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States told to check illegal mining, coal theft
- Law and order is a State subject, hence, the State/district administration is requested to take necessary deterrent action to stop/curb theft/black marketing.
- Coal companies have initiated a number of measures on their part, including deployment of armed guards at the sites
- Companies are issuing challans for coal transportation by trucks outside the district after fixing a hologram and putting the signatures of authorised officials of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to check theft.
State departments to give land pooling a try
- With the concept of land pooling getting approval in principle, various departments of the TN State Government are mulling over different options to implement it.
- The Highways, Housing and Urban Development and Industries departments are some of those who have to acquire larger areas of land.
- They are finding it increasingly difficult to resort to land acquisition in view of stiff opposition from landowners concerned. Poor compensation, loss of productive asset and the likelihood of such landowners not reaping the benefits of development are cited as factors that fuel the opposition of the public.
- Even though legal instruments including the State Highways Act envisage compulsory acquisition, the authorities are more inclined to take along land owners.
- It is against this backdrop that the government, in the budget, announced that it would like to adopt innovative methods such as land pooling for industrial parks and infrastructure development projects.
- It's a technique for promoting efficient, sustainable and equitable land development in the urban fringes is land pooling/readjustment.
- The concept of land readjustment has been used in various countries of the world for at least two hundred years. It has been most successfully used in Japan and Republic of Korea in recent years
- The concept of land readjustment is to assemble small rural land parcels into a large land parcel, provide it with infrastructure in a planned manner and return the reconstituted land to the owners, after deducting the cost of the provision of infrastructure and public spaces by the sale of some of serviced land
Group looking at merging registries: Nilekani
- The issue of bringing synergy between the database of the National Population Register and the biometric database of the Aadhaar project is “now before the Cabinet,” Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani has said.
- UIDAI achieved a milestone by crossing the 12- crore mark in terms of the Aadhaar numbers generated across the country.
- Fresh data on Aadhaar and biometrics, released by the UIDAI on Friday, pegged the failure rate of enrolment at 0.14 per cent.
- The study was a result of an accuracy test conducted on 8.4 crore enrolments.
- The failure negative identification rate (failure to identify duplicate or fake enrolments), was pegged at 0.035
‘Krishna district inscriptions are of Chola-Chalukya period'
- A team of officials led by Assistant Director of Museums and Archaeology visited Krishna District and identified stone plates with inscriptions in Kannada, Sanskrit and Telugu languages that belong to the Chola--Chalukya period (12th century).
- It was found on the premises of Brahmalingham temple at the base of a hillock.
- The team also found a stone wall 2 metres high that looked like a provision to store rainwater on top of the hill.
Centre plans audits to keep a tab on proper use of NRHM funds
- Centre was planning to conduct regular audits across the country to check whether the NRHM funds were properly utilised
- This is of utmost importance as NRHM has been extended for another five years during the 12{+t}{+h}five year plan.
- Every year, we allocate Rs. 15,000 crore to the State governments for upgrading healthcare infrastructure.
- NRHM was launched in 2005 with a mission to provide accessible, equitable and affordable healthcare services to people.
Air India seeks review of CIC decision
- Air India has sought a review of the Central Information Commission (CIC) decision asking it to disclose the list of business class passengers who travelled on its flight from Bangalore to Male in April 2010 wherein a larger plane was reportedly flown to accommodate the family members of a Union Minister.
- Air India said its objection was based on commercial interests. It followed the practice of not disclosing the travel particulars of its valued passengers, which were personal to them and such information amounted to invasion of the privacy of an individual
Centre, CBI asked to resolve differences on AFSPA powers
- With the Union Government and the CBI taking diametrically different stand on the alleged fake encounter killings in the North-East and Jammu Kashmir, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre whether it could court martial the armed personnel charged for the killings under the Army Act.
- Centre's claim of immunity and applicability of the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act [AFSPA] in the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir and saying these killings were not encounter deaths but only killings due to mistaken identities.
- CBI, maintained that the probe conducted by the investigating agency had clearly proved that the killings were fake encounters in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir and the Centre was not granting sanction for prosecution of the Army personnel.
- When both Additional Solicitor General from each side (CBI and Govt.) stuck to their respective viewpoints, Justice Kumar wondered whether the CBI was prevailing over the Centre.
- He said “that shows the independence of the CBI.”
