Mains Question for UPSC Aspirants

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Mains Question for UPSC Aspirants

28 Jun 2022 gs-mains-paper-3 ECOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT     
Question :
Q. Climate change and poor planning can be cited as main reasons for recent floods in the Northeast part of India. Discuss and suggest effective measures.

Decode the Question:
  • Start with the reasoning why floods occur in the Northeast part of India.
  • Discuss the climate factors and planning factors responsible for floods.
  • Suggest some measures to mitigate the effects of floods.
  • Conclude with a suitable note.
 
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Write or upload your answer - SUBMIT A-CUBE IAS Answer :
The North Eastern region of India is extremely vulnerable to natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, landslides etc.
Every year during the monsoon season, the region experiences worst fury of nature in the form of Brahmaputra River flooding and erosion along its banks, devastating large areas of habituated landform and damaging agrarian lands, especially Guwahati city experiences its worst impact in the form of flash floods every year.
Apart from incessant rainfall during the monsoon, there are many contributory factors, natural and man-made. Silt deposited by the river Brahmaputra in floodplains surrounded by hills on all sides leading to erosion and floods. Habitation, deforestation, population growth in catchment areas (including in China) lead to higher sedimentation.
It is common for people to settle in such places, which restricts the space the river has to flow. When rainfall is heavy, it combines with all these factors and leads to destructive floods. This happens very frequently. The north-eastern regions are becoming increasingly fragile due to the exponential rise in climate extremes.
 
Main reasons for recent floods in Northeast part of India:
Climatic factors:
  • A combination of La Nina in the Pacific and a negative Indian Ocean Dipole in the Indian Ocean has strengthened the winds blowing from the southwest to the northeast (southwesterlies) in the Bay of Bengal.
  • These strong monsoon winds in the Bay of Bengal can now carry much more moisture than ever before, in response to global warming. The volume of atmospheric moisture increases with rising temperature because warmer air holds more moisture and for longer.
  • These winds dumping rains over Bangladesh and northeast India have been exceptionally strong.
Planning Factors:  
  • Poor embankment construction:  These are weak and are regularly breached. Embankments are a temporary solution, and they are as good as their management. Usually when embankments are breached, villages inside embankments (between the river and embankments) are affected and are supposed to be evacuated. But this year, villages lying outside embankments in Darrang district, the very land the embankments were supposed to protect, were engulfed by floods. No preparation is done for such villages.
  • Not updated District Disaster Management Plans (DDMP): Ensuring updation of the DDMPs and, more importantly, its practical implementation can help manage floods better. But these are not updated regularly. Only 7 per cent of the districts have updated their disaster management plans (DDMP) until 2020 in Assam. These types of poor planning factors led to diminish the mitigation efforts.
 Suggestions:
  • Strengthen embankments along the Brahmaputra and other rivers: Most embankments built in the 1980s are not strong enough. Since they were temporary measures, the government did not spend on high-specification embankments. These are weak and are regularly breached.
  • Dredging of rivers:  increasing the water-holding capacity of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries by dredging may help. This could be done in consultation with all stakeholders. This would also boost and benefit the state’s economy.
  • Modern weather stations set up: Centre to set up modern weather stations in the upstream catchment of all dams in the North East and install sirens on river banks near dams. This would alert downstream populations in the event of floods.
  • Afforestation and rejuvenation of wetlands: These measures can help to mitigate floods.
  • Inclusion of river erosion in the admissible list of calamities: The government should consider the inclusion of river erosion in the admissible list of calamities for availing assistance under the National Disaster Response Fund / State Disaster Response Fund.
  • Manpower strengthening: Brahmaputra Board, which has been functional since 1982, does not have enough manpower. It had asked the board to fill up all vacant posts on a priority basis
  • Enactment of flood plain zoning bill: The bill envisages the zoning of the flood plain of a river according to flood frequencies and defines the type of use of flood plains.
  • Setting up of River Basin Organizations: These would effectively provide immediate, short-term and long-term solutions in addition to the overall development of the river basin.
  • River Basin Management Authority: prioritise and enact the River Basin Management Authority for holistic management of water resources of each river basin.
  • Integrated basin management system: bring in all the basin-sharing countries on board. For that, interstate relationships, political cooperation and the role of the government are important.
Despite significant outlay on flood control, flood protection and catchment protection works, it has been found that there is no complete solution to providing total protection. Flood cushions in the reservoirs and flood embankments have provided good solutions for recurring floods and have provided relief to large-scale flood damage.
Flood forecasting provided by the Central Water Commission has played a significant role in minimizing flood damage and saving human lives.
The Odisha model to deal with natural calamity can be helpful.

References: Down To Earth    Down To Earth

27 Jun 2022 gs-mains-paper-2 INDIAN POLITY      
Question :
Q. Discuss the key provisions of anti-defection law? Why is it sometimes dubbed as toothless tiger? Suggest some measures to strengthen it?

Decode the Question:
  • Start with expressing the key provisions of the anti-defection law.
  • Point out main issues associated with this law by citing some recent developments.
  • Suggest some measures to strengthen this law.
  • Conclude with a suitable note.
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Write or upload your answer - SUBMIT A-CUBE IAS Answer :
Defection is defined as a “conscious abandonment of allegiance or duty”. The 52nd Amendment Act of 1985 provided for the disqualification of the members of Parliament and the state legislatures on the ground of defection from one political party to another. It is often referred to as the ‘anti-defection law’.
The purpose of the anti-defection law was to bring stability to governments by discouraging legislators from changing parties.
The Tenth Schedule contains the following provisions with respect to the disqualification of members of Parliament and the state legislatures on the ground of defection:
  • Members of Political Parties: when a legislator elected on the ticket of one political party “voluntarily gives up” membership of that party or vote in the legislature against the party’s wishes, he becomes disqualified for being a member of the House.
  • Independent Members: An independent member of a House becomes disqualified to remain a member of the House if he joins any political party after such election.
  • Nominated Members: In their case, the law specifies that they can join a political party within six months of being appointed to the House, and not after such time.
  • The above disqualification on the ground of defection is not applicable in the following two cases: 
  • If two-thirds of the strength of a party should agree for a ‘merger’ then it will not be counted as a defection.
  • If a member, after being elected as the presiding officer of the House.
91st Amendment Act of 2003 deleted the provisions regarding protection granted to legislators in cases of a split in the party under the Tenth Schedule.
Though the anti-defection law has been hailed as a bold step towards cleansing our political life and started as a new epoch in the political life of the country, it has revealed many lacunae in its operation and failed to prevent defections in toto. But the following issues associate it with the tag of toothless tiger.
 
Issues with Anti-defection law:
  • Dissent Vs Defection: It does not make a differentiation between dissent and defection. It curbs the legislator’s right to dissent and freedom of conscience. Thus, ‘it clearly puts party bossism on a pedestal and sanctions tyranny of the party in the name of the party discipline’. It violates the principle of representative democracy.
  • Merger Issue: it banned only retail defections and legalised wholesale defections. If two-thirds of the strength of a party should agree for a ‘merger’ then it will not be counted as a defection. In 2019 in Goa, 10 of the 15 Congress MLAs merged their legislature party with the BJP. In the same year, in Rajasthan, six BSP MLAs merged their party with the Congress, and in Sikkim, 10 of the 15 MLAs of the Sikkim Democratic Front joined the BJP. These are against the people’s political mandate and defeat the purpose of anti-defection.
  • Independent members vs nominated member issue: Its discrimination between an independent member and a nominated member is illogical. If the former joins a party, he is disqualified while the latter is allowed to do the same.
  • Issues associated with the presiding officer: Its vesting of decision-making authority in the presiding officer is criticised on two grounds. Firstly, he may not exercise this authority in an impartial and objective manner due to political exigencies. Secondly, he lacks the legal knowledge and experience to adjudicate upon the cases. 
  • No prescribed time- period for decision: The law does not define a time period within which disqualification proceedings against a legislator ought to be decided. With the role of the Speaker of the House getting more and more political by virtue of this law, disqualifications were either decided immediately or kept pending indefinitely depending on which of the two suited the political party that the Speaker was earlier affiliated with. Additionally, with the Courts having no jurisdiction over disqualification proceedings, judicial remedy could be sought only against the decision of the Speaker or on his inaction in deciding the disqualification proceedings. This made the proceedings under the Tenth Schedule useless to a large extent and did not discourage legislators from jumping ship. In 2020 however, the Supreme Court in an order stated that Speakers ought to decide on the disqualification proceedings pending before them within a “reasonable time”.
  • Split Issue: Though 91st Amendment Act of 2003 deleted the provisions regarding protection granted to legislators in cases of a split in the party under the Tenth Schedule. Opposition MLAs in states, like Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, have broken away in small groups gradually to join the ruling party. In some of these cases, more than 2/3rd of the opposition has defected to the ruling party. The ambiguity over such a split is not clear if they will still face disqualification if the Presiding Officer makes a decision after more than 2/3rd of the opposition has defected to the ruling party.
  • Practice of horse trading: Parties have also been able to use the anti-defection law to their advantage. Parties often have to sequester MLAs in resorts to prevent them from changing their allegiance or getting poached by a rival party or an opposing faction of their party. Recent examples are Rajasthan (2020), Maharashtra (2019), Karnataka (2019 and 2018), and Tamil Nadu (2017). Recent crisis of Maharashtra (2022) has also raised questions about anti-defection law.
  • No bar on outside activities: It does not provide for the expulsion of a legislator from his party for his activities outside the legislature.
Suggestions to strengthen the law:
  • The President and Governors should hear defection petitions. 
  • It must apply only to save governments in no-confidence motions. Restricting the scope of law can shield the detrimental effect of the anti-defection law on representative democracy.
  • Parliament should set up an independent tribunal headed by a retired judge of the higher judiciary to decide defection cases swiftly and impartially.
  • Strengthening Intra-Party Democracy is a vital step to strengthen this law.
  • Bringing political parties under the purview of RTI can be a right step.
In a Judgement, Justice NV Ramana rightly pointed out: "political parties are indulging in horse trading & corrupt practices due to which citizens are denied of stable governments. In these circumstances, the Parliament is required to re-consider strengthening certain aspects of the Tenth Schedule so that such undemocratic practices are discouraged". For healthy representative democracy and free and fair elections, the strong anti-defection law is a need of the hour.
 
Reference: India Today    Indian Express

20 May 2022 gs-mains-paper-4 ETHICS, INTEGRITY & APTITUDE      
Question : What are Competencies of civil servant and why are they Important?

(GS Mains; Paper 4)

 
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19 May 2022 gs-mains-paper-4 ETHICS, INTEGRITY & APTITUDE     
Question : What is Sarvodaya? Explain its relevance in present day governance.

(GS Main; Paper 4)
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18 May 2022 gs-mains-paper-3 ECOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT     
Question : What are the emerging opportunities and threats for efforts to conserve biodiversity in India?

(GS Mains; Paper 3)
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17 May 2022 gs-mains-paper-4 ETHICS, INTEGRITY & APTITUDE      
Question : Corruption in India is disruptive to social development. Discuss.

(GS Mains; Paper 4)
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16 May 2022 gs-mains-paper-3 ECOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT      
Question : Discuss the criteria employed for dispersal of pollutants in marine ecosystems.

(GS Mains; Paper 3)
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15 May 2022 gs-mains-paper-2 GOVERNANCE    
Question : Do you think that NGOs have delivered the desired goals in the field of social justice? Support your answer with suitable examples.

(GS Mains; Paper 2)

 
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14 May 2022 gs-mains-paper-2 SOCIAL ISSUES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE    
Question : In ensuring the Social justice, what has been the role of “the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment”? Evaluate.

(GS Mains; Paper 2)
Social Justice
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13 May 2022 gs-mains-paper-3 ECOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT      
Question : Describe the principle of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). What are its potential and advantages in India?

(GS Mains; Paper 3)
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