Background
The Gauhati High Court's direction on jails in Assam was addressed to the Juvenile Justice Board in each district. A Juvenile Justice Board is the district level body set up under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 to deal with a child who is in conflict with law. Among its listed functions is the power to visit jails and places where children may be kept, which the court traced to Section 8(3)(m) of that Act. The High Court used precisely that provision to ask the Boards to look for children inside adult jails and to keep doing so. The Act also provides the appropriate homes to which a child found in a jail has to be moved. Candidates should be able to separate the Board, which handles children in conflict with law, from the committee that handles children in need of care and protection. The Act of 2015 replaced the earlier juvenile justice law of 2000.
Level at which a Board works:
district
Parent Act:
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015
Section giving the visiting power:
Section 8(3)(m)
Why it matters for exams: The durable fact is that the Juvenile Justice Board is a district level body created by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and that its power to visit jails rests on Section 8(3)(m) of that Act.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
JJB Juvenile Justice Board — The district level body for children in conflict with law under the 2015 Act.
Background
Kaziranga, which has just opened to visitors for the new season, is not only a national park and tiger reserve but also a World Heritage property. It is listed as Kaziranga National Park in Assam State, India, with an area of 42,996 hectares. The listing rests on criteria nine and ten, the first for the ecological processes driven by the river and the second for the threatened species the park supports. UNESCO records it as holding the world's largest population of the one-horned rhinoceros, put at over two thousand animals. The same grasslands and wetlands also carry tigers, Asian elephants, wild water buffalo and the Ganges River dolphin. The river that shapes all of this is the Brahmaputra, whose annual flooding both renews the grassland and forces the park to shut for the monsoon. So the flood that closes the park each year is the very process the World Heritage listing recognises.
World Heritage area:
42,996 hectares
Criteria:
(ix) and (x)
One-horned rhinoceros population:
over 2,000, the world's largest
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are Kaziranga's World Heritage area of 42,996 hectares, its criteria nine and ten, its position in Assam on the Brahmaputra, and that it holds the world's largest one-horned rhinoceros population of over two thousand.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
World Heritage List UNESCO World Heritage List — The list of cultural and natural properties inscribed under the World Heritage Convention.
Background
Kaziranga's season reopening draws attention to the fact that Assam holds a second wildlife property on the World Heritage List, namely Manas Wildlife Sanctuary. Manas covers 39,100 hectares in north-east India and takes its name from the Manas river, part of the Manas-Beki river system. It lies in the Eastern Himalayas and shares its northern edge with Bhutan, so the protected landscape continues across an international boundary. The listing uses three criteria, seven, nine and ten, which cover natural beauty, ecological processes and threatened species together. Two endemic animals are central to its value, the pygmy hog and the golden langur, both found in this region and nowhere else. The sanctuary also holds the tiger, the greater one-horned rhinoceros and the Bengal florican. Between them Kaziranga and Manas give Assam two natural World Heritage properties, which is the point worth remembering.
Area:
39,100 hectares
Criteria:
(vii), (ix) and (x)
Country on its northern edge:
Bhutan
Endemic species:
pygmy hog and golden langur
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are that Manas Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam is a World Heritage property of 39,100 hectares listed under criteria seven, nine and ten, that it borders Bhutan in the Eastern Himalayas, and that the pygmy hog and golden langur are its endemic species.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Endemic Endemic species — A species found naturally only in one region and nowhere else.
Background
The directions now reaching Assam's districts, from the order on children in adult jails to the ruling on civil marriage, all come from the Gauhati High Court. Its origins lie in a resolution that the Assam Legislative Assembly adopted on 9 September 1947, asking for a High Court for the Province of Assam. The Governor General acted on that demand by promulgating the Assam High Court Order, 1948 on 1 March that year. Under that Order the High Court of Assam came into existence with effect from 5 April 1948. The court that sits today as the Gauhati High Court grew out of that original court. The sequence is worth holding because it places the court's birth in the months just after independence rather than in the colonial period. Candidates are often asked to date the establishment of a particular High Court.
Assembly resolution:
9 September 1947
Order promulgated:
Assam High Court Order, 1948, on 1 March 1948
Court came into existence:
5 April 1948
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are that the Assam Legislative Assembly resolution of 9 September 1947 began the process, that the Assam High Court Order, 1948 was promulgated by the Governor General on 1 March 1948, and that the High Court of Assam came into existence on 5 April 1948.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Governor General Governor General — The office that promulgated the Order setting up the High Court of Assam in 1948.
Background
The same Brahmaputra whose flooding closes Kaziranga every monsoon is also a working transport route, declared as National Waterway 2. A set of projects along it was taken up at Guwahati with a combined value of about 526 crore rupees. The largest single piece is an elevated road corridor of about 180 crore rupees connecting Pandu Port in Guwahati to National Highway 27. Two cruise terminals, at Biswanath Ghat and at Neamati, together account for about 158 crore rupees. A Regional Centre of Excellence at Bogibeel in Dibrugarh, costing about 188 crore rupees, had its foundation ceremony at the same event. Taken together these works are meant to tie river transport on the Brahmaputra to the road network rather than leave the two separate. The pairing of a national waterway number with a national highway number is the kind of detail examiners like.
Brahmaputra's waterway number:
National Waterway 2
Total value of the works:
about Rs 526 crore
Highway linked to Pandu Port:
National Highway 27
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are that the Brahmaputra is National Waterway 2, that Pandu Port lies at Guwahati and is being linked to National Highway 27, and that the cruise terminals are at Biswanath Ghat and Neamati with a Regional Centre of Excellence at Bogibeel in Dibrugarh.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
National Waterway National Waterway — A river or canal stretch declared by law as a waterway for national inland water transport.
Background
The Gauhati High Court's attention to institutions that must receive children removed from jails sits inside a wider state network of public institutions, of which the health estate is the largest. A set of medical institutions was inaugurated together at Guwahati, led by the Pragjyotishpur Medical College and Hospital at about 675 crore rupees. Medical colleges and hospitals at Jorhat, Barpeta and Diphu were taken up at about 310 crore, 284 crore and 220 crore rupees respectively. Two cancer centres, one at Golaghat and one at Tinsukia, were each put at about 135 crore rupees. Foundation stones were laid at the same time for the Six Mile Swasthya Bhavan at about 218 crore rupees and the Abhayapuri District Hospital at about 115 crore rupees. A proton therapy facility in a government hospital was described as planned at about 400 crore rupees. The names and locations of these institutions are the sort of state-level detail that recurs in Assam questions.
Largest institution inaugurated:
Pragjyotishpur Medical College and Hospital, about Rs 675 crore
Cancer centres:
Golaghat and Tinsukia, about Rs 135 crore each
Proton therapy facility planned at:
about Rs 400 crore
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are the names and places of Assam's new medical institutions, that Pragjyotishpur Medical College and Hospital is the largest of them at about 675 crore rupees, and that the two cancer centres are at Golaghat and Tinsukia.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Proton therapy Proton therapy — A form of radiation treatment for cancer that uses protons instead of X-rays.
Background
The Brahmaputra works that tie Assam's river transport to its highways are part of a much larger package of projects in the state, valued at about 19,480 crore rupees in all. Among the named items is the Lower Kopili Hydropower Project, counted as renewable energy, and the completed upgradation of the Numaligarh to Siliguri pipeline. A second generation bio-ethanol plant at Golaghat is described as the first of its kind in the world. Modern cruise terminals at Nimati Ghat and Bishwanath Ghat are recorded as having begun work. On the farm side, about 19 lakh Assam farmers have received close to 8,000 crore rupees under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi so far, out of more than 4.25 lakh crore rupees paid nationally. The package also refers to gas pipeline investment, refinery expansion and railway electrification in the state. The Golaghat plant and the Lower Kopili project are the two names most likely to be asked.
Total value of the package:
about Rs 19,480 crore
Assam farmers paid under PM Kisan:
about 19 lakh, nearly Rs 8,000 crore
Site of the 2G bio-ethanol plant:
Golaghat
Why it matters for exams: The durable facts are that the Lower Kopili Hydropower Project is in Assam, that the second generation bio-ethanol plant is at Golaghat, and that PM Kisan Samman Nidhi is the central scheme under which about 19 lakh Assam farmers have been paid.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi — A central scheme that pays income support directly to eligible farmers.
2G bio-ethanol Second generation bio-ethanol — Ethanol made from crop residue and other non food plant material rather than from food grain.
Background
The Brahmaputra is in the news in Assam as a national waterway, and the same river is also the obstacle that Assam's road network has to keep crossing. One of the newer crossings is the Kumar Bhaskar Varma Setu, built over the Brahmaputra at Guwahati. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The government's stated purpose for the bridge is better connectivity, comfort and commerce for Guwahati and the areas around it. The release also notes that the bridge makes it easier for devotees to reach the Kamakhya Temple, which stands on the Nilachal hill at Guwahati. For an aspirant the useful pairing is simple: the river is the Brahmaputra, the city is Guwahati and the State is Assam.
River:
Brahmaputra
City:
Guwahati
State:
Assam
Why it matters for exams: The Brahmaputra and its bridges at Guwahati, and the Kamakhya Temple, are standard Assam geography and culture questions in State and national papers.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Setu Setu — The Sanskrit-derived word for a bridge, used in the official names of many Indian bridges.