Political and Social Issues:

The Cabinet on Tuesday cleared three key Bills relating to judicial accountability, protection of whistleblowers and Citizens Charter, which Anna Hazare wanted to be brought under the Lokpal .
However, discussion on the Food Security Bill remained inconclusive .

The government has announced that all rural development programmes, including the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, would be brought under the auditing ambit of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
The outlay on rural development programmes during the current fiscal has been put at Rs. 88,000 crore.
Auditing by the CAG was better than the other two options of stopping the release of funds and ordering a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
CAG audits would bring out the irregularities whereas the other options would be non-starters — States would not ask the Centre for a CBI probe against themselves and choking the flow of funds would hurt the intended beneficiary.
Performance audits of rural development schemes would be carried out in 12 States

In a bid to ensure that all the super-specialty hospitals in the State comply with fire and other safety norms, the AP Super-specialty Hospitals Association (ASHA) has decided to constitute a task force to regularly inspect them and insist on observing all standard practices.
If there was any deficiency in any of the inspected hospitals, the task force would urge them to rectify it immediately.
Supplying fire-resistant clothing to the staff and introducing pressurised ventilation were among the measures planned to be initiated by ASHA members.

The National Federation of Indian Railwaymen will soon form special rescue and relief teams for voluntary action in situations following railway accidents and mishaps leading to property damage, be it trains or bridges.
A demand related to the resolution was that steps be taken to fill the estimated 1.20 lakh vacancies across the 16 zones of Indian Railways that fell under the ‘Safety Category' that had a sanctioned strength of about 6.70 lakh of the total of 14.20 workforce.

Centre was considering setting up a credit risk guarantee fund with a corpus of Rs. 1,000 crore, to start with, to encourage banks to lend to the poor for housing.
Master plans in the past did not consider spatial requirements for living and working needs of the poor. This must change and change fast enough.
Dr. Singh also called for greater attention to a participatory approach to urban development, with the institution of citizens' charters for delivery of services, to ensure that both public services and the private sector service providers were made accountable.
Pointing out that governance was the weakest link among the key drivers of urban transformation, Dr. Singh said professional inputs from engineers, accountants, water and sanitation experts should be encouraged and called for upgrading and expanding existing schools of urban planning and setting up new centres of excellence in urban management.
Referring to the recommendation of a high-level expert committee headed by Ishwar Ahluwalia, he said that along with its “innovative” suggestions for improving the financing of local bodies — like introduction of a local bodies finance list in the Constitution, empowering them with exclusive taxes and unlocking land value by putting in place a transparent and accountable mechanism for monetisation of public land — attention to the needs of the poor required greater deliberation.

Mr. Sibal could not introduce the Bill as his lawyer son represented Super Cassette Industries, a market leader in the music industry.
According to Rule 294 of Parliament's Ethics Committee, a member having direct or indirect interest in a matter cannot move a Bill unless he declares... He has conflict of interest
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal intervened to say that the Opposition members being unfair. “Mr Sibal's son is an independent lawyer and can represent anybody. This is rather un-parliamentary.”

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday deferred a decision on the draft National Food Security Bill that seeks to give legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains to 46 per cent ‘priority' families of the 75 per cent rural population and 28 per cent ‘priority' households of the 50 per cent urban population.
decision on the Bill got deferred due to paucity of time as there were a number of items on the agenda.
There are concerns about the identification of beneficiaries which is being done through a social and economic caste census in rural areas. No such exercise has even begun in urban areas.
Moreover, there are issues about the poverty line criterion based on per capita spending per day
Issues such as the availability of foodgrains and the food subsidy requirement also need to be discussed in detail
When the law is implemented, the food subsidy bill is expected to rise to nearly Rs.1 lakh crore from the current Rs. 63,000 crore, while foodgrains requirement would go up to 61 million tonnes from 55 million tonnes.

Courts cannot force banks to provide education loans to non-meritorious students for pursuing higher education as the object behind such loans was to assist the poor but meritorious students alone, the Madras High Court Bench here has ruled.
In a society like ours, the employability of a person depends upon various factors, one of which is certainly the academic performance. The court cannot presume that every failed student may hit a jackpot like Steve Jobs of Apple Inc.
Out of hundreds of students who perform poorly, one may turn out to be successful in life. His success story may be a source of inspiration for many, but not for the bank to gamble with public money
If the student has employment potential, the loan may not become a non-performing asset. But a student, who is not meritorious, may himself turn out to be a non-performing asset both to his parents and to the bank
IBA guidelines do not have statutory force and hence not amenable to writ jurisdiction of the High Court.

Managements of self-financing colleges cannot prevail upon petroleum companies to supply domestic LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) cylinders, sold at subsidised rates, to hostels run by those institutions, the Madras High Court Bench here has ruled.
It is intended to benefit a section of the public.
If the IOC decides to extend the same concession or subsidy even to students staying in hostels and studying in institutions which are State funded and not to other institutions which are self-financed, it can be a valid classification.