“Around 50 Aadhaar cards have been rejected in Burdwan’s Jamalpur. Similar things are happening in Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, Burdwan and several other districts,” Banerjee said while speaking at a programme in Birbhum.

Banerjee, was also warning people against the CAA. She said, “During elections, you (BJP) are shouting for CAA. Once Aadhaar cards of people get rejected, bank accounts will get delinked and you will not get back your citizenship before five years. You are already citizens of this country.”

She warned the populace to stay away from the “citizenship trap”, saying everyone is already a citizen of the country and has Aadhaar cards, voter identity and ration cards. “Now, if Aadhaar cards get rejected, people will not get money in their bank accounts from the state in various state-run schemes. This is the ploy of the Centre to stop our funds reaching the common people,” Banerjee said while expressing her apprehensions. She directed the administration to create a portal where people, whose Aadhaar cards have been rejected, can register. “We will look into the matter and the administration will take necessary steps. We will send the money to the beneficiaries at any cost,” she asserted.

Aadhar De-Activation

CJP received several panic calls from West Bengal on Saturday, February 17 when about 60 persons from Jamalpur in Burdwan district reported that their Aadhar cards had been unilaterally, without notice been de-activated. This action was reported by the Sanmarg portal and was taken by the Ranchi branch of the UIDAI on Jamalpur block In Burdwan.

The portal reports that as many as 50 residents of the Jamalpur block’s Abujhati Gram Panchayat have received such letters as also Jogram. This de-activation would seriously affect rations, banking access etc. The letters reportedly stated that it is as per Rule 28 that the de-activation has taken place. The fact that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had made an announcement on “implementing CAA before the elections” has doubled citizens’ concerns.

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The post Mamata Banerjee attacks Union Govt, says Aadhaar cards being rejected en masse in Bengal appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Exclusive privileges of the union government:  Prior to this bill, Section 4 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898 stated that wherever the union government establishes posts, it will have the exclusive privilege of conveying letters by post, as well as incidental services such as receiving, collecting, sending, and delivering letters.

It is crucial to highlight here that this exclusivity of the Union government had already been lost by the 1980s, with the rise of private courier services. Since neither the Post Office Act of 1898 nor the Indian Post Office Rules, 1933 had defined the term “letter” anywhere, courier services bypassed the 1898 law by simply calling their couriers “documents” and “parcels”, rather than “letters.”

The present Bill has no such privileges and has not retained Section 4 of the Act. Rather, the 2023 bill deems to regulate the private courier services by bringing it under its ambit. While the government acknowledges its lack of exclusivity, it has widened the ambit of the law in order to intercept and detain any postal article, as opposed to just letters. In other words, the Union government has given itself more power of detention and interference through this provision of the bill. The Bill also states that India Post will have the exclusive privilege over issuing postage stamps. 

Services provided to be prescribed by the Union Government:  The 1898 Act specified the services that were going to be provided by India Post, which were: (i) delivery of postal articles including letters, postcards, and parcels, and (ii) money orders.  Now, the 2023 Bill provides that India Post will provide such services as may be prescribed by the union government.

Director General to make regulations regarding services: The Act, as well as the Bill, provides for the appointment of the Director General of Postal Services.  Under the Act, the Director General had powers to decide the time and manner of delivery of postal services while under the 2023 Bill, the Director General has been given the power to make regulations regarding any activity necessary to provide postal services.  As per the bill, the Director General may also make regulations regarding charges for services, and supply and sale of postage stamps and postal stationery.

Examination of postal articles prohibited under law or liable for duty:  Under the Act, an officer in charge may examine a postal article if that officer suspects that it contains goods which are prohibited, or are liable to be paid duty upon. While the present Bill removes the powers of examination, it grants blanket powers to the Union government in such cases to empower an officer of India Post to deliver the postal article to the customs authority or any other specified authority.  The authority will then be required to deal with the item in question.

Retention of regulations distinctly government postal services and courier services: The 1898 provided distinct frameworks for regulation of similar postal services by public and private sectors.  The Indian Post Office Act, 1898 established the monopoly of the union government over conveying letters whereas the private courier services were not being governed under any specific legislation, which led to certain key differences regarding regulations government both the section.  For instance, the 1898 Act provides a framework for interception of articles transmitted through India Post while there is no such provision for private courier services.  Another key difference is in the application of the consumer protection framework.  The 1898 Act exempted the government from liability for any lapses in the services, except where such liability is undertaken in express terms.  The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 does not apply to services by India Post, but it applies to private courier services. Ironically, the Post Office Bill, 2023, seeking to replace the 1898 Act, retains these provisions. The said issue has been discussed below.

Powers to intercept postal articles: The 1899 Act allowed interception of an article being transmitted through post on certain specific grounds. As per the Act, an interception may be carried out on the occurrence of any public emergency, or in the interest of public safety or tranquillity. Furthermore, such interceptions may be carried out by the union government, state governments, or any officer specially authorised by them.  An intercepted shipment can be detained or disposed of by the officer in charge.  The officer also has powers to open, detain, or destroy shipments carrying items prohibited under the Act or any other law.

The 2023 Bill deems to widen the grounds on which interception of an article being transmitted through post may be carried out, which are: (i) the security of the state, (ii) friendly relations with foreign states, (iii) public order, (iv) emergency, (v) public safety, or (vi) contravention of the provisions of the Bill or any other laws. While the bill provides that an officer empowered by the union government through a notification may carry out interception, there is an absence of specific procedural safeguards for interception of articles transmitted through India Post.   This is crucial and worrisome as lack of safeguards may result in the violation of freedom of speech and expression, and right to privacy of individuals. It is also pertinent to note that the Bill does not specify any offences and penalties that will be imposed on officers in contravention to the grounds available.  For instance, there are no consequences for unauthorised opening of postal articles by a postal officer, which may have adverse implications for the right to privacy of consumers.

Exemption from liability for lapses in services:  The Act exempted the government from any liability related to the loss, mis-delivery, delay, or damage to a postal article, not applying where the liability is undertaken by the union government in express terms.  The Act also exempted the officers exempt from such liability unless they have acted fraudulently or wilfully. However, the union government was empowered to prescribe liability with regard to a service through Rules. While examining the application of the 1898 Act, the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (2023) had held that the liabilities provided under Consumer Protection Act, 2019 will not apply to postal services offered by the government. The Bill retains the provisions regarding liability under the 1898 Act. Clause 10 of the Bill states that notwithstanding any other law in force, India Post will not incur any liability with regard to a service provided by India Post.  Since the 2023 Bill itself does not provide for liability, it is again raises the question of lack of efficient protection of the rights of consumers of postal services from India Post.  Liability may be prescribed through Rules by the union government, which also administers India Post.

Removal of all offences and penalties: The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act, 2023 removed all offences and penalties under the 1898 Act. These included various offences committed by officers of the post office, such as the illegal opening of postal articles by a postal officer, which was punishable with imprisonment up to two years, a fine, or both.  In addition to this, persons other than postal officers were also penalised for opening a mail bag. However, the 2023 Bill took does not provide for any offences and penalties, which has been criticised by concerned citizens. In contrast to the Act, no penalties or liabilities have been specified against such actions under the Bill, which may adversely impact the right to privacy of individuals. It is crucial to highlight here that violations specific to postal services have not been covered under other criminal laws, such as the Indian Penal Code (IPC).  The IPC only punishes such offences when accompanied by theft or misappropriation (Section 403 and 461).

Criticisms furthered by the Opposition:

Several members of the opposition parties had vociferously criticised the said 2023 Bill, emphasising that under the disguise of shedding the colonial nature of the Act, the said Bill contains most of the draconian provisions from the Act. Opening the debate on the Bill, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said, “Over the past decade we have often seen this Government, in the guise of decolonising our minds and updating colonial era lore, bringing in legislation that is equally if not more arbitrary and unreasonable, and that more often than not encroaches upon the fundamental rights of countless Indians,”

As per the report in The Indian Express, Tharoor further argued that “Even as it seeks to revise a colonial Bill, this Bill retains its draconian and colonial provisions, that too while eliminating the burden of accountability which a governmental enterprise like India Post ought constitutionally to shoulder. Sadly, it offers no new ideas to bring our post offices into the 21st Century.” Particularly, Tharoor raised the concern that the provision in the Bill that allows the Centre to intercept, open, or detain any postal item lacks safeguards and is centred on an “ambiguous definition”. Similar criticisms, of violating the right to privacy and encouraging state surveillance, were also raised by other opposition leaders in the Parliament while opposing the passing of the said bill.

It is noteworthy that even though the memorandum stated that no expenditure would be incurred for the bill from the Consolidated Fund of India, more than 1 lakh crores of rupees of budgetary support has been granted to the department of posts in the last five years.

Can this be called a move away from colonial legislation? 

The Post Office Bill, 2023, though purporting to modernize the outdated Indian Post Office Act of 1898, falls short in safeguarding individual rights and ensuring government accountability. The removal of exclusivity, interception powers, and liability exemptions raise serious concerns about privacy violations and lack of consequences for unauthorized actions by postal officers. Despite claims of no expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India, the history of budgetary support to the Department of Posts over the last five years prompts uncertainty. The Bill, criticized by opposition members for retaining archaic provisions without adequate measures for 21st-century alignment, appears to prioritize state authority over citizen rights, necessitating urgent revisions to uphold individual privacy and ensure accountability in postal services.

The full bill can be read here:

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At every session in Parliament in the past two years, questions have been raised over the timeline of the Census which was supposed to be carried out in 2021. The government had, in 2020, expressed its intention to carry out the first phase of Census called the houselisting phase and the National Population Register (NPR) along with it. While the declaration for NPR met with a lot of opposition and criticism, calling it the first step towards the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Census was unopposed, as a regular practice.

However, since the Census scheduled for 2021 was postponed, genuinely at that time, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reason being dragged on for over two years and more has become tiring and the decision to delay Census has raised questions over the government’s intentions. Since after COVID, life has returned to normal and even a number of state elections have taken place and, in all probability, so will the general elections next year. Each time, the question over Census has been asked in the past two years, the answer has been standard, “The intent of the Government for conducting Census 2021 was notified in the Gazette of India on 28th March, 2019. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the conduct of Census 2021, updating of National Population Register and the related field activities have been postponed until further orders.”

These “further orders”, however, do not seem forthcoming at all. There has been no notification about the census and the general elections are due next year, which is another mammoth exercise to be carried out in a democracy with a population of over 1.2 billion (as per Census 2011). The population is projected to be over 1.4 billion currently, but there is no way to confirm this officially until the census is conducted.

Under the Census Act, there is no mandate or obligation upon the Union government to conduct Census every 10 years. The section 3 of the Act states:

3. Central Government to take census.—The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare its intention of taking a census in the whole or any part of the territories to which this Act extends, whenever it may consider it necessary or desirable to do so, and there upon the census shall be taken.

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM), Sitaram Yechury criticized the government for delaying the Census and said that “it is criminal to further postpone the 2021 Census”. He further said in his tweet, “Census data is vital for policy formulations & for focusing on programmes for marginalised people & economically backward regions.  Since it started in 1881 it continued uninterrupted even during the two World Wars!”

It is criminal to further postpone Census 2021.
Census data is vital for policy formulations & for focussing on programmes for marginalised people & economically backward regions.
Since it started in 1881 it continued uninterrupted even during the two World Wars! pic.twitter.com/gIVqMDyqHY

— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) February 8, 2023

Many publications, including the BBC, have raised concerns over this delayed exercise.  BBC spoke to economist Dipa Sinha who quoted research by economists Jean Dreze, Reetika Khera and Meghana Mungikar to state that since the government still depends on population figures from the 2011 census to determine who is eligible for aid, more than 100 million people are estimated to be excluded from the PDS.

“Apart from the direct impact on welfare schemes, the census also provides the data set from which other crucial studies – such as the National Sample Survey (a series of surveys that collect information on all aspects of the economic life of citizens) and National Family Health Survey (a comprehensive household survey of health and social indicators) – draw their samples,” says BBC.

K Narayanan Unni, who served as Deputy Registrar General and was a member of the Advisory Committee for Census 2011 and 2021, spoke to Rediff and said that a few crores of people are out of the net for many government schemes due to lack in counting of the population that has grown since 2011. About the delay in Census he said, “Technically, we should not have had this kind of a delay. Now, there is no way of doing it earlier. As things stand, we cannot do it before 2024”.

Countries like Canada, Australia have managed to complete their census in 2021 and even, United Kingdom, the colonialists, from whom we carried forward our Census have completed their Census in 2021. The only question remains, in that case, is what is holding the Indian government back?

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The Union Government has slapped India’s premier news agency, the Press Trust of India with a fine of over Rs 84 crore as a ‘penalty’ for alleged ‘breaches’ at its office building on Parliament Street in New Delhi. 

This is the second big action that the government has taken against PTI, just weeks after Prasar Bharati, the  national broadcaster threatened to cancel its substantial subscription to the agency’s news feed. That happened right after  PTI interviewed the Chinese Ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, sections of which were quoted by the embassy website. The Prasar Bharati News Service (PBNS) wrote to PTI threatening to withdraw its subscription as the interview caused a sensation with the ambassador’s answers being interpreted as putting the onus on India for the clash in Galwan Valley on June 15, where 20 Indian soldiers were killed brutally.  This PTI interview was also put up on the embassy’s website.

Prasar Bharti, however, seemed to have taken umbrage to that interview and had even termed it ‘anti national’. Last week,  the Land and Development Office, which comes under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs sent a notice to PTI, asking it to pay the over Rs 84 crore penalty by August 7, after which there will be an additional charge of 10 percent interest on the total dues. 

Journalist Anisha Dutta flagged the notice online and called it a “Fresh attack on PTI.” 

Fresh attack on PTI. Govt now sends notice to PTI demanding it pays more than Rs 84 crore as penalty for its office at the Parliament street within a month. pic.twitter.com/3l2x8zmdWf

— Anisha Dutta (@A2D2_) July 13, 2020

The notice adds that the news agency must give an undertaking on non-judicial stamp paper stating that it will pay the difference of “misuse/damage charges” if the land rates are revised with retrospective effect from April 1, 2016, and will also remove the “breaches” by July 14, or get them regularised by paying charges. 

According to details shared by journalist Siddharth Zarabi: “Notice also seeks undertaking from @PTI_News that: •it will pay difference if land rates revised w.e.f Apr, 2016. •remove breaches by 14 July/get them regularised. •10% penalty if current demand not paid. •Additional penalty likely post verification of ‘violations.’ (2/3)

Notice also seeks undertaking from @PTI_News that:
•it will pay difference if land rates revised w.e.f Apr, 2016.
•remove breaches by 14 July/get them regularised.
•10% penalty if current demand not paid.
•Additional penalty likely post verification of ‘violations.’
(2/3) pic.twitter.com/wWm2Utm58e

— Siddharth Zarabi (@szarabi) July 12, 2020

According to a report in The Print, an official from the ministry said that “PTI had not paid the ground rent since 1984, and that the agency ‘misused the land-allotment terms by converting the basement into an office.” 

Related:

What was so ‘anti national’ about interviewing China’s ambassador to India?

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Larkipora’s sarpanch Ajay Pandita Bharti, who was shot dead two days ago, had constantly been asking for security, His request had fallen on the deaf ears of the Jammu and Kashmir administration and the Union Government which administers the Union Territory. Girish Chandra Murmu, a 1985 batch Indian Administrative Services officer, is the first Lieutenant Governor of the Union territory that was formed under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. Murmu is a handpicked officer of the Gujarat cadre.

The late Ajay Pandita Bharti, too, was one of a kind, a brave Kashmiri pandit, who returned to the Kashmir region to serve his people. He had many plans, and his life was cut short  just because the state did not give him the security he needed, even though he had apprised them of the many threats he was getting. His words continue to haunt everyone who has seen what possibly was one of his last news interviews.

Now, after he was brutally gunned down, Sheen, Pandita’s brave young daughter, has controlled her tears and repeated what her father had been saying all this while. She was speaking to the Aaj Tak news channels and has demanded answers from the Union government and sought justice for her father Ajay Pandita. She reminded the nation that the government had not provided Ajay Pandita security, he had perhaps asked for it on multiple occasions.

“My father had asked for security. No one asks for security without reason,” she says. Ajay Pandita for sure feared for himself, and his family “anyone will fear for their families, when he asked for security it was for a reason,”she added. Sheen says when Ajay was elected Sarpanch, it was in fact the government’s responsibility to give him security. “So why did they not give security? He was asking for what he should have got anyway. He did not get it even after he asked. Whose fault is it? Obviously it is the government’s fault,” she does not mince words and has put the Bharatiya Janata Party in the dock.

The young woman says this apathy from the authorities is the reason no one comes forward to do something for the country. “The ones who do something for the country are not given anything. This is why a lot of people step back,” she says. Sheen adds that if her father’s death is not avenged and his killers not arrested it will send a wrong message to the country. “First he had to ask what he should have gotten, even after asking he did not get it. What more can I prove? What more can I tell India? He had added ‘Bharti’ after his name,” she says. 

Sheen remembered that her father always said if something happened to him his identity should be India, “that is why he added ‘Bharti’ to his name, he loved India so much. He was not a soldier. You know when you join the army, or become a police officer you know you are risking your life. You come ahead yourself, to serve India,” she says her father did all that and more even if he was not one of the men in uniform. 

She says she is proud of all the soldiers too, “I am not saying those men are insignificant. They are very brave people. I am so proud of them. Now even more than before.” But as a sarpanch, a civilian the young woman rightly points out that her father did more than most civilian leaders could ever attempt. “There are so many sarpanches in villages, what do they do, they look after the village. They just need to sign and the work is done. But my father loved India, not just his little village.”

His work and his deeds would have taken him far had he lived, “he would have served india. He would never have stepped back,” says the proud daughter,

Even though she was brave and spoke with a maturity far beyond her years, Sheen’s anger was palpable, “he was serving the country. When will the country serve him… it is not even the question of [serving ] him. It is about responsibility. A little bit of responsibility”, she asked.

She once again reminded viewers that unlike trained army and police officers very few civilians would risk their lives to work for the people in the Kashmir valley, “Kashmiri pandits were so scared of going to Kashmir. He went. He did all that he could; he wanted to do more than what he had done. I know. He shared everything with me,” she adds, saying that her father had big plans for the village and the Union Territory, and eventually wanted to serve the Country. 

Her composure, and her voice trembles when she remembers how her father wanted her to grow up to become an IAS officer, “and then both of us will do things together,” she remembers him telling her. 

“Now what can I say? What can I do? My only request from the government is to find those people. Those who did this had no fear?  They came forward and said yes we have done it!” Sheen Pandita has put the ball in the Union Government’s court now.

Larkipora sarpanch Ajay Pandita Bharti too had asked: “I ask the Union Territory government, has our Lieutenant Governor even met sarpanchs or panchs? Does he know Ajay Bharti? No!” His voice was firm.

His murder had been condemned by all political leaders, across party lines, though an official response on the allegations of being denied security that he had once made, is still awaited. 

Related

https://sabrangindia.in/article/ajay-pandita-when-i-am-not-safe-how-can-i-say-everyone-safe

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Image Courtesy: TechGig Bureau

The first budget of the second Modi Government presented by Nirmala Sitharaman is nothing short of a payback gift after the elections to corporate India and foreign financial interests, says the CPI-M in its responses. The Budget and the speech were full of several promises and commitments that would help big corporate capital and the wealthy to strengthen their grip on the Indian economy and foster greater integration of the Indian economy with international financial markets. There is nothing  in the budget for working Indians, the farmers (kisans) and workers,  who have been left to fend for themselves in a world of shrinking opportunities for employment and livelihood states the press release issued today.

The finance minister’s speech listed a long menu of pro-corporate ‘reforms’ – opening up the Indian economy even more to foreign portfolio and direct investment (including the pension sector), creating a ‘financeable’ model for highways, promoting PPP in several areas including railways and metro development, etc. and even commercialization and financialisation of social welfare through a ‘Social Stock Exchange’.

There were no references, however, to the issues of remunerative prices and debt relief that India’s farmers are in desperate need of. On labour, the creation of a more anti-labour labour code was also presented as a ‘reform’.

While all of these were talked about, the FM’s speech was generally short of any real details regarding the revenue measures and expenditure commitments of the Union Government for 2019-20 and was completely silent on the problems of economic slowdown, agrarian distress, industrial stagnation and joblessness that everyone knows currently afflict the Indian economy.

As regards the actual Budget, the Finance Minister chose to not disclose the actual figures for revenues and expenditures for 2018-19 even though they are available by now. Instead the revised estimates presented in the Interim Budget on 1 February were retained in the final Budget – obviously in order to conceal the verifiable fact that the actuals of both revenues and expenditures in the previous year were significantly lower than in the Budget Estimates and even the Revised Estimates of the Interim Budget. This manipulation of the Budget accounts only serves to establish that the expenditure commitments for 2019-20 lack credibility as they will be cut if needed to meet fiscal deficit targets.

The estimates of gross revenues from Central taxes for 2019-20 have been reduced relative to the Interim Budget by almost Rs. 91,000 crores, and 40 per cent of this loss will have to be borne by State Governments. The reduction in estimated revenue collections is attributable to reduced projections for GST (by nearly Rs. 98000 crores) and Income Tax (Rs. 51,000 crores) – an indirect admission of the failure of the so-called reform measures of the Government that it had claimed would improve tax compliance.

What is shocking is that instead of addressing the fundamental problems in the taxation system and raising more resources from direct taxes except through extremely piecemeal measures – the Finance Minister has chosen to give several tax concessions to the corporate sector even while burdening the common people with additional excise duties on petrol and diesel to the tune of Rs. 2 per litre. Hitting at the public sector is the Government’s chosen additional route for raising resources. On the one hand disinvestment of public sector enterprises to the tune of Rs. 1.05 lakh crores is being planned. Further, PSEs will be bled by squeezing more of their profits out of them for the Government – and this amount has been raised from Rs. 1.36 lakh crores in the Interim Budget to 1.64 lakh crores in the final one. Even after all of this, the projected figures will keep the expenditure to GDP ratio the same!

The budget shows very little increase in spending for people. The total percentage of subsidies as per cent of total expenditure have remained almost unchanged at about 12 per cent. The first Woman Finance Minister of the country had presented a budget in which the expenditure on women has fallen from 5.1 per cent to 4.9 per cent of the total budget. Even the Nirbhaya Fund for women’s safety has not seen hardly any increase. There has been a marginal increase in spending on welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes but this continues to be much less than their share in the population. Only 2.9 per cent for welfare of Scheduled Castes and 1.9 per cent of total expenditure for welfare of Scheduled Tribes. There is a decline in allocation for Umbrella Scheme for Scheduled Castes by 2000 crores. Share of allocations for the Ministry of Minority Affairs has remained unchanged. In the context where government’s own statistics are showing a massive increase in unemployment, the Finance Minister has cut the allocation for MGNREGA by Rs. 1000 crores as compared to the revised estimates for last year. Spending on even the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, First Modi Government’s flagship programme, has been reduced by about 4500 crores.

The Union Budget for 2019-20 reflects the complete denial by the Government of the real economic situation of the country, which is living proof of the inability of a private capital led development process to either address the agrarian crisis or create employment opportunities outside it. This 2019-20 budget, therefore, is bound to mount further economic burdens on the vast majority of our people.

The CPI(M) calls upon the Indian people to join the protests that are bound to emerge in the coming days against the various aspects of these anti-people proposals in order to force the government to adopt policies aimed at improving people’s livelihood.
 

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In a sharp and succinct order passed on February 15, a division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has sharply pulled up the Indian government for its unconcern and tardiness in appointment of doctors and staff to the hospital set up for the permamnent care and rehabilitation of Survivors of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
 
In Writ petition 15658-2012 filed by the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghatan versus Union of India, acting chief justice, Rajendra Menon and Anjuli Palo passed strong orders and posted the matter for March 15, 2017. The court moreoever came down heavily on the government for seeking a year’s time to formulate the rules and said that a month was enough.
 
The Court, in response to activist Jayprakash’s arguments has also commented adversely on the fact that the central government has done little to implement the recommendations of the Monitoring Committee and bring the Hospital under the administrative and finance control of the government of India. A copy of the 9th Quarterly Report of the Monitoring Committee was made available to the Survivors by the Court.
 
 
The Order may be read here:
 
“This matter is pending since 2012. We are constrained to note that even after repeated adjournments being granted and dates being fixed since more than a year, that is from 10.2.2016, Union of India has not come out with the Rules for appointment of Doctors and Staff to the Institute in question that is the BMHRC.

The Rules pertaining to Appointment of Nurses have been finalized andthe Nurses Association has given an application before this Court to say that they accept the Rules in toto and agree for Notification of the Rules; to proceed to finalize the same and to take steps for filling up of the vacancies, and regulating the terms and conditions of the service of the Nurses.

Inspite thereof, nothing has been done in the matter of finalization of these Rules.That apart, for the purpose of formulating the Rules for appointment of Doctors, Specialists and other Staff members, except for contending that the Draft Rules have been notified on the Website of the Department and objections are invited, no concrete steps have been taken for finalization of the Rules; and, an assertion is made in the counter affidavit submitted that it would take atleast a year’s time to
finalize the Rules and thereafter to make appointments in pursuance to the Rules.

We are surprised that for formulating Rules of Appointment under Article 309 of the Constitution or the Statute, for a Hospital, the Unionof India requires a year’s time. In our considered view, such a Rule, after consultation with all stake holders, can be formulated within a period of 30 days and for the said purpose granting a year’s time is not called for.

Once Rules are finalized, it should not take more than three monthstime to complete the process of advertisement; calling for applications; conducting the interview process and thereafter for making appointments; and, taking note of all these factors, we are satisfied that the Union of India is delaying the matter and is not taking proper steps for formulation of Rules and taking steps for recruitment of Doctors and other staffs for manning the hospital. That apart, we have also taken note of the 9th Quarterly Report and recommendations submitted by the Monitoring Committee headed by Justice (Retd) Shri V.K. Agrawal, and we find that various recommendations made by the said Committee, particularly the recommendations pertaining to Computerization of Gas Rahat Hospitals and the BMHRC; Framing of Service Rules as already indicated hereinabove; Common Referral System; Development of Infrastructure in the matter of providing Equipments and Gadgets such
as Ventilators, CT Scan etc; Prompt Release of Funds for purchase of Equipments; and, various other aspects indicated in the Monitoring Committee’s Report, which includes the Renewal of AMC of the Medical Equipments in the Hospital, have not been addressed to and nothing has been said by the Union of India in the matter.
 
That apart, Shri Jayaprakash made a serious objection to say that inspite of recommendations made by BMHRC, Union of India has not taken any steps for bringing the Hospital under their administrative control, to monitor its functions and make it a Hospital functioning under the administrative and financial control of Union of India.
 
We find that the Ministry concerned in the Union of India, namely the Health Research and Family Welfare, has not taken adequate steps for implementing the recommendations of the Monitoring Committee, as contained in its 9th Quarterly Report, particularly with regard to recruitment and various other aspects as detailed hereinabove.
 
The time limit sought for to complete the process by one year, in our considered view is very much on the higher side and we cannot grant more than three months time to the Union of India the complete the entire process, and to implement the recommendations of the Monitoring Committee, as are indicated its 9th Quarterly Report.
Accordingly, we direct for forwarding a copy of this order through the Assistant Solicitor General to the Secretary, in the Ministry of Health Research and Family Welfare, and direct the Incharge of the Department concerned to file an affidavit before us within 15 days, indicating what steps he proposes to take to implement the directions as are indicated hereinabove; and, to submit a Report to this with regard to the same.”
 
 

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