Daily News Notes

· The Lok Sabha was adjourned over the alleged exclusion of the minorities from the 50 percent quota in the proposed Lokpal bill.
· The Food Security Bill, which seeks to give legal right to food grains at cheaper rates for a majority of the country's population (75%-rural area, 50%-urban area), was introduced in the Lok Sabha today. The bill seeks to provide 7 kg of rice, wheat and coarse grains per person per month to priority households at 3 rupees, 2 rupees and 1 rupee per kg. General category would get at least 3 kg of grains at a rate not exceeding 50 per cent of the minimum support price. The legislation makes provision for Constitution of food commissions at Centre and the State which will ensure regular supply of food grains to people and conduct periodic social audits and other related works.
· Parliament adopted modifications in the list of Scheduled Tribes by including 6 communities from Manipur and 16 from Arunachal Pradesh, by passing the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order Amendment Bill, 2011. But govt. said it is not possible to bring a comprehensive list of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes across the country at this stage as the process involves a set of procedure which has to be followed.
· The Health and Family Welfare Minister introduced the National Commission for Human Resources for Health Bill, 2011, to ensure adequate availability of human resources in the health sector in all the states and to regulate professional Councils in various disciplines of the health sector.
· In Bihar, the Governor approved the Bihar Lokayukta Bill 2011 (1 chairman and 2 member) passed by both the houses of the State Legislature which will bring the Chief Minister, Ministers, Speaker and officers under the purview.
· In Assam, the continued protest blockade programme launched by several organizations for the last eight days has severely affected the construction work of the 2000-megawatt mega power project on dam over the Subansiri River at Gerukamukh, which is scheduled to be completed on Dec, 2012.
· Food inflation (measured by Wholesale Price Index) fell sharply to a near four-year low of 1.81 per cent for the week ended December due to considerable price fall in onion, potatoes, wheat and vegetables. In Gujarat, hundreds of protesting farmers of Banaskantha District hit by a potato crop glut, dumped huge quantity of potatoes on the roads in Deesa town yesterday where the crop’s price has fallen to as low as Rupee 1 per kg.
· The Textile Ministry and Apparel Export Promotion Council ,AEPC launched a new common compliance code of conduct will give the opportunity to negate international claims against child labour promotion in the garment industry and will encourage better social and labour practices.
· In Madhya Pradesh, the Woman and Child Development Department will install Global Positioning System in the vehicles of their officers to monitor the implementation of the welfare schemes, thus will get information directly through the GPS on the details of tour and inspections conducted by the department. A Management Information System has been also rennovated to monitor and evaluate the implementation about planning of Department.
· In Iraq, more than 50 people have been killed and more than 130 injured in a series of bomb attacks in the capital, Baghdad
· The Arab League has expressed serious concerns over the situation in Syria (as a part of Arab spring) and asked the Syrian Government to protect the Syrian civilians in view of its commitments under the Arab peace plan. Advance team of Arab League comprising of legal, medical and administrative experts is leaving for Damascus which will prepare the ground for the arrival of a larger observer mission to start implementing the Arab League peace plan to end violence in the country. Meanwhile, in one of its strongest statements on Syria, the United States has said the President Bashar Al-Assad has lost all legitimacy and credibility.
Afghanistan is ready to find its place in the railway map of the world with the successful trial run of the first cargoless train between Mazar-e-Sharif and Hairatan (a dry port along the Afghan border near Uzbekistan) which is funded by the Asian Development Bank.