 Good evening aspirants welcome to the hindu daily news analysis brought to you by shankara is academy for the date 18th of february 2023 these are the articles which we are going to discuss today now let's get into the first article for the day take a look at this news article according to this news article a three-judge bench of the supreme court gave a judgment ordering the lieutenant governor of delhi to notify the first meeting of the municipal corporation of delhi to elect a mayor in the judgment the supreme court also mentioned that the nominated members of the municipal council cannot participate in the polls this is about the news article given here know that the union government and the delhi state government were previously locking on for quite some time regarding this particular issue since the issue was going on for some time now there was an editorial which was present in yesterday's newspaper which talked about this particular issue i have displayed here the editorial in this editorial the author talks about the background of the issue and how it can be addressed he then talks about the controversial national capital territory of delhi amendment act 2021 and finally he talks about the issues in urban local government so in our discussion today we will discuss about all the points mentioned in the editorial in detail the syllabus regarding this discussion is highlighted here interested aspirants can go through it first let's start with the background of the issue see on december 4 2022 the elections to the delhi municipal corporation was held the amadmi party won 134 out of the 250 watts present there the bar the janata party won 104 watts even though the elections were held three months back the delhi municipal corporation still does not have a proper mayor normally election of the mayor is carried out in the first meeting after a fresh election three attempts that is on january 6 and 24 and on february 6 were made to elect the mayor but every time the election of the mayor was not held due to the fighting between councillors from the bjp and the amadmi party but why were they fighting the issue was because of lieutenant governor of delhi he allowed the nominated members of the delhi municipal council to vote in the mayor election see the lieutenant governor of delhi is allowed to nominate 10 members to the delhi municipal council but the issue was whether these nominated members could be allowed to vote in the election for the mayor this issue has led to ruka's in the corporation meeting this is why the matter was brought to the supreme court the supreme court ruled that the nominated members cannot participate in the polls this is the overall background of the issue regarding delhi municipal council but how did the supreme court arrive at such a conclusion see the supreme court arrived at the conclusion based on section three b subclass one of the delhi municipal corporation act 1957 and article 243 or class two subclass a of the indian constitution first let us take the section three b one of the delhi municipal corporation act it is the section three b one which provides for the nomination of 10 members who have special knowledge or experience in municipal administration to help the delhi corporation in the same section it is clearly mentioned that such nominated persons shall not have the right to vote in the meetings of the corporation now coming to article 243 or class two subclass a in this particular article of the indian constitution it is mentioned that states through legislation can take steps to ensure that people with special knowledge on municipal administration are represented in the municipalities but the article also states that such persons do not have the right to vote these provisions clearly state that lieutenant governor allowing nominated members to vote is in violation of the delhi municipal corporation act 1957 and also the constitution this is why supreme court ruled that nominated members of the delhi municipal corporation should not have the voting powers to elect the mayor the author of the editorial states that the issue does not end here over the years the union government has been using the office of lieutenant governor to stifle the power of the democratically elected delhi legislature and the council of ministers here he mentions about the national capital territory of delhi amendment act 2021 union government stated that this amendment was brought to enforce supreme court judgment of the government of national capital territory of delhi versus union of india in this case the supreme court ruled that the delhi government was not under obligation to seek the concurrence of lieutenant governor on its administrative decisions that is the government can take decisions without receiving an ok signal from the lieutenant governor the supreme court also ruled that when there is a difference of opinion between the democratically elected delhi government and the lieutenant governor the constitutional primacy of the representative government will prevail the union government stated that the national capital territory of delhi amendment act 2021 was paused to implement this supreme court ruling but in reality it was quite the opposite the 2021 amendment stated that government in the national capital territory of delhi meant the lieutenant governor of delhi the amendment also provides discretionary powers to the lieutenant governor in matters where the legislative assembly of delhi is empowered to make laws then it also states that before making any decisions the council of ministers must seek the opinion of the lieutenant governor so basically through the national capital territory of delhi amendment act 2021 the union government is trying to control the delhi government through the office of lieutenant governor see lieutenant governors are like the governors who are present in states but with some extraordinary powers due to the fact that delhi is a union territory but granting him extraordinary powers through this national capital territory of delhi amendment act 2021 brings with it a majority of problems this is all about the national capital territory of delhi amendment act 2021 in addition to this the union government has also been taking steps to control the delhi municipal corporation in 2022 the parliament amended the delhi municipal corporation act this was done to merge the north south and east delhi municipal corporations into a single corporation here note that in the year 2011 the delhi state assembly amended the delhi municipal corporation act to trifurcate the single delhi corporation into three parts so from this we can know that before 2011 there was a single delhi municipal corporation but in the year 2011 delhi state assembly amended this and trifurcated the single corporation into three units after 11 years last year the union parliament again amended the delhi municipal corporation act and merged the three units into a single unit but here note that in the year 2011 only the delhi state assembly amended the delhi municipal corporation act to trifurcate the delhi corporation but now it was the union parliament that amended the delhi municipal corporation act to unify the delhi corporation the union government used its power under article 239 AA of the constitution to pass this law so basically the union government has been taking steps to control the delhi government and the delhi municipal corporation here note one important point union parliament has powers to pass laws on any of the three lists which are present in the seventh schedule of the indian constitution with respect to the union territory administration in india using this particular power only union parliament trifurcated the delhi municipal corporation this is all about the entire saga that is going on in delhi finally before concluding we shall see the issues faced by the municipal governments in india in general municipal governments are created as a third tier of government in the urban areas but the functioning of the municipal governments is affected by various factors now let us see them one by one firstly there is no proper devolution of power the 74th constitutional amendment envisaged states to devolve a set of 18 functions to municipal governments these 18 functions are mentioned in the 12th schedule of the indian constitution but many of these functions are still excised by the state governments through developmental agencies for example water supply for domestic industrial and commercial purposes is one of the 18 functions mentioned in the 12th schedule according to the 74th constitutional amendment act this particular function should be given to the municipal corporation present in the urban area but in reality it is not the case so for example in chennai this function is not carried out by the chennai corporation but it is carried out by a separate organization called chennai metropolitan water supply and savage board like this the state governments are taking away the majority of functions of the municipal governments which are guaranteed to them under the 12th schedule of the indian constitution this is the first issue secondly there is the issue of excessive control of the state government appointed commissioners in most states executive powers of the municipality or vested with the state government appointed commissioners this makes the office of mayor a ceremonial one here note that the commissioners who look after the municipal administration are generally an IAS officer this is about the second major issue now coming to the third one the municipal governments have no financial autonomy they have only very few revenue generating powers because of this they are mostly dependent on grants from the state and the union governments this particular problem hampers their autonomy to make independent decisions finally schemes like javagal or neru national urban renewal mission and the smart cities mission have given the union government a larger role in driving urban development and governance because of this the role of the municipal government in urban development and governance is further sidelined these are all some factors affecting the functions of municipalities in general with this we have come to the end of this discussion through this discussion we saw about the supreme court judgment regarding the mayor elections of delhi we also saw about the background of this issue and finally we also saw some points regarding the factors which are affecting the functionality of municipalities in india with all these points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion now let us take this editorial for our next discussion it draws a comparison between two budgets that were announced recently one is the 2023-24 union budget and the other is the rajasthan state budget for the same financial year now you may think that this is not a good comparison state is a smaller unit when compared to the union so the figures cannot be compared but here in this article the authors draw a parallel between the budgets to show the significance given for social security in both the budgets as you all know social security spending plays a key role in the development process of any country the authors expressed their concern over the cuts in budgetary allocation for many social security schemes in the union budget so through this discussion today we will try to understand the important points discussed by the authors in the editorial the syllabus relevant to this discussion is highlighted here interested aspirants can go through it now we will see what are the aspects highlighted by the authors from the union budget firstly the authors highlight the severe cuts in various social security and welfare schemes such as food security and mg narega they are of the opinion that these cuts in the expenditure are undermining the lives of large number of poor people in india for instance look at this graph it shows the trend in government allocation for mg narega from 2017 till today since 2022 the allocation for mg narega has been on the decline this would affect the rural employment this is the first major issue highlighted by the authors now moving on to the second issue the authors are concerned that the elderly and other social security pensioners are sidelined by the union government now why do the author say so see there is a centrally sponsored scheme called as national social assistance program see it is a social security and welfare program to provide support to aged persons widows disabled persons and bereaved families on death of their primary bedwinner apart from this households which are below poverty line also receive funds through this social security scheme the problem is that since 2007 social security pensions under this scheme have remained constant the pension amount is a meagre 200 rupees for the elderly and 300 rupees for widows and persons with disabilities in addition to this only those who appear in the below poverty line list of census 2001 are given pensions see after the year 2001 we have conducted census in the year 2011 but this data is not used for selecting below poverty line households so from this itself we can say it is a very old and discredited data based on which national social assistance program is being run further this year the program saw a reduction of rupees 16 crores so according to the authors this is undermining the concept of inclusive growth as a wide variety of low income earners are neglected by the union government this is where the authors try to draw a parallel with the Rajasthan state budget the Rajasthan government through its budget had announced that a minimum income guarantee and pension law will be enacted in the state and it also said that it would provide 125 days of work through the rural or urban employment scheme besides this a minimum social security pension of rupees thousand per month with an automatic increase of 15 percentage per annum was also announced a second parallel can also be taken on the lines of national social assistance program that we were talking about earlier see as I mentioned national social assistance program is a centrally sponsored scheme we know that centrally sponsored schemes are not entirely funded by the union the union government makes some contribution and state governments are encouraged to match the remaining deficit amount but now the central government contribution remains pathetically low majority of the states are providing for several times the amount suggested through their budgetary allocation for example Rajasthan provides social security pensions to over 90 lakh people with the national social assistance program covering only the pension amount of only 10 lakh pensioners see from this data we can see that Rajasthan out of its budget expenditure finances nearly 80 lakh people for their pensions central government only provides pension for nearly 10 lakh pensioners under its national social assistance program besides this as I already said for calculating the estimated number of beneficiaries the central government relies on the old data of 2001 additionally the criteria for providing disability pensions is also very stringent only those with a disability level of 80 percentage or more are given pensions this has excluded lakhs of disabled people within the pension scheme on the other hand in the year 2013 the Rajasthan government changed its eligibility criteria to expand the coverage of pensioners it made economically vulnerable women above 55 and men above 58 eligible for old age pensions it also permitted widows with adult children to receive a widow pension then it also included anyone with more than 40 percentage disability to receive a disability pension if you can recall central government only provided disability pension for those who have disability level of 80 percentage here the authors highlight one another important aspect that is inflation and its indexing what does indexation mean see indexation to inflation means adjusting wages or prices to keep pace with the rising cost of living the cost of milk today is not the same as it was 10 years before in india we are seeing an average annual inflation rate of 6.95 percentage this means that rupees 200 in the year 2007 would have to become rupees 586.38 paisa in 2023 if indexed so keeping the pension amount constant would not help anyone these are the major points discussed by the authors in this editorial through giving a comparative analysis between the union government spending on social security programs and the state of Rajasthan spending in the same area the article gives a wholesome idea of how two different governments differ in their approach towards social security spending so finally as a way forward the authors says that other states and even the government of india should follow the example of rajasthan and take the necessary steps along these lines this would provide more credible entitlements and strengthen accountability then the union government must recognize the pension as a right for work done by the unorganized sector workers because they are the ones contributing to the gdp and to the economy all their lives this would ensure minimum condition for workers to live their retired lives with dignity also the rights based entitlements provide dignified living to people which should be the objective of any democracy here i want to add one more point by incentivizing the industries the government assumes that supply may spur up but if people do not have proper income support the demand for communities would not rise therefore even if industries are encouraged through different schemes they would not produce more because there is less demand these aspects should also be considered by the central government when they are spending for social security schemes so in this discussion today we saw a comparative analysis on the social sector spending by two different governments we also saw some key points which can be learned from the budget spending of rajasthan government by all other states present in india with all these points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion now let us take this article for our discussion before seeing the contents present in the article know that february 18 is observed as world pangolin day with this information now let us see what is given in the article the article is based on a report by a non-profit organization regarding pangolin trade in india it has reported that nearly 1203 pangolins were found in illegal wildlife trade across india from the year 2018 to 2022 according to the report up to 24 states and one union territories were involved in ceasars relating to pangolins here note that odysa reported the maximum number of incidents with 154 pangolins involved in 74 ceasars it is followed by magarastra this is the overall crux of the news article given here let's take this opportunity to learn about pangolins first of all look at this image at first instance you might have thought that pangolins are a kind of reptiles but they are not so see they are actually mammals in fact they are the only mammals which are only covered in scales they use these scales to protect themselves from predators in the wild like the image provided here if under threat a pangolin will immediately curl into a tight ball and will use their sharp scaled tails to defend themselves this is all about a brief background of pangolins now coming to the different types of it here know that there are totally eight species of pangolins four are found in india and the remaining four are found in africa asian species include chinese sunda indian and philippine pangolins african species of pangolins include ground pangolin giant pangolin white bellied and black bellied pangolins out of the eight species indian pangolin and chinese pangolin are found in india generally indian pangolin is found throughout the country south of himalayas excluding the north eastern part of our country the chinese pangolin is found in asam and eastern himalayas this is all about the habitat of the pangolins now let us see some of its characteristics firstly pangolins are solitary and they are active mostly at night secondly most of the pangolins live on the ground but some like the black bellied pangolin also climb trees thirdly in size they range from a large house cat to more than four feet long fourthly as we already saw they are largely covered in scales which are made up of a component called keratin it sounds familiar right see it is the same component which is present in human air and fingernails because of the presence of these scales they are also called as scaly anteaters this is due to the fact that like anteaters pangolins have long snouts and even longer tongues pangolins use these snouts to eat ants and termites this is why they are called as scaly anteaters finally let us see briefly about the defense mechanism of pangolins when threatened they roll into a ball like a armadillo here know that they also release a skinky fluid from a gland at the base of their tail as a defense mechanism this is how they try to protect them against the predators when they are in danger now before concluding our discussion let us see about the conservation status of pangolins know that pangolins are in wide demand across the trafficking markets all around the world they are killed for their scales and meat the scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine and the meat is a delicacy among some ultra wealthy in the countries of China and Vietnam this is exactly why these species are protected know that IUCN status of the pangolins range from vulnerable to critically endangered Indian pangolin is listed as endangered and the Chinese pangolin is listed as critically endangered here I have a task for you read and take notes of IUCN status of other pangolin species which I have discussed already also know that both these species are protected under schedule one of wildlife protection act 1972 they are also present in appendix one of sites this is all with respect to this discussion through this discussion we came to know about a lot of features of pangolins and finally we also saw some facts relating to conservation status of them with all these points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion now let us take this article for our next discussion the article reports that the union health ministry has devised a strategic roadmap for achieving zero cases of leprosy infection by the year 2030 this is because the country still accounts for over half of the world's new leprosy patients so to bring down the cases of leprosy in India the national strategic plan and roadmap for leprosy is devised this is the crux of the article given here in this context let's learn about leprosy in prilam's perspective know that leprosy is caused by a slow growing bacteria called mycobacterium lepre it is a chronic infectious disease it is also known by the name hansons disease it primarily affects the nerves of the extremities here the term extremities refers to the parts of the human body furthest from the heart for example arms and legs it also affects the skin the inner lining of the nose and also the upper respiratory tract so if leprosy isn't treated it can cause several disfigurement and significant disability to our body the most interesting fact about hansons disease is that it is one of the oldest disease in recorded history the first known written reference to hansons disease is from around 600 bc this is all about the basics of leprosy now let us see the effects of leprosy on human body know that leprosy primarily affects the skin and nerves outside the brain and spinal cord these nerves are called as peripheral nerves it also affects the eyes and thin tissue lining which is inside the nose so the main symptoms of leprosy include disfiguring of skin lumps or bumps that don't go away after several weeks or even months it can also result in nerve damage nerve damage can further lead to loss of feeling in the arms and legs and also cause muscle weakness see usually it takes about three to five years for symptoms to appear after coming into the infectious bacteria in some cases people don't really develop symptoms until 20 years so leprosy's long incubation period makes it very difficult for doctors to determine when and where a person with leprosy got infected here know that the time period between contact with the bacteria and the appearance of symptoms is called the incubation period now let us move on to see about the treatments available against leprosy see leprosy is a curable disease to cure leprosy antibiotics are used typically two or three antibiotics are used simultaneously at the same time this is called as multi-drug therapy now what is this reason for using multi-drugs simultaneously see this is because the strategy helps to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance by the bacteria like I already said if left untreated the nerve damage can result in paralysis and crippling of hands and feet in some cases it will result in the loss of toes and fingers apart from this corneal ulcers or blindness can also occur if facial nerves are affected so it is better to diagnose and treat the disease early with this we have come to the end of this discussion through this discussion we came to know about the causes of leprosy the effects of it on our human body and finally we also saw about the term multi-drug treatment with these learned points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion now have a look at this news article taken from yesterday's newspaper according to the article the opposition members of parliament are asking for a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the adhani issue the opposition party general secretary has said that setting up any committee other than the joint parliamentary committee would be an exercise in futility to investigate the adhani issue the issue given in the article is not per se relevant for our examination so let us take this opportunity to discuss about the joint parliamentary committees see joint parliamentary committee is a type of hard committee set up by the indian parliament here the term ad hoc means it is not a permanent committee like the other committees present in the parliament it is purposefully notified for satisfying a single objective here note that joint parliamentary committee can be formed in two ways a joint parliamentary committee can be formed when a motion is adopted by one house and it is supported or agreed by the second house other than this a joint parliamentary committee can also be formed when the preceding officer of the houses of the parliament right to each other these are the two ways in which a joint parliamentary committee can be formed now coming to the composition of joint parliamentary committee see the joint parliamentary committee has members from both loksaba and rajasaba the number of members of the joint parliamentary committee is different each time it is constituted the only thing that must be ensured is that the number of loksaba members must be twice the number of rajasaba members for example if a joint parliamentary committee has 15 members in total 10 must be from loksaba and 5 must be from rajasaba this is all about the information regarding composition of members of joint parliamentary committee now let us see about the powers of this committee firstly a joint parliamentary committee can obtain evidence of experts public bodies or individuals so motor are on requests made by them if a witness fails to appear before a joint parliamentary committee in response to summons his or her conduct constitutes a contempt of the house secondly the joint parliamentary committee can take oral and written evidence it can also call for documents in connection with a matter which is under its consideration here note that the proceedings of joint parliamentary committee in most cases are confidential these are some of the powers of the joint parliamentary committee finally let us see the instances when a joint parliamentary committee was constituted in India for nearly 40 years after independence of our nation no joint parliamentary committees were constituted it was constituted for the first time in the year 1987 to look into the allegations made in the Bofors scandal apart from this seven other times joint parliamentary committees are constituted in India I have given here the instances of constitution of joint parliamentary committee to look into a specific issue you can pause the video and go through it see upc can ask this particular information as a question itself so kindly go through it with this we have come to the end of this discussion through this short discussion we have seen about joint parliamentary committee as I already said it is a type of ad hoc committee which is primarily constituted to look into a particular issue after submitting its report the committee gets deconstituted this is all about this discussion with these learned points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion take a look at this news article this news article talks about the plan of state government of Tamil Nadu to include persons who are involved in the illegal dumping of untreated biomedical waste into the description of gundas under the gundas act now suddenly it is a news because of the illegal dumping of biomedical waste inside the state of Tamil Nadu from the adjoining Kerala see following a petition filed in the year 2018 it has been found out that untreated hazardous and biomedical waste from the state of Kerala is dumped in the border districts of Tamil Nadu so while submitting the status report on the issue the state government said that it has planned to expand the description of gundas under the Tamil Nadu gundas act of 1982 so what does this term gunda mean see gunda actually means a violent aggressive person who is hired to intimidate or harm people and gundas act is a type of preventive detention law that enables the authorities to imprison persons without having to provide for a court trial the first gundas act in british india was enacted in the presidency of bengal in the year 1923 the law is used in several forms in several states for preventive detention of habitual offenders likewise the version of gundas act in Tamil Nadu is known as Tamil Nadu prevention of dangerous activities of bootleggers drug offenders gundas immoral traffic offenders forest offenders sand offenders slump grabbers and video pirates act 1982 even a single offense under the act enables the authorities to detain a person as a gunda just now we saw that the government of Tamil Nadu is planning to expand the description of gunda right if that happens then person who illegally dump untreated biomedical waste into the state of Tamil Nadu can also be detained as gunda under this preventive detention act here you might have a doubt why should we detain them without even giving them an opportunity to approach their court to get a bail see it is to prevent them from indulging in dangerous activities that are detrimental to maintaining the peace and public order see the gundas act is an extraordinary legislation which gives unaccumulated power in the hands of the state to detain a person even without any trial this type of detention is this type of detention is only called as preventive detention preventive detention means detention of a person without trial and conviction by a court its purpose is not to punish a person for a past offense but to prevent him or her from committing an offense in the near future so preventive detention is a precautionary measure and purely based on suspicion on the other hand there is another type of detention called punitive detention punitive detention is to punish a person for an offense committed by him or her after trial and conviction in a court here note that article 22 class 1 and class 2 of our Indian constitution grants protection to persons from arbitrary arrest by the state now if you look at class 3 of the same article it grants the state some exceptions from class 1 and 2 it allows the state to detain enemy aliens and persons who are arrested under preventive detention laws so persons who are arrested under class 3 of article 22 does not gain the rights which are guaranteed to him under class 1 and 2 of the same article so the fundamental rights part of our constitution itself grants the Indian government the power to preventive detention of a person this is a brief about the preventive detention provision which is present in the constitution of India as I already said similar to Tamil Nadu other states also have preventive detention laws I have displayed here the laws of preventive detention of other states you can pause the video and go through the acts given here and here I have displayed some of the examples of preventive detention laws which are made by the union parliament previously I had displayed the laws which are made by the state parliaments now this is the laws which are made by the union parliaments many of these laws were repealed by the supreme court of India stating that these laws were against the constitution some of the examples of repealed laws are maintenance of internal security act 1971 and the preventive detention act 1950 with this we have come to the end of this discussion through this discussion we came to know about the term gundas the articles relating to preventive and punitive detention present in the part three of our Indian constitution and finally we saw the list of state and union laws relating to preventive detention in India with these learned points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion for our next discussion let us take this article the article says that the national green tribunal has imposed a fine of rupees 2232 crore on the Delhi government the fine is for the damage caused to the environment due to improper solid and waste management additionally national green tribunal has also constituted a panel under lieutenant governor vk succena to monitor the capitals solid waste management this is the crux of the news article given here in this context let us see about national green tribunal in detail first of all let us see when was the national green tribunal established see national green tribunal was established in the year 2010 as per the national green tribunal act it is a specialized judicial body equipped with expertise solely for the purpose of adjudicating environmental cases in the country now what is the need for such a tribunal when supreme court and high courts are already present see we all know most environment cases involve multidisciplinary issues so it will be better addressed in a specialized forum and for this purpose only national green tribunal was formulated so accordingly tribunal is tasked with providing effective and expedient remedy in cases relating to environmental protection conservation of forests and other natural resources additionally it is also tasked with the enforcement of any legal right relating to environment know that this particular tribunal is mandated to dispose the applications and appeals filed before six months of initial data filing with this let us move on to see the jurisdiction of the tribunal it is said that if a person is seeking relief for environmental damage involving subjects in the legislations mentioned in schedule one of the ngt act then he or she may approach the tribunal the legislations in schedule one include the water prevention and control of pollution says act 1977 the forest conservation act 1980 the air prevention and control of pollution act 1981 the environment protection act 1986 the public liability insurance act 1991 the biodiversity act 2002 so these are all the acts which are covered under the adjudicating power of national green tribunal know that the tribunal has jurisdiction over all civil cases involving a substantial question relating to environment additionally if any person is aggrieved by an order or direction of the appellate authorities under the legislation since schedule one then that aggrieved person can challenge the orders before the national green tribunal finally before concluding this discussion let us see about the places of sitting of national green tribunal and its composition as far as the places of sitting of national green tribunal is concerned the tribunal has presence in five zones the zones are north central east south and west the principal bench of ngt is situated in the north zone which is headquartered in dilly the central zone bench situated in bhopal east zone in kolkata south zone in chennai and west zone in punay now coming to the composition know that the tribunal is headed by the chairperson the members include at least 10 but not more than 20 judicial members and at least 10 but not more than 20 expert members so from this we can see that national green tribunal has both judicial and expert members in it with this we have come to the end of this discussion through this discussion we have seen about national green tribunal in prilam's perspective with all the points in mind now let's move on to the next article discussion now let's take this news article for our next discussion it says that kishmiri pundits are celebrating the mahasivratri in a subdued manner this year in kishmir this is because there was a spree of killings of kishmiri pundits by militants recently so following this there was a huge migration of pundits from kishmir to different parts in the past one year this is the crux of the article given now let's take this opportunity to learn about saivism and its lesser known sects see saivism is a section of hindu religion which is primarily devoted to the worship of god shiva its followers are only termed as saivites know that the origin of shiva can be traced back to the concept of rudra in rik veda see presently saivism can be divided into three or four sects they are saiva siddhanta of tamiladu veera saivas of karnataka keshmir saivism and gorkhnath saivism we are not going to concentrate on these broader sects today but we are going to see about the smaller lesser known sects of saivism let's first see about pasupathas the earliest of saiva sects was the pasupathas sect know that the pasupathas wielded great influence over south indian saivism from the seventh to the 14th century cg the founder of this group was lakulisa here note that pasupathas smear their body with ash second is the kapalika school the school dates back to 8th century c e the followers of this school traditionally carried a skull topped trident and an empty skull as a begging ball the followers of this particular kapalika school carried with them six different marks all the time the six marks are a necklace an ornament other than necklace and earring a crust ash and the sacred thread are yajnopavitha they believe that the person whose body bears these marks is free from transmigration so they always carry these six marks always with them today the kapalika tradition survives within its saivite offshoot of the agori order then finally comes the kalamuka school see it was an important saiva sect from the 10th to 13th century c e in the present day karnataka as per some scholars the kalamuka school of faiishnavism was an extreme sect they indulged in practices like eating food in a skull and coating their bodies with ashes the followers of this particular sect is known as mahavratin this is all with respect to this discussion through this discussion we saw about the three minor saivism schools which were present in medieval india see the names of these schools can be given in the question and asked what are these schools related to so kindly make a note of the names which i have discussed with this let's move on to the next part of our hindu daily news analysis which is nothing but the prilam's practice question discussion today i have taken five different questions for our discussion four will be discussed by me and one will be the quiz question for you now let's start with the first question see it is a two statement question and it is regarding leprosy coming to statement one leprosy is a bacterial infection see the statement is correct regarding this we saw in the discussion itself it is primarily caused by a bacteria called mycobacterium lepre so statement one is correct now coming to the second statement the disease is spread through casual contact with a person who has leprosy by shaking hands or hugging or sharing meals or sitting next to each other see this statement is incorrect the disease is transmitted through only droplets from the nose and mouth so prolonged close and repeated contact over months with someone with untreated leprosy is needed to catch the disease and the disease is not spread through casual contact with a person who has leprosy like shaking hands or hugging sharing meals or sitting next to each other so statement two is incorrect the question is asking the correct statements so the correct answer for this question is option a one only now moving to the second question this question is relating to national green tribunals three statements are given and we have to find out the correct statements now coming to the first statement the tribunal is not bound by procedure under the code of civil procedure 1908 but it is vested with the powers of civil court under the code of civil procedure 1908 for discharging its function see the statement is correct know that ngt is not bound by procedure under the code of civil procedure but it is vested with powers of civil court under the same procedure here also know that ngt is guided by principles of natural justice so statement one is correct now coming to the second statement national green tribunals act 2010 gives the tribunal power to regulate its own procedure the statement is correct the statement provided here is one another significance of ngt this is as per section 19 of ngt act 2010 so statement two is also correct now coming to the third statement the order of the tribunal is binding and final and there is no appeal the first part of the statement is correct the order of the tribunal is binding but it is not final and the appeal which lies from the tribunal goes to the supreme court so statement three is incorrect so the correct answer for this question is option b 1 and 2 only now moving on to the third question see this is a previous air question asked in the year 2021 prelims let me read out the question first consider the following animals option 1 hedgehog option 2 marmot option 3 pangolin to reduce the chance of being captured by predators which of the abo organisms roll up and protect their vulnerable parts from a discussion itself we know that three should be in the answer so we can eliminate option a and b now we are left only with option c and d we have to know whether hedgehog roll up itself when confronted with a predator see i have displayed here the picture of hedgehog from the picture itself we can see it has the ability to roll up itself so the correct answer for this question is option d 1 and 3 now moving on to the fourth question this question is regarding joint parliamentary committee two statements are given and we have to find the incorrect statement for all the previous questions we have to find the correct statement for this question we have to find the incorrect statement so aspirants you need to pay closer attention to details while solving the prelims question if not there are chances that you might get the answers wrong now let's solve this question coming to statement one joint parliamentary committee is constituted every year after budget to examine the departmental demands for grants see the statement is incorrect the statement one is the definition of departmental standing committees as i already said joint parliamentary committee is an ad hoc committee with a specific purpose and it gets deconstructed after these specific purposes done so statement one is incorrect now coming to the second statement it has 15 members in total 10 from loksaba and five from rajasaba see statement two is wrong the membership of joint parliamentary committee is not fixed only the ratio of two is to one between the loksaba and rajasaba members must only be maintained while constituting the joint parliamentary committee so statement two is incorrect the question is asking for incorrect statements so the correct answer for this question is option d neither one nor two the main practice question is displayed here interested aspirants can write the answer and post it in the comment section with this we have come to the end of this discussion if you have liked our video please hit the like button do comment and share it with your friends thank you for listening