13th November 2019 : Prelims Sure Shot 

 

Concept of president’s Rule 

Role of Governor:

• Usually the moment an election is won or lost, the Chief Minister resigns and is then asked by the Governor to continue as ‘caretaker’ until a new government is in place.
• The Sarkaria Commission formed in 1983 came out with a detailed report which discusses the Role of Governor, in such circumstances.
• As per the Sarkaria Commission report, if there is a single party having an absolute majority in the Assembly, the leader of the party should automatically be asked to become the Chief Minister.
• However, if there is no such party, Governor would be expected to go as per an order of preference set out in the Sarkaria Commission recommendations.
• By the order of preference, the Governor can invite 1) a pre-poll alliance of parties; 2) invite the single largest party which stakes a claim to form government; 3) invite a post-poll alliance of parties, with all the partners in the coalition joining the government or 4) invite a post-poll alliances of parties, with some becoming part of the government and some supporting from outside.

How is the President’s Rule imposed?

• President’s Rule implies the suspension of a state government and the imposition of direct rule of the Centre. This is achieved through the invocation of Article 356 of the Constitution by the President on the advice of the Union Council of Ministers.
• Under Article 356, this move can be taken, if the President, on receipt of the report from the Governor of the State or otherwise, is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

How long can the President’s Rule last?

• A proclamation of President’s Rule can be revoked through a subsequent proclamation in case the leader of a party produces letters of support from a majority of members of the Assembly, and stakes his claim to form a government. The revocation does not need the approval of Parliament.
• Any proclamation under Article 356 —which stands for six months — has to be approved by both Houses in the Parliament session following it. This six-month time-frame can be extended in phases, up to three years.

Note: President’s Rule must have legitimate basis

• Any recommendation by a Governor for President’s rule in a State under Article 356(1) of the Constitution should be based on “objective material” and not on a political whim or fancy, the Supreme Court had ruled in the 1994 S.R. Bommai case.

• • “It is not the personal whim, wish, view or opinion or the ipse dixit of the President de hors the material, but a legitimate inference drawn from the material placed before him which is relevant for the purpose,” the nine-judge Bench had said.
• Such objective material may be available in the report sent to the President by the Governor or otherwise or both from the report and other sources. Once such material is shown to exist, the satisfaction of the President based on the material is not open to question.
• Article 356(1) has been deliberately drafted in a narrow language by the Founding Fathers so that political parties in the Centre do not misuse it to subvert federalism, it had noted.
• The proclamation of President’s Rule in a State is open to challenge if there is no supporting objective material.
• The court had stated that although the sufficiency or otherwise of the material cannot be questioned, the legitimacy of inference drawn from such material is “certainly open to judicial review”.
• The proclamation by the President under Article 356 is on the advice of the Council of Ministers tendered under Article 74(1).
• The judgment had explained that in a multi-party political system, chances are high that the political parties in the Centre and the State concerned may not be the same. Article 356 cannot be used for the purpose of political one-upmanship by the Centre.

Concept of e-NAM

• e-NAM or the e-trading platform (online trading portal) for the National Agriculture Market (NAM) was launched by the Prime Minister on April 2016.
• e – National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal which nets the prevailing Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) Mandis for making a united national market for agricultural commodities.
• The e-NAM project would operate via the online portal that is linked to the states’ mandis (Wholesale markets). All the participating states will be providing the software (Website and Mobile Application) for e-NAM at no cost.

How Does e-NAM Operate?

• A competent person will be appointed for one year in each sharing mandi in order to enable the seamless and smooth operation of the portal.

Some key points related to e-NAM are given below:

• The GOI is offering a grant of Rs.30 lakhs to the participating agriculture mandis.
• Farmers under this scheme will be given ‘farmer helpline services’ 24×7 to help them obtain information about the portal.
• Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) which is the lead promoter of National Agricultural Market (eNAM). SFAC which is formulated under the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare (DAC&FW). SFAC through open tender selects a Partner to develop, operate and maintain the NAM e-platform.

e-NAM & Its Constituents

• e-NAM comprises of commodity onsets and prices, buy and sell trade offers, facility to respond to trade offers, among other services.
• The focus areas, with regards to the implementation of e – National Agriculture Market, are given in table below:

e-NAM Implementation
Informing and trading commodities on e-NAM	Increasing the involvement of traders on e-NAM
Aggregate the quantity and value of supplies being traded on e-NAM	Increasing the figures of bids cited by traders
Encouraging cashless transactions, e.g. online payments, to farmers	Promoting inter-market trade between Mandis
Offering access to Soil Testing Laboratories to farmers	Accompanying awareness and farmer orientation programs
Providing elementary amenities and facilities for cleaning, sorting and packing to farmers in the Mandi	Creating logistics and infrastructure available to encourage inter-market trade on the e-NAM platform
Undertaking local initiatives and innovative systems to influence greater strength to e-NAM	Safeguarding transparency and accountability in implementation.

• In conclusion, we can say that this will turn out beneficial to the farmers when they’re receiving a higher price than before on their produce. The intermediaries that are responsible for the claiming charges that result in higher market price can be put to trial.
• Larger retail stores can benefit from this and will be attracted to this due to higher profit margins since no intermediaries will be involved. When the local market prices are high, the state government has been seen blocking supplies in order to create an imbalance in Demand and Supply; hence it is critical to ensure that the software being used doesn’t have any loopholes.

 

Concept of Agricultural produce market committees (APMC)

• Agricultural produce market committees (APMC) are the marketing boards.
• APMCs are established by the state governments in order to eliminate the incidences exploitation of the farmers by the intermediaries, where they are forced to sell their produce at extremely low prices. All the food produce must be brought to the market and sales are made through auction.
• The market place i.e, Mandi is set up in various places within the states.
• These markets geographically divide the state.
• Licenses are issued to the traders to operate within a market.
• The mall owners, wholesale traders, retail traders are not given the permission to purchase the produce from the farmers directly.

 

Western Ghats still home to a rich stock of butterflies

• A survey in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) has found that the Western Ghats is still home to a rich stock of butterflies.
• It was found that the diversity of butterflies was very low in the forest areas where the alien invasive plant like Senna spectabilis invaded other endemic plants, whereas the diversity was very rich in areas where plants like Mikania micrantha and Lantana camera remained dominant.
• The sighting of 191 species of butterflies throws light upon the healthy butterfly habitat in the region.
• 12 of the 191 species are endemic to the biodiversity-rich region.

 

Renovation of 13th century temple to begin soon

Context:

• Work on renovation of the historical 13th century Lakshmi Narasimha temple in Bhadravati that developed leaks after the recent rains will commence soon.

Details:

• The temple is located in Bhadravati taluk in the Shimoga District of Karnataka state.
• The temple was built during the Hoysala rule in the early 13th century.
• The temple is a ‘trikuta’ — a temple with three shrines (Vimana) — dedicated to deities Lakshmi Narasimha, Venugopalaswamy, and Purushothama.
• The basic building material being Soapstone.
• The temple stands on a jagati and the outer wall exhibits a two-tier decorative plan.

Hoysala Temple Architecture:

• Hoysalas grew into prominence in South India after the Chola and the Pandya power declined.
• Their chief temples are at Belur, Somnathapuram and Halebid.
• These temples have a plan called the stellate plan. This is because of the plan which emerged from being a straightforward square to a complex one with many projecting angles began to resemble a star.
• The star-like ground plan is a distinct feature of Hoysala architecture. The style is Vesara.
• They are made of soapstone which is relatively soft. This is believed to have enabled the artists to carve intricate details like jewellery.