TOPIC: GS 2 Functions and Responsibilities of the Union and the States, Issues and Challenges Pertaining to the Federal Structure, Devolution of Powers and Finances up to Local Levels and Challenges Therein.
Imperious missteps
What is the news?
- Lakshadweep, an archipelago of 36 islands totalling 32 square kilometres in the Arabian Sea, has had an idyllic existence as a Union Territory.
- Praful K. Patel, who arrived as Administrator in December, appears determined to upend the landscape and
- To recast the lives of the islanders, around 70,000 of them according to authoritarian imagination.
New Provision
- The draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation 2021 gives sweeping powers to the Administrator
- It to take over land and forcibly relocate people, and proposes harsh punishment to those who resist.
- In other measures, proposed or implemented, the consumption or sale of beef, a part of the food habits of many, could be an offence punishable by seven years in prison
- Those who have more than two children cannot contest panchayat elections.
- Anyone could be held in prison without reason up to a year, under a new Goonda Act in a place that has a very low crime rate.
- The traditional livelihood of fishing communities has been impeded by mindless regulations that deny them access to coastlines.
- Sheds on the coastal areas have been demolished saying they violated the Coast Guard Act.
- Dairy farms run by the administration have been shut.
Consequences
- Development as it is coming is not a promise but a serious threat to the people of Lakshadweep and the fragile ecosystem.
- The administration has demonstrated a unique disregard for the people’s concerns and priorities.
- In the absence of any administrative rationale or public good in these blatantly arbitrary measures there are fears of other motivations.
- Commercial interests could be at play and the land that inhabitants are forced to part with could be transferred to buyers from outside.
Way Forward
- There could also be ill-advised political plans to change the demography of the islands.
- People have risen in protest, but far from listening to them, the Administrator seems insistent on his plans.
- The rationale for carving out Union Territories as an administrative unit is to protect the unique cultural and historical situations of their inhabitants.
- The Centre is inverting its responsibility to protect into a licence to interfere.
- It must recall the Administrator and reassure the islanders
Mains Question
The Centre should recall the Lakshadweep draft development plan and drop his ill-conceived plans. Examine
PRELIMS QUESTIONS
- Chicago Convention
The Convention on International Civil Aviation also known as the Chicago Convention, established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) a specialized agency of the UN charged with coordinating international air travel. The Convention establishes rules of airspace, aircraft registration and safety, security, and sustainability, and details the rights of the signatories in relation to air travel. The Convention also contains provisions pertaining to taxation.
The document was signed in Chicago by 52 signatory states. It received the requisite 26th ratification on March 5, 1947, and went into effect on April 4, 1947, the same date that ICAO came into being. In October of the same year, ICAO became a specialized agency of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Sources : https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/05/1092812
- The Gulf of Carpentaria
It is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary is generally defined as a line from Slade Point Queensland the northwestern corner of Cape York Peninsula in the northeast to Cape Arnhem on the Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory the easternmost point of Arnhem Land in the west.
The Gulf and adjacent Sahul Shelf were dry land at the peak of the last ice age 18,000 years ago when global sea level below its present position. At that time a large, shallow lake occupied the centre of what is now the Gulf. The Gulf hosts a submerged coral reef province
- Kyasanur forest Disease
Kyasanur forest disease (KFD) is a tick-borne viral haemorrhagic fever endemic to South-western part of India. The disease is caused by a virus belonging to the family Flaviviridae. KFDV is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected hard ticks which act as a reservoir of KFDV.
The disease first manifested as an epizootic outbreak among monkeys, killing several of them in the year 1957. Hence the disease is also locally known as “monkey disease” or “monkey fever“. The disease initially reported from Shimoga district of Karnataka in Western Ghats of India. The disease spread out to other districts of Karnataka involving districts of Chikkamagalore, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chamarajanagar, Belagavi . In 2013, KFDV was detected in monkey autopsies from Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu state. Monkey deaths and human cases have now been reported from three neighbouring states bordering Karnataka, districts of Kerala, North Goa district of Goa state and of Maharashtra
- SWAMIH Fund
This is a government backed fund that was set up as a Category-II AIF (Alternate Investment Fund) debt fund registered with SEBI, launched in 2019. SWAMIH Investment Fund was formed to complete construction of stalled, RERA-registered affordable and mid-income category housing projects which are stuck due to paucity of funds.
The Investment Manager of the Fund is SBICAP Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI Capital Markets, which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the State Bank of India. The Sponsor of the Fund is the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India , The fund, set up extend last-mile funding, will enable the completion of 81,308 houses.
PRELIMS QUESTIONS
Qn 1. Consider the following statement with reference to SWAMIH Investment Fund
- Alternate Investment Fund debt fund registered with SEBI
- The Sponsor of the Fund is the RBI
Select the correct statement using code given below.
(a). 1only                                (b) 2 only
(c). Both of them                (d). None of the above
Answer : B
This is a government backed fund that was set up as a Category-II AIF (Alternate Investment Fund) debt fund registered with SEBI, launched in 2019. SWAMIH Investment Fund was formed to complete construction of stalled, RERA-registered affordable and mid-income category housing projects which are stuck due to paucity of funds.
The Investment Manager of the Fund is SBICAP Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI Capital Markets, which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the State Bank of India. The Sponsor of the Fund is the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India , The fund, set up extend last-mile funding, will enable the completion of 81,308 houses.
Qn 2,Chicago Convention is related to
- Â IPR Provision
- Marine Convention
- Ecological convention
- Civil Aviation Organization
Answer : D
The Convention on International Civil Aviation also known as the Chicago Convention, established the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) a specialized agency of the UN charged with coordinating international air travel. The Convention establishes rules of airspace, aircraft registration and safety, security, and sustainability, and details the rights of the signatories in relation to air travel. The Convention also contains provisions pertaining to taxation.
The document was signed in Chicago by 52 signatory states. It received the requisite 26th ratification on March 5, 1947, and went into effect on April 4, 1947, the same date that ICAO came into being. In October of the same year, ICAO became a specialized agency of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
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