THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 17 APRIL
Election Commission seeks funds for paper trail units
Tells govt. procurement of 16 lakh VVPATs for 2019 LS polls can’t be delayed
•Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi has requested the Union Law Ministry for urgent release of funds, given the “prevailing environment,” to facilitate procurement of VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) machines for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
•Amid protests by Opposition parties against electronic voting machines (EVMs) without paper trail units, Mr. Zaidi said the EC felt that the procurement of VVPAT machines could not be delayed any longer.
•Over 16 lakh VVPATs would be required, at an estimated cost of ₹3,174 crore, to cover all polling stations in the next Lok Sabha polls.
•The EC had earlier informed the government that if the order for the machines was not placed by February, it would become difficult for the manufacturers to supply them by September 2018 to meet the requirement of the next general elections.
•It also placed on record the Supreme Court’s direction to state the rough schedule within which the entire system could be introduced, subject to the sanction of funds. The machines can be manufactured within 30 months from the date of release of funds, the EC said.
•The letter said the EC was fully committed to deploying VVPATs along with EVMs in all future elections so that transparency of the electoral process is enhanced, integrity of the voting preserved, and the voters’ confidence in the process is further strengthened.
Call for paper ballot
•The Commission had recently received a memorandum from 16 parties demanding that the paper ballot system be reintroduced for greater transparency. The Bahujan Samaj Party, the AAP and the Congress have alleged tampering of EVMs. The Samajwadi Party has also raised doubts.
•The EC had given about a dozen reminders to the government, seeking funds for the paper trail machines. Last year, the CEC had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
•During the last Parliament session, several members alleged that the voting machines used in the recently concluded Assembly elections were tampered with.
•Earlier this week, a delegation of representatives from 13 Opposition parties met President Pranab Mukherjee and flagged a range of issues, including that of EVM security.
Justice Karnan's outrageous defiance
Justice C.S. Karnan’s continuance as a judge makes a mockery of the rule of law
•He has brought the judiciary into disrepute, flouted all norms of judicial conduct and thrown an open challenge to the Supreme Court. His continuance as a judge makes a mockery of democracy and the rule of law. The case of Justice C.S. Karnan is no longer just strange or curious; it is disgraceful and intolerable. The Calcutta High Court judge’s ‘order’ summoning the Chief Justice of India and six judges of the Supreme Court to his ‘residential court’ to face punishment under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, is yet another unacceptable affront to the apex court’s authority. Justice Karnan’s conduct goes against the assurance he gave the Chief Justice of India last year that he would foster a “harmonious attitude towards one and all”. At that time, he had expressed regret for passing a suo motu order staying his own transfer from the Madras High Court to the Calcutta High Court, admitting that it was an “erroneous order” passed due to “mental frustration, resulting in loss of mental balance”. The latest instance of his misconduct is in response to the contempt proceedings initiated against him by the Supreme Court for denigrating the judicial institution by making sweeping allegations, in a letter to the Prime Minister, against several judges. He had appeared in person before a seven-judge Bench on March 31, and was given four weeks to respond to the charge of contempt of court. It is quite apparent that he is only further damaging his own case.
•The recalcitrant judge has a long history of alleging corruption among other judges, accusing some of caste discrimination against him, and often invoking his caste identity to take complaints against his peers and even Chief Justices to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. In the past, he has passed judicial orders on matters pertaining to the selection of judges, even after being barred by a Division Bench from hearing them. He had once barged into a court during a hearing, and on another occasion into the chamber of the Madras High Court Chief Justice, “hurling a volley of invectives”. Public criticism, transfer to another High Court, being hauled up for contempt and being denied judicial work — nothing seems to restrain him. The only option left is impeachment, but it is a political process involving Parliament and is something he himself may want so he can give full play to his alleged grievances, including those based on his caste. Justice Karnan’s case vividly exposes the inadequacies of the collegium system of appointments. Nothing makes a better case for the infusion of greater transparency in the selection of judges than his current presence in the High Court.
Carpool for cleaner air
High-occupancy toll lanes will combat air pollution and foster a more disciplined driving culture
•Air pollution in India causes at least a million deaths annually. In Delhi alone, over 30,000 people die every year due to air pollution, the main causes of which are increasing road traffic and factory pollutants, and crop and waste burning.
•While the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government undertook several measures at the end of 2016 such as shutting down thermal power stations for 10 days and prohibiting construction activities temporarily, air pollution has been on the rise. This is because most of these measures were temporary, aimed at combating the deadly haze that had enveloped the city at that time.
•The odd-even (licence number) scheme undertaken by the government during the first half of 2016 was one of the most ambitious. However, despite the initiative, general air pollution in the city, which is measured by PM2.5 rose by 15% and 23% during the first and second phase of the odd-even rule, respectively. This raises some important concerns regarding the current policy on tackling air pollution. While there are no easy answers, we need to look for new solutions.
A case for HOT lanes
•One such solution is the creation of high-occupancy toll lanes, or HOT lanes. This refers to reserving one or more lanes on selected roads and highways for cars carrying more than a single occupant. This ensures that single-occupancy vehicles are restricted to the remaining lanes, thereby making the HOT lanes relatively faster (also through relaxation of speed limits for these lanes). While this was pioneered in the U.S. in 1969, its effective implementation in other countries such as China and Indonesia has encouraged millions of commuters to opt for car-sharing as it ensured them a speedier and less costly journey.
•The success of this idea is exemplified by a 2005 report in the U.S., which revealed that two lanes with the high-occupancy vehicles 3+ (HOV 3+) facility between 6.30 and 9.30 a.m. saw a total of 31,700 people in 8,600 vehicles (3.7 persons/vehicle), while the remaining four general purpose lanes carried 23,500 people in 21,300 vehicles (1.1 persons/vehicle). Moreover, the average travel time in the HOV lanes was 29 minutes, as against the 64 minutes in the general lanes. In India, however, such an idea is still far from being imagined; in Delhi, for instance, there exists no policy in relation to car-pooling till date.
•There is also a greater cultural issue. Critics highlight that given India’s peculiar disregard for lane-driving, the implementation of HOT or HOV lanes seems to be a long shot. However, the effective implementation of HOT lanes can provide significant incentive to fostering a more disciplined driving culture.
•Of course, its implementation would require important considerations relating to whether it should be enforced during particular hours, or whether the minimum number of passengers required to avail of the benefit should be two or more, or whether HOT lane commuters will pay a lower road toll or will be completely exempt from it, to name a few. Nevertheless, if we impose significant fines on violators on HOT lanes and strictly monitor the policy by first applying it to limited areas, the results are bound to reduce air pollution by incentivising passengers to carpool.
•Also, in India, where most cars carry two-three people on average, it is perhaps preferred to dedicate such HOT or HOV lanes to cars carrying more than three occupants. Completely exempting these lanes from toll or, at the very least, substantially reducing the toll levied on them in relation to other lanes would provide significant incentive to the commuter.
•Accordingly, a toll differential system based on the number of car occupants and on the latest pollution check of the vehicle is the need of the hour. In Delhi, like in most metropolitan cities, drivers are supposed to carry a valid pollution under control (PUC) certificate with them. This is based on the Bharat Stage norms (BS) which are based on European regulations. While the latest BS-IV norms are due to be enforced in the whole country from this month onwards, there is no system for differential toll treatment for higher polluting vehicles and trucks.
•Therefore, the government should take this into consideration and introduce a differential toll treatment for less polluting and higher occupancy vehicles. Moreover, electric cars or battery electric vehicles should be completely exempt from the toll. This will not only incentivise people to regularly check their vehicle’s pollution, but will also help reduce air pollution.
The strange case of Kulbhushan Jadhav
Perhaps the backdrop explains the dynamics at play more than just details of his incarceration
•The military trial and summary sentencing to death of Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan, with the Indian High Commission denied consular access to him, has plunged India-Pakistan relations into a crisis again. Mr. Jadhav is not the first Indian to be caught and sentenced as a spy by Pakistan, but the first retired middle-level naval officer. The context and background of this need examination.
A diplomatic leap in the dark
•The current cycle of bilateral engagement and acrimony runs from the dramatic visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lahore on Christmas in 2015. The occasion was Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s granddaughter’s wedding, but really it was a diplomatic leap in the dark. As in the past, beginning with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Lahore bus journey, theatrical moves rattle anti-India forces in the Pakistani military and jihadi organisations, who then unleash retributive terrorist acts. Within a week of Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif socialising, the Pathankot airbase was attacked. Tragically, within days of that, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, who headed the Peoples Democratic Party’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, died. The stage was set for instability in the Kashmir Valley.
•While Mufti sahib’s daughter Mehbooba Mufti dithered for nearly three months whether or not to succeed her father, the situation in Pakistan was drifting too. Prime Minister Sharif, marginalised by his namesake, the Pakistani Army chief, undermined by the Panama Papers revelations and suffering from heart trouble, left for the U.K. for medical treatment in April 2016. He returned to Pakistan in July. By then, Ms. Mufti had barely been in office when Burhan Wani, a self-styled commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed, inflaming an already restive Valley. From that point onwards, Indo-Pak relations slid downwards.
•Kulbhushan Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel was arrested by Pakistan in March 2016, allegedly in Balochistan, for espionage and abetting terror. This was a windfall for Pakistan as since the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the confessions of Pakistan-born American operative David Headley, it had been seeking moral equivalence by alleging complicity of India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), in almost every major attack, particularly by the renegade Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. In fact, the joint statement of Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Raza Gilani at Sharm el-Sheikh in 2009 was widely condemned in India for unnecessarily allowing Pakistan to introduce Balochistan in the statement to discuss an alleged Indian hand in the Baloch uprising.
Gaps in stories
•There is the usual Indo-Pak disagreement over facts. India claims Mr. Jadhav was conducting business out of Chabahar, Iran, for many years after retiring from the Navy, and that he has been abducted by Pakistani state or non-state actors from within Iran. The fact that despite specific provisions in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, India was denied access to Mr. Jadhav only confirms that Pakistan does not want the truth to be revealed about the place and manner of arrest. India also argues that spies and operatives are not sent carrying their own passports. On the other hand, it is unclear why Mr. Jadhav was operating under a Muslim name, and if he did convert, why thegovernment keeps referring to him by his earlier name. India has not challenged the authenticity of his passport, implying that it was not obtained by fraud or faked by Pakistan. With the debate in India now enveloped in jingoism, such lacunae in stories paraded by both sides are beyond examination.
•The truth may never be known, but “Doval-isation” of India’s approach to Pakistan has been obvious for some time. Prime Minister Modi’s espousal of thecause of Balochis and the residents of Gilgit from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2016 only confirmed Pakistani fears that India abets terror and secession in Pakistan. However, recent signals from Pakistan via Track II events were that the new Army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, wanted to reorient his Army’s approach towards India and would endorse the civilian government’s lead in crafting its India policy. He was apparently getting a pushback from entrenched interests raised on India baiting. There were unconfirmed reports that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had spoken to his Pakistani counterpart to acknowledge the signal and create an environment for resuming political contact. Why then did Pakistan change tack and with sudden alacrity, devoid of transparency, sentence Mr. Jadhav?
•One trigger could have been the disappearance of an ex-ISI Pakistani military officer in Nepal. Another may be a desire to stoke further unrest in the Kashmir Valley. It could also be some re-balancing between the civilian and military authorities as Prime Minister Sharif awaits court judgement on the Panama Papers charges. At any rate, Pakistan has succeeded in capturing media space and the Indian government’s attention and thus mainstreaming its grouses even as a new U.S. president shapes his foreign policy.
•The Indian opposition has adopted a jingoistic pitch to entrap a government mixing politics, religion and nationalism. If assurances in Parliament are that the government will do “all” in its power to rescue Mr. Jadhav, either it isconfident of a Cold War-style exchange of spies, provided they have managed to secure the asset that went missing from Nepal, or it is upping the ante hoping that Pakistan will not want to escalate tensions further.
India’s perception of Pakistan
•India misperceives Pakistan, as the 19th century French statesman Talleyrand said the world did Russia, as it is neither as strong as it seems nor as weak as we think. For instance, it is not isolated, as policymakers in South Block assume. Pakistan would have seen rising Chinese rhetoric over the Dalai Lama’s visit to Tawang. It also would read U.S. President Donald Trump’s intervention in Syria and the dropping of the ‘mother of all bombs’ in Afghanistan as the U.S. returning to business as usual and restoring the primacy of its Sunni allies, i.e. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, plus the Gulf Cooperation Council, Pakistan, and Egypt. Pakistan is familiar with the generals now ruling the roost after White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s fall.
•A Sino-Pak alliance now fed by China’s open hostility and not countered by the U.S.’s words of restraint may entrap India into a regional morass. Many assumptions on which the Modi government has functioned in diplomacy are being rewritten. The challenge is to steer India through this maze with more than jingoism, theatre, and domestic electoral needs.
Indian Railways’ draft policy aims at boosting tourism
IR will work to enhance public-private partnership in running tourist trains
•The Indian Railways (IR) plans to introduce dedicated train services for domestic and international tourists, catering to customers at all income levels.
•The proposal is part of the draft tourism policy which IR is bringing out for the first time in a bid to increase private partnership in running tourist trains.
•“A concept of tourist train with differential tariff will be worked out. The train will comprise different classes of accommodation like Sleeper 3A, 2A and 1A coaches, as per demand,” said IR.
•“The IR will operate the train on different circuits with normal tariff or with a mark up.” it said. Additionally, the Railways plans to rope in several service providers, including Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), to manage other services such as hotel accommodation and sightseeing for domestic and international tourists.
•The Railways also proposes to reserve special coaches for tourists on trains running through tourist spots across the country. It will auction such dedicated tourist coaches to tour operators “at a premium based on which the tour operator may carry the passengers/tourists to be booked by it,” according to IR’s draft Tourism Policy 2017. It has invited comments on its draft policy, uploaded on its website till April 24.
•The IR will look to increase the frequency of hill tourist trains during peak season and has proposed reviving steam trains to be operated in hill stations. “An effort will be made to involve private participation in operating more (hill tourist) trains and also to improve the financial conditions in hill railways in general through Public Private Partnership,” the draft policy said.
•It plans to unveil ‘Bharat Darshan Trains’ catering “for the masses” with sleeper class coaches. “The fare for this train will be fixed broadly on the basis of normal fare of mail or express trains with telescopic benefit for the entire trip. Such tourist trains will be at affordable rates so that ordinary citizens can use it,” the draft policy noted.
Religious tourism
•For promoting religious tourism, the IR proposed introducing Astha Circuit Trains and State Tirth Trains. While the former will be operated by the IR at its own expense, the latter will be run on request from state governments at their cost. “IRCTC will offer value-added service to make it an all inclusive tour package, the way the State government desires. The entire cost will be borne by the State Governments concerned,” it said.
•Advance booking of seats for foreign tourists will begin a year in advance so that they can plan their journey.
Showers prove summer coolers for national parks
Forest fire threat abates in Bandipur and Nagarahole
•The summer showers in parts of Mysuru and Chamarajanagar in the last week of March and the beginning of April have provided a reprieve from forest fires to both Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks.
•Bandipur was severely affected this year and vast swathes of forests were burnt in fires during the onset of summer. A forest guard lost his life while extinguishing fire, and 320 of the nearly 370 waterholes had dried up owing to the severity of the drought and the relentless heat. While the severity of the heat and the failure of rain last year left the waterbodies depleted, the forest fires ravaged the vegetation, resulting in fodder scarcity and making it a double whammy for the denizens of the jungle.
•But the region has now received moderate to heavy rain, uniform and widespread across Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts. “Thanks to the recent rain, the threat of a fresh outbreak of forest fires has considerably abated. The resultant moisture will stave off any fire for at least another few weeks, by which time the pre-monsoon showers are expected. And monsoon will lash the region in June,” said T. Heeralal, Conservator of Forests and director of Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
•The showers have also helped replenish some of the waterbodies in the forests. According to Mr. Heeralal, at least 40 waterholes have recovered considerably and this will be a great relief for the animals. In the peak summer, the Forest Department had operated solar-powered borewells in a few places inside the national park to replenish the waterholes. However, parts of Omkara and Kundagere, which happen to be the drier portions of the national park, are yet to recover from the drought despite the recent rain.
•Notwithstanding the abatement of the fire threat, the authorities plan to retain the services of the temporary watchers recruited during the onset of summer for firefighting operations. “Nearly 300 temporary watchers were recruited and they will continue to be deployed in the forests for at least two more weeks,” an official in Bandipur said.
•The situation is similar in the adjoining Nagarahole, with showers in Metikuppe, Antharsanthe, Veeranahosahalli and parts of D.B. Kuppe. But unlike Bandipur, Nagarahole – which has 142 waterholes — is also served by the Lakshmana Thirtha river, the Nagarahole stream, the Kabini backwaters and the Taraka reservoir. Hence, water scarcity is not as major an issue as the threat of forest fire, which has now abated.
31 new seismological observatories soon
To boost data gathering capability
•Thirty-one seismological observatories are expected to come up in the country by the end of the year to boost information gathering capabilities.
Across States
•The National Centre of Seismology (NCS), a unit of the Union Ministry of Earth Science, will install five observatories in Uttar Pradesh; four each in Bihar and Haryana; three each in Himachal Pradesh and Delhi; two each in Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh; and one each in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Lakshadweep.
•The NSC maintains a National Seismological Network (NSW) comprising 84 seismological laboratories across the country. These observatories record seismological activities after an earthquake and pass on the data to a control room, which generates relevant data on the quake. This crucial piece of information comprising the time, magnitude and location of the quake is then passed on to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet Secretariat, Ministries, State governments and District Collectors.
•“More observatories give precise readings in terms of location and timing. We plan to take the total number of seismological observatories to 116 by the end of the year. With this, we intend to reduce the time taken to give details about an earthquake from 5 minutes to 3-4 minutes. The plan is to increase the number of observatories to 150 by next year,” said M. Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.
