Cabinet approves introduction of Aircraft (Amendment) Bill in Parliament - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Cabinet approves introduction of Aircraft (Amendment) Bill in Parliament.

• The Bill enhances the maximum limit of fine from the existing ₹10 lakhs to ₹one crore.
• The Bill will lead to enhancement in the level of safety and security of aircraft operations in the country, the government said.

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the introduction of the Aircraft (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Parliament. The Bill is intended to carry out amendments to the Aircraft Act, 1934 (XXII of 1934).
“The Bill enhances the maximum limit of fine from the existing ₹10 lakhs to ₹one crore. It also enlarges the scope of the Act to include regulation of all areas of air navigation," according to a government press release.
The proposed amendments would fulfill the safety requirements of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). This will also enable the three regulatory bodies in the civil aviation sector in India—Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) to become more effective, the release said.
“This (the Bill) will lead to enhancement in the level of safety and security of aircraft operations in the country," it added.
According to a PTI report, ICAO, which is the United Nation’s global aviation watchdog, had carried out the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme for India in November 2017 and in February 2018. The audit result showed that the country's score declined to 57.44% from 65.82% earlier, placing India below Pakistan and Nepal.
An ICAO team had visited India in November 2018 as well, and assessed the action taken on issues related to three areas that were audited by the ICAO in November 2015. Those pertained to aerodromes and ground aids, air navigation services (ANS) and aircraft accident and incident investigation. (Source: livemint)


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Cabinet approves introduction of Aircraft (Amendment) Bill in Parliament.

Parliament passes the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill, 2019 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Parliament passes the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill, 2019.

Parliament passed the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill, 2019 today. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri G. Kishan Reddy addressed the Rajya Sabha and said that the bill has been brought to provide for merger of union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, in view of fruitful utilization of manpower, improve administrative efficiency, reduce administrative expenditure and improve service delivery as well as facilitate better monitoring of schemes. It would also ensure better cadre management of employees, he added.

Shri Reddy said that there will be no change in administration and service conditions and reservation. Similarly, there will be no change in the status of Group III and IV employees. The merger would bring about administrative convenience, speedy development and effective implementation of central and state government schemes. The new entity would be called the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu and would be governed under the jurisdiction of the Bombay High Court, he added.
Informing about the rationale behind bringing the amendment, Shri Reddy said that there are two secretariats and parallel departments which consume infrastructure and manpower in each Union territory. The Administrator, Secretaries, and Heads of certain departments functions in both the Union territories on alternate days affecting their availability to people and monitoring functioning of subordinate staff. The subordinate employees of both the Union territories are separate. Further, various departments of the Government of India have to co-ordinate with both the Union territories separately, causing duplication of works.
Having two separate constitutional and administrative entities in both the Union territories leads to lot of duplicity, inefficiency and wasteful expenditure. Further, this also causes unnecessary financial burden on the Government. Besides these, there are various challenges for cadre management and career progression of employees. Availability of more officers and infrastructure would help in more efficient implementation of flagship schemes of the government, the Shri Reddy said.
The bill was earlier passed by Lok Sabha on November 27, 2019 (Source:pib)


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Parliament passes the Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (Merger of Union Territories) Bill, 2019.

Parliament passes the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Parliament passes the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

Parliament today passed the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019. Replying to the debate on the Bill in the house, Union Minister for Home Affairs, Shri Amit Shah said that as per the intent of the original law, SPG focusses on Prime Minister's security, as the PM is constitutionally the Head of the Government. It looks after the Prime Minister's personal security, health, communication and secures the PMO and Prime Minister's residence. It must not be made a status symbol and its mandate must not be diluted in deploying the specialized force for the security of a particular family. Shri Shah also stressed that the Government is responsible for the security of 130 crore Indian citizens, which includes the said family.

The Home Minister noted that there is a perception that the amendment in SPG Act is being brought only for the purpose to remove the SPG security cover for the Gandhi family. Opposed to that, the Gandhi family's security level was not being removed but was changed from SPG to Z+ with ASL (Advance Security Liaison) and 24X7 Ambulance provision. This has been done on the basis of threat perception as per the original version of the law and the family’s security cover is at par with that of the HM, Defence Minister etc. He stressed that therefore, the there is no question of vendetta politics against one family and they have been assigned security personnel who have undergone SPG training at some point of time in their career.
Taking a dig at the opposition benches, Shri Shah said that the person who would be at the greatest disadvantage because of the Amendment in the Act is the current Prime Minister, who would lose SPG cover five years after he demits office. He also remarked that the SPG security cover of several previous Prime Ministers had been removed in the past, but there were no protests previously.
Speaking on the security breach at Smt. Priyanka Gandhi’s residence, Shri Shah said that the visiting persons were Congress party members and the security allowed them entry based on this specific information. Despite this, Government has ordered high level enquiry into this matter and suspended the concerned 3 security personnel.


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Parliament passes the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

Parliament passes Bill to provide 10% quota for poor - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Parliament passes Bill to provide 10% quota for poor.

A day after Lok Sabha approved The Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, 2019, the Rajya Sabha passed the law with 165 voting in favour and 7 against.

Parliament on Wednesday cleared the Constitutional Amendment Bill guaranteeing 10% quota in education and employment to economically weaker sections in the general category, following an approval by the Rajya Sabha.
The Upper House nod came following an over nine-hour-long heated debate, during which the Opposition accused the government of bringing the Bill in haste with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha election.
The Bill was passed with a majority of 165 against seven votes. It will be now sent for Presidential assent.
The Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill was introduced by Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, who later in his reply said that the existing reservation to the SCs, STs and OBCs would not be touched by the amendment.
Clarifying the Bill’s provisions, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the reservation would be applicable to jobs in both Central and State governments, adding that the legislation gave powers to States to determine the economic criteria for identification of beneficiaries. He responded to the Opposition’s charge of political intent by terming the government move a “slog-over six”, with many more to come.
Earlier, during the debate, Congress leader Anand Sharma said provisions under Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution were for the backward and weaker communities. In the past, attempts were made twice to extend reservation beyond their scope, but the Supreme Court struck them down. The same happened in several States. (Source: The Hindu)


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Parliament passes Bill to provide 10% quota for poor.

Parliament passes Bill for fast disposal of commercial disputes - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Parliament passes Bill for fast disposal of commercial disputes.

The Parliament on Friday passed a bill that seeks to bring down the specified value of commercial disputes from the existing Rs 1 crore each to Rs 3 lakh and for their speedy disposal.

The bill, that has been approved by Lok Sabha, was passed by Rajya Sabha on Friday.
In his reply to the brief debate, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad favoured creation of All India Judicial Service on the lines of IAS and IPS and said scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward sections should get benefit of reservation.
He also favoured more representation of weaker sections including women in judiciary. He said 727 fast-track courts were handling over five lakh cases.
Referring to members concern over vacancies in judiciary, he said by the end of this year, the government would have appointed the highest number of high court judges. He said there were 5,000 vacancies in lower judiciary and states should make efforts fill them.
The bill provides for establishment of commercial courts at the district judge level for the territories over which respective high courts have ordinary original civil jurisdiction.
It seeks to amend the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 and provides for reducing the specified value of commercial disputes from the existing Rs 1 crore to Rs 3 lakh, enabling the parties to approach the lowest level of subordinate courts for speedy resolution of disputes.
Officials said there has been a steep rise in the number of commercial disputes at domestic and international levels.
Growing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and overseas commercial transactions have also contributed to a significant increase in commercial disputes.
They said bringing down the specified value of commercial disputes would reduce the time taken for resolution of such disputes and improve India's ranking in the ease of doing business. (Source: The Business Standard)


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Parliament passes Bill for fast disposal of commercial disputes.

Parliament passes bill to give constitutional validity to NCBC - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Parliament passes bill to give constitutional validity to NCBC.

The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, which gives the National Commission for Backward Classes statutory powers, was unanimously passed by the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The bill was moved for discussion and passage by social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot in the Rajya Sabha and passed unanimously with 145 ayes and no negative votes or abstentions.
The Lok Sabha passed the bill on August 2. The NCBC would get constitutional status after half of the states approve it with a simple majority and President Ram Nath Kovind gives his nod to the legislation.
Government had faced embarrassment in 2017 when the opposition forced amendments to the bill in the Rajya Sabha where the NDA is in a minority. This time the bill was passed after a give and take between the two sides.

Gehlot assured the House that the opposition demand for having a woman member in the NCBC will be considered when the rules are framed. Opposition dropped its other demand that one member in the five-member body must be from the minority community.
Gehlot also clarified that NCBC will have no right to interfere in the functioning of such state bodies. This law will not be binding on the state backward commissions and the latter will continue to enjoy the powers vested in them. Passage of this bill gives BJP an opportunity to woo the backward castes. The political undertones behind this legislation were obvious in the speeches made by various members.

“We have proved that we were, we are and we will be in favour of reservations,” Gehlot said. He emphasised that BJP strongly backs the rights of Dalits, tribals and backwards. Congress member BK Hariprasad alleged BJP is a party that stands for upper castes and is not in favour of reservations. “They are shedding crocodile tears for OBCs.” (Source: The Economic Times)


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Parliament passes bill to give constitutional validity to NCBC.

Parliament passes bill for merger of subsidiary banks with SBI - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Parliament passes bill for merger of subsidiary banks with SBI.

The Parliament has passed the State Banks (Repeal and Amendment) Bill, 2017 with the Lok Sabha approving the amendments sent by the Rajya Sabha.

The Upper house had earlier passed the bill with amendments.
The Bill seeks to repeal the State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959, the State Bank of Hyderabad Act, 1956 and further to amend the State Bank of India Act, 1955.
Under it, the five associates banks that were merged are State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Travancore. The merger of these banks is already in effect from 1st April, last year. (Source: News on Air)


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Parliament passes bill for merger of subsidiary banks with SBI.