Current Affairs – February, 2019

Government Approves Construction of more than 5 lakh Affordable Houses

The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has approved the construction of another 560,695 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). The approval was given by the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee under the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs. The details of the projects approved are listed below:

• Total of 1,243 projects with a project cost of Rs 33,873 crore with central assistance of Rs 8,404 crore has been approved.
• The approval of 560,695 more houses takes the cumulative number of houses sanctioned under PMAY(U) to 79,04,674.

State wise Allocation

• Uttar Pradesh: 179,215
• Andhra Pradesh: 110,618
• Maharashtra: 101,220
• Karnataka: 48,729
• Madhya Pradesh: 26,587
• Gujarat: 25,861
• Manipur: 13,715
• Tamil Nadu: 12,174
• Bihar: 10,084
• Odisha: 7,472
• Chhattisgarh: 7,067
• Kerala: 4,194
• Haryana: 4,019
• Rajasthan 3,601
• Jharkhand 2,165
• Assam: 1,419
• Meghalaya: 1,397
• Puducherry: 1,158

The allocation is part of the government’s commitment to ensure housing for all by 2022.

Indian Air Force Strikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed camps in Pakistan

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has struck against Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Balakot of Pakistan occupied Kashmir in the pre-dawn hours of 26th February 2019. The Mirage-2000 fighter jets were used to drop explosives on these training camps. A dozen Mirage-2000 fighter jets used to carry out the attack were escorted by four Sukhoi Su-30 aircraft.

Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control System of Israel and the indigenous Netra Airborne Early Warning and Control System Aircraft (AEW&C) aircraft were deployed to monitor the mission.

Highlights of the statement by the Ministry of External Affairs

• A suicide terror attack was conducted by a Pakistan-based terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) lead to the martyrdom of 40 brave jawans of the CRPF.
• The terrorist organisation JeM has been active in Pakistan for the last two decades and is led by Masood Azhar with its headquarters in Bahawalpur.
• JeM has been proscribed by the UN, has been responsible for a series of terrorist attacks including on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 and the Pathankot airbase in January 2016.
• Even though India provided the location of training camps in Pakistan from time to time, Pakistan continued to deny their existence and Pakistan has taken no concrete actions to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism on its soil.
• The existence of such massive training facilities capable of training hundreds of jihadis could not have functioned without the knowledge of Pakistan authorities.
• India has struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. A large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated. This facility at Balakot was headed by Maulana Yousuf Azhar (alias Ustad Ghouri), the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar, chief of JeM.
• Committed to taking all necessary measures to fight the menace of terrorism, India undertook this non-military pre-emptive action was specifically targeted at the JeM camp.

India has remained Pakistan of its commitment in January 2004 not to allow its soil or territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India and has urged Pakistan to live up to its public commitment by taking the follow-up actions to dismantle all JeM and other camps and hold the terrorists accountable for the actions.