Government Committees, Schemes & Bills - Current Affairs for May, 2015

The government has constituted a 10-member panel under former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar to review and revitalise public private partnership (PPP). In pursuance of the announcement, a committee comprising 10 members including its chairman Vijay Kelkar, who is presently the chairman of Institute of Public Finance &Policy, has been constituted.

The government resolution of June 3, 2014 had decided to pay the special vehicle allowance to its employees belonging to the categories of blind, orthopaedically disabled and those affected by the back bone disabilities however, the GR did not include employees in the category of speech disabled employees.

The report reviewed the current laws dealing with custody and guardianship and came up with draft legislative amendments in the form of the Hindu Minority and Guardianship (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Guardians and Wards (Amendment) Bill, 2015 to the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, 1956 and the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 respectively.

As per the draft guidelines released by Finance Ministry, minimum gold deposit is proposed at 30 grams and the interest earned on it would be exempt from income tax as well as capital gains tax. The draft also mentioned that a person or institution holding surplus gold can get it valued from BIS-approved hallmarking centres, open a Gold Savings Account in banks for a minimum period of one year and earn interest in either cash or gold units.

Earlier, a government official informed that, section 66 (1) (c) of the Factories Act, 1948 restricted women from working at a factory between 7 PM and 6 AM but now that has been done away with. The managements will have to ensure security of women working in night shift.

Mission Indradhanush is implementing successfully in Manipur achieving 55 percent of the target by the end of second round of the first phase of the Mission covering four hill districts of the State namely - Churachandpur, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul.

The 30-member Committee comprises 20 members of the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha. The Committee will submit its report on the first day of the monsoon session.

Under the scheme, the artisans and weavers will not only get training and skill orientation but also they will be given help to sell their products.

To begin with, this facility has been installed at Charbagh of Lucknow and other 100 bus stations of the state. Through it the passengers will get best potable water at the most affordable price of two Rupees per liter.

The schemes were launched simultaneously at 115 places in the country with Central and State Chief Ministers and senior ministers attending the functions.

The law is going to be drafted by the end of May. In India, the marriages of Muslims, Catholics and Parsis are covered under Hindu Marriage act but not Buddhist marriages. Buddhist community is demanding separate marriage law for them since long. The first proposal for separate law was put forth in 2007 by then cabinet minister Nitin Raut.

The bill ensures that no child is sent to jail and remains within the JJ system till the age of 21 years no matter what the verdict is. It is proposed that every state and UT will have atleast one place of safety to keep children who commit heinous crimes. Also, under the new law there will be no provision for death sentence or life imprisonment. At the age of 21 years, their behaviour will be assessed, and, if an offender has reformed, his sentence may be curtailed.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on 1st May’15 launched free medicine scheme 'Niramaya' at Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar. The state government has made a budgetary allocation of Rs.200 crore for distribution of free medicine.

This measure, designed at the behest of the Chief Minister Manohar Lal, will not only help monitor delivery of all welfare and health-related benefits to an infant but will also help in tracking the child from birth to immunization to school admission. Besides, it will seek to serve as a data-base of children for timely and assured delivery of services.

Under the new Accident Insurance Scheme, the registered unorganised sector labourers and transport drivers will get a Rs 5 lakh insurance cover. The enrolled will get an accident death insurance of Rs 2 lakh under the Pradhan Mantri Bima Suraksha Yojana by opening a Jan Dhan Yojana account and Insurer will give Rs 3 lakh for which the state government will have an MoU.