{"id":17912,"date":"2023-12-08T12:42:36","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T07:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=17912"},"modified":"2025-04-05T07:28:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T01:58:01","slug":"esma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/esma\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an act of the Indian Parliament enacted in 1968 to\u00a0assure the supply of certain services that, if impeded, would harm people\u2019s daily lives.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is enforced to\u00a0prohibit striking employees\u00a0from refusing to work in certain essential services. Employees cannot cite bandhs or a curfew as an excuse not to report to work.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Which services fall under this category?\n<ul>\n<li>Services relating to public conservation, sanitation, water supply,\u00a0hospitals, or\u00a0national defence are essential.<\/li>\n<li>Any establishment involved in\u00a0producing, delivering, or distributing\u00a0petroleum, coal, electricity, steel,\u00a0or\u00a0fertiliser also gets classified as providing essential services. Aside from that, any\u00a0banking-related service may be subject to ESMA.<\/li>\n<li>This statute also applies to\u00a0communication and transportation\u00a0services and any government initiative relating to the acquisition and\u00a0distribution of food grains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>State governments, acting\u00a0alone or collaborating\u00a0with other state governments,\u00a0can enforce their respective acts in specified territories.<\/li>\n<li>Each state has its own ESMA, with provisions that\u00a0differ slightly from the federal statute.<\/li>\n<li>As a result,\u00a0if the nature of the strike disturbs only one or more\u00a0states, the\u00a0states can initiate it.<\/li>\n<li>The Act also\u00a0allows states to choose the essential services on which to enforce ESMA.<\/li>\n<li>In a nationwide interruption, particularly involving railways, the\u00a0central government may activate the ESMA.<\/li>\n<li>What actions can be taken\u00a0against the employees?\n<ul>\n<li>Persons who commence the strike as well as those who instigate it are\u00a0liable to disciplinary action,\u00a0which may\u00a0include dismissal.<\/li>\n<li>As the strike becomes illegal after ESMA is invoked,\u00a0legal action can also be taken against these employees.<\/li>\n<li>Any police officer is\u00a0empowered to arrest the\u00a0striking person without a warrant.<\/li>\n<li>Persons participating in or instigating the strike are\u00a0punishable with imprisonment,\u00a0which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is the Essential Commodity Act?<\/h3>\n<p>Essential Commodities Act grants the government authority over the production, supply, and distribution of specific goods. The legislation ensures that supplies are maintained and\/or increased and distributed fairly and at a reasonable price. The act is also meant to combat unethical business activities such as hoarding and black-marketing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/odisha-invokes-esma-to-ban-strikes-by-health-department-staff\/article67613662.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Odisha invokes ESMA to ban strikes by Health Department staff<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Essential Services Maintenance Act is an act of the Indian Parliament enacted in 1968 to assure the supply of certain services that, if impeded, would harm people\u2019s daily lives. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}