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Hindus as minority: Centre flip-flops on power to notify minority status

Tue, 10 May 2022 13:18:08 +0000

Revising its earlier affidavit, the central government on May 10, 2022 said that it had the power to notify minorities, but requires time to consult with state governments and other stakeholders. In the earlier affidavit to the Supreme Court, it had said that states can declare Hindus as a minority if they are numerically less in number.

The government took this decision to avoid “unintended complications in future”. The Ministry of Minority Affairs said that the decision has far-reaching ramifications throughout India and as such requires detailed deliberations.

The court recorded the Centre’s submission in its order as “… the question involved in this writ petition has far reaching ramifications throughout the Country and therefore any stand taken without detailed deliberations with stakeholders may result in unintended complications throughout the country.”

Meanwhile, the Indian Express reported Justice S K Kaul, presiding over a two-judge bench comprising Justice M M Sundresh, said that the Centre seemed to be backing out of what was stated earlier. He stressed that the court did not appreciate this.

The document was filed in response to a plea by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay who sought minority status for practitioners of Hinduism, Bahaism and Judaism, in states like Mizoram, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur and union territories of Ladakh and Lakshadweep, reported LiveLaw.

According to the Indian Express, Upadhyay had first approached the top court with the demand for minority status for Hindus in 2017, and was sent to the National Commission For Minorities (NCM). The NCM told Upadhyay that only the Centre could grant the relief he was seeking. Accordingly, his current petition questioned the competence of the Parliament to enact the NCM Act 1992 and NCM Educational Institutions Act 2004 and the Centre’s powers to notify minorities.

The Ministry’s previous affidavit filed on March 28 said that Hindus in some states may be notified as a minority for the purposes of Articles 29 and 30 by concerned governments. Since states have the power to notify minorities, the argument that ‘real minorities’ in specified states are denied the protection of minority rights is untenable, the Centre said. As examples, it talked about states notifying religious and linguistic minorities.

The fresh three-page affidavit by Ministry Secretary Renuka Kumar said, “Though the power is vested with the central government to notify minorities, the stand to be formulated by the central government with regard to issues raised in this group of petitions will be finalised after having a wide consultation with the state governments and other stakeholders. This will ensure that the central government is able to place a considered view before this court taking into consideration several sociological and other aspects obviating any unintended complications in future with regard to such a vital issue.”

Earlier, the court fined the Centre with ₹ 7,500 for delay in complying. The Centre then sought to shift the onus on states and asked to dismiss Upadhyay’s plea. The Ministry said, “The reliefs sought by the petitioner are not in larger public or national interest.”

However on March 28, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta again sought time from a bench presided by Justice S K Kaul to submit a new affidavit. The court granted him four weeks, which again the Centre failed to comply with and submitted the document on March 9, a day before the scheduled date of hearing.

On Tuesday, a bench headed by Justice SK Kaul heard the matter. On the previous hearing date, the bench sought clarity as to which Ministry should respond – the Ministry of Home Affairs or the Ministry of Minority Affairs? The former is arrayed as the first respondent in the case but has no role in the matter because the NCM and NCM for Minority Educational Institutions come under the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Minority Affairs respectively.

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SKM forms five-member committee to hold talks with GoI

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 12:45:01 +0000

Farmer unions’ umbrella body Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) formed a five-member committee on December 4, 2021, to discuss the movement’s as yet pending demands with the central government.

SKM clarified that this is not an “MSP committee” as was asked by the government previously. Instead, leaders Ashok Dhawale, Balbir Rajewal, Gurnam Charuni, Shivkumar Kakka and Yudhvir Singh will negotiate with government representatives to resolve pending demands listed as follows:

– legal guarantee to Minimum Support Price (MSP) for any agricultural produce that they sell;

– withdrawal of Electricity (Amendment) Bill and deletion of penalising provisions related to Delhi Air Quality regulation;

– withdrawal of cases against protesting farmers;

– rehabilitation and compensation for the kin of people who were martyred during the struggle.

After the Centre declared that it has no data on martyred farmers (farmers groups estimated toll to be around 708 as of Saturday), farmers also demanded land allotment for their memorial. Additionally, they demand the immediate sacking and arrest of Union Minister Ajay Mishra for his alleged role in the Lakhimpur Kheri killings.

“This 5-member Committee will in turn also decide on state-level teams that might have to work along with some state governments on some of the issues above,” said SKM in a press release.

Earlier, farmers suspended their marches during the Parliament’s winter session, hoping the government will respond to other peasant concerns as well. However, farmers were disappointed with the undemocratic manner in which the repeal of the three contentious laws were repealed.

Noting the lack of a formal response from the government regarding such demands, the SKM declared the farmers’ agitation will continue. Leaders said the ruling regime “has chosen to work informally and in a piecemeal fashion” of responding to farmers’ concerns.

“Farm unions have a bitter experience from the past of securing only oral assurances, ending their agitation and finding that governments renege on the meagre oral assurances too. We will not end this agitation without formal responses on each of the issues being raised by us,” said farmer leader Balbir Singh Rajewal in the joint statement.

The SKM stressed that all FIRs against agitating farmers and movement supporters must be dismissed. Allowing the Government of India two days to give a response, the next SKM meeting will take place on December 7.

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Over 1 crore people register for jobs on eSHRAM portal!

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 11:31:49 +0000

Image Courtesy:zeebiz.com

Over 1.15 crore people registered for jobs on September 20, 2021 at the e-SHRAM portal created by the central government to provide social security and employment-based benefits.

Launched on August 26, eSHRAM was developed to create a National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW), seeded using people’s Aadhaar cards. As many as 1,15,18,143 unorganised workers out of 38 crore workers estimated in the Economic Survey 2019-20 signed up on the portal in less than a month.

Of those who registered, around 57 percent – 65,35,956 people – are men and around 43 percent – 49,81,922 people – are women. However, it did not have a transgender category, a community that suffered greatly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Around 47 percent (5470831 registrations) belong to the 25-40 age group. Moreover, a whopping 18 percent (2123430 registrations) of the registrations included individuals from the 16-25 age group.

Earlier, the ‘State of Working India 2021’ report by Azim Premji University said that only three out of 10 students in rural India were attending online classes while four out of 10 students availed online classes in urban areas by October-November 2020. As many as 43 percent of children interviewed for the report said they could not attend functional classes due to lack of internet connection or a smartphone. Another 24 percent of interviewed children said their parents could no longer afford to send them to schools.

As per the Ministry of Labour and Employment, eSHRAM is the first national database that details worker’s name, occupation, address, educational qualification, skill types and family details etc. for optimum realization of their employability and related benefits. It may be mentioned that as per the portal’s data, 20 percent (23,29,876 people) of the registered people do not have Aadhar-linked bank accounts.

The report spoke about how women often suffer due to such linking difficulties, especially because women are not informed about the need to link their documents with their bank accounts. Surveys found that 26 percent of poor women live more than 5 km away from the nearest bank or ATM.

The portal said that the four states with the highest registrations, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal registered over 11 lakh people each. Further, over 20 states and Delhi city recorded over 10 thousand registrations.

Regarding occupations, the portal stated that the highest registrations came from the agriculture sector followed by construction sector and domestic and household sector. Agriculture accounted for over half the registrations. The former two occupations were called ‘fallback sectors’ in the University report.

Following the Covid-crisis, education, health and professional service sectors saw the highest outflow of workers. Around 18 percent of the education workforce switched to agriculture.

However, NSO data from 2019 stated that even before the pandemic started the income from farming, including livestock, was not significantly higher than income for an agricultural household from other sources like wages and non-farm business.

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Allahabad HC quashes NSA detention due to MHA’s delay in deciding detenue’s representation

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 04:30:56 +0000

Image Courtesy:livelaw.in

The Allahabad High Court has quashed a detention order passed under National Security Act (NSA) due to disproportionate delay caused by the Central government in considering the representation sent by the detenue. The Division bench of Justices Saroj Yadav and Ramesh Sinha refused to interfere with the subjective decision of the detaining authority in passing the detention order. However, on the sole basis of the delay caused by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in processing and further, communicating the rejection of the representation to the detenue, the order was quashed.

The petitioner, Mohd. Faiyyaz Mansuri, was detained under the NSA in September 2020 by an order passed by District Magistrate, Lakhimpur Kheri. The state government has repeatedly extended the detention period since then. The allegation against the petitioner is that he posted a provocative post on his Facebook account attacking Hindu religious sentiments and threatened to kill and disturb peace.

The post allegedly read, “Babri maszid ek din dubara banai Jayegi, jis tarah Turki ki Sofiya maszid banai gai thi.” One Sagar Kapoor filed a complaint and FIR was lodged and during investigation section 295A of IPC was added. Seeing the post, some Hindu members of Hindu organisations gathered and started raising slogans and blocked the road because of which peace was disturbed and the crowd had to be disbursed by the police.

The reason for detention was also that the petitioner had filed for bail second time, as the first one was rejected. It was apprehended by the detaining authority that there was a possibility that the petitioner if released on bail, shall again indulge in similar crime, which shall be prejudicial to the maintenance of the public order.

After detention, the petitioner was informed that he can make representation to the detaining authority and the State Government as well as to the Advisory Board as also the Central government. Accordingly, he made his representations to the Advisory Board and the Central government.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that other people named in the FIR, who commented on the derogatory post allegedly made by the petitioner have not been arrested which indicates that the situation was not as serious as to invoke NSA. He argued that subjective satisfaction of the detaining authority is vitiated as the impugned order of detention has been passed on irrelevant facts which have been considered in the impugned order, and there was no public order situation but it may be only a normal law and order situation. He also submitted that the first extension order passed in December 2020 was not supplied to the petitioner and his valuable right under Article 22(5) of the Constitution has been infringed.

He further argued that neither the detention order nor the subsequent extension order specify the period for which detention has been ordered and hence, both are illegal and liable to be quashed. Further, he submitted there was undue delay in the disposal of the representation of the petitioner on the part of the Central Government. He argued that delay and latches committed by the Central Government in considering the petitioner’s representation has infringed fundamental rights of the detenue enshrined under Articles 21 and 22 (5) of the Constitution.

Detention justified

The court, commenting on the grounds for preventive detention, stated that subjective satisfaction of a detaining authority to detain a person or not, is not open to objective assessment by a Court.

“A Court is not a proper forum to scrutinize the merits of administrative decision to detain a person. The Court cannot substitute its own satisfaction for that of the authority concerned and decide whether its satisfaction was reasonable or proper, or whether in the circumstances of the matter, the person concerned should have been detained or not… While saying so, this Court does not sit in appeal over decision of detaining authority and cannot substitute its own opinion over that of detaining authority when grounds of detention are precise, pertinent, proximate and relevant,” the court observed.

The court conformed to the grounds of detention and stated, “We are of the considered view that the activities relied upon by the Detaining Authority to come to the conclusion that in order to prevent the petitioner from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, it became necessary to pass order for detention of the detenue/petitioner, cannot be said to be mere disturbance of law and order”.

“The posting of the provocative message through his Facebook wall, as referred to herein-above, strikes at the root of the State’s authority and is directly connected to ‘public order’. This act of the detenue/petitioner was not directed against a single individual, but against the public at large having the effect of disturbing the even tempo of life of the community and thus breaching the ‘public order’,” the court added.

The court concluded that the petitioner’s activities fall within the contours of the concept of ‘public order’ and the Detaining Authority was justified in law in passing the impugned order of detention.

Validity of order

Further, the petitioner’s argument that he was not supplied with first extension order, was not entertained by the court, since he was supplied with a copy eventually in February 2021. Further, his argument that period of detention was not mentioned in the order was also rejected by the court relying upon precedents.

The court then considered the argument that the Central government delayed in deciding the petitioner’s representation. The court was not satisfied with the explanation provided by the Ministry fo Home Affairs and deemed it to be at fault for causing delay. The court found that certain day to day explanations were not provided by the Ministry for the delay. Further the rejection was also communicated 4 days later to the petitioner, that too via wireless message. The court deemed this to be a disproportionate delay.

The court decided that on this ground alone, the detention order is liable to be quashed and allowed the petition. The court directed that the petitioner be released forthwith.

The complete order may be read here:

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Nearly 3,700 inmates lodged across 31 women prisons in 2019

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 11:44:37 +0000

Image Courtesy:youthkiawaaz.com

The government has informed the Parliament that as on December 31, 2019, India had 31 women jails with 3,652 inmates, at an occupancy rate of 56.09 percent. Out of 36 states and Union Territories (UT), 21 don’t have exclusive women jails.

The National Capital, which only has 2 women’s prisons, houses 629 inmates with a capacity of 648. Tamil Nadu has the second highest tally with 551 women inmates across 5 jails in the state. This is followed by Maharashtra with 363 inmates against the capacity of only 262. West Bengal women’s prisons also face overcrowding issues with 321 prisoners against the capacity of 226.

The offence of murder is the leading cause for women to be imprisoned across all jails in the country, with 3,356 convicts and 4,006 undertrials, awaiting completion of trial. The second leading reason is dowry death with 1,633 women undertrials and 806 women convicted, who are serving their sentence.

11 women have been convicted, and 36 women are awaiting completion of trial for Rioting. Further, 1,171 undertrials have been booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, and 397 have been convicted. Under the (now repealed) anti-terror law, Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA), one convicted woman is serving her sentence. 69 women undertrials are facing charges under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, wherein 10 have been convicted and imprisoned.

The centre has not provided data for the year 2020 and 2021. As of December 2019, there are 6,179 female convicts and 13,550 undertrials across all jails. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of prisoners (4,174), followed by Madhya Pradesh (1,758), Maharashtra (1,569) and West Bengal (1,479).

Across all jails in the country, 4,008 jailed females are above the age of 50. In the range of 30 to 50 years, Indian prisons house 9,822 inmates and 6,077 females fall in the range of 18 to 30 years of age. There are 6 female inmates between the age group of 16 to 18 years, with 4 in West Bengal, and 1 each in Assam and Bihar.

In a separate question posed by Rajya Sabha member Harshvardhan Singh Dungarpur, Ajay Kumar Mishra (Minister of State in Home Affairs) revealed that the centre does not maintain data on the number of pregnant women inside jails and also failed to provide details of the number of child births that have happened over the last three years inside prisons.

The answers may be read here:

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Defence Ministry has had no transaction with Pegasus developer NSO Group: Centre in RS

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 11:25:59 +0000

Image Courtesy:newsable.asianetnews.com

In the first-ever official response from the Central Government on the Pegasus scandal, the defence ministry has categorically denied having any transaction with NSO Group Technologies.

Several petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court against alleged illegal surveillance and hacking into the mobile phones of around 300 Indians using the Israel spyware Pegasus of the NSO group. The matter will now come up before the court tomorrow, on August 10. The CJI NV Ramana led Bench had also opined in the previous hearing that the allegations are serious if true.

The written response provided on August 9, by Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence, said, “Ministry of Defence has not had any transaction with NSO Group Technologies.” The government has received a lot of backlash since the news of this alleged snooping surfaced by Pegasus on journalists, former ministers, human rights activists, etc.

The petitions filed before the court have sought for a court monitored probe into the hacking investigations and some have also asked for the central government to disclose all materials and documents with respect to the investigation, and authorisation/orders provided by the government for the use of Pegasus.

On July 26, West Bengal became the first State to appoint a two-member Commission headed by retired judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Madan Lokur and Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya to inquire into these Pegasus allegations. As per some media sources, the Commission released a public notice in all major newspapers last week, seeking information from the public and concerned stakeholders regarding the allegations.

The answer may be read here:

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Great Number Game of Vaccine Funding: Zero Allotment = Rs. 35000 Crores !!!

Sat, 05 Jun 2021 10:32:01 +0000

Image Courtesy:moneycontrol.com

For more than over a month since last week of April, when the Supreme Court took suo moto cognisance of the Covid 19 situation, the apex court is seeking a detailed road map to fight Covid 19 from the central government. In its May second week affidavit the central government defending its stand, told the Supreme Court, “In the context of a global pandemic where the response and strategy of the nation is completely driven by expert medical and scientific opinion, there is not even a little room for judicial interference.”

The central government went to the extent that the Supreme Court does not have competence when the affidavit says “ Any overzealous, though well meaning judicial intervention may lead to unforeseen and unintended consequences, in absence of any expert advice or administrative experience, leaving the doctors, scientists, experts and executive very little room to find innovative solutions on the go”. It is obvious that the Supreme Court is not amused by the contentions of the government. The June 2, 2021 directive of the Supreme Court giving a months’ time to the central government to clarify how Rs. 35,000 crores earmarked for procuring the vaccine have been spent so far compels us to take a fresh look at the budget papers once again.

Nirmala Sitaraman, right from her days as spokesperson of BJP is known for her oratory skills. Through her 2021-22 budget speech, the central government bolstered its image by informing the House, “Today, India has two vaccines available, and has begun medically safeguarding not only her own citizens against COVID-19, but also those of 100 or more countries.” amidst the cheers of the usual drum beaters. She also told Parliament, “38. I have provided `35,000 crores for Covid-19 vaccine in BE 2021-22. I am committed to provide further funds if required.”

The budget speech had not stopped here. It went on to state, “39. The Budget outlay for Health and Wellbeing is `2,23,846 crores in BE 2021-22 as against this year’s BE of `94,452 crores, an increase of 137 percentage. The details of the same are at Annexure I of the Speech.” The said Annexure 1 clearly mentioned Rs. 35000 crores for vaccination. But surprisingly the same is not reflected in the final budget documents. A detailed presentation of allocation for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is given at pages 155 to 172 in the expenditure budget volume. The summarised table given below is drafted from the budget papers itself where we cannot find a single mention about the allotment against vaccine procurement.

Details	2019-20 Actuals	2020-21 BE	2020-21 RE	2021-22 BE
Total Establishment Expenditure of the Centre	5108.3	5219.21	5949.58	6245.8
Total Central Sector Schemes	8282.76	9761	23167.57	10566.63
Other Central Sector Expenditure	11343.11	10192.59	11465.6	11478.84
Total Centrally Sponsored Schemes	37662.91	39839	38283.25	42977.5
Grant Total	62397.08	65011.8	78866	71268.77

But under the Central Sector Schemes/ projects subheading, there was a new entry titled COVID -19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package – EAC we find three entries in the revised budget 2020-21. An amount of 11756.97 crores under three components (Rs. 95 crores for National Institute of Communicable Deceases, Rs. 4724 crores against Central Procurement of Supplies and Materials for Covid 19 and another Rs. 6937.36 diverted from National Rural Health Mission grants to meet the requirements of Covid 19 Emergency Response Package. Surprisingly, the same was prematurely discontinued in the 2021-22 budget estimates, which clearly indicates the mood in the establishment that India had not only reined in Covid 19 and developed sufficient protective walls but was also supplying vaccine for more than 100 countries ! In such a situation where will the supposedly allocated Rs. 35,000 crores for vaccine procurement comes from? This can only explained by believers of Advaita philosophy which can be summarised Gajam Midhya – Palayanam Midya (There is no elephant and hence there is no question of attempting to escape).

The Centre’s great numbers game does not stop here. In the annexure to the budget speech the Finance Minister had stated on the floor of the house that other than the allocations for department of Health and Family welfare, the allocations for vaccination are presented as two separate entries which totals 1.06 lakhs crores ! In a post budget interview the secretary for department of Expenditure stated that this allocation is sufficient for vaccinating 50 crores population for free. But the same is not reflected in the Demands for Grants budget.

Even after the central government was caught red handed for faking budget allocations, this bluffing has not been stopped. The Union government resorted to a blatant lie to cover-up its disingenuous unethical practice of spreading fake news. In such an attempt, responding to the criticism about zero allocations for vaccine procurement, the ministry of finance stated that the said amount is mentioned under the subhead ‘Transfers to States’. Moreover the statement says, “Firstly, because expenditure on vaccine is one-off expenditure outside the normal Centrally Sponsored Schemes of the Health Ministry, separate funding ensures easy monitoring and management of these funds. Also, this grant is exempted from the quarterly expenditure control restrictions applicable to other demands. This helps to ensure that there is no hindrance in the vaccination programme,”

The transfers to state governments were present in previous budgets as well. Even the budget documents for 2021-22 have clearly mentioned about the Transfers to States allocations that the allocations which earlier used to be known as Grants in Aids to States / UTs have not been changed to Transfers to State/UTs as per the recommendations of Finance Commission. This is not a new subhead opened up under the Modi regime.

The fact is that to comply with the Supreme Court directives and submit the details of expenditure of Rs. 35,000 crores, the government appears to be indulging in “file notings” and other back end exercises to “make good” its unethical budgetary practices.

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Farmers mark six months of agitation against the Centre

Wed, 26 May 2021 12:39:24 +0000

Farmers marked six months of nationwide struggle against the central government’s three farm laws by protesting and waving black flags at Delhi borders and other parts of the country on May 26, 2021, Buddha Purnima.

On the call of farmers’ body Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), farmers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and other regions waved flags and spoke out against recent anti-people-dubbed laws such as the dilution of the Land Acquisition Act 2013, the failure to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) to all, decent MSP hikes, labour codes and the failure to farmers from natural disasters in the age of climate change.

“The Modi government took several decisions that went against not just farmers but other ordinary citizens too. This government has adopted repressive measures against farmers, workers, poor, Dalits, women, adivasis, students, youth, small traders and entrepreneurs, others and also against the environment, in its seven years of governance so far,” said the SKM.

Farmers waved black flags and burnt effigies of the government in areas near Ghazipur and Singhu borders to condemn the central government for the three laws – the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance & Farm Services Act, the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act. According to SKM legal member Vasu Kukreja, participants at the former site had to “rescued the effigy from police and burn it at the border.”

Meanwhile, a black flag demonstration was held at the national capital wherein All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) General Secretary Hannan Mollah, CITU Secretary A R Sindhu, AIDWA General Secretary Mariam Dhawale and other burnt effigies as well.

Maharashtra’s farmers held demonstrations in Shevgaon, Ahmednagar and other cities in the state. Participants voiced their grievances against the central government and demanded an immediate repeal of the three laws and a legal guarantee to MSP.

Similarly, southern states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka gave an enthusiastic response to the SKM call. Villagers from rural India gathered outside their houses and fields to voice their solidarity with the national protest.

Farmers at Siddaveerappa, women farmers in Kolar district and people from Vijaynagar district hung black flags outside their houses in Karnataka.

Along with political leaders, people’s organisations like the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) also demonstrated with farmers. The NAPM denounced the government’s agricultural and environmental laws, and protested its attack on “every welfare measure from PDS and pensions to subsidies on health, education, cooking gas etc, the measures have contributed to price rise, inflation and unemployment.”

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12 Opposition leaders demand GoI resumes talks with farmers

Mon, 24 May 2021 05:18:15 +0000

Image Courtesy:indiatoday.in

Three days before the May 26,2021 Farmers Protest, Opposition parties across India extended their support to mark the completion of six months of the historic farmers’ struggle.

On May 23, as many as 12 major political parties of India issued a joint statement demanding that the central government “stop being obdurate” and resume talks with the farmers’ body Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM).

The statement was signed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, Janata Dal- Secular leader HD Deve Gowda, Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, DMK leader M.K. Stalin, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejaswi Yadav, Communist Party of India leader D. Raja and Communist Party of India – Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury.

“We demand the immediate repeal of the farm laws and the legal entitlement to Minimum Support Price (MSP) of C2+50 percent as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission,” it said.

These are two of the four main agendas that have been discussed many times by farmer leaders and Ministers. The other demands are: Amendments to the “Commission Ordinance for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and adjoining areas, 2020” to exclude farmers from penal provisions; procedure for withdrawal of draft ‘Electricity Amendment Bill 2020’ to protect farmers.

Earlier, on May 12, leaders had also jointly written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking, “Repeal farm laws to protect lakhs of our annadatas becoming victims of the [Covid-19] pandemic so that they can continue to produce food to feed Indian people.”

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Uttarakhand HC pulls up Centre for “callous attitude” on oxygen allocation

Thu, 20 May 2021 11:26:15 +0000

Image Courtesy:nationalheraldindia.com

The Uttarakhand High Court continued hearing the suo motu matter on Covid management today, and reportedly pulled up the Central Government for not appearing before it to discuss the oxygen allocation to the state of Uttarakhand.

Bar & Bench quoted the Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan saying, “I fail to see why someone in the Central government fails to see the logic. I am surprised to hear that someone has said that he is too busy to appear. If he wants, I will issue summons. This shows the callous attitude of the central government.”

What upset the Bench also comprising Justice Alok Verma was that the oxygen produced in Uttarakhand was being given to other states without fulfilling its own requirements. “Why is it that the government is not conceding to a reasonable request of the state? Instead of diverting our (Uttarakhand’s) oxygen to Uttar Pradesh? All we are saying is, instead of asking us to import oxygen from Jamshedpur and Durgapur, which takes time, costs, why can’t we take it from our own backyard?”, remarked the court.

The court was further irked at the absence of the officer representing the Centre to explain how the oxygen allocation is being done in the state. According to a Bar & Bench report, the court said, “Ask the concerned representative of the Central government department to explain. I will not take this answer that I am too busy to attend the court.” The court was apprised that Uttarakhand is being allocated 183 metric tons of oxygen, currently.

Amit Negi, a government official in the Chief Secretary’s office, also reiterated that the Central government is yet to respond to the communications made to it with regard to the issue. “I am surprised at the callous attitude of the central government. Every request that the State of Uttarakhand is making is falling on deaf ears”, said the court.

Court pulls up State for violations during Char Dham Yatra

The Division Bench slammed the State Government for not ensuring compliance with Covid protocols while holding religious events or gatherings like Kumbh Mela and Char Dham Yatra amid Covid-19.

The Bench reportedly observed that in Badrinath and Kedarnath, priests have been defying Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. LiveLaw reported that Chief Justice RS Chauhan said, “In Kedarnath and Badrinath temples, I have seen videos that social distancing is not being followed by the Priests. Even if the deity is being worshipped, you can’t let 23 priests enter the temple. Who is the person appointed by the State to monitor this?”

He further added that such videos are causing embarrassment to the State. “First, we allowed Kumbh Mela, 2021 and now this is being done (Char Dham Yatra). Please get a chopper and visit Char Dham, go to Kedarnath and Badrinath and see for yourself, what is happening,” he said to the Government counsel.

CJ Chauhan: Such videos are causing embarrassment to the State of Uttarakhand, first we allowed #KumbhMela2021 and now this is being done. Please get a chopper and visit #chardham, go to #Kedarnath and #Badrinath and see for yourself, what is happening.#UttarakhandHighCourt

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) May 20, 2021

The court went on to say that the Government is accountable to the people of the state, and at a time when the priority should be to protect its people from Covid, Black Fungus, the upcoming third wave, decision makers are carelessly conducting the Char Dham Yatra.

The court through its order on May 10 had ordered the state government to adhere to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the Char Dham Management. But with some viral videos and social media posts, the court noted that none of the social distancing norms are being followed with a large number of priests moving around in pilgrimage centres, Badrinath and Kedarnath.

On May 10, the court had directed, “Although the Char Dham Yatra has been suspended by the Government, the Government must ensure that the SOP issued by the Char Dham Management is adhered to strictly. Moreover, the steps required for implementing the said SOP should be worked out immediately by the Government in association with the Management of the Char Dham.”

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