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Assembly By-polls: BJP SMILES MOST OF THE WAY, By Insaf, 15 April, 2017 Print E-mail

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. 

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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.    

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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!   

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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?

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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.    

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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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