Daily News Mail - News of 20/03/2015

What is MPLADS(Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme)?

The Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme is a scheme  formulated by Government of India on 23 December 1993. Under the scheme, each MP has the choice to suggest to the District Collector for, works to the tune of Rs.5 Crores per annum to be taken up in his/her constituency. The Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament can recommend works in one or more districts in the State from where he/she has been elected. The Nominated Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha may select any Districts from any State in the Country for implementation of their choice of work under the scheme. The Department has issued the guidelines on Scheme Concept, implementation, and monitoring. The Department has initiated all necessary steps to ensure that the scheme is successfully implemented in the field. The progress of the works being implemented under the scheme is monitored on a regular basis.

Jaitapur compensation package divides family

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• The hefty(large; heavy) compensation package offered to the people affected by the proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project (JNPP) is resulting in an unprecedented number of court battles, pitting family members against each other for a larger share of the money.
• Out of the 2,336 Project Affected People (PAP), 1,744 accepted compensation cheques from the government. But around 950 (close to 60%) of these cases have run into disputes and are now before the district magistrate.
• Many allege that their names were either deleted or not included in the land records to deprive them of the compensation package. Others have claimed that their names were deleted from land records by their own family members in connivance(willingness to secretly allow or be involved in wrongdoing, especially an immoral or illegal act) with local tehsil office.
• The proposed 9900 MW JNPP was mired in controversy right from its inception following protests by the PAP. The Government of India accorded it sanction in October 2005. A decade later, despite acquiring around 938 hectares of land, the project has not moved forward. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) maintains that the techno-commercial discussion with the Government of France, whose company Areva is to install six European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) here, is still in progress.

Jaitley concurs with CSO's estimate of UPA growth rate

• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on March 19 that if the estimates of India’s GDP that the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has revised show that growth during the UPA government’s last year was 6.9% rather than 4.7% then it was right.
• The estimate growth for the first year of the Modi government of 7.4 per cent he said he was quite alright with.
• Mr. Jaitley said that the CSO was an independent organisation unaffected by whether a UPA or an NDA government was in office. 
• Calculating national income with 2011-12 as the base year, the CSO revised the growth for 2013-14 to 6.9%. Growth rate was earlier calculated with 2004-05 as base year.

IS claims responsibility for Tunisia attack

• The Islamic State (IS) issued a statement on March 19 claiming responsibility for the deadly attack on Tunisia’s national museum that killed 23 people, mostly tourists.
• The statement said there were two attackers and they weren’t killed until they ran out of ammunition and it promised further attacks.
• IS, which is based in Syria and Iraq, has affiliates in neighbouring Libya, where many Tunisians have gone to fight and train with extremist groups.

European countries express readiness to join China-led infrastructure bank

• The queue to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has lengthened with Germany, France and Italy expressing readiness to join the China-led initiative, overriding objections from the United States, which has been accused by Beijing of adopting a “hypocritical”(behaving in a way that suggests one has higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case) stance.
• The financial cracks within the post-war Atlantic Alliance, led by the U.S. became visible after Britain decided to participate in negotiations for joining the AIIB. London’s move has reverberated((of a loud noise) be repeated several times as an echo) from Europe to the Asia-Pacific.
• While core European Union (EU) members led by Germany, a pivotal industrial heavyweight, are shoring up(shore up - support by placing against something solid or rigid) one geographic flank, Australia has also signalled its intent to join AIIB.