Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Polity & International Relations (Social Justice)) – September 23, 2020

Article 342. Scheduled Tribes—

(1) The President may with respect to any State or. Union Territory and where it is a State, after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall for the purpose of this Constitution be deemed to be Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory, as the case may be.

(2) Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled Tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community, but save as aforesaid a notification issued under ‘the said clause shall not be varied by any subsequent notification.

75 tribal groups have been categorized by Ministry of Home Affairs as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG)’s. PVTGs reside in 18 States and UT of A&N Islands. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs implements the Scheme of “Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)” exclusively for them.

PVTGs are more vulnerable among the tribal groups. Due to this factor, more developed and assertive tribal groups take a major chunk of the tribal development funds, because of which PVTGs need more funds directed for their development.

In this context, in 1975, the Government of India initiated to identify the most vulnerable tribal groups as a separate category called PVTGs and declared 52 such groups, while in 1993 an additional 23 groups were added to the category, making it a total of 75 PVTGs out of 705 Scheduled Tribes, spread over 17 states and one Union Territory (UT), in the country (2011 census).

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 defines a Minor Forest Produce (MFP) as all non-timber forest produce of plant origin and includes bamboo, brushwood, stumps, canes, Tusser, cocoon, honey, waxes, Lac, tendu/kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tuber and the like.

The Saharia, Sahar, Sehariya, or Sahariya are an ethnic group in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.

• Chenchus are a designated Scheduled Tribe in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Odisha.
• Reang (aka Bru in Mizoram) are one of the 21 scheduled tribes of the Indian state of Tripura.

The Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) was set up in 2014-15 under the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Famers Welfare (DAC&FW).

• The PSF scheme was later transferred from DAC&FW to the Department of Consumer Affairs (DOCA) in 2016.
• The fund is to help regulate the price volatility of important agri-horticultural commodities like onion, and potatoes. Pulses were also added subsequently.
• The scheme provides for maintaining a strategic buffer of aforementioned commodities for subsequent calibrated release to moderate price volatility and discourages hoarding and unscrupulous speculation.
• For building such stock, the scheme promotes direct purchase from farmers/farmers‘association at farm gate/Mandi.
• The PSF is utilized for granting interest free advance of working capital to Central Agencies, State/UT Governments/Agencies to undertake market intervention operations.

The scheme is being implemented in the State of Karnataka to curb corruption in public service delivery in key departments.

• More than 725 services are being provided under this mission.
• Now, the state government has proposed to launch the version 2 of SAKALA scheme with the existing SAKALA-1 fails to curb corruption.
• SAKALA -2 will address shortcomings in the existing Act by including a provision for imposing penalty of Rs. 250 per day for delay in addressing complaints.

Pan-India Expansion of Indira Gandhi MatritvaSahyog Yojana is called Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)/Maternity Benefit Programmee.

The Scheme provides cash incentives to pregnant and lactating women.

• for the wage loss so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery;
• to improve her health and nutrition during the period of pregnancy and lactation;
• to breastfeed the child during the first six months of the birth, which is very vital for the development of the child.

All Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM), excluding those in regular employment with the Government or PSUs or those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law for the time being are eligible.

• Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers who are eligible will receive a cash benefit of Rs.5,000/- in three instalment.
• The cash incentive is payable in three instalments for the first live birth, as normally, the first pregnancy of a woman exposes her to new kind of challenges and stress factors.
• However, to address the problem of malnutrition and morbidity among children, the anganwadi services, which is universal, is available to all PW&LM including the second pregnancy.
• The cash transfer would be Aadhaar linked through the individual bank/post office account etc. in DBT mode.
• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and the cost sharing between Centre and States is 60:40 for all the States and UTs (with legislature), 90:10 for NER and Himalayan States and 100% GoI share for UTs without legislatures.
• Thus a PW&LM will get Rs. 5,000/- under PMMVY and the remaining cash incentive as per approved norms under Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) after institutional delivery so that on an average, a woman gets Rs. 6000/-

The Rajya Sabha (first constituted in 1952) is a continuing chamber, that is, it is a permanent body and not subject to dissolution.

• However, one-third of its members retire every second year.
• Their seats are filled up by fresh elections and presidential nominations at the beginning of every third year.
• The retiring members are eligible for re-election and renomination any number of times.
• The Constitution has not fixed the term of office of members of the Rajya Sabha and left it to the Parliament.
• Accordingly, the Parliament in the Representation of the People Act (1951) provided that the term of office of a member of the Rajya Sabha shall be six years.

Adjournment Motion is introduced in the Parliament to draw attention of the House to a definite matter of urgent public importance, and needs the support of 50 members to be admitted.

• As it interrupts the normal business of the House, it is regarded as an extraordinary device.
• It involves an element of censure against the government and hence Rajya Sabha is not permitted to make use of this device.
• The discussion on an adjournment motion should last for not less than two hours and thirty minutes.

The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan. The features of the scheme were:

• The total strength of the Constituent Assembly was to be 389. Of these, 296 seats were to be allotted to British India and 93 seats to the Princely States. Out of 296 seats allotted to the British India, 292 members were to be drawn from the eleven governors’ provinces and four from the four chief commissioners’ provinces, one from each.
• Each province and princely state (or groups of states in case of small states) were to be allotted seats in proportion to their respective population. Roughly, one seat was to be allotted for every million population.
• Seats allocated to each British province were to be divided among the three principal communities—Muslims, Sikhs and general (all except Muslims and Sikhs), in proportion to their population.
• The representatives of each community were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
• The representatives of princely states were to be nominated by the heads of the princely states.
• It is thus clear that the Constituent Assembly was to be a partly elected and partly nominated body. Moreover, the members were to be indirectly elected by the members of the provincial assemblies, who themselves were elected on a limited franchise.