India takes a giant leap towards providing accessible and affordable healthcare to the common man with the launch of Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan AarogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi on 23rd September, 2018 at Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Under the vision of Ayushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Jan AarogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) shall be implemented so that each and every citizen receives his due share of health care. With Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan AarogyaYojana, the government is taking healthcare protection to a new aspirational level.

This is the “world’s largest government funded healthcare program” targeting more than 50 crore beneficiaries.

BENEFITS UNDER THE SCHEME: Ayushman Bharat- Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (PMJAY) will provide a cover of up to Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. Over 10.74 crore vulnerable entitled families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) will be eligible for these benefits.

PMJAY will provide cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiary at the point of service. PMJAY will help reduce catastrophic expenditure for hospitalizations, which impoverishes people and will help mitigate the financial risk arising out of catastrophic health episodes.

Entitled families will be able to use the quality health services they need without facing financial hardships. When fully implemented, PMJAY will become the world’s largest fully government-financed health protection scheme. It is a visionary step towards advancing the agenda of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

FEATURES OF THE SCHEME Ayushman Bharat is a progression towards promotive, preventive, curative, palliative and rehabilitative aspects of Universal Healthcare through access of Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs) at the primary level and provision of financial protection for accessing curative care at the secondary and tertiary levels through engagement with both public and private sector.

It adopts a continuum of care approach, comprising of two inter-related components: Creation of 1,50,000 Health and Wellness Centres which will bring health care closer to the homes of the people.

These centres will provide Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC), covering both maternal and child health services and non-communicable diseases, including free essential drugs and diagnostic services. The first Health and Wellness Centre was launched by the Prime Minister at Jangla, Bijapur, Chhatisgarh on 14th April 2018.

The second component is the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) which provides health protection cover to poor and vulnerable families for secondary and tertiary care.

The Health and Wellness Centres will play a critical role in creating awareness about PMJAY, screening for non-communicable diseases, follow-up of hospitalization cases among others. The features of the scheme are as follows.

71st Round of National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) has found 85.9% of rural households and 82% of urban households have no access to healthcare insurance/assurance. More than 17% of Indian population spend at least 10% of household budgets for health services. Catastrophic healthcare related expenditure pushes families into debt, with more than 24% households in rural India and 18% population in urban area have met their healthcare expenses through some sort of borrowings.

PMJAY primarily targets the poor , deprived rural families and identified occupational category of urban workers’ families as per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data for both rural and urban areas as well as the active families under the RashtriyaSwasthyaBimaYojana (RSBY).

Approximately 10.74 crore identified families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) will be entitled to get the benefits. There is no cap on family size and age as well as restriction on pre-existing conditions. Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana: Hospitalization cover from inpatient care to post hospitalisation care:

The objectives of the Yojana are to reduce out of pocket hospitalisation expenses, fulfil unmet needs and improve access of identified families to quality inpatient care and day care surgeries. The Yojana will provide a coverage up to Rs. 5,00,000 per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization through a network of Empanelled Health Care Providers (EHCP).

The EHCP network will provide cashless and paperless access to services for the beneficiaries at the both public and private hospitals. The services will include 1350 procedures covering pre and post hospitalization, diagnostics, medicines etc.

The Yojana beneficiaries will be able to move across borders and access services across the country through the provider network seamlessly. Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana in alliance with the States:

The scheme architecture and formulation has undergone a truly federal process, with stakeholder inputs taken from all States and UTs through the national conclaves, sectoral working groups, intensive field exercises and piloting of key modules.

The Scheme is principle based rather than rule based , allowing States enough flexibility in terms of packages, procedures, scheme design, entitlements as well as other guidelines while ensuring that key benefits of portability and fraud detection are ensured at a national level.

States have the option to use an existing Trust/Society or set up a new Trust/Society to implement the Scheme as State Health Agency and will be free to choose the modalities for implementation. States can implement the Scheme through an insurance company or directly through the Trust/Society/Implementation Support Agency or a mixed approach.

PROGRESS OF THE SCHEME: MOUs with the states: 30 states and UTs have signed the MoU and have started working on implementation of the mission. Maharashtra has joined on 14th August 2018. MoU has been signed with Tamil Nadu on 11th September 2018.

Pilot launch of PMJAY: Pilot launch of the scheme has started. The focus of the pilot launch of the mission is to test and enhance the developed IT systems and streamline the state preparedness for a comprehensive launch.

The pilot been done in around 22 States / UTs (Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadar Nagar & Haveli, Daman & Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Goa, Maharashtra among others) .

The pilot launch is taking place in specific hospitals to test the Beneficiary Identification System (BIS) and Transaction Management System (TMS) systems. The pilot launch involves over 1280 hospitals.

The scheme is creating a cadre of certified frontline health service professionals called Pradhan MantriAarogyaMitras (PMAMs) who will be primary point of facilitation for the beneficiaries to avail treatment at the hospital and thus, act as a support system to streamline health service delivery.

MoU was signed between National Health Agency and Ministry of Skills Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) on 27th August 2018 in New Delhi.

AarogyaMitras training is being conducted in collaboration with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Ministry of Skill Development to strengthen implementation and operational preparedness.

Training has already been conducted in across 20 states and around 3519 AarogyaMitras have been trained so far. Training programs for State, District and PMAMs have been conducted in 27 states.

A total of around 3936 personnel have been trained at state, district and PMAM levels.

Hospital Empanelment: So far 15,686 applications for hospital empanelment have been received.

Fraud detection and Data privacy: Detailed guidelines have been prepared to address the issues around potential fraudulent activities that could be committed by any individual or organization.

Anti-fraud cells will be established at the national and state level, and strong IT tools will be deployed to prevent and detect fraud.

NHA Information Security Policy & Data Privacy Policy are being institutionalized to provide adequate guidance and set of controls on the secure handling of Beneficiaries Personal Data & Sensitive Personal Data in compliance with all laws and regulations applicable. International standards/regulation, like ISO 27001, National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); and Indian regulations such as Aadhaar Act 2016, Indian IT Act 2000, IT (amendment) Act, 2008 and Personal Data Protection Bill by former judge BN Sri Krishnan (Yet to be enacted) are referenced while drafting these policies.

IT systems update: Beneficiary Identification System (BIS) has been developed to identify and verify the beneficiaries at CSCs and point of care.

NHA has tested the software in 80 districts across 10 states and further enhanced the system based on feedback.

Hospital empanelment module has been active from 4th July and has already received empanelment requests from over 7,857 hospitals across 354 districts in 22 States / UTs. A comprehensive

Transaction Management System (TMS) has been developed to facilitate transactions from hospitals (such as filing pre-authorization requests and claims submission).

There have been trainings across the state concerning the operability of IT systems to enhance the state preparedness and receive feedback on the IT systems.

Focused workshops have been organized to train the state level officials in operating the developed IT systems.

Robust measures are being put in place in the IT platform to ensure privacy and security of the data.

Beneficiary related: MoU has been signed with Common Service Centre (CSC) for Beneficiary Identification and will utilize the over 3 lakh village level entrepreneurs for identifying beneficiaries.

Personalized Letters with unique family code are in the process of being sent to the identified families in the Additional Data Collection Data (ADCD) drive. This will drive awareness among the beneficiaries and further ease the identification process when they visit points of care or CSC centres.

Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan AarogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) is a paradigm shift from sectorial, segmented and fragmented approach of service delivery through various national and State schemes to a bigger, more comprehensive and better converged and need based service delivery of secondary and tertiary care.

The President of India , Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the centenary celebrations of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in New Delhi today (September 22, 2018).

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that languages connect people. There are numerous languages and dialects in India. All of them have their special nature and beauty . This diversity adds to India’s culture and well-being. He said that institutions like the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha have played a very important role in strengthening the emotional unity of our country. He noted that the Sabha has developed a network of about 20,000 Hindi campaigners.

The President said that every Indian should try to learn an Indian language other than his or her own. When a Hindi-speaking youth learns Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada, he or she is introduced to a very rich tradition. This knowledge can create new opportunities for the individual.

In an early morning initiative for making our cities clean and motivate people to adopt Swachhta as a way of life, more than 300 officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, NDMC, NBCC, CPWD, HPL and other entities under the Ministry took part in a plogging exercise here today.

More than 2 hours long exercise was led by Sh Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, M/O Housing and Urban affairs which started from Janpath market area and culminated near Shastri Bhawan, also motivated scores of bystanders, onlookers, taxi drivers, vendors and morning walkers to join in this unique exercise.

More than 500 filled packets of garbage including broken bottles, ice cream and gutkha wrappers, cups, packets, etc were collected as part of the exercise.

Sh Mishra used the opportunity to also talk to the people who gathered on adopting Plogging as a way of exercise and suggested that it can be undertaken as a way of routine to ensure a clean and garbage free city.

The event was organised as part of Prime Ministers initiative of “Swachhata Hi Sewa” by the Ministry today. Several members of the NGO, CFAR also participated in the event.

Sh. Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary - MoHUA, encouraged everyone to take up plogging as a regular initiative . He said that picking up the litter should be carried out simultaneously with walking or jogging. “Self-littering should not be done and all the waste and litter should always be thrown in a dustbin nearby.” he added. Sh. Mishra also encouraged several shopkeepers on the way to take responsibility for throwing the waste in garbage bins only.

Enthused by the tremendous response , it has been decided that the next plogging drive will be carried out on 30th September, 2018 from Nehru Park, Chankyapuri to Yashwant place in New Delhi. About 300 students from Sharda Vakil School of Art and National Centre for Arts will also be roped in as volunteers on the occasion.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi , will launch the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) at Ranchi, Jharkhand, on September 23, 2018.Under this scheme, over 10 crore families will be provided health assurance worth Rs. 5 lakh each, every year.

The Prime Minister will visit an exhibition on the PMJAY. He will witness a demonstration of activities such as beneficiary identification, and e-card creation.

At the same event, the Prime Minister will lay the Foundation Stone for medical colleges at Chaibasa and Koderma. He will inaugurate 10 Health and Wellness Centres. He will address the gathering, before departing for Gangtok, Sikkim.

On September 24, the Prime Minister will inaugurate Pakyong Airport, which will bring the State of Sikkim on the country’s aviation map. The airport will provide a big boost to connectivity in the Himalayan State, and also give a fillip to tourism. The Prime Minister will arrive at Pakyong Airport, where he will be briefed about the airport and terminal building. He shall unveil a plaque to mark the inauguration of Pakyong Airport. He shall later address a gathering.

· Only 5 National Waterways in last 30 years. Cheap, fuel efficient and eco friendly cargo/passenger movement. Reduce congestion in road and rail traffic.

· Central Legislation to declare 106 additional inland waterways as national waterways

· The total number of national waterways has become 111. This has paved the way for better regulation and development of the national waterways in the country

· The Government has taken initiatives to earmark 2.5 % ofCentral Road Fund (CRF) for development of NationalWaterways by reducing the share of NH cess from 41.5% to39 %

Jal Marg Vikas’ (National Waterway-I: River Ganga) Project envisages to develop a fairway with upto 3 meters depth between Varanasi and Haldia covering a distance of 1380 kms at an estimated cost of Rs. 5369 crore.

On completion, the project would enable commercial navigation of 1500-2000 ton vessels. The project is being implemented by the IWAI with technical and investment support of World Bank and is to be completed by 2022-23.

The major activities under the project are construction of multi-modal terminals, jetties, river information system, channel marking, navigational lock, river training and conservancy works.

61 acres of land in the Haldia Dock Complex has been taken on 30 year lease from Kolkata Port Trust. Work for construction of the Terminal at a cost of Rs. 517 crore has been awarded on 27.12.2016 and is scheduled to be completed in Dec, 2019.

Construction of New Navigational Lock , Farakka The work has been awarded on 15.11.2016 at a cost of Rs. 359.19 crore and is scheduled to be completed in April 2019.

Foundation stone laid for development work for Phase-I of National Waterway-4 from Muktiyala to Vijaywada on 3rd October, 2017.

The project would facilitate movement of construction material for Amravati, the upcoming capital city of Andhra Pradesh.

The work for dredging and setting up of floating terminals has commenced.

• The bandelling and channel marking in Gandak river has been issued and work will start shortly. • Development of fairway in Barak river has been awarded and the contractor is mobilizing the equipment at site.

• The tendering for fairway and pantoon at Hemnagar of Sunderbans waterways is under finalization. • The dredging and floating terminals at Rupnarayan river is also under finalization.

• The IWAI is focusing on movement of cargo on the National Waterways so that by the time the terminals and other infrastructure are established they are utilized effectively.

• A pilot run of defence cargo (eight Army trucks and 20 personnel) transportation on IWAI’s Ro-Ro vessel, MV Gopinath Bordoloi (capacity 250 DWT from Pandu (Guwahati) to Bogibil (Dibrugarh) on National Waterway-2 (river Brahmaputra) in Assam was conducted successfully during 24th to 29th April, 2017.

• IWAI’s cargo vessel MV V.V. Giri moved 240 metric tonnes of bagged cement of a prominent manufacturer from Lolaghat, West Bengal (Rupnarayan river) to Bhagalpur (on Ganga).

• Transportation of 50,610 ton of cement from Gaighat (Patna) to Bhagalpur and 73,400 ton km stone chips from Sahibganj (Jharkhand) to Manihari (Bihar) on NW-1 was completed during April, 2017.

The Shipping Ministry is developing inland waterways in the North East . • Connect north east region to Kolkata, Haldia, Mongla and Chittagong ports

• Dredging in Bangladesh to enable barge movement into North-East • Set up Roll on- Roll off services across River banks

• Facilitate movement for armed forces · 12 floating terminals are already in place on Brahmaputra- Hatsingimari, Dhubri, Jogighopa, Pandu, Tezpur, Silghat, Biswanathghat, Neamati, Sengajan, Bogibil,

Dibrugarh/Oakland and Oriumghat · 56 floating terminals have been sanctioned for Brahmaputra and 16 floating terminals have been sanctioned for Barak river ( Investment of Rs. 35 crore)

· Dredging is being done. Night navigation is being enabled. · 4 Differential Global Positioning System stations for safe navigation of vessels- Dhubri,

Jogighopa, Biswanthghat and Dibrugarh · Pandu terminal has been developed as a multi-modal modern Terminal, equipped with cargo handling facilities, transit sheds.

IWAI raised Rs. 340 crore during the financial year 2016-17 and the balance amount of Rs. 660 crore has been raised in Oct, 2017. The EBRs raised are being utilized by IWAI exclusively for capital expenditure for development of National Waterways (NWs) during 2017-18.

Institutional funding for development and maintenance of National Waterways (NWs)- Allocation of 2.5 per cent of Central Road Fund

• The Union Cabinet has accorded its approval to a proposal for amendment of Central Road Fund Act, 2000 to allocate 2.5 per cent of the proceeds of Central Road Fund (CRF) for development and maintenance of National Waterways (NWs) and a commensurate reduction in the share provided for development of National Highways.

• To implement the decision , the Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017 has been introduced in Lok Sabha on 24.07.2017.

• Over 500 projects with infrastructure investment of more than Rs. 8 Lac Crore

• 289 projects of Rs. 2.17 Lac Crore already under implementation / development

• Coastal shipping to increase from 80 MTPA to 200+ MTPA by 2025 • Sagarmala will enable creation of 10 million (1 crore) jobs (including 4 million direct jobs)

• Sagarmala program hinges on four pillars namely A. Port modernization & New Port Development (234 projects; Rs.1.4 lac Cr) B. Port Connectivity Enhancement (206 Projects; Rs.2.5 lac Cr)

C. Port-led Industrialization (46 Projects; Rs.4.4 lac Cr) D. Coastal Community Development (22 Projects; Rs.2,700 Cr)

• Roadmap for increasing port capacity to 3000+ MMTPA

• Master plans finalized for 12 major ports • 142 port capacity expansion projects (cost: Rs. 91,254 Cr and capacity of 884 MMTPA).

• New Port Development • TEFRs prepared for 6 new port locations - Vadhavan (Maharashtra), Enayam (Tamil Nadu), Tajpur (West Bengal), Paradip Outer Harbour (Odisha), Sirkazhi (Tamil Nadu), Belekeri (Karnataka).

• DPR under preparation for Port of Vadhavan, Enayam and Paradip Outer Harbour. • Under the Project Unnati, 116 initiatives to unlock 110 MMTPA in Major ports

i. Rail Connectivity • 37 last mile works (cost: Rs. 16,207 Cr) at 9 major ports taken up by IPRCL.

• 33 projects (cost: Rs. 42,703 Cr) taken up by Indian Railways. • DPR is under preparation for the heavy haul rail corridor between Talcher & Paradip to promote coastal shipping of coal.

ii. Road Connectivity · 93 road projects identified under Sagarmala (cost: Rs. 166,535 Cr)

iii. Coastal Berth Scheme • 47 projects (cost Rs. 2,302.05Cr) taken up for financial assistance under the Scheme.

• 14 Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) in Maritime States and UTs identified

• CEZ perspective plans prepared • Preparation of Master Plans for 4 pilot CEZs (in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh)

• 29 industrial clusters across three sectors, namely – Energy, Materials and Discrete Manufacturing, identified. • Based on availability of land with the Major Ports, Ministry of Shipping is developing:

• SEZ at JNPT • Free Trade Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) at Ennore • Smart Port Industrial Cities (SPICs) at Kandla and Paradip

• 3 areas under Coastal Community Development are: • Skill development for coastal communities

• Infrastructure for fisheries • Coastal tourism • Ministry is part-funding select fishing harbour projects. Rs. 70.81 Cr released for 8 projects (cost: Rs. 466.42 Cr).

• Skill gap study of 21 coastal districts. • 1,153 candidates trained and 600 candidates placed • Fire safety training project for workers at Alang-Sosiya Shipyard.- 1,909 people trained.

• Centre of Excellence in Maritime & Shipbuilding being setup at Vizag and Mumbai. MOU signed with IRS and Siemens in Nov 2017. • Multi-Skill Development Centre linked to JNPT being setup

Improved port performance • To benchmark Major Ports to international standards, 116 initiatives identified – 86 implemented and remaining to be implemented by 2019.

• 80 MTPA capacity unlocked. • Major focus is on improvement of efficiency and productivity in Major Ports. • Improvement in efficiency parameters of major ports during April to December, 2017

➢ Avg. Turn-around Time improved from 73 to 65 hrs. ➢ Avg. Output Ship Berthday improved from 14379 to 14979 tonnes ➢ Operating surplus of Major Ports has increased by 11% as compared to corresponding period of last year.

• 4th Container Terminal at JNPT, the largest PPP Project in Port Sector in India, is ready for operation. • KPL and JNPT have raised foreign currency denominated loans. • Port Capacity re-rated based on Berthing Policy as per international norms.

• Rationalisation of maintenance dredging at Major Ports. • 100% FDI under the automatic route is being allowed for port development projects

• New Port Development-TEFRs prepared for 6 new port locations - Vadhavan (Maharashtra), Enayam (Tamil Nadu), Tajpur (West Bengal), Paradip Outer Harbour (Odisha), Sirkazhi (Tamil Nadu), Belekeri (Karnataka). DPR under preparation for Port of Vadhavan, Enayam and Paradip Outer Harbour.

• 43% increase in operating profits of the ports. • Promoting Ship building and Ship Repair- from 2025 only India- made ships for government purpose.

Legislation • To bring in more transparency, efficiency, autonomy and professionalism in the management of Major Ports, the Major Port Authorities Bill, 2016 has been introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16.12.2016. The proposed law will replace the existing Major Port Trust Act, 1963.

• Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee has given its recommendations on the Bill and Government has approved official amendments to be introduced on Port Authorities Bill.

New Policies • Captive Policy in Major Ports to encourage Port - dependent Industries from July, 2016.

• Berthing Policy to increase productivity and greater transparency from August, 2016.

• Stevedoring Policy for port efficiency and revenue optimization from July, 2016.

• Revised Model Concession Agreement for PPP project in Major Ports has been approved by the Government on 3.1.2018to enhance confidence of investors.

• Security clearance guidelines for PPP projects and dredging projects have been revised to enhance the validity period of security clearance of companies participating in Major Port projects.

Ease of Doing Business • 42 Action Points identified for enabling trading across border out of which 35 have been implemented. These include:-

• Elimination of manual forms, increase in Direct Port Delivery volumes from 3% in December, 2016 to 35.98% in December, 2017,

• Issue of e-Delivery Orders by Shipping Lines, installation of RFID based gate automation system in the Major Ports,

• Integration of the Port Community System with Customs ICEGATE for seamless exchange of messages and installation of Container scanners.

Deendayal Port In recognition of the invaluable contribution and sacrifices made by Pandit Deendayal Upadhaya towards serving the nation and also upliftment of the poor & downtrodden, the name of Kandla Port has been changed to Deendayal Port.

Chahbahar Port in Iran India is also engaged in the development of Chahbahar Port in Iran. An MoU has been signed between the two countries in this regard. Inauguration ceremony of the Phase-I of Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar, Iran was held on 3rd December,2017 by the Hon’ble President of Iran.

Coastal and Cruise Shipping i. To develop cruise shipping and tourism in the country, Government has constructed New cruise terminals at Mormugao port and Chennai Port.

ii. The revised SoPs have been implemented at major ports w.e.f 29.11.17.

iii. E-visa facility was extended to 5 major ports namely Mumbai Port, Mormugao Port, New Mangalore Port, Cochin Port and Chennai Port.

iv. A uniform tariff rate at all major ports has been fixed at $ 0.35 per GRT to attract cruise vessels in India.

v. Facility for foreign flag passenger vessels to call at Indian ports without obtaining license from DG(S) has been extended from February, 2019 to February, 2024.

• On the request of Ministry of Shipping , Department of Fertilizer has included the primary movement of subsidized urea and P&K fertilizers by rail and/or coastal shipping or inland water transportation including road bridging on 29th March, 2017.

Now movement of subsidized fertilizers by coastal route and road also qualifies for reimbursement of freight subsidy which will encourage the coastal movement of fertilizer.

• Ro-Ro ships carrying cargo from Chennai port to Mongla port in Bangladesh were flagged off on the coastal shipping route in October 2017.

• Steel cargo from Vizag port to Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Kochi was sent through the coastal shipping route.

NavIC (Navigation Indian Constellation) • With the successful launch of IRNSS-1G, India joined the elite list of countries with their own satellite navigation system

The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill, 2018 was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Mr. Thaawarchand Gehlot, on August 3, 2018.

It seeks to amend the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. The Act prohibits the commission of offences against members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and establishes special courts for the trial of such offences and the rehabilitation of victims.

In 2018, the Supreme Court stated that for persons accused of committing an offence under the Act, approval of the Senior Superintendent of Police will be required before an arrest is made. Further, the Deputy Superintendent of Police may conduct a preliminary enquiry to find out whether there is a prima facie case under the Act.

The Bill states that the investigating officer will not require the approval of any authority for the arrest of an accused. Further, it provides that a preliminary enquiry will not be required for the registration of a First Information Report against a person accused under the Act.

The Act states that persons accused of committing an offence under the Act cannot apply for anticipatory bail. The Bill seeks to clarify that this provision will apply despite any judgements or orders of a court that provide otherwise.