THE ASSAM TRIBUNE ANALYSIS - For Preliminary and Mains examination As per new Pattern of APSC Also useful for UPSC and other State level ...

THE ASSAM TRIBUNE ANALYSIS

                       DATE – 3rd June, 2021

              For Preliminary and Mains examination

                    As per new Pattern of APSC

(Also useful for UPSC and other State level government examinations)

MCQs of 03-06-2021

Q1. Global Gender Gap report published by which of the following institutions ?

   A.   WEF
   B.   WB
   C.   IMF
   D.   EU
Q2. Functions of the Public Service Commission are dealt with in Article

   A.   317 of the Constitution
   B.   318 of the Constitution
   C.   319 of the Constitution
   D.   320 of the Constitution

Q3. Which district of Assam has the longest international boundary?

   A.   Kokrajhar
   B.   Dhubri
   C.   Karimganj
   D.   Nalbari

Q4. "Bagrumba" is a folk dance performed by

   A.   Garos
   B.   Bodos
   C.   Mishings
   D.   Rabhas

Q5. Discuss Social Media as Open Government instrument ? Comment.

CONTENTS

  •   Cabinet okays Tenancy Model circulation to States/UTs (GS 2 – Governance)

  •   Govt to take up issue with Bhutan, neighbouring states (GS 5 – Water related problems)

EDITORIALS

  •   Lakshwadeep and the trouble in Paradise (GS 2 – Polity and Governance)

ARTICLES

Cabinet okays tenancy model circulation to States/Uts

  •   The Union cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today approved the 'Model
      Tenancy Act' for circulation to all States and Union Territories for adoption, by enacting fresh
      legislation or amending existing rental laws suitably.
  •   "lt (the model Act) will help overhaul the legal framework with respect to rental housing across
      the country, which would help spur its overall growth," an official statement said.
  •   The Model Tenancy Act aims at creating a vibrant, sustainable and inclusive rental housing
      market in the country, and to enable creation of adequate rental housing stock for all the income
      groups, there by addressing the issue of homelessness.
  •   It is intended to enable institutionalisation of rental housing by gradually shifting it towards the
      formal market. "The Model Tenancy Act will facilitate unlocking of vacant houses for rental
      housing purposes. It is expected to give a fillip to private participation in rental housing as a
      business model for addressing the huge housing shortage," the statement said.
  •   Industry players' express optimism: The Cabinet's decision to approve model tenancy law will
      encourage private sector to develop housing projects for rent purpose and also bring huge stock
      of vacant flats in rental market if implemented by States in letter and spirit, according to
      industry players.
  •   The Union Cabinet approved the Model Tenancy Act, a move that will help overhaul the legal
      framework with respect to rental housing across the country. The Act mandates for written
      agreement for all new tenancies, which will have to be submitted to concerned district 'Rent
      Authority'.

•   According to industry estimates, over 11 million homes are estimated to be vacant across the
      country and experts believe that these flats would now come into the rental market and help
      reduce housing shortages.
  •   As per the industry experts, the model Act provides three months' notice to tenants for hike in
      rentals and only two months of security deposits for residential properties. Commenting on the
      decision, NAREDCO President Niranjan Hiranandani said: "There was a need for a new law, which
      would make things easier for all stake-holders tenants, landlords and investors to transact and
      deal in rental housing."
  •   The model Act will facilitate unlocking of vacant houses for rental housing purposes, he said. "It
      is expected to give a fillip to private participation in rental housing as a business model for
      addressing the huge housing shortage.
  •   The Act will enable institutionalisation of rental housing by gradually shifting it towards the
      formal market," Hiranandani said. Anarock Chairman Anuj Puri Said the new Act will help bridge
      the trust deficit between tenants and landlords by clearly delineatin their obligations and will
      eventually help unlock vacant houses across the country.
  •   "This Act can fuel the rental housing supply pipeline by attracting more investors, and more
      rental housing stock will help students, working professionals and migrant populations to find
      urban accommodation," he said.

Govt to take up issue with Bhutan, neighbouring states

  •   The State Government will take up the issue of dam-induced flash floods that wreak havoc in
      Assam with Bhutan and neighbouring States.
  •   A high-level meeting attended by Water Resources Minister Pijush Hazarika, Forest Minister
      Parimal Suklabaidya and Agriculture Minister Atul Bora today discussed various flood and
      erosion-related issues including better protection measures for Kaziranga National Park.

•   Noting that release of water from dams in the neighbouring Bhutan and other states such as
    Nagaland and Meghalaya causes severe floods in downstream Assam, the meeting called for
    some kind of controlled release of water from the dams.
•   "Release of water from Doyang, Rongamati and Bhutan dams causes large-scale inundation in
    Assam and the meeting decided to take up the matter with the authorities concerned so that
    water is not released simultaneously," an official release quoting the Ministers said. The Water
    Resources Minister said as one of the dams concerned Bhutan, the matter would be placed
    before the Chief Minister for taking up the matter at appropriate level.
•   The meeting which also deliberated on devising a mechanism to mitigate the excessive flood and
    erosion in Kaziranga National Park called for formulating both short-term and long-term plans to
    ease the problem. Water Resources Minister Hazarika said that concrete steps would be taken to
    prevent erosion at Agoratoli on the eastern range of Kaziranga covering a stretch of around 2 km.
•   "Necessary flood protection measures will be taken up to protect Kaziranga National Park, "he
    said, adding that dredging would be carried out on the outer fringe of the park to prevent
    excessive flooding. He further asked the Forest officials to submit a plan and estimates for
    necessary action.
•   The meeting also resolved to build highlands, especially at Borbeel on the fringe of the national
    park, to provide shelter to the flood-affected people. It discussed the matter of setting up of
    helipads on the periphery of the national park for rescue operation of people and animals as
    well as for tourists.

EDITORIALS

Lakshwadeep and the trouble in Paradise

  •   A little known member of the BharatiyaJanata Party has set off a political storm in Lakshadweep,
      the tranquil archipelago of coral islands and reefs that makes up India's smallest Union Territory
      (UT).
  •   He is the newly-appointed administrator, Praful Khodabhai Patel, who in a telling picture on an
      official website can be seen bowing in what appears servile watitude to his political master,
      Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
  •   Patel was the administrator of the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, where his
      profile notes that he is a diploma holder in civil engineering and began his career in the
      construction sector. Patel took over on December 8, 2020 as the administrator of the UT of
      Lakshadweep, where he is talking shades of a language that the BJP tried, tested and perfected
      first in Gujarat — the so-called story of development, contracts, power to de beef ban, control on
      the number of children you can have and some tough administrative action against læal
      fisherfolk.
  •   Understandably, he has set off protests and demands that he be recalled, the strongest voices
      coming from Kerala, which is the closest in affinity and language and culture to the archipelago.
  •   There is enough already written on how the ecological balance of these frontier islands will be
      destroyed, of how the equivalent of a 'Goonda Act' is being enforced to stave off protests against
      the outpouring of 'development' with the push for tourism and how this is a BJP prescription
      being forced on a population that is 96.58% Muslim (2011 census).
  •   For example, the draft 'Lakshadweep Animal Preservation Regulation, 2021', published on
      February 25, 2021 sets out 'prohibition against selling or buying beef or beef products' (Section
      8), 'power to enter and inspect premises' (Section 9), and 'prohibition against slaughter without

certificate from competent authority' (Section 5). Here's a police State coming for the people of
    Lakshadweep, from not one but many angles as the administration prepares to welcome luxury
    tourism to the calm waters and the unspoilt beauty of the islands.
•   In fact, just one day after he took over, Patel visited 'various construction sites' and evaluated the
    developmental activities of Lakshadweep and the ongoing projects. A little over a month later
    (January 16-18, 2021), on a visit to Moola beach, he said this was an "apt location for adventure
    and beach tourism".
•   In February 2121, official records show him again visiting various construction sites. It is not that
    Lakshadweep does not need support and development; the kind of development being
    envisaged will wreck the islands, deliver an ecological disaster and render the local residents
    poorer, pushed to the margins of a model that WIT import advisers, strategists, hoteliers and the
    like.
•   Patel himself is an import, with big questions on his qualifications to lead the islands. He was a
    Gujarat Assembly member who took over the State Home portfolio when Amit Shah quit as the
    Home Minister in Gujarat following his arrest in the Sohrabuddin case. Patel lost a subsequent
    election there, even when the BJP won the State.
•   He is quite obviously close to the leadership to be handpicked to run himself first Daman & Diu
    and now Lakshadweep, even though he is a political lightweight. Something has pulled him to the
    top of a place he knows nothing about and he thinks not twice about pulling it apart.
•   There will be a battle to get him out and there is no means of saying if this will succeed, This is
    the harm the BJP delivers to the nation and its unity and strength naked, in your face, care-a-
    damn and often openly and defiantly on an ugly agenda.
•   Lakshadweep is one more example of how bad things can get under the BJP. We stand to lose
    freedom, integrity of politiG11 process, the safety of our land and people and an ethos that has
    helped the nation stand proudly democratic while others around us failed.
•   But there is another loss that the BJP delivers that is not so well discussed in the face of the
    nakedness of the obvious, in-your-face, harm. And this is it pretends to bring change, like the
    argument that political leaders can head UTS, and why should it be that only a retired bureaucrat
    be given this portfolio, as has been the case in the past.

•   This is a fair argument and the BJP could have set a new precedent by giving the UTS a clean,
    efficient, people-oriented leaders who understand local sensitivities and protect and guard and
    empower. That would be the best way to show that political functionaries lead as administrators
    in a way that bureaucrats, often retired after long years of comfortable berths, not.
•   But even in this change, the BJP has delivered a no-ball. Patel is the administrator you pick and
    say this is the kind you do not need, and that the practice of having bureaucrats here must
    therefore continue.
•   In short, there is nothing on the agenda of change from past practices that can stand out as
    fundamental and constructive in the approach, outlook and direction of the BJP. In the changes
    that the BJP seeks, short-termism, narrow-mindedness and a twisted Hindutva agenda over
    powers.
•   This cannot offer lasting approaches or bring fresh thinking to the idea of people-led growth and
    development. This is so in every sphere. The BJP tends to speak of the rich history of India but it
    has done nothing to support, build or nurture the depth of study that the Indian scriptures or
    wisdom traditions offer.
•   In fact, its leaders standout as unscholarly and understand none of the values that make India
    what it is. The BJP speaks of the depth of Indian thinking, but it has done everything to smother
    dialogue, debate and openness — the very stuff that is inherently Indian and has deep traditions
    in Indian society. The BJP speaks of 'Lutyen's Delhi' that it wants to break but it is only creating its
    own version of Lutyen's Delhi, with its pick of players.
•   In short, look around and what we can see is a party in a hurry to capture, command and control,
    all in the name of the rich traditions that make India great but in actuality it is an attack on those
    traditions to make India smaller and smaller, day by day. Lakshadweep is only the latest hotspot
    in a national heat map that is burning India across many and institutions.