Bill to amend regulation of chemical weapons passed by Parliament

Jhalak - September 3, 2012

The Chemical Weapons Convention (Amendment) Bill, 2010 (the Bill) was recently passed by the Lok Sabha without any amendment. The Chemical Weapons Convention Act, 2000 (the Act) was enacted to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (the CWC). The CWC aims to eliminate chemical weapons by prohibiting their development, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer or use by State Parties. The 188 State Parties of the CWC are required to take the steps necessary to prohibit these activities within their jurisdiction. India signed the Convention on January 14, 1993. The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on April 16, 2010 by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Mr. Srikant Kumar Jena. The Standing Committee submitted its report on August 3, 2010. This Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha on May 3, 2012 with some amendments based on the recommendations of the Standing Committee. The recommendations of the standing committee and the subsequent amendments made by the Rajya Sabha are as follows:

The Act disallows any person from transferring or receiving specified toxic chemicals from a citizen of a non-State Party. The Bill changes this position by prohibiting transfer or receipt of the specified toxic chemicals from a non-State Party to the Convention. The Committee recommended that the provision should clearly prohibit transfer or receipt from both non-State Parties and citizens of non-State Parties. The Rajya Sabha has made the corresponding amendment to the Bill.

The Act mandates the registration of persons engaged in the production, transfer, or use of any toxic chemical. The Bill makes registration mandatory, subject to certain threshold limits that are prescribed, for manufacturers of specified chemicals. The Committee observed that this would make registration mandatory only for those manufacturers who cross the specified limit. Thus, the Committee asked the government to consider a two-step process of compulsory registration of all manufacturers, followed by a declaration of those crossing the threshold limits. This recommendation has not been accepted by the Rajya Sabha. Hence, only those persons whose production of toxic chemicals exceeds the threshold would be required to register.

The Act established a National Authority to implement the provisions of the Convention. It empowers the central government to appoint officers of the National Authority as enforcement officers. The Bill broadens the central government’s power by allowing it to appoint any of its officers as enforcement officers. The Committee recommended that eligibility criteria, such as technical qualifications and expertise, for these officers should be set under the rules. The Committee also recommended that officers should be given suitable training before their appointment. The Rajya Sabha has incorporated the suggestion of prescribing eligibility criteria under the Bill.

The Lok Sabha passed the Bill on August 30, 2012 without any amendments. The standing committee report and its summary may be accessed here and here.

Policy

Status of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission

Pallavi - December 7, 2012

On November 28, 2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General submitted its report on the implementation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). According to the report most of the projects initiated under JNNURM have not been completed. For instance with respect to urban infrastructure projects, only 231 projects out of the 1298 sanctioned projects have been completed. Similarly, with respect to housing projects, only 22 of the 1517 projects have been completed. Some of the other key recommendations of the report are:

Some of the reasons for the delay in completing the projects include: (i) delay in acquiring land; (ii) deficiency in preparation of projects; and (iii) non-identification of beneficiaries which increased the risk of ineligible beneficiaries getting the benefits.
A total allocation of Rs 66,084 crore had been made by the Planning Commission. However, against this total allocation, the central government had made an allocation of only Rs 37,070 out of which until March 30, 2011 only Rs 32,934 had been released.
There was a delay in releasing these funds to the states. A large portion of the funds was released only in the last quarter and more particularly in March.
The JNNURM guidelines were deficient as they did not provide adequate guidance to the states on the method of parking the funds and utilization of interest.

The need and objectives of JNNURM According to the 2011 census India’s urban population has increased from 286 million in 2001 to 377 million in 2011 . With the increase in urban population, there is a requirement to improve the urban infrastructure and improve the service delivery mechanisms. With these specific objectives in mind, the central government launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission 2005-2006. The aim of the Mission is to encourage reforms and fast track planned development of identified cities (such as cities with a population of more than 1 million as per the 2001 census). JNNURM has two main components namely : (i) Urban Infrastructure and Governance and (ii) Urban Infrastructure Development for Small and Medium Towns. The duration of JNNURM was from 2005-06 to 2011-12. However, as the projects have not been completed the Government has extended its duration until March 2014. Funds for JNNURM The funds for JNNURM are provided through the Additional Central Assistance. This implies that the funds are provided as grants to the states directly from the centre. In the 2012 Union Budget, the central government has allocated Rs 12,522 crore for JNNURM. This represents around 10 % of the total central assistance through the different schemes to states and union territories in 2012-13. As on June 30 2012, 554 projects at a total cost of Rs 62,253 crore have been sanctioned under the Urban Infrastructure and Governance sub-mission of JNNURM. The table below shows the status of the sanctioned JNNURM projects in the different states. State wise status of the projects under JNNURM (as on August 6, 2012)

Name of State	Total Allocation (Rs Lakh)	Number of sanctioned projects	Completed Projects
Andhra Pradesh	2,11,845	52	18
Arunachal Pradesh	10,740	3	NA
Assam	27,320	2	NA
Bihar	59,241	8	NA
Chandigarh	27,087	3	NA
Chattisgarh	24,803	1	NA
Delhi	2,82,318	23	4
Goa	12,094	2	NA
Gujarat	2,57,881	72	40
Haryana	32,332	4	NA
Himachal Pradesh	13,066	5	NA
Jammu & Kashmir	48,836	5	NA
Jharkhand	94,120	5	NA
Karnataka	1,52,459	47	22
Kerala	67,476	11	NA
Madhya Pradesh	1,32,850	23	7
Maharashtra	5,50,555	80	21
Manipur	15,287	3	NA
Meghalaya	15,668	2	NA
Mizoram	14,822	4	NA
Nagaland	11,628	3	NA
Orissa	32,235	5	NA
Punjab	70,775	6	1
Puducherry	20,680	2	NA
Rajasthan	74,869	13	2
Sikkim	10,613	2	NA
Tamil Nadu	2,25,066	48	12
Tripura	14,018	2	NA
Uttar Pradesh	2,76,941	33	4
Uttarakhand	40,534	14	NA
West Bengal	3,21,840	69	15

Source: Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission; PRS.

Gujarat at 55.55% has the highest number of completed projects, while Uttar Pradesh at 12.24% has the lowest number of completed projects.
Out of the larger states, Delhi and Maharashtra at 17% and 26% have a comparatively low rate of completed projects.
Maharashtra has the highest number of sanctioned projects, while the North Eastern states, Chattisgarh and Puducherry have the lowest number of sanctioned projects.

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Bill to amend regulation of chemical weapons passed by Parliament

Status of Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission

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