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Type: States

Many questions regarding developments in specific states are asked in both prelims and mains. These Newscards correspond to such developments.

  • Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet proposal to cap reservation at 50 percent stays pending with the Lieutenant Governor after the 2024 amendment raised the quota from 43 to 70 percent

    Why in the News

    The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir has warned of youth led protests if the Cabinet’s proposal to cap reservation at 50 percent, sent to the Lieutenant Governor in November 2025, is not acted upon. Reservation in the Union Territory stands at 70 percent after a 2024 amendment made by the administration when no elected Assembly existed. An elected Cabinet is therefore seeking to reverse a quota that only the same executive channel can now undo.

    What is the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004?

    1. About: The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 governs reservation in government appointments, admission to professional institutions and promotions in the Union Territory.
    2. Categories covered: It provides for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, residents of backward areas, residents of areas along the Actual Line of Control and the International Border, persons with disabilities and former service personnel.
    3. Distinctive feature: Reservation on the basis of residence in border and backward areas is specific to this Union Territory and has no direct parallel in most States.
    4. How percentages change: Category wise percentages are fixed through rules and amendments issued by the administration, so the quota can be altered without a fresh statute from an elected legislature.
    5. Post 2019 status: The Act continued to apply after the reorganisation of the State, and was amended by Parliament in 2023 to replace the earlier expression for backward classes with Other Backward Classes.

    What is the Actual Line of Control category?

    1. About: The Actual Line of Control (ALC) category covers residents of villages lying along the line dividing Indian and Pakistani held territory, who face shelling, restricted cultivation and displacement.
    2. Why it exists: The reservation compensates for the loss of education and employment opportunity caused by proximity to the line, and a parallel category exists for residents along the International Border (IB) in the Jammu plains.

    Who is an Agniveer?

    1. About: An Agniveer is a soldier recruited under the Agnipath scheme of 2022 for a four year term in the armed forces, after which 25 percent of each batch is retained in regular service.
    2. Why reservation is promised: The remaining personnel leave service in their twenties, so the Centre and several States have announced quotas for them in police and paramilitary recruitment.

    What is the current status of reservation in Jammu and Kashmir?

    1. Before August 2019: 43 percent of posts in government jobs were reserved across all categories, before the abrogation of the erstwhile State’s special status on 5 August 2019.
    2. After the 2024 amendment: Total reservation stands at 70 percent, leaving 30 percent of posts for open competition.
    3. The Scheduled Tribe share: The Scheduled Tribe quota was raised from 10 percent to 20 percent.
    4. The pending proposal: A Cabinet sub committee report of October 2025 recommended capping reservation at 50 percent, the Cabinet accepted it, and the file went to the Lieutenant Governor in November 2025.
    5. National baseline for comparison: At the Union level, Scheduled Castes hold 15 percent, Scheduled Tribes 7.5 percent, Other Backward Classes 27 percent for the non creamy layer, and the economically weaker sections 10 percent.
    6. The ceiling position: Indra Sawhney v. Union of India, 1992 fixed a 50 percent ceiling on reservation, relaxable only in extraordinary situations. The economically weaker sections quota sits outside that ceiling after Janhit Abhiyan v. Union of India, 2022.

    Constitutional Provisions Related to Reservation

    1. Article 15(4): Permits special provision for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
    2. Article 15(5): Permits reservation in admission to educational institutions, including private unaided institutions, excluding minority institutions.
    3. Article 15(6) and Article 16(6): Inserted by the 103rd Amendment Act, 2019, permitting up to 10 percent reservation for economically weaker sections in education and public employment.
    4. Article 16(1) and Article 16(2): Guarantee equality of opportunity in public employment and bar discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth or residence.
    5. Article 16(4): Permits reservation in appointments for any backward class not adequately represented in the services of the State.
    6. Article 16(4A): Permits reservation in promotion with consequential seniority for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
    7. Article 16(4B): Allows carry forward of unfilled reserved vacancies without counting them against the ceiling of the succeeding year.
    8. Article 335: Requires claims of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to be considered consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration, a term the Constitution does not define.
    9. Article 338, 338A and 338B: Establish the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes.
    10. Article 340: Empowers the President to appoint a commission to investigate the conditions of backward classes, the provision under which the Mandal Commission was set up.
    11. Article 341 and Article 342: Empower the President to specify the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for a State or Union Territory, with any change requiring an Act of Parliament.
    12. Article 342A: Inserted by the 102nd Amendment and modified by the 105th Amendment Act, 2021, restoring the power of States and Union Territories to prepare their own list of socially and educationally backward classes.
    13. Article 46: Directs the State to promote the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections, particularly Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

    How did the quota rise from 43 percent to 70 percent?

    1. The instrument: In 2024 the Lieutenant Governor announced an amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004, raising total reservation from 43 percent to 70 percent in government jobs.
    2. The timing: The amendment came barely a month before the 2024 parliamentary elections.
    3. The driver: Scheduled Tribe status was granted to the Pahari community, which sharply enlarged the population drawing on the Scheduled Tribe quota.
    4. The countervailing move: Gujjars and Bakerwals, who already held Scheduled Tribe status, had consistently opposed Pahari inclusion. The Scheduled Tribe quota was raised from 10 percent to 20 percent so that existing beneficiaries were not diluted.
    5. The residual pool: Candidates outside every reserved category were left competing for 30 percent of posts, which drew sharp criticism from unreserved applicants.

    Why is the elected government under pressure?

    1. Data placed on the floor of the Assembly: In February the government answered a motion by a People’s Conference legislator with figures showing significantly more reserved category certificates issued in Jammu than in Kashmir.
    2. Dissent from within the ruling party: In October 2025 a Member of Parliament from the Chief Minister’s own party sat on protest with unreserved category candidates outside the Chief Minister’s residence.
    3. Manifesto commitments: The National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party both promised in their 2024 Assembly manifestos to revisit the policy, framing it cautiously as rationalisation of reservation.
    4. A competing promise: The Bharatiya Janata Party promised additional reservation for Agniveers and reservation in promotions for employees from reserved groups.
    5. The street risk: The Chief Minister has warned that youth led agitation of the kind seen elsewhere could follow if the Cabinet decision continues to go unanswered.

    Why has the proposal not moved?

    1. What the Cabinet did: The Cabinet accepted the sub committee’s recommendation of a 50 percent cap and sent the file to the Lieutenant Governor’s residence for clearance in November 2025.
    2. What followed: Queries were raised on the report, the government responded to them, and there has been no movement since.
    3. Why clearance is required: Jammu and Kashmir is a Union Territory with a legislature, where the Council of Ministers aids and advises the Lieutenant Governor and any difference of opinion is referred to the President.
    4. Limits on the elected tier: Under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 the Assembly cannot legislate on public order and police, and the administration retains substantial executive authority.
    5. The transparency objection: The stated grievance is that Cabinet approvals are held without any communicated decision, which leaves the elected government publicly answerable for an outcome it cannot deliver.

    Major debates surrounding reservation

    1. The 50 percent ceiling: Indra Sawhney fixed the limit, and States have breached it repeatedly. Tamil Nadu’s 69 percent reservation survives because it was placed in the Ninth Schedule in 1994.
    2. The economically weaker sections carve out: Janhit Abhiyan upheld the 10 percent quota by a 3 to 2 majority, which unsettled the ceiling as a firm rule and reopened the question of economic criteria.
    3. Social exclusion against economic upliftment: One position treats reservation as a remedy for historical exclusion from representation, another treats it as an instrument against poverty.
    4. Sub classification within categories: State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh, 2024 permitted States to sub classify Scheduled Castes for more targeted quotas, overruling E V Chinnaiah, 2004.
    5. Efficiency of administration: Article 335 conditions reservation on efficiency, and the absence of a definition leaves the balance to be argued case by case.
    6. Reservation in promotions: M Nagaraj, 2006 and Jarnail Singh, 2018 require quantifiable data on inadequacy of representation before promotion quotas, and the sufficiency of that data is routinely litigated.
    7. Who is listed as a Scheduled Tribe: Inclusion in the Article 342 list follows a Presidential order amended by Parliament, and the criteria applied for the Pahari inclusion are disputed by communities already on the list.
    8. Absence of current backward class data: Quota shares are set without an enumerated count of backward classes, which is the core of the demand for a caste census.

    Challenges to the reservation framework in Jammu and Kashmir

    1. The reserved pool exceeds the open pool: At 70 percent, unreserved candidates compete for less than a third of posts. e.g. general category aspirants in the Union Territory contest 30 percent of vacancies against roughly 50 percent available in most other States.
    2. Certification depends on revenue records: Residence based categories require boundary determinations that are open to error and manipulation. e.g. villages that straddle the notified Actual Line of Control belt generate contested certificates for the same locality.
    3. Contest within Scheduled Tribes: Existing tribes argue that a linguistic and geographic grouping does not meet the listing criteria. e.g. Gujjars and Bakerwals opposed Pahari inclusion on the argument that it dilutes a quota meant for pastoral communities with distinct traits and isolation.
    4. The formal employment base is narrow: Government service is the principal source of secure employment, so quota changes carry outsized political weight. e.g. private sector job creation in the Union Territory remains limited, which turns every recruitment notification into a political event.
    5. Litigation risk on the ceiling: Any quota above 50 percent must justify an extraordinary situation. e.g. the Supreme Court struck down Maharashtra’s Maratha reservation in Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. Chief Minister, 2021 for breaching the limit without such justification.
    6. Quota fixed by executive route: The increase was made by the administration when no elected Assembly existed, so accountability for it sits with neither the present Cabinet nor a legislature. e.g. the 2024 amendment was announced by the Lieutenant Governor a month before a national election.
    7. Regional perception of unequal benefit: Certificate issuance patterns feed a Jammu against Kashmir framing of the whole policy. e.g. the figures tabled in the Assembly in February became the basis for a protest by unreserved category aspirants.

    Conclusion

    Reservation in Jammu and Kashmir stands at 70 percent, set by an executive amendment made when no elected Assembly existed, and it can be reduced only through the same executive channel. The Cabinet’s recommendation of a 50 percent cap has been with the Lieutenant Governor since November 2025 without a decision, so a social justice dispute has become a question of who governs the Union Territory. The next milestone is the Lieutenant Governor’s decision on the file, or a reference to the President if the difference of opinion persists.

    What is Reservation?

    1. About: Reservation is a form of positive discrimination that sets aside a fixed proportion of public posts, legislative seats and educational places for groups identified as socially and educationally backward or inadequately represented.
    2. Rationale: Formal equality under Article 16(1) leaves historically excluded groups competing from unequal starting positions, and reservation supplies the substantive equality that Article 16(4) permits as a facet of, not an exception to, equality.
    3. Vertical reservation: Quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and economically weaker sections, which are mutually exclusive categories.
    4. Horizontal reservation: Quotas for women, persons with disabilities and ex servicemen, which cut across every vertical category rather than forming a separate block.
    5. Creamy layer: The filter excluding the economically advanced within a backward class, applied to Other Backward Classes since Indra Sawhney and extended to promotion quotas for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Jarnail Singh, 2018.
    6. Reservation in legislatures: Distinct from employment quotas, provided under Articles 330 and 332 for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and under the 106th Amendment for women.

    Key Concerns Regarding Reservation

    1. Benefit capture within categories: Dominant sub groups absorb a disproportionate share of reserved posts, which is what prompted the sub classification question in Davinder Singh.
    2. Absence of current data: Quota shares rest on the 1931 caste enumeration and on estimates, with no current count of backward class population.
    3. Erosion of the ceiling: Successive carve outs and State enactments above 50 percent have made the Indra Sawhney limit a contested rather than settled rule.
    4. Shrinking public sector: The reserved pool shrinks as government recruitment falls and contractual hiring rises, so quotas apply to a diminishing base.
    5. Backlog vacancies: Reserved posts remain unfilled and are carried forward or converted, which defeats the adequacy of representation the quota exists to secure.
    6. No coverage of the private sector or the higher judiciary: Reservation does not extend to private employment or to appointments to the higher judiciary, which limits its reach in the fastest growing segments.

    Constitutional and Statutory Framework Governing the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir

    1. Article 239: Provides for administration of Union Territories by the President through an Administrator, designated in this case as the Lieutenant Governor.
    2. Article 239A: Permits Parliament to create a legislature and a Council of Ministers for a Union Territory, the provision extended to Jammu and Kashmir.
    3. Article 240: Empowers the President to make regulations for specified Union Territories.
    4. Article 246(4): Empowers Parliament to legislate for a Union Territory on any matter, including matters in the State List.
    5. Article 370: Rendered inoperative in 2019, with the abrogation upheld in In Re Article 370 of the Constitution, 2023, which also directed restoration of statehood at the earliest.
    6. Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019: Reorganised the State into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and of Ladakh, and defined the legislative and executive scheme for the former.
    7. The Assembly may legislate on State List and Concurrent List subjects, excluding public order and police, which remain with the Union.
    8. Section 53: The Council of Ministers aids and advises the Lieutenant Governor on matters within the Assembly’s competence, and a difference of opinion is referred to the President for decision.

    Laws and Rules Governing Reservation in Jammu and Kashmir

    1. Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004: The parent statute governing reservation in appointments, promotions and admissions in the Union Territory.
    2. It recognises reservation on the basis of residence in areas adjoining the Actual Line of Control and the International Border, a category unique to this territory.
    3. Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Rules, 2005: Prescribe the category wise percentages and the procedure for issuing category certificates.
    4. Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Act, 2023: Enacted by Parliament, replacing the earlier expression for weak and under privileged classes with Other Backward Classes.
    5. Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Act, 2024: Added the Pahari Ethnic Group, Paddari Tribe, Koli and Gadda Brahmin to the Scheduled Tribe list for the Union Territory.
    6. Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019: Supplies the constitutional framework within which reservation rules are amended by the administration.
    7. Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019: Introduced the 10 percent economically weaker sections quota, which applies in the Union Territory as elsewhere.

    Back2Basics: Gujjars, Bakerwals and Paharis

    1. Gujjars and Bakerwals together form the third largest community in Jammu and Kashmir and are the largest Scheduled Tribe group in the Union Territory.
    2. They are transhumant pastoralists, moving seasonally with livestock between the Pir Panjal foothills in winter and high altitude meadows in summer.
    3. Gujjars are primarily buffalo and cattle herders, while Bakerwals are goat and sheep herders who undertake the longer migration.
    4. Their language is Gojri, and both communities were granted Scheduled Tribe status in 1991 along with the Gaddi and Sippi.
    5. Paharis are a linguistic and cultural grouping, not a single caste, spread across Rajouri, Poonch, Baramulla, Kupwara and Anantnag, and include Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.
    6. The Justice G D Sharma Commission, constituted in 2020 to examine socially and educationally backward classes in the Union Territory, recommended Scheduled Tribe status for the Pahari speaking people.
    7. Their inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe list took effect through an Act of Parliament in 2024, since Article 342(2) requires parliamentary law to amend a Presidential order.

    Government Initiatives

    1. Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY): Merges village development, grants in aid and hostel construction schemes for Scheduled Caste welfare.
    2. Eklavya Model Residential Schools: Residential schools for Scheduled Tribe students in blocks with a significant tribal population.
    3. Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM-JANMAN): Saturation coverage of basic services for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.
    4. Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan: Convergence mission covering tribal majority villages across housing, water, electricity, health and skilling.
    5. Post Matric Scholarship and National Overseas Scholarship: Educational support for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class students, including for study abroad.
    6. Stand Up India: Bank loans for greenfield enterprises by Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and women entrepreneurs.
    7. National Commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes: Constitutional bodies investigating denial of safeguards and advising on socio economic development.
    8. Van Dhan Vikas Kendras: Value addition and market linkage for minor forest produce collected by tribal households, run under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

    Key Facts about Reservation

    1. The first formal reservation in India was introduced in the princely State of Kolhapur in 1902.
    2. The Mandal Commission was appointed in 1979, submitted its report in 1980, and its 27 percent Other Backward Class quota was implemented from 1990 and upheld in 1992.
    3. Indra Sawhney v. Union of India, 1992 fixed the 50 percent ceiling, applied the creamy layer filter to Other Backward Classes, and barred reservation in promotions.
    4. The 77th Amendment Act, 1995 restored reservation in promotions, the 81st Amendment Act, 2000 dealt with backlog vacancies, the 82nd Amendment Act, 2000 allowed relaxation in qualifying marks, and the 85th Amendment Act, 2001 provided consequential seniority.
    5. Tamil Nadu retains 69 percent reservation, protected by placement in the Ninth Schedule in 1994.
    6. The 103rd Amendment Act, 2019 introduced the 10 percent economically weaker sections quota, upheld in Janhit Abhiyan, 2022.
    7. The 105th Amendment Act, 2021 restored the power of States to identify their own socially and educationally backward classes.
    8. The 106th Amendment Act, 2023 provides one third reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

    Challenges in Implementing Reservation

    1. Absence of enumerated data: Quota design rests on estimates rather than a current count of backward class population. e.g. the last caste wise enumeration of the full population dates to 1931, and the Socio Economic and Caste Census of 2011 caste data was never fully released.
    2. Creamy layer capture: The advanced within a backward class corner a disproportionate share of reserved seats. e.g. the Other Backward Class creamy layer income limit was last revised to 8 lakh rupees a year in 2017, and its revision has been repeatedly deferred.
    3. Unfilled reserved vacancies: Posts notified as reserved remain vacant and are carried forward or lapse. e.g. successive parliamentary replies have shown large backlogs of reserved Group A posts in central ministries and public sector undertakings.
    4. Litigation over promotion quotas: Every promotion quota requires fresh quantifiable data, which States struggle to produce. e.g. promotions in several State services stalled for years after M Nagaraj until the data requirement was clarified in Jarnail Singh, 2018.
    5. Fraudulent category certificates: Verification systems are weak and detection comes long after appointment. e.g. States have periodically cancelled appointments made on forged Scheduled Tribe certificates after scrutiny committee findings.
    6. Shrinking public employment base: Contractual and outsourced hiring falls outside the reservation framework altogether. e.g. large parts of State health and education recruitment now run through contractual posts to which roster rules do not apply.
    7. Exclusion of the private sector: Reservation does not extend to private employment, which now generates most new jobs. e.g. proposals for private sector reservation have remained at the level of voluntary affirmative action codes.
    8. Intra category conflict: Adding a new group to an existing list without enlarging the quota sets beneficiaries against each other. e.g. the Pahari inclusion in Jammu and Kashmir required raising the Scheduled Tribe quota from 10 percent to 20 percent to prevent dilution.

    Way Forward

    1. Complete a caste enumeration: Publish backward class population data so quota shares rest on counted figures rather than estimates, and revise category shares on that basis.
    2. Legislate the ceiling position clearly: Settle whether and on what evidence a State may cross 50 percent, so the question stops being resolved case by case in court.
    3. Enforce the creamy layer with periodic revision: Index the income threshold and apply the filter uniformly, so benefits reach the least advantaged within each category.
    4. Fill backlog vacancies through special recruitment drives: Run time bound drives with a public roster audit for every ministry and State department.
    5. Extend roster rules to contractual posts: Apply reservation to contractual and outsourced public employment so the shrinking regular cadre does not hollow out the entitlement.
    6. Build a verifiable certificate system: Digitise category and residence certificates with a single verification database to reduce forgery and duplicate issuance.
    7. Settle the Jammu and Kashmir file with a reasoned decision: Require the Lieutenant Governor to communicate a decision on the Cabinet’s 50 percent recommendation, or refer the difference to the President as the statute contemplates.
    8. Invest in the pre entry stage: Expand scholarships, coaching and school quality in backward areas, since reservation cannot compensate for the absence of a qualifying candidate pool.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2023] Consider the following statements:
    Statement-I: The Supreme Court of India has held in some judgements that the reservation policies made under Article 16(4) of the Constitution of India would be limited by Article 335 for maintenance of efficiency of administration.
    Statement-II: Article 335 of the Constitution of India defines the term ‘efficiency of administration’.
    Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
    (a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I
    (b) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is not the correct explanation for Statement-I
    (c) Statement-I is correct but Statement-II is incorrect
    (d) Statement-I is incorrect but Statement-II is correct
    Answer: (c)”

  • Safety not on the platter

    Why in the News

    A three day food safety enforcement drive across more than 60 starred hotels seized 640 kg of meat, fish and poultry, 276 kg of mould affected vegetables and about 49 litres of used or non compliant cooking oil. A chemical was found in use to treat spent frying oil at one outlet, which is the specific practice the Repurpose Used Cooking Oil framework exists to prevent. The tension is between an inspection led enforcement model and an industry demanding scheduled, consultative compliance.

    What is the Repurpose Used Cooking Oil initiative?

    1. About: Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) is the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India framework that diverts spent frying oil out of the food chain into biodiesel production.
    2. How it works: A food business generating used cooking oil hands it to an agency authorised by the regulator. That agency then converts the collected oil into biodiesel.
    3. Record keeping obligation: A business frying with more than 50 litres a day must maintain disposal records.
    4. Collection scale: Karnataka collected about 45.9 lakh litres of used cooking oil between 2024 and 2026 through four recognised agencies.

    What is the total polar compound limit?

    1. About: Total polar compounds are the degradation products that accumulate in cooking oil through repeated heating, and they serve as the measurable index of oil deterioration.
    2. Regulatory threshold: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India caps total polar compounds at 25 per cent, beyond which the oil must not be used for cooking.
    3. Why it is enforced: Consumption of oil above this threshold is associated with cardiovascular and metabolic harm.

    What did the drive actually find?

    1. Coverage: 30 teams inspected over 60 three and five star hotels, collecting 77 samples.
    2. Seizures: 640 kg of mutton, chicken and fish, 276 kg of rotten or mould affected vegetables, 45 litres of expired milk and curd, 12 kg of expired bakery products and 67 kg of mislabelled or expired cereals.
    3. Violation types: Expired products, non compliant labelling, misbranding, improper storage of meat and fish, fungal growth, inadequate segregation of vegetarian and non vegetarian stock, and shelf life declarations exceeding the permissible period.
    4. Oil treatment practice: A chemical agent was found in use to visually restore used frying oil at one outlet, which masks degradation rather than reversing it.
    5. Government premises: Inspections on 12 August covered the state secretariat, the legislators’ hostel, subsidised community canteens and a health department canteen, where expired semolina and coconut powder were seized.
    6. Quick commerce warehouses: Two dark store warehouses were inspected and one was sealed.

    How does food safety enforcement actually proceed?

    1. Notice stage: The designated officer issues a notice to the food business operator on an adverse finding.
    2. Hearing stage: A personal hearing follows, after which fines may be imposed and a compliance report sought.
    3. Prosecution route: A sample found unsafe on analysis at a referral laboratory proceeds to prosecution before the Judicial Magistrate First Class court.
    4. Testing volume: About 45,000 samples are analysed annually in the state.
    5. Adulteration versus misbranding: Misbranding and substandard findings attract monetary penalty, while unsafe food attracts criminal prosecution, which is why laboratory confirmation is the pivot.

    What are the health consequences the drive is guarding against?

    1. Monsoon enteric infections: Typhoid and hepatitis A rise in the monsoon months through contaminated food and water.
    2. Secondary neurological sequela: Guillain Barre syndrome occurs as a secondary consequence of certain enteric infections.
    3. Acute liver failure: Hepatitis A and hepatitis E can progress to acute liver failure.
    4. Renal consequence: Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli can cause haemolytic uraemic syndrome, presenting as proteinuria, hypertension and reduced kidney function.
    5. Processed meat classification: The World Health Organization classifies processed meat as carcinogenic to humans, with the strongest association for colorectal cancer.

    Where does the industry position diverge from the regulator?

    1. Frequency demand: Hotel associations seek quarterly scheduled inspections rather than unannounced drives.
    2. Simplification demand: Operators cite roughly 100 separate guidelines and want consolidated standard operating procedures.
    3. Consultation demand: Restaurant associations want advance consultation instead of enforcement raids.
    4. Regulator position: Public health is placed ahead of revenue, with taluk level surveillance teams under examination.
    5. The unresolved point: Scheduled inspection defeats the detection value of surprise inspection, which is what the seizures relied on.

    Challenges in food safety regulation

    1. Testing infrastructure: Laboratory capacity limits how many samples can be analysed and how fast. e.g. about 45,000 samples analysed annually against lakhs of registered food businesses in one state.
    2. Licensing versus inspection: Registration counts rise faster than the inspector cadre. e.g. the expansion of quick commerce dark stores inspected only after they became visible.
    3. Prosecution delay: Cases before magistrate courts take years, weakening deterrence. e.g. adulteration prosecutions pending well beyond the shelf life of the evidence.
    4. Used oil leakage: Spent frying oil re enters the food chain through informal buyers rather than authorised agencies. e.g. chemical treatment of used oil detected at a fast food outlet during this drive.
    5. Street food coverage: Unregistered vendors sit largely outside the inspection net. e.g. the limited reach of hygiene rating schemes beyond organised outlets.
    6. Imported and repacked products: Repacked imported goods carry labelling that cannot be verified at the point of sale. e.g. repacked imported products found during this drive.

    Conclusion

    The drive shows that enforcement capacity, not the absence of standards, is the operative gap, since every violation found was against a rule already in force. The used cooking oil finding matters most, because it is the point where a documented diversion system exists on paper and fails in practice. The next milestone is whether taluk level surveillance teams are constituted, which would convert episodic drives into continuous inspection.

    Back2Basics: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

    1. Established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which replaced the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.
    2. Functions under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, headed by a Chairperson and a Chief Executive Officer.
    3. Consolidated eight earlier laws and orders governing food into a single statute.
    4. Lays down science based standards for articles of food and regulates manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import.
    5. Operates a licensing and registration system for food business operators, with state Food Safety Commissioners handling enforcement.
    6. Runs Eat Right India, RUCO, Food Safety on Wheels and the hygiene rating scheme.

    Laws and Rules Governing Food Safety

    1. Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006: Establishes the regulator and consolidates the law on food standards and enforcement. Section 24 prohibits misleading advertisements about food. Section 30(2)(a) empowers the Commissioner of Food Safety to prohibit the manufacture, sale or distribution of an article of food in the public interest. Section 53 provides a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh for a misleading advertisement.
    2. Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011: Govern registration and licensing thresholds for food businesses.
    3. Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011: Prescribe mandatory label declarations, including shelf life.
    4. Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011: Set the 25 per cent total polar compound limit for cooking oil.

    Way Forward

    1. Constitute taluk level surveillance teams: Replace episodic city drives with continuous local inspection capacity.
    2. Close the used oil loop: Make disposal records to authorised agencies a licence condition for any business frying above the 50 litre threshold.
    3. Consolidate the guidelines: Issue a single standard operating procedure for hotels and restaurants, since roughly 100 separate guidelines invite non compliance through complexity.
    4. Expand laboratory capacity: Increase accredited testing throughput so unsafe sample findings reach prosecution within the product’s shelf life.
    5. Bring quick commerce warehouses into routine inspection: Register dark stores as food business operators with scheduled inspection obligations.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2018] Consider the following statements: 1. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 replaced the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. 2. The Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) is under the charge of Director General of Health Services in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2 Answer: (a)”

  • Telangana SIR leaves fate of 94 lakh electors uncertain

    Why in the News

    After the Special Intensive Revision draft rolls are published on 17 August, 119 Electoral Registration Officers in Telangana must serve notices and hold hearings for about 94 lakh electors within 60 days. In Karnataka, the state Chief Electoral Officer has not clarified whether the Permanent Residential Certificate will be accepted as proof. The tension is between a document driven verification exercise and the field capacity to conduct quasi judicial hearings at that scale inside a fixed statutory clock.

    What is the Special Intensive Revision?

    1. About: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a full re verification of the electoral roll in which every existing entry must be re established against a previous intensive revision, rather than merely updated.
    2. Baseline used: Existing entries are matched against the final rolls of the 2002 SIR, and an entry that cannot be matched is treated as unmapped.
    3. Field method: Booth Level Officers are required to make three household visits to deliver and collect Enumeration Forms.
    4. Adjudication stage: Electoral Registration Officers exercise quasi judicial powers to decide inclusion after a hearing.
    5. Distinction from summary revision: A summary revision only processes additions, deletions and corrections, so the burden of proof rests with the claimant, not with every existing elector.

    What is the scale of the pending caseload?

    1. Telangana total: About 94 lakh electors face notices and hearings.
    2. Logical discrepancies: 61.4 lakh entries carry internal inconsistencies requiring resolution.
    3. Unmapped electors: Over 32 lakh could not be matched against the 2002 SIR final rolls.
    4. Officer load: 119 Electoral Registration Officers must complete the process by 15 October 2026.
    5. Karnataka position: Over 28 lakh unmapped voters must produce one of the Election Commission’s 11 indicative documents.

    Where has the field process broken down?

    1. Household visits not made: Booth Level Officers largely collected Enumeration Forms at central collection points instead of making the mandated three household visits.
    2. Consequence of that shortcut: Electors who were absent, migrant or immobile were least likely to be reached, which is the group most likely to appear as unmapped.
    3. Documentary ambiguity: The Permanent Residential Certificate is listed by the Election Commission as an indicative document, but Karnataka has not confirmed acceptance.
    4. Existing precedent: In the West Bengal SIR, the Commission agreed to accept Permanent Residential Certificates conforming to specified state government orders, subject to independent verification by the Electoral Registration Officer.

    Why does the document question decide the outcome?

    1. Burden reversal: An unmapped elector must positively establish eligibility, so the acceptable document list is the operative rule.
    2. Certificate availability: Permanent Residential Certificates and caste certificates are issued by state revenue authorities, whose issuance capacity now gates franchise.
    3. Parallel administrative load: Karnataka is simultaneously running a doorstep caste certificate drive, which competes for the same revenue machinery.
    4. Uniformity issue: A document accepted in one state’s revision and not in another produces different franchise standards across states within the same exercise.

    Challenges to the electoral roll revision process

    1. Compressed adjudication timelines: Quasi judicial hearings at mass scale cannot be individually reasoned in 60 days. e.g. 119 officers in Telangana handling 94 lakh cases to a 15 October deadline.
    2. Migrant exclusion: Internal migrants are absent at their registered address during enumeration. e.g. seasonal construction and agricultural migrants missing all three visit windows.
    3. Documentary burden on the poor: Those without inherited land or formal residence records struggle to produce accepted proof. e.g. urban informal settlement residents lacking Permanent Residential Certificates.
    4. Inconsistent document lists: Acceptance standards have varied between state revisions. e.g. the differing treatment of Permanent Residential Certificates in West Bengal and Karnataka.
    5. Booth Level Officer capacity: Officers are drawn from other departments and carry the revision as additional duty. e.g. the substitution of central collection points for mandated household visits in Telangana.
    6. Appeal channel congestion: Appeals lie to the District Magistrate and then the Chief Electoral Officer, both of whom face the same volume compression. e.g. the appellate backlog generated by mass deletion in earlier intensive revisions.

    Conclusion

    The revision has shifted the burden of proof from the state to the elector, so the exercise now turns entirely on which documents an Electoral Registration Officer will accept and how much time each hearing gets. The failure to make household visits is what converted an administrative exercise into a mass adjudication problem. The next milestone is the publication of the draft roll on 17 August and the disposal record of the 60 day hearing window that follows.

    Back2Basics: Electoral Registration Officer

    1. Appointed by the Election Commission of India in consultation with the state government for every Assembly constituency.
    2. Draws authority from Section 13B of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
    3. Responsible for preparation, revision, correction and publication of the electoral roll for the constituency.
    4. Exercises quasi judicial powers when deciding claims and objections, requiring a hearing before deletion.
    5. Orders are appealable to the District Magistrate, and thereafter to the Chief Electoral Officer of the state.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Elections

    1. Article 324: Vests superintendence, direction and control of elections in the Election Commission of India.
    2. Article 325: Bars exclusion from, or claim to inclusion in, an electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.
    3. Article 326: Establishes adult suffrage as the basis of elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies.
    4. Article 327: Empowers Parliament to make laws on all matters relating to elections to Parliament and state legislatures.
    5. Representation of the People Act, 1950: Governs preparation and revision of electoral rolls, and the appointment of Electoral Registration Officers.

    Way Forward

    1. Publish a uniform document list: Notify a single national list of acceptable proofs, so franchise standards do not differ by state.
    2. Extend the hearing window where volumes are high: Match the adjudication period to caseload rather than to a fixed 60 days.
    3. Audit the household visit record: Verify Booth Level Officer visit compliance before treating an elector as unmapped.
    4. Provide a migrant channel: Allow verification at the current place of residence for electors registered elsewhere.
    5. Publish disposal data: Report hearings held, deletions made and appeals allowed, so the revision’s accuracy can be independently assessed.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2017, GS2, 15 marks] To enhance the quality of democracy in India the Election Commission of India has proposed electoral reforms in 2016. What are the suggested reforms and how far are they significant to make democracy successful?”

  • Punjab’s groundwater collapse demands the diversification its farm politics keeps deferring

    Why in the News

    The acreage under water intensive paddy in Punjab touched a record high this year, even as the water table continues to fall and experts warn of impending desertification. The State that built its agrarian success on assured irrigation is now consuming the resource that made it possible, while governments across party lines keep supplying free water and power rather than executing the diversification plans already drafted.

    What is crop diversification?

    1. About: Crop diversification is the shift of cropped area away from one or two dominant crops toward a wider mix of crops within the same season or rotation.
    2. How it works: A cultivator replaces part of the area under a water intensive or soil depleting crop with pulses, oilseeds, maize, cotton or horticulture.
    3. Rationale: It reduces the drawdown on a single natural resource and spreads market and weather risk across several crops.
    4. The precondition: It requires an assured market or procurement for the replacement crop, since the displaced crop already has one.

    Who was Ajit Singh?

    1. About: Ajit Singh was a peasant leader of colonial Punjab and the uncle of Bhagat Singh, and one of the main architects of the Pagdi Sambhal Jatta agitation against British agricultural laws.
    2. Exile and return: Hounded by the British, he spent nearly four decades abroad, engaging with revolutionaries including Lala Har Dayal and Subhas Chandra Bose, and was imprisoned in Germany after the Second World War before Jawaharlal Nehru secured his release in early 1947.
    3. Death: He died at Dalhousie at about 3.30 am on 15 August 1947, aged 66, his last words recorded as “Jai Hind”.

    What were the canal colonies of western Punjab?

    1. About: The canal colonies, known locally as the Baar, were settlements created in western Punjab after the British built an extensive canal network in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
    2. Why they were created: Large parts of western Punjab had remained uncultivated for centuries for want of irrigation, and the canals made cultivation possible for the first time.

    What is a murabba?

    1. About: A murabba is a square land allotment of 25 acres, the standard unit granted to settlers in the canal colonies.
    2. Who received them: Cultivators from what is now Indian Punjab, including retired soldiers, were moved into the colonies and allotted murabbas.

    What is abiana?

    1. About: Abiana is the water charge levied on cultivators for the use of canal irrigation.
    2. Why it mattered: A hike in abiana was one of the three grievances that triggered the 1907 Pagdi Sambhal Jatta agitation.

    What was the Pagdi Sambhal Jatta movement?

    1. About: Pagdi Sambhal Jatta was a peasant agitation of 1907 in colonial Punjab against three British laws that threatened farmers’ rights over their land and raised the water charge.
    2. How it got its name: Lala Banke Dayal’s poem of that title was recited at a rally in Lyallpur in March 1907, giving the movement its name and its anthem.

    What is desertification?

    1. About: Desertification is the degradation of land in dry, semi dry and dry sub humid areas, driven by climatic variation and human activity, until it loses its biological productivity.
    2. How it applies to Punjab: Sustained groundwater extraction beyond the recharge rate turns irrigated land progressively unproductive, which is the process experts have warned of in Punjab.

    What is Vibhajan Vibhishika Smriti Diwas?

    1. About: Vibhajan Vibhishika Smriti Diwas, or Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, is observed on 14 August each year since 2021.
    2. Purpose: It commemorates the displacement and loss suffered during the Partition of 1947.

    How did canal irrigation create Punjab’s agrarian identity?

    1. Arid land before irrigation: Large parts of western Punjab stayed uncultivated for centuries for want of irrigation.
    2. The canal network was the first input: The British built an extensive canal system across the region in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
    3. Settlers were the second input: Water alone was not enough, so cultivators from what is now Indian Punjab, including retired soldiers, were moved into the new tracts.
    4. Land allotted as murabbas: Each settler household received a murabba of 25 acres in the colonies.
    5. Settlements numbered, not named: New colonies were given administrative numbers such as Chak 8, Chak 20 and Chak 503, often carrying the name of the migrants’ original village, as in Chak 503 Narangwal.
    6. Reclamation took years: The land was arid and took years of sustained work before it turned fertile, which is why its loss at Partition was felt as the loss of built capital.

    What does Punjab’s tradition of agrarian resistance consist of?

    1. The 1907 movement: Ajit Singh led the Pagdi Sambhal Jatta agitation alongside Lala Lajpat Rai against three British laws that threatened farmers’ rights and hiked the water charge or abiana.
    2. Scale of mobilisation: Ajit Singh addressed 19 of the 33 meetings recorded by British intelligence.
    3. The anthem: Lala Banke Dayal’s poem was recited at a rally in Lyallpur in March 1907 and gave the movement its name.
    4. The outcome: The British withdrew the farm laws, and both leaders were imprisoned in Mandalay, Burma.
    5. Recognition: Bal Gangadhar Tilak hailed Ajit Singh as the “king of Punjab peasantry” on his return.
    6. The tradition carried forward: The same slogan was raised during the 2020-21 farmers’ agitation against the since repealed central farm laws.

    Why has the adversary shifted from colonial law to resource depletion?

    1. The threat is now internal: The challenge today is not colonial rule but the depletion of the resource that made Punjab’s agrarian success possible.
    2. Warnings are long standing: Experts have warned of impending desertification in Punjab for years.
    3. The trend is worsening, not stabilising: Acreage under water intensive paddy cultivation touched a record high this year.
    4. The water table keeps falling: The aquifer continues to drop even as extraction expands with every additional paddy season.
    5. The cost is deferred, not avoided: Groundwater does not recharge at the rate at which it is being pumped, so each season transfers the shortfall to a later one.

    Why has a known diagnosis not produced action?

    1. The solutions are already documented: Economist S S Johl outlined diversification measures during the tenure of the previous Congress government in the State.
    2. Later plans exist as well: The current State government has also prepared plans on the water issue.
    3. Implementation is the gap: Execution of both sets of plans remains negligible.
    4. The problem is not knowledge: Punjab knows precisely what has to be done and consistently fails to do it, which makes this an execution failure rather than a policy vacuum.

    Why do free water and assured paddy procurement keep expanding the crop that is emptying the aquifer?

    1. The case for the free provision: Free water and free power for tubewells lower the cash cost of cultivation for a farm sector carrying heavy debt.
    2. The political arithmetic: State governments cutting across party lines have continued the free provision for political reasons, since withdrawing it carries an immediate electoral cost.
    3. Assured procurement completes the lock in: Paddy and wheat carry guaranteed purchase at a minimum support price, and no alternative crop offers comparable certainty.
    4. The other side of the ledger: Free power removes the price signal on extraction, so pumping continues well past the rate at which the aquifer can recharge.
    5. Two legitimate claims in conflict: Farm income security and aquifer survival both carry a genuine claim, and current policy settles the question entirely in favour of the first.
    6. The cost appears nowhere: The support shows up as a power subsidy line in the State budget, while the depletion appears in no account until wells begin to fail.

    Why have farmer unions’ priorities not tracked the water crisis?

    1. Attention directed at trade: Farmer unions have mobilised strongly against free trade agreements.
    2. The nearer threat is unaddressed: The same unions have overlooked aquifer depletion as a looming calamity of comparable scale.
    3. Individual adaptation is happening: Some individual farmers have adopted alternatives to paddy on their own initiative.
    4. Collective adaptation is not: Most cultivators remain caught within an unsustainable farming model that no organised body is challenging.

    What does the stated way forward require?

    1. Reduce paddy dependence: Cut the area under water intensive paddy cultivation.
    2. Guarantee markets for the substitutes: Ensure assured markets for diversified crops so that the switch is not a loss of income.
    3. Invest in micro irrigation: Move field irrigation from flood delivery to drip and sprinkler systems.
    4. Build food processing capacity: Create processing demand that gives non paddy crops a committed buyer.
    5. Align policy with ecology: Set agricultural policy against ecological limits rather than electoral compulsions.

    Challenges to crop diversification in Punjab

    1. Absence of assured procurement for alternative crops: Only paddy and wheat carry guaranteed purchase, so any switch transfers price risk to the farmer. e.g. maize in Punjab routinely selling below its minimum support price for want of a procurement agency.
    2. Free power removes the cost of extraction: Zero marginal cost pumping eliminates any incentive to economise on water. e.g. blocks in Sangrur, Barnala and Moga classified as over exploited by the Central Ground Water Board while tubewell use continues unchecked.
    3. Sunk investment in the paddy and wheat rotation: Farm assets are built around a single cycle and cannot be repurposed. e.g. combine harvesters, paddy transplanters and laser levelled fields configured for that rotation alone.
    4. Labour and machinery calendar locked to paddy: The seasonal labour supply arrives for a specific operation window. e.g. migrant labour arriving in June for transplanting, a cycle no substitute crop matches.
    5. Groundwater regulation limited to sowing dates: Existing law delays transplanting without reducing total irrigated area. e.g. the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009, which shifted the transplanting date later but left acreage untouched.
    6. Weak processing and cold chain for horticulture: Perishable substitutes fail without storage and processing capacity nearby. e.g. kinnow growers in Abohar and Fazilka facing distress sales in glut years.
    7. Residue burning tied to the compressed paddy to wheat window: The delayed transplanting date leaves too little time between harvest and the next sowing. e.g. the October and November stubble fires across Sangrur, Bathinda and Patiala every year.

    Conclusion

    Punjab’s crisis is not the absence of a diversification plan but the presence of a policy structure that pays cultivators to keep growing paddy. Free water and power remove the cost of extraction while assured procurement removes the risk of continuing, so a record paddy acreage now coexists with a falling water table and warnings of desertification. Diversification will begin only when an alternative crop carries the same market certainty that paddy already has. Until then the tradition of agrarian resistance will keep facing outward while the aquifer empties.

    Groundwater Irrigation in India

    1. About: Groundwater irrigation is the extraction of water from aquifers through wells and tubewells for crop cultivation, as distinct from surface canal irrigation.
    2. India’s standing: India is the largest user of groundwater in the world, extracting more than the United States and China combined.
    3. Share of irrigation: Groundwater accounts for roughly 60 per cent of irrigated area and about 85 per cent of rural drinking water supply.
    4. The assessment system: The Central Ground Water Board and State agencies jointly assess blocks annually and classify them as safe, semi critical, critical or over exploited.
    5. Regional concentration of stress: Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Tamil Nadu carry the highest proportion of over exploited units.
    6. The energy link: Subsidised or free electricity for agricultural pumping is the single largest driver of extraction, since it removes the marginal cost of drawing water.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Water in India

    1. Entry 17, State List, Seventh Schedule: Places water supply, irrigation, canals, drainage, embankments and water storage under State legislative competence.
    2. Entry 56, Union List, Seventh Schedule: Empowers Parliament to regulate inter State rivers and river valleys where it declares such regulation expedient in the public interest.
    3. Article 262: Allows Parliament to provide for adjudication of inter State river water disputes and to bar the jurisdiction of courts in such disputes.
    4. Article 21: Interpreted by the Supreme Court to include the right to clean and adequate water as part of the right to life.
    5. Article 48A: Directs the State to protect and improve the environment, which courts have read as covering groundwater conservation.
    6. Article 243G and the Eleventh Schedule: Assign minor irrigation, water management and watershed development to panchayats.

    Laws and Rules Governing Groundwater Use

    1. Indian Easements Act, 1882: Treats groundwater as attached to land ownership, which is the legal root of unrestricted extraction by landowners.
    2. Environment (Protection) Act, 1986: Provides the authority under which the Central Ground Water Authority was constituted to regulate and control groundwater development.
    3. Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974: Governs the quality dimension of water resources through the pollution control boards.
    4. Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009: Bars paddy nursery sowing and transplanting before notified dates, in order to shift the crop’s peak water demand closer to the monsoon.
    5. Model Bill for Conservation, Protection and Regulation of Groundwater, 2016: Circulated to States to establish groundwater as a public trust and to create local level groundwater security plans.
    6. Electricity Act, 2003: Governs agricultural power tariffs and the State subsidy mechanism that determines the cost of pumping.
    7. Guidelines for groundwater extraction, 2020: Prescribe the no objection certificate regime for industrial, infrastructure and mining users of groundwater.

    Back2Basics: Central Ground Water Board

    1. What it is: The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) is the national apex agency for groundwater assessment, exploration, monitoring and management.
    2. Year established: Constituted in 1970, on the reorganisation of the Exploratory Tubewells Organisation.
    3. Parent ministry: It functions under the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
    4. Headquarters: Faridabad, Haryana, with regional offices across the country.
    5. Mandate: It develops and disseminates technologies and monitors and implements national policies for the scientific and sustainable development of groundwater.
    6. Key outputs: It publishes the annual Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment and the groundwater year book, and it categorises assessment units by stage of extraction.
    7. Regulatory arm: The Central Ground Water Authority, constituted under Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, exercises the regulatory powers over extraction.

    Government Initiatives for Groundwater and Crop Diversification

    1. Atal Bhujal Yojana: A community led groundwater management scheme in water stressed blocks across seven States, with incentives linked to measured improvement in the water table.
    2. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, Per Drop More Crop: Funds drip and sprinkler micro irrigation to raise water use efficiency at the farm level.
    3. Crop Diversification Programme: Operates in the original Green Revolution States of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh to shift area from paddy to alternative crops.
    4. Pani Bachao Paisa Kamao: A Punjab scheme paying farmers for electricity saved against a benchmark, converting free power into a metered incentive to pump less.
    5. Direct Seeded Rice incentive: A per acre payment in Punjab for sowing paddy directly rather than transplanting into puddled fields, cutting water use substantially.
    6. Jal Shakti Abhiyan, Catch the Rain: A national campaign for rainwater harvesting and recharge structure creation in water stressed districts.
    7. National Food Security Mission and the National Mission on Edible Oils: Support pulses and oilseeds as area substitutes for paddy through seed, input and market interventions.

    Key Facts about Groundwater and Punjab Agriculture

    1. Extraction stage: Punjab has the highest stage of groundwater extraction among Indian States, exceeding the annual recharge by a wide margin.
    2. Over exploited units: A large majority of Punjab’s assessment blocks are classified as over exploited by the Central Ground Water Board.
    3. Tubewell density: Punjab operates well over a million agricultural tubewells, nearly all running on subsidised or free power.
    4. Paddy water requirement: Transplanted paddy consumes several thousand litres of water per kilogram of grain, the highest among Punjab’s field crops.
    5. Procurement share: Punjab and Haryana together account for a dominant share of central wheat procurement and a large share of rice procurement.
    6. Green Revolution origin: Punjab was the first State where high yielding wheat varieties were introduced in the mid 1960s, establishing the wheat and paddy rotation.
    7. The 2009 legal shift: The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 pushed paddy transplanting to mid June to align it with the monsoon onset.

    Challenges in Groundwater Management in India

    1. Legal treatment of groundwater as private property: Ownership attached to land under the Indian Easements Act, 1882 makes extraction limits hard to enforce. e.g. the absence of any cap on the number of tubewells a landowner may sink in most States.
    2. Free or heavily subsidised farm power: Zero marginal cost pumping removes the economic brake on extraction. e.g. Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu supplying agricultural power free or at a nominal flat rate.
    3. Minimum support price incentives skewed to water intensive crops: Assured procurement concentrates in paddy and wheat and pulls area toward them. e.g. paddy area in Punjab reaching a record high in 2026 despite falling water tables.
    4. Weak metering and monitoring of extraction: Without volumetric measurement, regulation cannot be calibrated. e.g. the very small share of agricultural connections in the northern States that carry functioning energy meters.
    5. Aquifer contamination alongside depletion: Falling water tables concentrate geogenic contaminants and draw in poor quality water. e.g. arsenic in the Gangetic plains and fluoride in parts of Rajasthan and Telangana.
    6. Fragmented institutional responsibility: Water is a State subject while the regulatory authority is central, producing overlapping mandates. e.g. Central Ground Water Authority notifications applying to industry while agricultural extraction stays outside their reach.
    7. Poor uptake of micro irrigation: Capital cost and small holding size limit the spread of drip and sprinkler systems. e.g. micro irrigation covering only a small fraction of Punjab’s net sown area despite years of subsidy.

    Way Forward

    1. Extend assured procurement to substitute crops: Guarantee purchase of maize, pulses and oilseeds in Punjab at announced prices so the switch out of paddy carries no income penalty.
    2. Convert free power into a measured entitlement: Scale the Pani Bachao Paisa Kamao model, paying farmers for unused power rather than withdrawing the subsidy outright.
    3. Meter agricultural extraction: Install energy or volumetric meters on tubewells to make regulation and incentive design possible.
    4. Fund micro irrigation at scale: Raise the subsidy and credit support for drip and sprinkler systems to cover small holdings.
    5. Build processing and cold chain capacity: Locate processing units for maize, kinnow, potato and dairy in Punjab to create local demand for diversified output.
    6. Enact a groundwater law based on public trust: Adopt the Model Bill for Conservation, Protection and Regulation of Groundwater so extraction rights derive from a shared resource rather than land title.
    7. Link central assistance to measured water table outcomes: Extend the Atal Bhujal Yojana incentive design, so State transfers respond to verified improvement in the aquifer.

    “[2021, GS3, 15 marks] What are the present challenges before crop diversification? How do emerging technologies provide an opportunity for crop diversification?”

  • Kondapalli in Bastar shows what state presence looks like after the Maoist withdrawal

    Why in the News

    Kondapalli, a village of 600 people in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district that served as the base of the most dreaded Maoist battalion, now has a road, a bus, grid electricity, a cellphone tower and a new school. The change moves the test of the insurgency’s end from the absence of armed cadre to the delivery of ordinary services, since a surrendered commander now demands from the State the borewell, pond, land rights and visiting doctor he once took up arms against it over.

    How does the forward base model work in the Red Corridor?

    1. Step one, the camp: A central armed police force announces a forward operating base inside a village previously controlled by the Maoists.
    2. Step two, clearing operations: A series of encounters follows, which pushes the armed cadre out of the area.
    3. Step three, the road: An engineering agency opens a motorable road to the camp, which ends the physical isolation the insurgency depended on.
    4. Step four, civil administration: Grid electricity, telecom towers, schools, anganwadis, ration shops, Aadhaar enrolment and bank accounts follow the road.
    5. Step five, the political process: Elections resume and elected panchayat bodies begin to function.
    6. Application in Kondapalli: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) announced its forward base in the village in November 2024, and this sequence has run there since.

    What is the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA)?

    1. About: The PLGA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), organised into platoons, companies and battalions.
    2. Its role here: Kondapalli served as the base of Battalion No. 1, the most dreaded unit of the PLGA.

    What was Battalion No. 1?

    1. About: Battalion No. 1 was the main armed formation of the Maoists in south Bastar, camped in the jungle outside Kondapalli.
    2. Present position: The battalion is gone from the area and security forces now camp in the same space.

    What is a Revolutionary People’s Committee?

    1. About: It is a grassroots governing body of the Maoists that ran village level administration, land distribution and dispute settlement in areas under their control.
    2. Its role here: A former commander of one such committee surrendered in Kondapalli in March 2025.

    What is the Bal Sangam?

    1. About: The Bal Sangam is the children’s wing of the Maoists, used to recruit and indoctrinate minors in areas under their control.

    What is the Chetna Natya Manch?

    1. About: The Chetna Natya Manch is the Maoists’ cultural troupe, which used song and theatre on themes such as jal, jungle and zameen to mobilise villagers.

    What was the Salwa Judum?

    1. About: The Salwa Judum was a civilian counter insurgency force set up in Chhattisgarh in 2005, which armed villagers against the Maoists.
    2. Legal status: The Supreme Court declared it illegal in 2011 and ordered the disarming of the appointed special police officers.

    What is the Red Corridor?

    1. About: The Red Corridor is the belt of forested, mineral rich and largely tribal districts across central and eastern India where Maoist influence was concentrated.
    2. Scale in Chhattisgarh: Kondapalli was one of nearly 400 villages in the State’s Red Corridor where the state had little say or presence.

    What is the Border Roads Organisation (BRO)?

    1. About: The BRO is a road construction agency under the Ministry of Defence that builds and maintains roads in border and strategically sensitive areas.
    2. Its role here: It began work on the Tarrem to Kondapalli road soon after security forces pushed the Maoists back in November 2024.

    What is a Bailey bridge?

    1. About: A Bailey bridge is a portable, prefabricated steel truss bridge assembled on site without heavy equipment, used where permanent bridges cannot be built quickly.
    2. Its use here: The BRO installed nine Bailey bridges over river streams on the stretch past Kondapalli.

    What is the Mahtari Vandan Yojana?

    1. About: It is a Chhattisgarh government scheme that transfers Rs 1,000 a month to eligible married women through direct benefit transfer.
    2. Its role here: One villager’s mother opened a bank account last year and now receives this transfer.

    How did the Maoists govern Kondapalli?

    1. Territorial claim: Kondapalli lay in the Maoists’ South Bastar division, part of what they called the Liberated Zone.
    2. Strength of the formation: The division was one of the strongest Maoist formations and among the last to fall, and could gather the support of 400 to 500 people at short notice.
    3. Economic function of the village: Kondapalli mattered to the Maoists because their supplies came from its local market.
    4. Commemorative gatherings: Hundreds of villagers were assembled every year at a 64 foot tall memorial in Komatpalli, part of the Kondapalli gram panchayat, for Martyrs’ Week.
    5. Land and housing: The Maoists redistributed land and helped villagers build their houses, which is how they gained trust.
    6. Local public works: They built small roads and a pond, and asked villagers to donate money for the treatment of anyone who fell sick.
    7. Forest rule: Cutting trees was punishable under their order.
    8. What was withheld: Residents describe the arrangement as delivering a sense of security and of being seen, with little development alongside it.

    How was that order enforced?

    1. Conscription pressure: At least one person from every village had to join, which put pressure on families to give up their sons or daughters.
    2. Recruitment through front organisations: A boy recruited as a teenager passed through the Bal Sangam and then the Chetna Natya Manch, singing about saving jal, jungle and zameen.
    3. Fear of dispossession: Recruits were told the government would steal their land and that they would eventually have to leave the village.
    4. Control of movement: Villagers leaving the Kondapalli gram panchayat were questioned on their return.
    5. Public punishment: Wrongdoers were beaten publicly under a tree.
    6. Killing of suspected informers: Those suspected of informing to the police were killed, and others left the village.
    7. Destruction of state assets: The Maoists burnt down the only school and the adjoining hostel in the 2000s to stop security forces sheltering there, and destroyed the electric poles the administration brought.
    8. Withdrawal of officials: Forest officials and the patwari, the village records keeper, stopped coming to Kondapalli.
    9. Control of communication: Phones were seized and villagers were told not to use them.
    10. Cost on the other side: Villagers were caught in the middle, and one resident’s uncle was killed by security forces on the suspicion that he was a Maoist.

    What ended the Maoist hold on Kondapalli?

    1. The forward base: The CRPF announced in November 2024 that it was establishing a forward base in Kondapalli.
    2. Encounters: A series of encounters followed, after which the Maoists were pushed into Telangana.
    3. Surrender of the formation: The cadre pushed into Telangana laid down arms in March 2026.
    4. Village level surrender: A former commander of the Revolutionary People’s Committee surrendered in March 2025 along with 12 other villagers.
    5. Rehabilitation in practice: He opened a kirana store with the money received under the State’s rehabilitation policy.
    6. Losses in the campaign: A villager’s 18 year old daughter, who left home in December 2022 to join the Maoists, was among about 30 Maoists killed in a security operation in Telangana’s Karregutta hills last year.
    7. Scale of the insurgency: The decades long insurgency claimed at least 4,741 lives in the Bastar region alone since 2000.
    8. National declaration: The Union Home Minister has declared the country Maoist free, 80 years after Independence.

    Which markers of state presence have appeared in the village?

    1. Grid electricity: Kondapalli received electricity from the grid last July, after years of solar lamps and then of darkness once those failed.
    2. Telecom: A cellphone tower was erected on the edge of the village in December last year, rising above the mud houses and small shops.
    3. School building: A new government school building came up in the summer of 2025, painted bright blue and standing by the main road.
    4. School capacity: The school runs classes 1 to 8 with 158 students and seven teaching staff, all male, and has blackboards and benches.
    5. What preceded it: After the school was burnt down children studied in a shanty in the same compound, and an asbestos shade was put up there in 2020.
    6. Anganwadi and residential school: An anganwadi and a residential school are under construction in the village.
    7. Panchayat and ration infrastructure: Panchayat bhawans have been built and the new ration shop is painted in the colours of the Tricolour.
    8. Identity and banking: Villagers were called to the police camp where they were enrolled under Aadhaar and given birth certificates and bank accounts.
    9. Cash transfer: A household bank account opened last year now receives Rs 1,000 from the State under the Mahtari Vandan Yojana for women.
    10. Return of the vote: The village voted for the first time last year, in the local body polls, having been told under the Maoists to make no demands of the government.
    11. Political visit: The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister visited Kondapalli on 2 June, a first for the village.
    12. Announced pipeline: The Bijapur District Collector stated that over the next two years the village will get a cricket ground, a health centre, a cement road and government scheme benefits.
    13. Security presence: Security forces now camp in the jungle outside the village where Battalion No. 1 used to camp.
    14. Private consumption: A villager bought a Redmi phone for Rs 10,000 after the Maoists left, and uses it to watch films, news and skill tutorials.

    How has connectivity changed?

    1. Bus service: A blue bus from Cherla in Telangana has run since March 2025 under the State’s rural bus scheme, making two trips a day.
    2. What it connects: The bus carries villagers to Bijapur, 79 km to the north, and to Cherla in Telangana, where many young men work as daily wage labourers.
    3. The road agency: The Border Roads Organisation began work on the Tarrem to Kondapalli road soon after November 2024.
    4. Engineering on the road: On the stretch running past Kondapalli into Telangana, the BRO installed nine Bailey bridges over river streams and 43 precast culverts to keep the road usable during the rains.
    5. Present condition: The road is still a work in progress, carrying the occasional motorcycle or truck with construction material.
    6. Travel before the road: A circuitous journey of 209 km taking five hours through Cherla was the only way to travel from Bijapur to Kondapalli.
    7. Travel now: A 90 minute car ride from Bijapur reaches the village without crossing into Telangana, passing the junctions of Awapalli and Basaguda and reaching Tarrem on the Sukma and Bijapur border.
    8. Map lag: For the 18 km beyond Tarrem, Google Maps still recommends the older and longer route through Telangana.
    9. What the road replaced: Villagers earlier walked two days to Telangana carrying 30 kg of rice, stayed 45 days and worked plucking chillies on farms.
    10. A generation without a bus: The bus stopped after the Maoists came from Telangana in 1985, and an entire generation grew up without ever seeing one.
    11. Border geography: Kondapalli sits on the Telangana border and is closer to Cherla at 46 km than to its own district headquarters at Bijapur, 79 km away.

    What distances still separate the village from basic services?

    1. Health care: The nearest doctor requires a journey of over 30 km to Basaguda.
    2. Schooling beyond class 8: Students travel 33 km to Basaguda or 23 km to Pamed to continue past class 8.
    3. Higher education: The village’s first graduate could finish his education only by leaving during the Salwa Judum years for a hostel in Basaguda and then a college in Dantewada.
    4. A second case of leaving to study: A CRPF recruit from the village completed school while staying in a hostel in Usoor in Bijapur.
    5. Schooling in the earlier generation: The village head travelled 27 km by bus to school in Awapalli in the 1980s.
    6. Food supply: Villagers earlier travelled to Awapalli even to buy rice, which took a full day.
    7. Maternal health: Women died in labour or on the way to hospital because there was no medical facility nearby and no road, and were carried on cots.

    Why does the arrival of the state not settle the question of legitimacy?

    1. The camp changed hands rather than disappeared: Security forces occupy the same jungle space the Maoist battalion used, so the village still lives beside an armed presence.
    2. The demands are the same goods: A surrendered commander now asks the State for a borewell for irrigation, a pond, land rights, small roads and a visiting doctor, which are the goods the Maoists claimed to supply.
    3. Memory of redistribution: Residents attribute the Maoists’ trust to land redistribution and help in building houses, which the State’s works now have to match.
    4. Memory of being caught in between: Families were punished by both sides, with suspected informers killed by the Maoists and a relative killed by security forces on suspicion.
    5. The Salwa Judum legacy: A villager still recalls her father being beaten for hours in 2006 during the Salwa Judum years, and the Supreme Court declared that force illegal in 2011.
    6. Delivery remains promised: The health centre, cement road and cricket ground sit on a two year timetable, and the anganwadi and residential school are still under construction.
    7. What residents ask for next: Villagers name a health facility, a school for higher studies and a self help group for poultry, farming and other livelihoods as the unmet needs.

    Challenges to consolidating state presence in Bastar

    1. Reversibility of security gains: Cadre pushed across a State border can regroup and return if camps thin out. e.g. the cadre pushed out of Kondapalli in November 2024 moved into Telangana and laid down arms only in March 2026.
    2. Roads reach before services do: Physical connectivity arrives years ahead of health and higher education facilities, so the mortality and dropout risks persist. e.g. Kondapalli residents still travel more than 30 km to Basaguda to see a doctor.
    3. Education discontinuity beyond the primary stage: Village schools stop at class 8, so children must migrate to hostels to continue studying. e.g. Kondapalli students travel 33 km to Basaguda or 23 km to Pamed after class 8.
    4. Unsettled forest and land rights: Slow recognition of individual and community forest rights leaves the state contested on the very issue the Maoists mobilised on. e.g. community forest rights claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 have seen high rejection rates in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar districts.
    5. Distrust from past counter insurgency: Civilian militias and killings on suspicion leave a memory that slows cooperation with the administration. e.g. the Supreme Court struck down the Salwa Judum in Nandini Sundar versus State of Chhattisgarh (2011).
    6. Livelihood dependence on distant labour markets: Without local employment, better connectivity mainly makes it easier to migrate out. e.g. young men from Kondapalli take the daily bus to Cherla in Telangana for daily wage work.
    7. Administrative vacancy in interior blocks: Staffing in remote blocks remains thin even after the security situation improves. e.g. forest officials and the patwari stopped visiting Kondapalli entirely during the Maoist years, and the new school runs with seven teachers for classes 1 to 8.
    8. Displacement risk from mining and infrastructure: Newly accessible mineral belts raise the prospect of acquisition in Scheduled Areas without full consent. e.g. protests over iron ore mining in the Bailadila range in Dantewada in 2019.

    Conclusion

    Kondapalli shows that the end of an insurgency is measured by the return of ordinary state functions, not by the absence of armed cadre. Within two years of the CRPF forward base, the village has a road with nine Bailey bridges, a daily bus, grid electricity, a tower, a school with 158 students, Aadhaar numbers and bank accounts, and it has voted for the first time. The health centre, the cement road and the school for higher studies remain on a two year promise, and the villagers’ claims on the State now decide whether the change holds.

    Left Wing Extremism in India

    1. About: Left Wing Extremism is an armed movement that seeks to capture state power through a protracted people’s war, drawing on grievances over land, forest rights, displacement and the absence of the administration in tribal districts.
    2. Origin: It began with the peasant uprising at Naxalbari in West Bengal in 1967, which gave the movement its popular name.
    3. Principal organisation: The Communist Party of India (Maoist) was formed in 2004 by the merger of the People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre of India, and is banned as a terrorist organisation.
    4. Armed wing: The People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army is its military formation, organised into platoons, companies and battalions.
    5. Geography: Influence was concentrated in the Dandakaranya belt across Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
    6. Parallel governance: Janatana Sarkars, also called Revolutionary People’s Committees, ran village administration, land distribution and dispute settlement in areas under Maoist control.
    7. Scale of decline: The number of districts affected by Left Wing Extremism fell from 126 in 2018 to 38 in April 2024, with the worst affected districts concentrated in the Bastar division.
    8. Policy frame: The National Policy and Action Plan of 2015 combines security measures, development, entitlements for tribal groups and perception management.
    9. Constitutional position: Police and public order are State subjects, so the Centre acts through central armed police forces, funding and intelligence sharing.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Scheduled Areas and Internal Security

    1. Article 244 and the Fifth Schedule: Provide for the administration of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes, including the Governor’s power to modify the application of laws and the Tribes Advisory Council.
    2. Article 275(1): Provides grants in aid to States for tribal welfare and for raising the administration of Scheduled Areas to the level of the rest of the State.
    3. Article 338A: Establishes the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes to investigate and monitor safeguards for Scheduled Tribes.
    4. Article 355: Places on the Union the duty to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance.
    5. Article 356: Allows a proclamation where the government of a State cannot be carried on in accordance with the Constitution.
    6. Entry 1 of the State List: Places public order within the legislative competence of the States.
    7. Entry 2 of the State List: Places police within the legislative competence of the States.
    8. Entry 2A of the Union List: Covers the deployment of any armed force of the Union in a State in aid of the civil power.

    Laws and Rules Governing the Response to Left Wing Extremism

    1. Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967: Provides for banning unlawful associations and terrorist organisations and for offences of membership and support.
    2. Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019: Allows the Centre to designate individuals, and not only organisations, as terrorists.
    3. Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005: Criminalises membership of and support to organisations declared unlawful within the State.
    4. National Investigation Agency Act, 2008: Creates a central agency to investigate scheduled offences including terrorism, with jurisdiction across States.
    5. Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996: Extends panchayat provisions to Fifth Schedule areas and vests the gram sabha with control over minor forest produce and consultation before land acquisition.
    6. Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006: Recognises individual and community forest rights of forest dwelling tribal groups.
    7. Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013: Requires consent, social impact assessment and rehabilitation, with additional safeguards in Scheduled Areas.
    8. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: Section 152 penalises acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.

    Back2Basics: Bastar Region

    1. Designation: Bastar is an administrative division of southern Chhattisgarh and the core of the Dandakaranya region.
    2. Districts: The division covers Bastar, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Sukma, Bijapur and Kanker.
    3. Rivers: The Indravati and the Sabari are the principal rivers of the region.
    4. Protected areas: Kanger Valley National Park and the Indravati National Park and Tiger Reserve lie in the division.
    5. Landform features: The Chitrakote falls on the Indravati are the widest waterfall in India, and the Abujhmarh hills remain largely unsurveyed.
    6. Tribal groups: The Gond, Muria, Madia, Dorla, Halba and Bhatra communities live in the region.
    7. Cultural institutions: Bastar Dussehra runs for about 75 days and is among the longest festivals in the country, and the Ghotul is the traditional youth dormitory of the Muria.
    8. Mineral base: The Bailadila range in Dantewada holds some of India’s richest iron ore deposits.

    Government Initiatives for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas

    1. SAMADHAN doctrine: The Centre’s operational framework combining smart leadership, aggressive strategy, motivation and training, actionable intelligence, dashboards, harnessing technology, action plans for each theatre and denial of financing.
    2. Security Related Expenditure Scheme: Reimburses States for the costs of security operations, training, community policing and rehabilitation of surrendered cadre.
    3. Special Infrastructure Scheme: Funds fortified police stations, secure camps and district police infrastructure in affected districts.
    4. Special Central Assistance: Provides funds for public infrastructure and services in the most affected districts.
    5. Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas: Builds all weather roads and bridges in affected districts, alongside the earlier Road Requirement Plan.
    6. LWE Mobile Tower Project: Installs mobile towers in affected districts to close the telecom gap.
    7. Civic Action Programme: Funds central armed police forces to run health camps, sports events and welfare activity to build local trust.
    8. ROSHNI and Eklavya Model Residential Schools: Provide skill training for youth and residential schooling for tribal children in affected districts.
    9. Aspirational Districts Programme: Targets health, nutrition, education and infrastructure indicators in the districts with the weakest outcomes, many of them in the Red Corridor.
    10. Niyad Nellanar scheme: A Chhattisgarh programme that saturates villages within a radius of new security camps with central and State scheme benefits.

    Key Facts about Left Wing Extremism

    1. Naxalbari: The movement takes its name from the 1967 uprising at Naxalbari in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
    2. Formation of the CPI (Maoist): The party was formed on 21 September 2004 and is listed as a terrorist organisation under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
    3. Decline in affected districts: Affected districts fell from 126 in 2018 to 38 in April 2024.
    4. Salwa Judum: Formed in 2005 and declared illegal by the Supreme Court in 2011 in Nandini Sundar versus State of Chhattisgarh.
    5. Specialised forces: The Greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the District Reserve Guard and Bastar Fighters in Chhattisgarh, are the principal anti Maoist units.
    6. Stated deadline: The Union government set a target of ending Left Wing Extremism by 31 March 2026.
    7. Bastar toll: The insurgency claimed at least 4,741 lives in the Bastar region alone since 2000.
    8. Karregutta hills: The hills on the Chhattisgarh and Telangana border were the site of a major operation against Maoist formations.

    Challenges in Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas

    1. Development deficit that created the grievance: Absence of roads, schools, health centres and electricity is the condition the movement recruited on. e.g. Kondapalli got grid electricity only last July and a cellphone tower only in December.
    2. Weak implementation of tribal rights law: PESA and the Forest Rights Act remain unevenly implemented, so consent and forest produce rights stay contested. e.g. community forest rights claims across the Bastar districts have been rejected in large numbers.
    3. Displacement from mining and infrastructure: Acquisition in mineral rich Scheduled Areas turns development projects into recruitment arguments. e.g. protests over iron ore mining at Bailadila in Dantewada in 2019.
    4. Human rights costs of the security response: Killings on suspicion and civilian militias damage the state’s legitimacy for a generation. e.g. the Supreme Court’s 2011 order disbanding the Salwa Judum and disarming special police officers.
    5. Financing of the insurgency: Extortion from contractors, tendu leaf traders and transporters sustains cadre even after territorial losses. e.g. levy collection on road contractors has repeatedly been cited in National Investigation Agency chargesheets.
    6. Coordination across State borders: Cadre exploit inter State boundaries where police jurisdiction ends. e.g. the Kondapalli cadre moved into Telangana after the November 2024 encounters.
    7. Rehabilitation follow through: Surrender packages fail where no livelihood follows the cash grant. e.g. surrendered cadre in Bijapur depend on small kirana shops set up with one time rehabilitation money.
    8. Sustaining services after the camp: Teachers, doctors and revenue officials remain reluctant to serve in interior blocks. e.g. the new Kondapalli school has seven teachers for classes 1 to 8 and no facility beyond that.

    Way Forward

    1. Saturate cleared villages with entitlements: Extend the saturation model so every village within reach of a new camp receives Aadhaar, bank accounts, ration cards, pensions and scheme benefits within a fixed timeframe.
    2. Complete the road and telecom grid: Finish the Tarrem to Kondapalli type links and the mobile tower programme so connectivity does not stop at the camp.
    3. Settle forest and land rights first: Clear pending individual and community claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and enforce gram sabha consent under PESA before any acquisition.
    4. Extend schooling beyond class 8 locally: Upgrade village schools and expand residential schools so children are not forced to migrate 20 to 35 km to continue.
    5. Place health infrastructure with the road: Staff sub centres and mobile medical units at the same time as road completion, rather than years later.
    6. Build local livelihoods: Fund self help groups, minor forest produce processing and poultry and farming enterprises so connectivity does not only enable outmigration.
    7. Make rehabilitation a multi year programme: Follow the surrender grant with skill training, credit and market linkage, and monitor outcomes for surrendered cadre.
    8. Institutionalise inter State coordination: Sustain joint operations, shared intelligence and unified surrender policies across Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS3, 10 marks] The Government of India recently stated that Left Wing Extremism (LWE) will be eliminated by 2026. What do you understand by LWE and how are the people affected by it? What measures have been taken by the government to eliminate LWE?”

  • Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill 2026 curbs State taxing powers over mineral rights

    Why in the News

    Parliament passed the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 on 13 August 2026, restricting the power of States to levy taxes on mineral rights and mineral bearing lands. The measure reverses in statute the fiscal gain that a nine judge Bench of the Supreme Court gave mineral rich States in 2024, and it has united ruling and opposition parties in Kerala, Odisha and Jharkhand against it.

    What is the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957?

    1. About: The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 is the central law regulating the grant of mineral concessions and the development of mines in India.
    2. The declaration it carries: Section 2 declares it expedient in the public interest that the Union take control of the regulation of mines and mineral development, which activates Entry 54 of the Union List.
    3. Royalty setting: Section 9 empowers the Central Government to fix and revise royalty rates, and revision is permitted not more than once every three years.
    4. Concession route: Since the 2015 amendment, mineral concessions are granted by States through competitive auction rather than by discretionary allotment.
    5. Local sharing: Section 9B requires a District Mineral Foundation in every district affected by mining, funded by a contribution linked to royalty.

    What is a royalty on minerals?

    1. Definition: Royalty is the payment a lessee makes to the owner of the mineral for the privilege of extracting and removing it, calculated on the quantity or value produced.
    2. Legal character: The Supreme Court has held royalty to be a contractual consideration flowing from the mining lease, not a tax levied by the state.

    What is a cess?

    1. Definition: A cess is a levy imposed for a specified purpose, with its proceeds earmarked for that purpose rather than merged into general revenue.
    2. Why it matters here: Mineral bearing States had imposed cesses on royalty and on mineral bearing land, and it is this class of levy that the amendment restricts.

    What is the District Mineral Foundation (DMF)?

    1. Definition: The District Mineral Foundation is a non profit trust established in every mining affected district to work for the benefit of persons and areas affected by mining.
    2. Funding: Lessees contribute a share of royalty to the Foundation, and the money is spent through the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana on health, education, drinking water and livelihood in mining affected areas.

    What is the current status of State taxing power over mineral rights in India?

    1. Constitutional entry: Entry 50 of the State List gives States the power to tax mineral rights, expressly subject to any limitations imposed by Parliament by law relating to mineral development.
    2. Judicial position since 2024: A nine judge Bench held that royalty is not a tax and that States retain legislative competence to tax mineral rights and mineral bearing land.
    3. Retrospective effect: The Court permitted recovery of dues from 1 April 2005, to be paid in staggered instalments over twelve years beginning 1 April 2026, without interest or penalty for the earlier period.
    4. State levies in force: Mineral rich States including Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal had enacted or revived levies on mineral rights in reliance on that ruling.
    5. The new limitation: The 2026 amendment now exercises the limitation power in Entry 50 to restrict those levies and vests sole authority to frame rules in the Centre.
    6. Central levies unaffected: Royalty under Section 9, the District Mineral Foundation contribution and the National Mineral Exploration Trust contribution of 2 per cent of royalty continue to be fixed centrally.

    Constitutional Provisions Related to Mineral Rights and State Taxation

    1. Article 246: Distributes legislative power between Parliament and State legislatures through the three lists of the Seventh Schedule.
    2. Entry 54, Union List: Gives Parliament power over the regulation of mines and mineral development to the extent that such control is declared by law to be expedient in the public interest.
    3. Entry 23, State List: Gives States power over the regulation of mines and mineral development, expressly subject to Entry 54 of the Union List.
    4. Entry 18, State List: Places land, including rights in land and land tenures, within the exclusive competence of the States.
    5. Entry 49, State List: Gives States the power to tax lands and buildings, which covers mineral bearing land as a class of land.
    6. Entry 50, State List: Gives States the power to tax mineral rights, subject to limitations imposed by Parliament by law relating to mineral development.
    7. Article 265: Provides that no tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law.
    8. Article 254: Governs repugnancy between a central and a State law on a concurrent subject, and gives the central law primacy.

    What does the 2026 amendment actually change?

    1. Restriction on State taxes: The Bill restricts the power of States to levy taxes on mineral rights and on mineral bearing lands.
    2. Restriction on cesses: The restriction extends to cesses and other levies imposed on the same subject matter.
    3. Rule making centralised: An amendment grants sole authority over the framing of rules to the Centre.
    4. The Centre’s stated purpose: The government has argued that the amendment will promote mineral production, ensure mineral security and create a more uniform regulatory framework.
    5. Passage: The Bill was cleared by the Rajya Sabha and passed by Parliament on 13 August 2026 amid Opposition protests.

    How did the 2024 nine judge ruling set up this legislative response?

    1. The question referred: Whether royalty under the 1957 Act is a tax, and whether States retain independent power to tax mineral rights and mineral bearing land.
    2. The holding: By a majority of eight to one the Court held that royalty is not a tax, and that State competence under Entry 50 survives.
    3. The precedent overruled: The 1990 ruling that had treated royalty as a tax, and had thereby denied States a separate taxing field, was overturned.
    4. The fiscal consequence: Mineral rich States became entitled to arrears accumulated since 2005, an amount running into more than a lakh crore rupees across States.
    5. The opening the Court left: The judgment expressly preserved Parliament’s power under Entry 50 to impose limitations on State taxation of mineral rights, and the 2026 amendment uses exactly that power.

    Why do mineral rich States say the Bill strips their revenue base?

    1. Encroachment on land: The Kerala Chief Minister described the legislation as a serious encroachment on the State’s constitutional powers over land and a grave threat to India’s federal structure, and said the State would mount political and, if necessary, legal opposition.
    2. Land is a State subject: The Leader of the Opposition in Kerala argued that land falls under Entry 18 of the State List and that taxation of land is also a State subject, so the restriction enters the States’ constitutional domain.
    3. Disproportionate impact: Odisha’s former Chief Minister wrote that the provisions would disproportionately impact mineral rich States and cause massive revenue losses that would stifle the State’s developmental agenda.
    4. What the revenue funds: He stated that mining revenue finances healthcare, education, welfare schemes and infrastructure development across the State, and demanded a special Assembly session and a unanimous resolution.
    5. Fiscal autonomy claim: He described fiscal autonomy as a constitutional principle built into the federal system, and said stripping States of the power to tax their own mineral bearing lands strikes at cooperative federalism.
    6. Protest in Jharkhand: The Jharkhand Chief Minister called it a black Bill and warned of protests in every district, block, panchayat and town of the State.
    7. The privatisation charge: The Kerala Opposition alleged that the larger objective was to weaken the public sector and create opportunities for corporates to earn windfall profits.

    How was the Bill carried through Parliament?

    1. Passage amid protest: The Bill was passed while the Opposition was protesting, and the concerns raised about federalism were not addressed on the floor.
    2. Rights of affected people: The legislation overlooks the rights of those living on resource rich land, who are the first to bear the cost of expanded extraction.
    3. A pattern, not an exception: The amendment follows an established pattern of hurried lawmaking and continuing expansion of central powers at the cost of States and local communities.
    4. Session context: The monsoon session that began on 20 July 2026 passed several Bills with inadequate deliberation.
    5. What deliberation would have required: An all party meeting, circulation of the draft and consultation with State Chief Ministers were available and were not used.

    Can a Bill be constitutionally valid and still weaken federalism?

    1. The text supports the Centre: Entry 50 has always made State taxation of mineral rights subject to limitations imposed by Parliament, so the amendment uses a power the Constitution itself confers.
    2. The Court anticipated it: The 2024 judgment recognised that parliamentary limitation was available, so the amendment is a legislative answer within the space the ruling left open.
    3. The effect side: A limitation that removes the entire field converts a qualified State power into no power at all, which is a different thing from regulating its exercise.
    4. Who bears the loss: The States that lose most are the poorest resource States, whose own tax base is narrow and whose transfers do not compensate for mineral revenue.
    5. The federal principle at stake: Fiscal autonomy is not merely a revenue question, because a State that cannot tax its own resource base cannot plan expenditure independently of central transfers.
    6. The objection is not uniformly principled: The Kerala Opposition itself pointed out that the State government’s Revised Budget and White Paper on State finances proposed full privatisation of beach sand mining, which is the same direction it attacks in the Centre.

    Major Debates Surrounding Mineral Taxation and Federalism

    1. Royalty as tax or consideration: The 1990 ruling treated royalty as a tax, the 2004 five judge ruling read that as a drafting error, and the 2024 nine judge ruling settled it as a contractual consideration.
    2. How far a limitation may go: Whether Parliament’s power to impose limitations under Entry 50 extends to extinguishing the State’s taxing field altogether remains contested.
    3. Retrospective recovery burden: The staggered recovery of arrears from 2005 falls heavily on public sector miners and steel producers, and industry has argued it will be passed into input costs.
    4. Uniformity against autonomy: The Centre’s case for a single national regulatory framework for mineral security runs directly against the States’ claim to price their own resource endowment.
    5. Resource curse: Mineral rich States record among the highest poverty rates despite the highest extraction, which raises whether royalty and District Mineral Foundation flows compensate the host population at all.
    6. Community consent: The rights of Scheduled Area residents under the Fifth Schedule and the 1996 Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act sit uneasily with a centralised concession regime, as the Samatha and Niyamgiri rulings demonstrated.
    7. District Mineral Foundation utilisation: Large unspent balances and expenditure outside mining affected areas have raised the question whether local sharing works in practice.

    Challenges to the Mineral Taxation Framework after the Amendment

    1. Revenue substitution gap: No mechanism replaces the levies the States lose, e.g. Odisha’s mining revenue funds a large share of its own tax receipts and no equivalent central transfer has been announced.
    2. Litigation risk: The amendment invites a fresh constitutional challenge, e.g. the Kerala Chief Minister has already said the State will consider legal opposition to the Act.
    3. Investment uncertainty: Repeated changes to the fiscal regime deter long lead mining investment, e.g. bidders in mineral auctions price in future levy changes through lower premium bids.
    4. Local community exclusion: Centralised rule making distances the decision from those displaced, e.g. Niyamgiri in Odisha showed that consent of gram sabhas can defeat a project cleared at higher levels.
    5. Auction premium distortion: High auction premiums already compress operating margins, e.g. several iron ore blocks won at premiums above 100 per cent of sale value have remained unoperated.
    6. Enforcement of illegal mining controls: Restricting State fiscal powers does not address extraction outside the legal framework, e.g. illegal sand and iron ore mining continues to be reported across multiple States despite the auction regime.
    7. Environmental cost transfer: The framework does not price ecological damage into the concession, e.g. mining in the Aravallis and in central Indian forest belts has continued alongside contested clearances.

    Conclusion

    Entry 50 always made State taxation of mineral rights subject to limitation by Parliament, so the amendment uses a power the Constitution grants. Its effect is to reverse in statute the fiscal gain that a nine judge Bench gave mineral rich States in 2024. What remains unresolved is whether a formally valid limitation that removes an entire revenue base is compatible with fiscal federalism, and that question is now headed back to the courts.

    What is Fiscal Federalism?

    1. About: Fiscal federalism is the division of taxation powers, expenditure responsibilities and transfer mechanisms between the Union and the States in a federal system.
    2. Rationale: Revenue raising capacity is concentrated at the centre while service delivery responsibility sits with the States, so a transfer system is required to close the gap.
    3. Vertical fiscal imbalance: The mismatch between the Union’s revenue powers and the States’ expenditure responsibilities, corrected through tax devolution.
    4. Horizontal fiscal imbalance: The mismatch between States of differing income and need, corrected through the Finance Commission’s inter se distribution formula.
    5. Third tier imbalance: The mismatch at the level of panchayats and municipalities, whose own revenue is minimal and whose transfers depend on State Finance Commissions.

    Key Concerns Regarding Fiscal Federalism

    1. Shrinking divisible pool: Cesses and surcharges are not shared with States, so a growing share of central revenue sits outside the devolution formula.
    2. Loss of taxation autonomy under GST: States surrendered most of their independent indirect taxing power, leaving mineral rights and land among the few residual fields.
    3. Conditional transfers: Centrally sponsored schemes come with matching share and design conditions that constrain State expenditure choices.
    4. Weak third tier finance: Local bodies remain dependent on State transfers because property tax and user charge collection is under exploited.
    5. Borrowing limits: State borrowing under Article 293 requires central consent where the State is indebted to the Union, which constrains counter cyclical spending.

    Constitutional Framework Governing Mineral Rights and State Taxation

    1. Article 246: Distributes legislative competence between the Union and the States through the Seventh Schedule.
    2. Seventh Schedule: Contains the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent List that operationalise Article 246.
    3. Entry 54, Union List: Regulation of mines and mineral development to the extent declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest.
    4. Entry 23, State List: Regulation of mines and mineral development, subject to Entry 54 of the Union List.
    5. Entry 18, State List: Land, rights in land, land tenures and the relation of landlord and tenant.
    6. Entry 49, State List: Taxes on lands and buildings.
    7. Entry 50, State List: Taxes on mineral rights, subject to any limitations imposed by Parliament by law relating to mineral development.
    8. Article 265: No tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law.
    9. The Mineral Area Development Authority line of cases: India Cement in 1990 treated royalty as a tax, Kesoram Industries in 2004 read that as a drafting error, and Mineral Area Development Authority in 2024 held by eight to one that royalty is not a tax and that Entry 50 competence survives.

    Laws and Rules Governing Mining in India

    1. Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957: The parent statute for mineral concessions; its Section 2 declaration is what brings mineral regulation under Union control.
    2. MMDR Amendment Act, 2015: Introduced auction as the only route for granting mineral concessions and created the District Mineral Foundation and the National Mineral Exploration Trust.
    3. MMDR Amendment Act, 2021: Removed the distinction between captive and merchant mines and allowed transfer of statutory clearances with the lease.
    4. MMDR Amendment Act, 2023: Created the exploration licence and moved twelve critical and deep seated minerals, including lithium and beryllium, to central auction under a new Part D.
    5. Mines Act, 1952: Governs worker safety, working hours and welfare in mines, enforced through the Directorate General of Mines Safety.
    6. Offshore Areas Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act, 2002: Governs mineral rights in territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone, amended in 2023 to introduce auctions.
    7. Mineral Conservation and Development Rules, 2017: Prescribe scientific mining, mine closure and conservation obligations for lessees.
    8. Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and Forest Rights Act, 2006: Govern diversion of forest land and require settlement of individual and community forest rights before diversion.
    9. Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA): Requires consultation with the gram sabha before granting a mineral concession in a Scheduled Area.

    Back2Basics: Mineral Area Development Authority v. Steel Authority of India (2024)

    1. Bench strength: It was decided by a nine judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, the largest bench to sit on the question.
    2. Majority: The ruling was by a majority of eight to one.
    3. Core holding: Royalty payable under Section 9 of the 1957 Act is a contractual consideration and not a tax.
    4. Competence upheld: States retain legislative competence under Entry 50 of the State List to tax mineral rights, and under Entry 49 to tax mineral bearing land.
    5. Precedent overruled: It overruled India Cement Limited v. State of Tamil Nadu (1990), which had treated royalty as a tax.
    6. Limitation preserved: The Court recorded that Parliament may impose limitations on the Entry 50 power through a law relating to mineral development.
    7. Prospectivity ruling: In a separate order the Court allowed recovery of dues from 1 April 2005 in instalments over twelve years starting 1 April 2026, and waived interest and penalty for the period before the judgment.

    Government Initiatives for the Mineral Sector

    1. National Mineral Policy, 2019: Sets the policy framework for sustainable mining, exploration expansion and a right of first refusal in auctions for existing lessees.
    2. National Critical Mineral Mission: Launched to secure supply of critical minerals, targeting 1,200 domestic exploration projects by 2030 to 2031, production of 15 critical minerals and acquisition of 50 overseas assets.
    3. Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL): A joint venture of three public sector undertakings to acquire mineral assets abroad, including lithium acreage in Argentina.
    4. Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana: Spends District Mineral Foundation funds on drinking water, health, education, sanitation and livelihoods in mining affected areas.
    5. National Mineral Exploration Trust: Funded by a levy of 2 per cent of royalty, it finances regional and detailed exploration by notified agencies.
    6. Mining Tenement System and Star Rating of Mines: Digitise concession records and grade operating mines on sustainable development performance.

    Key Facts about India’s Mineral Sector

    1. Production base: India produces 95 minerals, comprising fuel, metallic, non metallic, atomic and minor mineral categories.
    2. Global standing: India is the world’s second largest producer of coal and among the largest producers of iron ore and crude steel.
    3. Leading States: Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Rajasthan account for the bulk of the value of mineral production.
    4. Critical minerals list: India notified a list of 30 critical minerals in 2023, of which twelve were moved to central auction under the 2023 amendment.
    5. Foundation contribution: Lessees contribute 10 per cent of royalty to the District Mineral Foundation for auctioned leases and 30 per cent for older leases.
    6. Sector share: Mining and quarrying contribute roughly 2 to 3 per cent of gross value added, well below the share in comparable resource economies.

    Challenges in India’s Mining Sector

    1. Exploration deficit: Only a small fraction of the obvious geological potential area has been explored in detail, e.g. India still imports the bulk of its lithium, cobalt and rare earth requirement despite favourable geology.
    2. Land and forest clearance delays: Concession holders wait years for statutory clearances, e.g. blocks auctioned in central India have remained unoperated pending forest diversion approval.
    3. Displacement and rehabilitation: Mining displaces tribal populations without durable resettlement, e.g. the Niyamgiri hills case turned on the Dongria Kondh community’s rights over the proposed bauxite site.
    4. Illegal mining: Extraction outside the legal framework persists in high value and low value minerals alike, e.g. river sand mining continues to be reported across States despite auction and monitoring rules.
    5. Environmental damage: Overburden, dust and water table impact are inadequately priced, e.g. coal mining in the Singrauli belt has produced sustained air and water contamination.
    6. Occupational safety: Accident rates in mines remain high, e.g. rat hole coal mining in Meghalaya has caused repeated fatal flooding incidents despite prohibition.
    7. Value addition gap: India exports ore and imports processed metal, e.g. iron ore fines have historically been exported while high grade steel inputs are imported.

    Way Forward

    1. Compensate the fiscal loss: Route a defined share of central mineral levies back to producing States to replace the revenue the amendment removes.
    2. Legislate the limitation narrowly: Define the scope of the Entry 50 limitation in the statute so that the residual State field is stated rather than left to litigation.
    3. Institutionalise consultation: Refer contested federal legislation to a Joint Parliamentary Committee and consult State Chief Ministers before introduction.
    4. Strengthen local sharing: Audit District Mineral Foundation spending and restrict it to a defined radius around mining affected habitations.
    5. Expand exploration: Use the exploration licence route to bring private and junior exploration capital into deep seated and critical mineral search.
    6. Build processing capacity: Support domestic refining and separation of critical minerals so that concession reform translates into value addition rather than ore export.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS2, 15 marks] Examine the evolving pattern of Centre-State financial relations in the context of planned development in India. How far have the recent reforms impacted the fiscal federalism in India?”

  • Parliament clears renaming of Kerala to “Keralam”

    Why in the News

    Both Houses passed a Bill to rename Kerala as “Keralam”, its name in Malayalam. The change follows two resolutions of the Kerala Assembly and routes through the constitutional process for altering a state’s name.

    How is a state renamed under the Constitution?

    1. Parliament’s power: Under Article 3, Parliament can alter the name of a state by law.
    2. Presidential referral: Such a Bill needs the President’s recommendation and the views of the affected state legislature.
    3. Simple majority: The change is passed by ordinary legislative majority, not a constitutional amendment.

    Why “Keralam”?

    1. Linguistic identity: “Keralam” is the state’s name in Malayalam, and the change aligns official usage with local usage.
    2. Assembly resolutions: The Kerala Assembly twice sought the change unanimously.

    Why does the process matter?

    1. Union primacy: Only Parliament, not the state, can effect the legal renaming.
    2. Federal courtesy: The state legislature’s view is sought, but its resolution is not binding.

    Back2Basics: Article 3 of the Constitution

    1. Scope: Formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries, or names of existing states.
    2. Initiation: Only on the President’s recommendation, after seeking the state legislature’s views.
    3. Nature: Treated as an ordinary law, reflecting the “indestructible states” feature of Indian federalism.

    “[2022, GS1, 15] The political and administrative reorganization of states and territories has been a continuous ongoing process since the mid-nineteenth century. Discuss with examples.”

    [2025] Consider the following pairs :
    State:Description
    1. Arunachal Pradesh: The capital is named after a fort, and the state has two National Parks
    2. Nagaland: The State came into Existence on the basis of a Constitutional Amendment Act.
    3. Tripura: Initially a Part ‘C’ State, it became a centrally administered territory with the reorganization of State in 1956 and later attained the status of a full-fledged State
    How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?

    [A] Only one

    [B] Only two

    [C] All the three

    [D] None

  • Parliament passes Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 renaming State Keralam

    Why in the news?

    Parliament passed the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, renaming the State Keralam and amending the First Schedule of the Constitution. The Rajya Sabha cleared the Bill by voice vote, over two years after the State Assembly unanimously resolved for the change. The measure has surfaced pending name change proposals from other States, including West Bengal’s request to become Bangla.

    How is a State renamed under the Constitution?

    1. Article 3 power: Parliament may by law alter the name of a State, and such a bill can be introduced only on the recommendation of the President.
    2. State legislature reference: The President must refer the bill to the concerned State legislature for its views within a specified period, though those views are not binding.
    3. First Schedule amendment: Renaming requires an amendment to the First Schedule, which lists the States and Union Territories, effected under Article 4 as an ordinary law.

    What is the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026?

    1. Core change: The Bill changes the name of the State from Kerala to Keralam and makes the consequential amendment to the First Schedule.
    2. Origin: It continues the Kerala Assembly’s 2024 resolution urging the Union government to rename the State Keralam.
    3. Passage: The Lok Sabha passed it on Tuesday and the Rajya Sabha by voice vote on Wednesday, with all MPs supporting the rename.

    What is the current status of State name changes in India?

    1. Precedents: Madras became Tamil Nadu, and several States and cities have been renamed over the decades.
    2. Pending proposals: West Bengal’s proposal to become Bangla has been pending for eight years, and members sought renaming of other States, cities and railway stations.
    3. Ordinary majority: A First Schedule amendment for renaming is passed as an ordinary law, not requiring the special majority reserved for other constitutional amendments.
    4. Linguistic basis: Keralam is the Malayalam name of the State, and the change reflects respect for regional language identity.

    Constitutional provisions related to State renaming:

    1. Article 3: Empowers Parliament to form new States and to alter areas, boundaries or names of existing States.
    2. Article 4: Provides that laws under Articles 2 and 3, including consequential First Schedule and Fourth Schedule amendments, are not deemed constitutional amendments under Article 368.
    3. First Schedule: Lists the States and Union Territories and their territories, amended to record the new name.
    4. Article 3 proviso: Requires presidential recommendation and reference to the State legislature before introduction.

    What does the Bill do procedurally?

    1. Amends the First Schedule: Substitutes Keralam for Kerala in the constitutional list of States.
    2. Consequential amendments: Makes the necessary changes so that references in law read as Keralam.
    3. Voice vote clearance: Passed in the Upper House by voice vote with cross party support during the Monsoon Session.

    How does renaming differ from creating or altering a State?

    1. Name only: Renaming changes only the label, leaving territory, boundaries and administrative structure intact.
    2. Same Article, different effect: Article 3 covers both renaming and territorial reorganisation, but renaming carries no boundary or population change.
    3. No special majority: Both are enacted by simple majority under Article 4, unlike amendments under Article 368.

    What are the major debates surrounding State renaming?

    1. Federal courtesy: Members urged that the Union work closely with States and respect regional languages, framing the change within cooperative federalism.
    2. Pending parity: The eight year delay on West Bengal’s Bangla proposal raised the question of consistent and timely treatment of State requests.
    3. Symbolic versus substantive: One member argued the Centre should change its behaviour on disaster funding, not just the name, contrasting symbolic recognition with substantive support.

    Conclusion: Parliament has passed the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, renaming the State Keralam and amending the First Schedule under Article 3. The change gives effect to the Kerala Assembly’s 2024 resolution and reflects the State’s Malayalam identity. The next step is presidential assent, after which the First Schedule stands amended.

    Back2Basics: First Schedule and States reorganisation

    1. First Schedule: Lists the 28 States and 8 Union Territories with their territorial extents.
    2. States Reorganisation Act, 1956: Reorganised State boundaries largely on linguistic lines, the framework within which Kerala was formed.
    3. Renaming precedents: Madras to Tamil Nadu (1969), Mysore to Karnataka (1973), Uttaranchal to Uttarakhand (2007), and Orissa to Odisha (2011).
    4. Process anchor: Article 3 read with Article 4 governs formation, alteration and renaming of States.

  • A fifth of Telangana voters face exclusion

    Why in the News

    In Telangana, 73.47 lakh enumeration forms, nearly 22% of the electorate, were marked “Uncollectable” during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The large number raises concerns about balancing clean electoral rolls with the risk of excluding genuine voters.

    What is Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?

    • SIR: Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
    • Conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) through comprehensive, house-to-house enumeration.
    • Electors submit enumeration forms; non-returned forms may be marked “Uncollectable”.
    • Doubtful cases may receive notices from Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) for verification.

    Current Status in Telangana

    • Enumeration ended: August 10, 2026.
    • Uncollectable: 73,47,075 forms, nearly 22% of the electorate.
    • Draft rolls: Scheduled for August 17.
    • Claims and objections will follow publication of the draft rolls.

    Why is it Concerning?

    1. Disenfranchisement risk: Genuine voters may be deleted along with ineligible entries.
    2. Burden on voters: Migrants, poor households and hard-to-reach groups may struggle to submit forms.
    3. Short timeline: Limited time to reconcile uncollectable forms before draft publication.
    4. Legal concerns: The process has faced challenges regarding deletion procedures.

    Safeguards After Draft Roll

    • Claims and objections: Voters can seek restoration of wrongly deleted names.
    • ERO verification: Doubtful cases can be examined before finalisation.
    • Appeals: Aggrieved voters can approach higher electoral authorities and courts.

    Constitutional & Legal Framework

    • Article 324: Gives the Election Commission of India (ECI) superintendence, direction and control over elections and electoral rolls.
    • Article 325: Provides for one general electoral roll and prohibits exclusion on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.
    • Article 326: Provides for adult suffrage.
    • Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RPA 1950): Governs preparation and revision of electoral rolls.
    • Registration of Electors Rules, 1960: Provides procedures for claims, objections and revision.

    Back2Basics: Election Commission of India

    • Type: Constitutional body under Article 324.
    • Established: 1950.
    • Composition: Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners.
    • Mandate: Conducts elections to Parliament, State legislatures, and the offices of President and Vice-President.
    • Role in rolls: Conducts summary and intensive revisions to maintain accurate electoral rolls.

    Challenges

    1. Wrongful deletion of genuine voters.
    2. Exclusion of migrants and seasonal workers.
    3. Duplicate, dead and ineligible entries.
    4. Compressed timelines for verification and objections.
    5. Documentation burden on vulnerable voters.
    6. Loss of public trust due to perceived lack of transparency.

    [2017] For election to the Lok Sabha, a nomination paper can be filed by

    (a) Anyone residing in India

    (b) A resident of the constituency from which the election is to be contested

    (c) Any citizen of India whose name appears in the electoral roll of a constituency

    (d) Any citizen of India

  • Beyond MSP: Farmers need income, not price support

    Why in the News

    Madhya Pradesh has raised its guaranteed procurement of summer moong at Minimum Support Price (MSP) from 25% to 60% of estimated yield, after farmers demanded the state’s declared MSP be honoured in practice, not left on paper. The concession exposes the deeper conflict between expanding price-support procurement, which is fiscally unsustainable for any state, and shifting toward direct income support that does not distort what farmers choose to grow.

    What is driving Madhya Pradesh’s decision to raise the procurement threshold?

    1. Price gap: Moong is wholesaling in mandis at about Rs 7,000 a quintal, well below the MSP of Rs 8,768 a quintal.
    2. Prior cap: The state had earlier guaranteed MSP procurement only for up to 1.2 quintals of yield per acre, since raised to 3 quintals.
    3. Unequal benefit: Farmers harvesting 6 to 8 quintals an acre, twice the state’s assessed average yield, still stand to lose the most on the extra output sold below MSP.
    4. Broader demand: The demand for MSP as a guaranteed entitlement is no longer confined to Punjab and Haryana’s wheat and rice growers. It now extends to pulses and oilseed farmers in states like Madhya Pradesh.

    Why is expanded physical procurement not a sustainable solution?

    1. Fiscal capacity: No state government, including Madhya Pradesh, has the resources to procure and stock all the moong or soyabean farmers bring for MSP sale.
    2. Existing surplus problem: Even in wheat and rice, where government agencies already hold stocks beyond the requirements of the public distribution system and welfare schemes, continued procurement adds to storage costs without matching need.
    3. Best available alternative still costly: Paying only the price difference between MSP and the market rate, rather than physically procuring the crop, is a cheaper alternative but still not a long-term sustainable solution.

    What alternative does the case for reform point to?

    1. Minimum Income Support (MIP): A per-acre direct cash transfer, described as Minimum Income Support (MIP), would guarantee farmers income without requiring the state to procure or store any crop.
    2. Market-aligned incentive: Once assured of an MIP, farmers would have the freedom to grow crops the market actually wants, rather than crops guaranteed a price floor.
    3. Complementary measures: Crop insurance and greater public investment in agricultural research and rural infrastructure are identified as the support structures that should accompany an MIP.
    4. Policy stance: Agricultural policy should complement markets rather than displace or distort them, an approach both MSP-based procurement and open-ended input subsidies have failed to deliver.

    What are the challenges to a Minimum Income Support (MIP) approach

    1. Land record dependence: A per-acre transfer requires accurate, updated land records, which many tenant farmers and sharecroppers lack access to.
    2. Moral hazard risk: A flat per-acre payment could be gamed through short-term land leasing arrangements designed solely to capture the transfer.
    3. State fiscal capacity still tested: An MIP still requires sustained budgetary commitment from state or central governments. Its affordability has not been demonstrated at the scale MSP procurement currently operates.
    4. Loss of price floor: Removing procurement-based price support exposes farmers fully to market price volatility, without the safety net an assured MSP purchase currently provides.
    5. Political resistance: Farmer groups that have organised around MSP as an entitlement may resist a transition away from procurement guarantees they have fought to expand.

    Conclusion

    Madhya Pradesh’s expanded moong procurement buys short-term calm but adds to a fiscal burden no state can sustain at scale. The alternative on the table, a per-acre Minimum Income Support transfer paired with crop insurance and rural investment, would let farmers respond to market signals instead of price guarantees, though its own implementation challenges remain unresolved.

    Back2Basics

    1. Minimum Support Price (MSP): A price floor announced by the central government for select crops, based on recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
    2. Coverage: MSP currently covers 22 crops, but assured physical procurement at scale is concentrated overwhelmingly in wheat and rice through the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state procurement agencies.
    3. Pulses and oilseeds: Procurement of pulses and oilseeds like moong at MSP has historically been far more limited than for cereals, leaving a wider gap between announced MSP and actual market realisation for these crops.

    Committee/Report

    1. Ashok Dalwai Committee (Doubling Farmers’ Income): Shift focus from price support to income enhancement through diversification, value addition and market reforms.
    2. Shanta Kumar Committee (2015): Recommended restricting MSP procurement and replacing it with Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs) where feasible.

    Economic Survey

    1. Economic Survey 2016-17: Advocated replacing input subsidies with direct income transfers for better efficiency and lower market distortions.

    International Examples

    1. United States: Income support through Farm Bill programmes (Price Loss Coverage and crop insurance) rather than open-ended government procurement.
    2. European Union: Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provides direct income payments largely decoupled from production, reducing production distortions.

    PYQ Relevance

    [UPSC 2018] What do you mean by Minimum Support Price (MSP)? How will MSP rescue the farmers from the low-income trap?

    Linkage: The PYQ tests the role of MSP in ensuring remunerative prices and improving farmers’ incomes. The article examines the limitations of MSP-based procurement and the case for Minimum Income Support (MIP) as an alternative.