Current Affairs 19 October

Current Affairs 20 October

CONTENTS
Governor
UIDAI
Uniform civil code
Giraffes
Prelims.

GS -II- Polity

GOVERNOR’S ROLE

CONTEXT – Kerala governor Arif mohammed khan warns state government ministers of strict actions in case of statements below dignity of office

There shall be a council of ministers with the chief minister as the head to aid and advise the governor in the exercise of his functions, except in so far as he is required to exercise his functions in his discretion (Article 163).

Cannot remove ministers on his own discretion if they can prove majority.

Part VI of the Constitution of India deals with the state executive. The state executive consists of the governor, the chief minister, the council of ministers and the advocate-general of the state
Governor is the nominal head at the state level

Appointment of governors

The governor is appointed by the president under his hand and seal
The SC in 1979 said that the office of governor is not an employment under the central government. It is an independent constitutional office and is not under the control of or subordinate to the central government

Reason for adopting this system of appointment of governor

Direction elections would be incompatible with the parliamentary system established in the states
Direction election could create conflicts
Direction election would be a costly affair
An elected governor could be a non-neutral person
The system of presidential nomination enables the centre to maintain its control over the states
Keeping in mind, the above mentioned reasons, the appointment form of appointing the governor was taken (This model is followed in Canada)

The governor has constitutional discretions in the following cases:

Can dissolve the legislative assembly if the chief minister advices him to do following a vote of no confidence. Following which, it is up to the Governor what he/ she would like to do.
Dismissal of the council of ministers when it cannot prove the confidence of the state legislative assembly.
Dissolution of the state legislative assembly if the council of ministers has lost its majority.
Can recommend the president about the failure of the constitutional machineryin the state.
Can reserve a billpassed by the state legislature for president’s assent.
Can appoint anybody as chief minister If there is no political party with a clear-cut majority in the assembly.
Determines the amount payable by the Government of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoramto an autonomous Tribal District Council as royalty accruing from licenses for mineral exploration.
Can seek information from the chief ministerwith regard to the administrative and legislative matters of the state.
Can refuse to sign to an ordinary billpassed by the state legislature.

GS-II -Polity

UIDAI

CONTEXT – UIDAI tops the Grievance Redressal Index for the second consecutive month.

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), releases a grievance redressal index on monthlybasis.

UIDAI ( Unique Identification Authority of India ) was founded in 2009 but became a statutory body in 2016 under the Aadhar act. It is mandated to assign a 12-digit unique identification (UID) number (Aadhaar) to all the residents of India. It comes under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

UIDAI’S grievance redressal ecosystem comprised of UIDAI HQ, its Regional Offices, Technology Centre, and contact centre partners. It enables UIDAI to resolve around 92% of grievances within a week.
UIDAI is gradually rolling out an Open-Source CRM solution, which enables it to support multi-channels like phone calls, email, Chatbot, web portals etc for lodging, tracking and resolving grievances.
It has launched IVRS services in 12 languages.

GS-II- Polity

UNIFORM CIVIL CODE

UCC is based on the concept that in matters of inheritance, right to property, maintenance and succession, there will be a common law.

Citizens belonging to different religions and denominations follow different property and matrimonial laws which is an “affront to the nation’s unity”,

The submissions are part of recent affidavits filed by the Union Law Ministry to petitions, seeking directions from the apex court to the government to remove “anomalies” and frame UCC.
Law-making power: The government said the power to make laws is exclusively that of the legislature.The court cannot give a “mandamus to Parliament to make certain laws”.
Law Commission to examine “various issues relating to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and make recommendations considering the sensitivity and in-depth study involved of various personal laws governing different communities.
The 21st Law Commission: It uploaded a consultation paper titled ‘Reform of Family Law subsequently(2018).
Article 44: The purpose of Article 44 was to strengthen the object of the ‘Secular Democratic Republic’ enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution.

GS-III – Environment

GIRAFFES

Giraffes are found in the wild only in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Giraffes brought to India by the British 150 years ago may belong to endangered species. A genetic distance analysis of the giraffes in Alipore showed that they were most closely related to Nubian and Rothschild giraffes.

They are an exotic species from Africa

Nubian giraffes