NATIONAL APRIL 2012

NATIONAL APRIL 2012

• United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki Moon visited India from 26 April to 29 April 2012. The UN Secretary General was accompanied by a high-level delegation. During his three-day visit, Ban held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders. The two leaders discussed global and regional issues. The UN Secretary General also lauded India’s economic progress and noted that India, given its larger outlook, required to play even more significant role in the betterment of the world economy. Ban in the course of his visit also met business and social leaders to discuss ways and means to achieve the health-related UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).67-year -old Ban also received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi. A South Korean by nationality, Ban Ki Moon started his diplomatic career from India in 1972. It was Ban’s third visit to India ever since he assume the charge of UN Secretary General in 2010.
  
• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and his Maharashtra counterpart, Prithviraj Chavan, on 5 May signed an agreement in New Delhi to set up an inter-State board for speedy execution of the Rs.40,300-crore Pranahita-Chevella irrigation project that will serve both States. The agreement was signed in the presence of Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal. The Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi project, which Andhra Pradesh wants to be declared as a national project, envisages diversion of 160 tmc of water by constructing a barrage across the Pranahita river, which is a major tributary of the Godavari. It further utilises 20 tmc of water from the Godavari at the Sripada Yellampally project. This project will irrigate 16,40,000 acres in drought-prone Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Warangal, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts of the Telangana region. As per the agreement, a joint inter-State committee will be formed to ensure efficient, speedy and economical investigation and execution of the project. To prevent any differences between A.P. and Maharashtra over the project, the joint committee will decide on the location of the barrage and the share of the expenditure involved for the two States. 
  
• The Supreme Court of India on 8 May 2012 directed the Union Government to eliminate the Haj subsidy completely by reducing it gradually over the next ten years. The court further ruled that the amount of Haj subsidy should be used for the uplift of the community.A Supreme Court bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai observed that the Haj subsidy is provided by the government is continuously increasing given the rising air fare and pilgrims. Though agree to the fact that subsidy is constitutionally valid, the court did not find any rationalization in charging the pilgrims a much lesser price. The Apex Court also instructed the government to end the practice of sending a goodwill Haj delegation. 
  
• Two boats carrying nearly 350 people capsized in the Brahmaputra River in Assam's Dhubri and Jaleswar district on 30 April 2012. More than 100 people were killed in this tragedy. The bodies of 103 victims, including women and children, were recovered by the BSF and the NDRF personnel near Jaleswar. As many as 120 people are missing and believed to have drowned. 
  
• The Supreme Court of India on 27 April 2012 held that Farmers whose land is acquired for a public purpose are entitled to the highest market value as compensation. The Supreme Court’s ruling came following a case of land acquisition in Punjab’s Faridkot district where the land owner was awarded a compensation of 1 lakh rupees per acre despite the land was located in commercially important area.
  
• 50 leaders from different political parties took the oath as the Rajya Sabha members on 24 April 2012. Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley, BSP head Mayawati, Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Rajeev Shukla, and Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi and actor Jaya Bachchan were among the leaders who took oath in the Rajya Sabha. Former Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha K Rahman Khan, former Union minister Renuka Chaudhary, Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy and BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu also took the oath.
  
• Maoists released Orissa MLA Jhina Hikaka on 26 April 2012, after keeping him in captivity for more than 30 days. Hikaka, who was abducted by the Maoists on 24 March 2012 was handed over to lawyer Nihar Ranjan Patnaik at Balipeta village in Narayanpatna forests. The decision about the release of the legislator was taken in a people's court. The MLA was released after the state government conceded to the Maoists’ demand to liberate more than two dozen Maoist cadres and sympathisers. Hikaka was abducted by the Andhra Orissa Border Special Zonal Committee of CPI(Maoist).The Maoists had also abducted two Italian tourists Paolo Bosusco and Claudio Colangelo who were released subsequently by them following a talk between the Maoist leaders and the government appointed interlocutors. Colangelo was released on 25 March 2012 while Bosusco was freed on 12 April 2012.
  
• West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been named among the 100 most influential people in the world by the prestigious Time magazine in its 2012 list. The list also includes US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire investor Warren Buffet. Apart from Mamatha Banerjee, advocate Anjali Gopalan, who works for the rights of gays and the transgendered in India, is the only other Indian in the list released by the magazine. The 2012 list is topped by American basketball sensation Jeremy Lin. 
  
• President Pratibha Patil on 18 April 2012 released a commemorative postage stamp to mark the birth centenary of President R. Venkataraman at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The release of the stamp marked the end of year-long centenary celebrations organised from December 2010 onward to celebrate the life of India's eighth President, R. Venkataraman.
  
• The Union Cabinet on 12 April 2012 gave its approval to the introduction of a Bill seeking an amendment in the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 to include registration of marriages as well, so that the existing administrative mechanisms will be able to carry out such registration of marriages in accordance with the specified procedures and be able to maintain necessary records and statistics for registration of marriages also. 
  
• The Supreme Court of India on 12 April 2012 upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2009, which mandates 25 per cent free seats to the poor in government and private unaided schools uniformly across the country. The apex court clarified that its judgment will come into force from 12 April 2012. However, the act will apply uniformly to government and unaided private schools except unaided private minority schools. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar gave the ruling.
  
• India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board was admitted as the 11th member of MDEP (Multinational Design Evaluation Programme) on 4 April 2012. The other members of this body are China, Finland, Japan, Korea, South Africa, USA, UK, Canada, France and Russia. MDEP is a multinational initiative taken by national safety authorities to develop innovative approaches to leverage the resources and knowledge of the national regulatory authorities who are currently tasked with the review of new reactor power plant designs. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the United States and the French Nuclear Safety Authority launched it in 2006.