Lok Sabha members Shashi Tharoor and Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot are now part of a revamped Congress Working Committee (CWC) that party president Mallikarjun Kharge announced on August 20, coinciding with the 79th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi as well as Rahul Gandhi too are CWC members by virtue of being past Congress presidents. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are also members of the CWC.
The new CWC has been announced nearly six months after Kharge was authorised to nominate members at the Raipur plenary session on February 24.
While the main CWC has been expanded to 39 from the earlier 24, there are 18 permanent members, 14 in-charges, nine special invitees and heads of frontal organisations.
Other notable inclusions in the core CWC include former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan, former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi, former Lok Sabha member Deepa Dasmunshi, Lok Sabha member Gaurav Gogoi and Rajya Sabha member Syed Naseer Hussain.
Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari and senior leader from Kerala Ramesh Chennithala, bureaucrat-turned-politician K Raju, have been made permanent invitees, along with Kodikunil Suresh and Priniti Shinde.
Younger leaders Alka Lamba, Supriya Shrinate and Pawan Khera have been made special invitees while Kanhaiya Kumar is in the CWC as the in-charge of students wing.
Opposition members protest against short notice for meeting on bills to replace criminal laws
At least three members of the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs have protested against the short notice at which the panel is meeting to begin deliberations on three bills — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023 and Bharatiya Sakhshya Bill, 2023 — that seek to overhaul the Indian criminal justice system by replacing Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
Trinamool’s Derek O’ Brien and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, along with Congress leader Digvijay Singh have written the letter.
The committee as per the original schedule was to meet on August 24 to adopt a draft report on “Prison-Condition Infrastructure and Reforms”, a subject on which it has long been deliberating on.
A fresh notice was issued to the members on August 18 at night, that on August 24, 25 and 26, Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla will brief the members on the various aspects of the three bills.
Cauvery water sharing | Karnataka government convenes all-party meeting on August 23
Amid attack by the opposition Janata Dal (Secular) and BJP over the release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu, the Congress government in Karnataka has convened an all-party meeting on August 23.
Announcing the details of the meeting, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who holds the Water Resources portfolio, said, “We have convened the all-party meeting to discuss on the inter-State river disputes on Cauvery and Mahadayi. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will chair the meeting to be held in Vidhan Soudha at 11 a.m on Wednesday. Some members of parliament have also been invited. Several issues pertaining to the matter will be discussed.”
“It is our duty to protect the State because farmers of Karnataka are in distress. Rainfall has not been good,” he said.
After the State government started release of Cauvery water following a direction from Cauvery Water Management Authority to Karnataka to release 10,000 cusecs daily for 15 days, the Opposition had charged the Congress government of releasing the water to help the DMK, an ally in the newly-formed Opposition bloc INDIA.
On Sunday, Shivakumar said that the State government had already written to the authority to reconsider its direction in the light of decreased inflow into the reservoirs. He also said that the State has also directed the legal team to appeal against the authority’s direction, and that the legal team, including the advocate general were working on it.
Spain wins its first Women’s World Cup title, beating England 1-0 in the final
Spain won its first Women’s World Cup title less than a year after a player rebellion, holding off England 1-0 on August 20 after Olga Carmona’s first-half goal.
Spain’s first major international trophy made it the first European team to win the Women’s World Cup since Germany in 2007.
Carmona’s left-foot shot in the 29th minute went into the far corner of the net and just out of reach of diving England goalkeeper Mary Earps.
Carmona also scored the game-winner in the 89th minute of Spain’s 2-1 semifinal victory over Sweden, becoming the first player since Carli Lloyd in 2015 to score in a World Cup semifinal and final.
Spain had a chance to double the lead in the 68th but Jenni Hermoso’s penalty attempt was saved by Earps, who anticipated perfectly and dived to her left.
ISRO announces Chandrayaan-3’s landing time; Russian moon probe crashes
The Lander Module of India’s third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 is set to touch down on the Moon on August 23 around 6.04 p.m. IST, the Indian Space Research Organisation said on August 20.
The powered descent is expected to commence at 5.45 p.m. on the designated day.
Earlier on August 20, the ISRO performed the second and final deebost of the Lander Module to reduce the Lander Module to 25 km x 134 km. The ISRO said that the module would undergo internal checks and await the sun-rise at the designated landing site.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after it spun into an uncontrolled orbit, the country’s Roscosmos space agency said on August 20.
The pilotless spacecraft was aiming to be the first ever to land on the south pole of the Moon, an area where scientists believe there could be important reserves of frozen water and precious elements. It had been expected to land on August 21. However, Roscosmos said it lost contact with the Luna-25 on August 19 after the spacecraft ran into difficulties and reported an “abnormal situation”.
“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” the agency said.
The Luna-25 was in a race with India’s Chandrayaan-3launched on July 14 to be the first to reach the south pole. Both were expected to reach the Moon between August 21 and 23.
Wildfires | 35,000 under evacuation orders in Canada’s British Columbia; thousands flee in Spain’s Tenerife
Following the state of emergency declared by Canada’s British Columbia province due to the wildfire, the evacuation order in the province has surged to 35,000 from a day earlier, reported Al Jazeera. Premier of British Columbia Daniel Eby said that a further 30,000 people are also under an evacuation alert. “The current situation is grim,” Eby added.
Moreover, Western Canada authorities have implored tens of thousands of people to heed evacuation orders and warned of difficult days ahead as ‘severe and fast-changing forest fires in the province intensified further.
The fire, centred around Kelowna, a city of 150,000 people and located some 300km east of Vancouver has partially shut down some sections of a key transit route between the Pacific coast and the rest of western Canada. Moreover, it has also caused damage to many properties. The province accounts for more than a third of Canada’s 1,062 active fires.
Furthermore, while asking for help, officials in British Columbia said that the province is in dire need of shelter for evacuees and firefighters and have further ordered a ban on non-essential travel to make temporary accommodations available in this situation.
In Spain, a wildfire on the Tenerife island has forced thousands of people to flee their homes and remained out of control on August 20, despite a slight improvement in weather conditions during the night.
Orange flames lit up the night sky from Saturday into Sunday on hillsides just above the lights of inhabited areas, while thick black smoke billowed high into the air.
It covered an area of over 8,000 hectares with a perimeter of 70 km spreading from 5,000 hectares and a perimeter of 50 km early on Saturday.
Regional authorities said over 12,000 people had been evacuated, revising down their earlier provisional estimate of 26,000. Weather conditions overnight were “better than expected” Tenerife’s fire brigade said.
In Brief:
The government is expected to constitute the 16th Finance Commission by end of November, Finance Secretary T V Somanathan said. Terms of Reference (ToR) for the Commission is being finalised, he said. The previous Finance Commission submitted its report on November 9, 2020, for the 5 fiscals — 2021-22 to 2025-26 — to the President.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
