Justice D. K. Jain appointed as Chairman of the 20th Law Commission

Justice D. K. Jain, Judge,
Supreme Court of India, will be the
Chairman of the Twentieth Law
Commission of India. According to
the Notification issued here today,
the appointment of Justice Jain will
be effective from any day after 24 th
January 2013 on his retirement from
the Supreme Court.
The Twentieth Law Commission
was constituted through a Government
Order with effect from 1 st September,
2012. It has a three-year term ending
on 31 st August, 2015. The Terms of
Reference of the Twentieth Law
Commission include the following:
A.  Review/Repeal of obsolete
laws: i).    Identify laws which are
no longer needed or relevant and can
be immediately repealed; Ii) Identify
laws which are not in harmony with
the existing climate of economic
liberalization and need change;
iii) Identify laws which otherwise
require changes or amendments and
to make suggestions for their
amendment; iv) Consider in a wider
perspective the suggestions for
revision/ amendment given by
Expert Groups in various Ministries/
Departments with a view to
coordinating and harmonizing them;
v) Consider references made to it by
Ministries/ Departments in respect of
legislation having bearing on the
working of more than one Ministry/
Department; vi) Suggest suitable
measures for quick redressal of
citizens grievances, in the field of
law.
B. Law and Poverty: i)   Examine
the Laws which affect the poor and
carry out post-audit for socio-
economic legislations; ii)  Take all
such measures as may be necessary
to harness law and the legal process
in the service of the poor.
C. Keep under review the system
of judicial administration to ensure
that it is responsive to the
reasonable demands of the times
and in particular to secure: i)
Elimination of delays, speedy
clearance of arrears and reduction in
costs so as to secure quick and
economical disposal of cases without
affecting the cardinal principle that
decision should be just and fair; ii)
Simplification of procedure to
reduce and eliminate technicalities
and devices for delay so that it
operates not as an end in itself but as
a means of achieving justice;
iii)  Improvement of standards of all
concerned with the administration of
justice.
D.  Examine the existing laws in
the light of Directive Principles of
State Policy and to suggest ways of
improvement and reform and also to
suggest such legislations as might be
necessary to implement the Directive
Principles and to attain the
objectives set out in the Preamble to
the Constitution.
E.  Examine the existing laws
with a view for promoting gender
equality and suggesting amendments
thereto.
F.  Revise the Central Acts of
general importance so as to simplify
them and to remove anomalies,
ambiguities and inequities.
G. Recommend to the
Government measure for making
the statute book up-to-date by
repealing obsolete laws and
enactments or parts thereof which
have outlived their utility.
H. Consider and to convey to
the Government its views on any
subject relating to law and judicial
administration that may be
specifically referred to it by the
Government through Ministry of Law
and Justice.

Pilot Launch of CCTNS (Crime & Criminal Tracking Network & System ) Project

The CCTNS is a Mission Mode Project
under the National e-
Governance Plan of
Government of India.
It aims at creating a
comprehensive and
integrated system for
enhancing the
efficiency and
effectiveness of
policing through
adopting the principle
of e-Governance. The
Project also includes
the creation of a
nationwide
networking
infrastructure for
evolution of IT-
enabled-state-of-the-
art tracking system
around 'Investigation
of crime and
detection of
criminals'.

Year End Review for the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development(india year book 2012-2013)

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

·         All States/ UTs have notified the RTE Rules

·         2,14,561 Primary and 1,76,361 Upper Primary schools have been sanctioned under SSA till date , of which 96% are operational. The rest likely to be operational by the end of the financial year.

·         Improvement of school infrastructure and facilities-

Mid Day Meal Scheme

Mid day Meal Scheme (MDMS) covers children studying in classes I-VIII in Government, Local Body, Government aided and National Child Labour Project schools and the centres run under Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) /Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE) centres including Madarsas/Maktabssupported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

  During the year 2011-12, 10.54 crore children studying in 12.31 lakh institutions have availed of the Mid Day Meal.

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan

  The RMSA guidelines provide for augmenting secondary school infrastructure through, inter-alia, construction of additional class rooms, laboratories, toilet blocks, drinking water, libraries etc.However due to existing committed liabilities as against sanctions issued upto 2011-12, approvals by the Central Government to States for 2012-13 have been limited to recurring interventions.

National Literacy Mission

  Since the launch of Saakshar Bharat, the new variant of the National Literacy Mission, in September 2009, the Mission has been sanctioned in 372 districts and its functioning is reviewed periodically.  As per the recent review held in November 2012, the functioning of the programme in Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh has been found to be below par.

  The Planning Commission has recommended that the mandate of existing programme structures, including the National Literacy Mission Authority at the apex level, the State Literacy Mission Authorities at the State level and the Lok Shiksha Samitis at the District, Block and the Gram Panchayat levels, as well as the resource support bodies, would be remodeled, strengthened  and aligned to lifelong learning and literacy. In addition, the active involvement of public authorities at all administrative levels, civil society, the private sector, community and adult learners’ organisations in the development, implementation & evaluation of adult learning & education programmes would be obtained.

The time by which 100 percent literacy is likely to be achieved is not fixed.

Setting up of model schools

  The centrally sponsored scheme to set up 6,000 model schools at the rate of one school per block was launched in November 2008. Out of these, 3,500 schools are to be set up in educationally backward blocks (EBBs) through State/UT Governments and the remaining 2,500 schools are to be set up under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode in blocks which are not educationally backward.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas

  The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) are sanctioned in Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) with rural female literacy below the national average as per Census 2001, provided such residential schools are set up only in those EBBs which do not have a residential school at upper primary level for girls under any other scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment or the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Adult Education

i)          Saakshar Bharat has been sanctioned in 372 out of 410 targeted eligible districts in 25 states and one Union Territory. Survey has been conducted in about 58% (94,586 GPs) of the sanctioned GPs by the end of the year and 6.8 crore potential adult learners have been identified based on the survey. Around 1, 02,804 Adult Education Centres have been set up by 2012. About 15.7 lakh literacy learning centres are functioning in different States of the Country.

ii)         Around 144 lakh beneficiaries have been certified as literate by National Institute of Open Schooling, New Delhi. 

iii)        Jan Shikshan Sansthans provide vocational training to non-literate, neo-literate as well as school dropouts by identifying such skills as would have a market in the region of their establishment. Upto October, 2012, 2,19,864 beneficiaries, out of which 2,02,407 are women, have been covered under the various vocational course.

Year-End-Review of Ministry of Tribal Affairs for Year 2012 (india year book 2012-2013)

Amending Forest Laws for Empowering Tribals 

The Union Government took note of the fact that the forest dwellers had been precluded from asserting their genuine claims to forest resources which traditionally belonged to them. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 was enacted to recognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights could not be recorded. The Forest rights Act has been in operation for more than four years and despite substantial progress made in the last four years certain lacuna and bottlenecks were observed which were impeding the intended flow of benefits to the forest dwelling communities. Appropriate changes in the Rules have been brought about on 06.09.2012

The amendment in the Rules has now empowered the Gram Sabha to issue transit permit for minor forest produce either through a Committee constituted under Rule 4(1)(e) or any other person authorized by it. The amended Rule also makes it amply clear that the ownership of minor forest produce lies with the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers.                                                                                                                               

Development of Forest Villages 

This Ministry is implementing a programme for development of Forest Villages since 2005-06 for integrated development of forest villages with a view to raise the Human Development Index (HDI) of the inhabitants of the Forest Villages and for providing basic facilities and services in 2,474 forest villages/ habitations spread over 12 States. Under the programme, infrastructure work relating to basic services and facilities viz. approach roads, healthcare, primary education, minor irrigation, rainwater harvesting, drinking water, sanitation, community halls, etc.

National Tribal Awards

On ther Ocassion of "Prakriti", a National Festival of Tribal dance and music, the National Tribal Awards for outstanding tribal achievers in sports, education, and culture and to outstanding contributors towards tribal welfare was presented. Smt. BinnyYanaga (Maya) was given the award for Exemplary Community Service rendered to the Scheduled Tribes, carrying a cash prize of Rs.5.00 lakhs, a citation and a trophy. Smt. M.C. Mary Kom awarded the Best Tribal Achiever Award for outstanding achievement in the field of sports, carrying a cash prize of Rs. 2.00 lakhs, a citation and a trophy and Shri Guru Rewben Mashangvawas also awarded the Best Tribal Achiever Award for outstanding contribution in the field of tribal art and culture.

Major Achievements of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in the Year -2012 (india year book 2012-2013)

National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) 

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation is responsible for carrying out surveys on socio-economic aspects of Indian Economy by collecting data from households and enterprises located in villages and in the towns with a view to update data base for sound planning for development and administrative decisions. Towards this end and objective of the organization, the major achievements during 2012 are as follows: 

Survey undertaken/ launched: 

(i) The field work of two sub-rounds of NSS 68th round on Household Consumer Expenditure & Employment and Unemployment was completed during the year and the field work for NSS 69th round, a six month duration survey, on Drinking Water, Sanitation & Hygiene and Housing Conditions (including slums)started in July 2012 and now has been completed. 

(ii) Agricultural Statistics Survey on Sample check on area enumeration and supervision of crop cutting experiments under the scheme for ‘Improvement of Crop Statistics (ICS)’ for the agricultural years 2011-12 and 2012-13. While the Survey for 2011-12 is completed, the Survey for 2012-13 will continue up to June 2013. 

(iii) Regular price collection surveys in rural areas for compilation of Consumer Price Indices for Rural and Agricultural Labour by Labour Bureau and in urban areas for Consumer Price Index (Urban) by Central Statistics Office (CSO). 

(iv) Assistance to Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) in collection of wholesale prices from selected units/ factories for compilation of Wholesale Price Index. 

(v) The data collection work of Annual Survey of Industries for 2010-11 and 2011-12. 

New initiatives undertaken: 

(i) All India Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is in progress in 3 States viz, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Orissa. The primary objective of the survey is to measure the dynamics in labour force 

participation and employment status in the short time interval of 3 months. 

(ii) Experimentation of use of Hand-held devices / gadgets for data collection in the socio-economic surveys in the field. 

(iii) Use of RDBMS system of data processing. 

(iv) Data entry at field level in NSS 68th and 69th rounds in the states of Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Sikkim and Puducherry. 

Reports released: 

( i) 96th issue of the NSSO Journal ‘Sarvekshana’. 

(ii) Reports/ Results based on NSS rounds: 

NSS 66th Round: 

(a) Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment in India 

(b) Nutritional Intake in India 

(c) Household consumption of various goods and services in India 

(d) Energy Sources of Indian Households for Cooking and Lighting 

(e) Employment and Unemployment Situation Among Social Groups in India

(f) Household Consumer Expenditure Across Socio-Economic Groups (g) Home based workers in India

NSS 67th Round: 

(a) Key Results of Survey on Unincorporated Non-Agricultural Enterprises (Excluding Construction) in India

(b) Operational characteristics of Unincorporated Non-agricultural Enterprises (Excluding Construction) in India

NSS 68th Round: 

(a) Provisional Results of Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, NSS 68th round (July 20011 - June 2012) 

14th Fourteenth Finance Commission Constituted headed by Dr. Y.V.Reddy, former Governor Reserve Bank of India

last chairman was Kelkar now its Y.V Readdy

The Commission shall make recommendations regarding the sharing of Union taxes, principles governing Grants-in-aid to States and transfer of resources to local bodies.

            Terms of Reference and the matters that shall be taken into consideration by the Fourteenth Finance Commission in making the recommendations are as under :

1.      (i) the distribution between the Union and the States of the net proceeds of taxes which are to be, or may be, divided between them under Chapter I, Part XII of the Constitution and the allocation between the States of the respective shares of such proceeds;

(ii) the principles which should govern the grants-in-aid of the revenues of the States out of the Consolidated Fund of India and the sums to be paid to the States which are in need of assistance by way of grants-in-aid of their revenues under article 275 of the Constitution for purposes other than those specified in the provisos to clause (1) of that article; and

(iii) the measures needed to augment the Consolidated Fund of a State to supplement the resources of the Panchayats and Municipalities in the State on the basis of the recommendations made by the Finance Commission of the State.

2.                  The Commission shall review the state of the finances, deficit and debt levels of the Union and the States, keeping in view, in particular, the fiscal consolidation roadmap recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission, and suggest measures for maintaining a stable and sustainable fiscal environment consistent with equitable growth including suggestions to amend the Fiscal Responsibility Budget Management Acts currently in force and while doing so, the Commission may consider the effect of the receipts and expenditure in the form of grants for creation of capital assets on the deficits; and the Commission shall also consider and recommend incentives and disincentives for States for observing the obligations laid down in the Fiscal Responsibility Budget Management Acts.

3.                  In making its recommendations, the Commission shall have regard, among other considerations, to –

(i)                 the resources of the Central Government, for five years commencing on 1st April 2015, on the basis of levels of taxation and non-tax revenues likely to be reached during 2014-15;

(ii)               the demands on the resources of the Central Government, in particular, on account of the expenditure on civil administration, defence, internal and border security, debt-servicing and other committed expenditure and liabilities;

(iii)             the resources of the State Governments and the demands on such resources under different heads, including the impact of debt levels on resource availability in debt stressed states, for the five years commencing on 1st April 2015, on the basis of levels of taxation and non-tax revenues likely to be reached during 2014-15;

(iv)             the objective of not only balancing the receipts and expenditure on revenue account of all the States and the Union, but also generating surpluses for capital investment;

(v)            the taxation efforts of the Central Government and each State Government and the potential for additional resource mobilisation to improve the tax-Gross Domestic Product ratio in the case of the Union and tax-Gross State Domestic Product ratio in the case of the States;

(vi)          the level of subsidies that are required, having regard to the need for sustainable and inclusive growth, and equitable sharing of subsidies between the Central Government and State Governments;

(vii)        the expenditure on the non-salary component of maintenance and upkeep of capital assets and the non-wage related maintenance expenditure on plan schemes to be completed by 31st March, 2015 and the norms on the basis of which specific amounts are recommended for the maintenance of the capital assets and the manner of monitoring such expenditure;

(viii)      the need for insulating the pricing of public utility services like drinking water, irrigation, power and public transport from policy fluctuations through statutory provisions;

(ix) the need for making the public sector enterprises competitive and market oriented; listing and disinvestment; and relinquishing of non-priority enterprises;

(x)   the need to balance management of ecology, environment and climate change consistent with sustainable economic development; and

(xi) the impact of the proposed Goods and Services Tax on the finances of Centre and States and the mechanism for compensation in case of any revenue loss.

4.                  In making its recommendations on various matters, the Commission shall generally take the base of population figures as of 1971 in all cases where population is a factor for determination of devolution of taxes and duties and grants-in-aid; however, the Commission may also take into account the demographic changes that have taken place subsequent to 1971.

5.                  The Commission may review the present Public Expenditure Management systems in place including the budgeting and accounting standards and practices; the existing system of classification of receipts and expenditure; linking outlays to outputs and outcomes; best practices within the country and internationally, and make appropriate recommendations thereon.

6.                  The Commission may review the present arrangements as regards financing of Disaster Management with reference to the funds constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005(53 of 2005), and make appropriate recommendations thereon.

7.                  The Commission shall indicate the basis on which it has arrived at its findings and make available the State-wise estimates of receipts and expenditure.

8.                  The Commission shall make its report available by the 31^st October, 2014, covering a period of five years commencing on the 1st April, 2015.

Year-End-Review of Ministry OFPanchayati Raj for Year 2012 yearbook 2013

e-Governance of Panchayats

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is implementing the e-Panchayat Mission Mode Project (MMP) that addresses all core aspects of Panchayats’ functioning viz. Planning, Monitoring, Implementation, Budgeting, Accounting, Social Audit, etc. Under e-Panchayat MMP, 11 Core Common Software applications were planned which collectively constitute the Panchayat Enterprise Suite (PES). Four of these applications namely PRIASoft, PlanPlus, National Panchayat Portal and Local Governance Directory have been rolled out and are in public domain. These can be accessed at http://Accountingonline.gov.in, http://planningonline.gov.in, http://panchayat.gov.in and http://panchayatdirectory.gov.in respectively.

Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Awards

The “Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Purskar, 2012” was awarded to 16 best performing Gram Panchayats and 170 Panchayats were felicitated representatives of with “Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar” on the occasion of 3rdNational Panchayati Raj Day. Four awards were given to Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Sikkim for cumulative raking and four awards were given to Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan and Karnataka for incremental raking. Approximately 1500 delegates such as State Ministers for Panchayati Raj, Senior officials from State Government Panchayati Raj Departments, States elected representatives (ERs) from the three tiers of PRIs, the national award winning Panchayats as well as representatives from SCs/STs and Women attended the function.

Road Map for Panchayati Raj

The national level plan for improving the functioning of PRIs is chalked out in the Roadmap for Panchayati Raj (2011-2017). It contains a series of recommendations for a wide number of issues in Panchayati Raj. It logically delineates the issues and specific action plans within the larger governance framework for creating an effective Panchayati Raj structure. It highlights key aspects for empowerment, enablement and accountability of the PRIs for better governance and faster development including devolution of functions, funds and functionaries as envisaged in the Constitution, Capacity Building of the Panchayats and Functionaries, decentralized planning, effective implementation of PESA, empowered elected village councils in the Sixth Scheduled Areas and changes in the constitutional and legal framework. This national Roadmap is enabled and assisted by the Government by the provision of funds under several schemes. The Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) provides untied grants to the Panchayats in the backward regions in order to reduce development deficits of the country, with the requirement that the District Plans for utilization of the grant be prepared by the involvement of the Gram Sabhas.  The Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojana (RGSY) which aims at Capacity Building and Training of the Elected Representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions as well as the Functionaries.

Panchayat Mahila Evam Yuva Shakti Abhiyan

The Panchayat Mahila Evam Yuva Shakti Abhiyan (PMEYSA) aims to empower Elected Women Representatives (EWRs) by knitting them into networks and through group action so that their participation and representation on local governance issues improves. The scheme aims to enable them to articulate their problems as women Panchayat leaders and discuss issues regarding the institutional mechanisms for their empowerment, to build the confidence and capacity of EWRs, so that they get over the institutional, societal and political constraints that prevent them from active participation in rural local self governments and to enable them to come up with a charter of issues to be mainstreamed into policy and advocacy support so that their concerns are addressed by the process of development adopted by the State and the three-tier Panchayat system. Activities under PMEYSA include holding State Sammelans and Divisional/ District level Sammelans of EWRs, formation of their associations, setting up of State support Centres and sensitization programmes for EWRs and Elected Youth Representatives (EYRs).

Financial Support to Panchayats

The Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) provides financial support to the States under the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Yojana (RGSY) for taking up construction of the Gram Panchayat buildings for which the State/Year-wise details are enclosed at Annexure. In addition to RGSY, MoPR also provides funds to States under the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) which are in the nature of untied grants for Panchayats to undertake works based on felt local needs. Many States have taken up construction of Panchayat Ghars under BRGF. Funds from Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have also been provided for Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendras. As per information available, construction of 872 BNRGSKs have been completed during 2010-11 whereas the figure during 2011-12 and 2012-13 (as on 27.11.2012) as reported by the states were 5886 and 3296 respectively. 

Expert Committee to Examine Panchayats for More Efficient Delivery of Services

An Expert Committee to examine how Panchayats could be leveraged for more efficient delivery of public goods and services was constituted under the Chairmanship of Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister of Panchayati Raj to review the existing policy and guidelines of relevant Central Sector/Centrally Sponsored Schemes dealing with social sector / anti poverty programmes and to give specific recommendations (a) for an appropriate role & responsibility of Panchayats at different levels based on the principle of subsidiarity, (b) for strengthening their capacity to deliver services and (c) for making them accountable to respective Gram Sabhas and  to  flag the constraints that may come up in operationalising the delivery system through the PRIs and suggest ways and means of dealing with the same and to suggest ways to incentivize States to devolve three Fs i.e. Funds, Functions and Functionaries to Panchayats.