Help Kerala to overcome financial crisis: SC to Centre
•The Supreme Court urged Centre to give Kerala a one-time package to tide over its current financial crisis as a “special case” before March 31, 2024.
•A Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant said the Centre could make up for it in the next financial year by introducing stricter conditions for financial aid to the State.
•Kerala had moved the Supreme Court in an original suit accusing the Union government of violating the federal structure of governance and causing “severe damage to the economy of a small State with meagre resources” by limiting its borrowing powers.
•The State said the arbitrary limitations set by the Centre had brought it to the brink of a financial emergency.
•The Centre had hit back by accusing Kerala of being “one of the most financially unhealthy States”.
•The Centre’s note had highlighted that debts run by States affected the credit rating of the whole country.
•Haryana State BJP president and MP, Nayab Singh Saini, was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of the State after Manohar Lal and his Council of Ministers resigned as the strained ruling coalition of the BJP and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) broke apart, amid differences over seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha election.
•In the 90-member Assembly, the BJP has 41 MLAs and support from six Independents and the lone MLA of the Haryana Lokhit Party. The JJP has 10 legislators. The majority mark in the Assembly is 46.
•The new Chief Minister inducted five MLAs into the Cabinet.
•Mr. Saini is an Other Backward Class (OBC) leader.
•OBCs account for around 40% of the State’s population.