25.03.17 Daily Current Affairs

Laws and rules relating to National Flag

• Non statutory instructions issued by the Government from time to time
• Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 195
• Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971
• Flag Code of India, 2002, is an attempt to bring together all such laws, conventions, practices and instructions for the guidance and benefit of all concerned.

Election Symbols

(Context AIADMK factional feud for party symbol)

• As per the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, the Election Commission allots symbols for anyone contesting in polls.
• A person contesting on behalf of a recognised political party will inherit the party’s symbol. An independent candidate or someone contesting on behalf of an unrecognised political party has to approach the Commission and get a symbol allotted from the list of ‘free’ symbols available.
• Two or more recognised political parties can have the same symbol provided they are not contenders in the same State or Union Territory. Both Federal Party of Manipur and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) use ‘Rising Sun’ as their symbol. But if one of the parties wish to open their account in the other State, it will have to contest on a different symbol. This is why the Bahujan Samaj Party will have to choose a different symbol if it contests in Assam, since Asom Gana Parishad also uses ‘Elephant’ symbol.
• In case a recognised political party splits, the Commission decides which faction can use the symbol. In the case of Samajwadi Party, the EC allotted ‘Bicycle’ to the Akhilesh Yadav faction. The Commission may also choose to freeze the symbol and ask both factions to contest in fresh symbols, just as how it did with AIADMK’s ‘Two Leaves’ now and with Congress in 1969 when the party had split as Congress (R) and Congress (O).
• State Election Commissions are concerned with elections to panchayats and municipalities. They play no role in allotment of/settling disputes related to symbols of recognised parties.

National Commission for ST

• It is a constitutional body.
• The Central Government and State Governments are required to consult the Commission on all major policy matters affecting the STs.
• It can recommend measures to be taken to prevent alienation of tribal people from land.

Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana

• “Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana”, a ‘Scheme for providing Physical Aids and Assisted-living Devices for Senior citizens belonging to BPL category’ will be launched in District Nellore, Andhra Pradesh on 1st April, 2017.
• The scheme will be implemented through the sole implementing agency, ‘Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO)’, (a PSU under M/o SJ&E), which will undertake one year free maintenance of the aids & assisted living devices.
• As per the Census figures of 2011, the population of senior citizens in India is 10.38 crore. More than 70% of the population of senior citizens live in rural areas of the country. A sizeable percentage (5.2%) of the senior citizens suffers from some sort of disabilities related to old age.

Miscellaneous Information

‘Limbu’ and ‘Tamang’ tribes can be found in North East India