBSE and ICSE syllabi. This after the
government realised that not only certain schools don’t teach Malyalam but some
had even imposed a ban on their premises! This would no longer be tolerated and
schools violating the new law would attract heavy fines and may even face
denial of NOC or face its cancellation. However, students from other States and
countries have been exempted from learning the language. ‘God’s own country’ is
now in the league of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra,
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, who have their own laws to promote local
language. How many more to join?
* * * *
Assam’s Child Policy
Assam Chief Minister Sonowala
seems to be a keen China
watcher. Taking a leaf out of the Asian dragon’s strict one-child policy,
tweaking it to a two-child norm in order to tackle the population explosion in
the north eastern State. Whereby no person would be eligible for a government
job or benefits, or in panchayats and civic bodies if they had more than two
children. The proposal has now been put on the public domain by the health
ministry for suggestions from the people before it is finally placed in the
State Assembly in August. Importantly, this has become imperative due to the
over one crore implosion in 16 years between 2001 and 2017, where the State’s
population rose by over 46 lakhs from 2.66 crores to 3.12 crores. Ostensibly
one of the “dangerous” reasons of this increase was early marriage in the
communities living in the riverine, tea gardens and tribal areas, which is
causing serious social challenges. Will he get a green signal from his people?
And, will the State be able to set a trend? The next few months will provide an
answer.
* * * *
Kitchens
After Toilets?
After toilets, the Modi government’s
focus should shift to kitchens. This, after a recent study on Socio-Economic
Caste Census by the Housing Ministry claims that at least one-fourth of urban
households in the country don’t have a separate kitchen. Meaning the people may
be using their single room for cooking as well. Undoubtedly, cause for serious
concern amongst environment and health experts, as various studies have shown that
kitchens can be more polluted than roads. Apparently, air pollution in kitchens
has become a major health concern in urban areas, which are getting
increasingly polluted due to vehicular emission and dust. The study shows that
while Mizoram has the maximum percentage (68%) of such households, Bihar ranks
second with 50.2%, Odisha 43.2 %, Chhattisgarh 38.3%, Daman and Diu 11.5%, Kerala 9.3% and Nagaland 8.3%. The Ministry
intends to use the data for the centrally-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and ensure that kitchens are a central
part of the houses. Will the focus be as sharp as for constructing toilets needs
a close watch. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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