Indian Polity - Current Affairs for June, 2017

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved constitution of an organized Group ‘A’ Engineering Service, namely Indian Naval Material Management Service (INMMS) and consequent changes in cadre structure of existing Group ‘A’ cadre of Naval Store Officers of the Indian Navy.

Constitution of an Organized Group ‘A’ Service would attract the best talents available and bring in technically qualified Material Managers. It will improve the functional efficiency of Material Management of Naval Stores and ensure operational readiness of the Navy at all times.

The proposed INMMS would attract the best talents available and will provide a reservoir of technically qualified Material Managers for handling the Materials Management functions of Indian Navy.

It will improve the functional efficiency of Material Management of Naval Stores and ensure operational readiness of the Navy at all times as well as provide better career prospects for the incumbents.

Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has cleared the proposal of final raising of the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) in Gujarat by lowering of the gates and impounding of water in the reservoir up to its Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of EL 138.68 meters.

Before clearing the proposal for raising the Sardar Sarovar Dam, the NCA in its meeting on 16 June 2017 considered all aspects of Environmental and Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) issues.

With this lowering of the SSD, the live storage capacity of the dam would increase from 1565 to 5740 million cubic metres (MCM) i.e. by 4175 MCM (267%).

Secondly, the clean hydro-power generation will go up by existing 1300 MW to 1450 MW with increase in annual generation by about 1100 Million Units (i.e. about INR 400/- crore per annum).

In addition, this additional storage would irrigate about 8 lakh hectares and provide drinking water to about one crore people. As it is well known, the Sardar Sarovar Project would primarily meet the water requirement of drought prone and desert areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Prior to clearance by NCA, the Environment Sub-group of NCA chaired by Shri Ajay Narayan Jha, Secretary (MoEF&CC) reviewed the implementation of Environment Safeguard Measures on 1 May 2017 and after observing substantial progress, recommended Phase-II proposal of lowering down of the gates and impounding of water in the reservoir to FRL of EL 138.68 mts.

The Environment Sub-group has also asked the State Governments to complete leftover works by 30 June 2017.

The Resettlement and Rehabilitation sub-group chaired by G Latha Krishna Rao, Secretary (MoSJ&E) reviewed the progress of R&R and the opinions received from Grievance Redressal Authorities (GRAs) of the States of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra on 16 June 2017.

The State Governments have assured to address all issues of Project Affected Families (PAFs) on priority basis in accordance with Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) Award, liberalized policies of the State Governments and Supreme Court Order dated 8 February 2017.

NCA has permitted final raising of SSD after following the procedure laid down by Supreme Court order dated 18 October 2000 in WP(C) 328 of 2002 in Narmada Bachao Andolan Vs. Union of India & others.

Last time the proposal of raising the SSD was cleared on 12 June 2014, wherein permission for Phase-I construction of piers, overhead bridge and installation of gates in open or raised position was granted.

At that time, the effective height of SSD remained at EL 121.92 meters with backwater levels of EL 134.32 meters at dam site.

Calcutta High Court Judge CS Karnan, who was sentenced six months of imprisonment by Supreme Court, retired on 12 June 2017 at the age of 62, the retirement age for a High Court judge.

Justice Karnan has been absconding from the office of Calcutta HC judge since May 2017 to escape arrest after the Supreme Court sentenced him to six months imprisonment for contempt of court and ordered his immediate arrest, making him India’s first such judge to face this.

Karnan was not present at the Calcutta High Court on the day of his retirement as he is banned from performing his judicial duties since February 2017.

In May 2017, Justice CS Karnan was sentenced for imprisonment for repeated incidents of contempt of court.

It was also the first time that the Supreme Court has sent a high court judge to jail on charges of contempt.

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur, P C Ghose and Kurian Joseph prohibited media from publishing any orders passed by Justice Karnan.

Justice Karnan was accused of contempt after he named 20 corrupt judges of India earlier in 2017 and sought an investigation alleging corruption in the judiciary. In March 2017, the SC ordered the Calcutta government hospital to constitute a medical board to examine the medical condition of Justice Karnan and submit a report to the court.

However, Justice Karnan refused to undergo medical tests.

Instead, he sentenced eight judges of the Supreme Court to five years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 100000 each under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The BJP government in Haryana has altered the name of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) citing reason that it bears similarities with the name of former Chief Minister of the state Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The authority was called Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran in Hindi. In English, it was known as Haryana Urban Development Authority.

Now the government has decided to call it Haryana Sahari Vikash Pradhikaran in Hindi as well as English, the report says.

The decision was taken during a state cabinet meeting chaired by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar yesterday.

Speaking on the government’s decision, Health Minister Anil Vij said that similarities in the names of Hooda and HUDA used to create a lot of confusion. It is was difficult to differentiate between the two names.