📰 India cuts off UN panel after J&K report
HRC lists 13 cases in 2018 alone, including of 4 children killed by security forces
•Reacting angrily to a submission from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council (HRC) on alleged violations in Jammu and Kashmir, India has informed the United Nations body that it will no longer entertain any communication with the HRC’s Special Rapporteurs on its report.
•The report from the UN body came at the same time as a report from two NGOs in Jammu and Kashmir on alleged cases of torture, was released in Srinagar, which was endorsed by a former UN Special Rapporteur.
Queries on action taken
•The current Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial Executions, Torture, and Right to Health — Agnes Callamard, Dainius Puras and Nils Melzer respectively — had referred to a previous June 2018 report of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) and written to the government in March 2019, asking about steps taken by New Delhi to address alleged human rights violations listed in the report.
•In addition, the Special Rapporteurs had listed “13 cases of concern” from the year 2018 alone in which “four children were among eight civilians killed by members of the security forces.”
•Rejecting all the claims, the Indian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva replied to the OHCHR on April 23, saying that “India... does not intend to engage further with these mandate holders or any other mandate holders on the issue,” whom it accused of “individual prejudice”.
‘Clear bias’ alleged
•India had also rejected the OHCHR’s report on the “Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir” — the first ever such report on J&K that came out in June 2018 — and accused the High Commissioner of Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein of “clear bias” in bringing it out.
•When asked, the MEA clarified that India’s stand on not engaging with the special rapporteurs was only for those wishing to refer to the OHCHR report.
•The Union Labour and Employment Ministry last week sought representations from all those who would be affected by its notification of certain changes to the wage board for journalists and non-journalist employees of newspapers and news agencies.
•According to a gazette notification on May 14, the Ministry gave respondents 30 days to submit their written representations on its decision to merge and re-notify two notifications regarding the Manisana Wage Board, which was accepted by the government in 2000.
•The two notifications had been challenged by the Manipal Media Network Limited because the employers had not been given notice about the award. The Karnataka High Court had on February 1, 2006 quashed the two notifications, the gazette notification noted. However, the Statesman Mazdoor Union had moved the Delhi High Court in 2014 seeking directions to the Centre to re-notify them.
📰 India, Pakistan to attend SCO meet
Islamabad appoints Moinul Haq as new High Commissioner to New Delhi
•For the first time, since the Pulwama terror attack and the Balakot airstrikes, Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers will together attend a ministerial meeting under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, on May 21-22.
•The meeting will be attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, along with the Foreign Ministers of SCO member states, including Pakistan.
•In keeping with the evolving developments, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister told the media on Monday that career diplomat Moinul Haq will be the new High Commissioner of Pakistan to India. Pakistan had not appointed a new envoy since the tenure of the previous incumbent Sohail Mahmood ended in mid-April.
•At the meeting in Bishkek, Ms. Swaraj is expected to take up cross-border terror attacks from Pakistan and India’s response to it including the Balakot airstrikes.
•This is also the first meeting since India successfully ensured a global blacklisting of Jaish-e-Mohammed head Masood Azhar. India had blamed JeM for being behind the Pulwama attack.
•The meeting is expected to discuss the latest attack by the Islamic State in Sri Lanka, which claimed at least 253 lives and injured hundreds.
•The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of SCO has emerged in the last few years as an important platform where terrorism and security-related problems are discussed among member countries. India and Pakistan have participated in the multilateral military exercises.
•The meeting acquires significance as it comes in the backdrop of an expanding U.S.-China trade war and the energy shock to several of the member countries after the U.S. administration ended waiver for energy trade with Iran.
•The Ministry of External Affairs said in an official press release that the Foreign Minister-level meeting will review preparation for the forthcoming SCO summit in Bishkek on June 13-14.
📰 Opposition to meet EC today over VVPAT verification
To seek guidelines to deal with mismatch between VVPAT and EVM tallies
•Leaders of Opposition parties will meet Election Commission (EC) officials on Tuesday to urge the panel to spell out the mechanisms to address any mismatch between voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) and electronic voting machine (EVM) tallies during the counting of votes on Thursday.
•Representatives of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Telugu Desam Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Janata Dal(S) and the Left parties are expected to be in the delegation, said Opposition politicians who spoke on condition of anonymity.
•The Commission will counter-check the VVPAT and EVM tallies in five randomly selected polling stations in an Assembly segment.
•Earlier this month, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition filed by 21 Opposition parties for verification of tallies in at least 25% of the booths.
Seeks assurance
•Opposition leaders earlier met the panel seeking details of what it planned to do if any discrepancy cropped up during the random counter-check. The EC at the time promised to come up with detailed guidelines.
•“We had suggested that if there is a discrepancy, then the votes of the entire Assembly segment should be counter-checked with the VVPAT machines,” CPI leader D. Raja said. “The EC is yet to bring out the guidelines it promised. There are several questions and apprehensions that need to be addressed.”
•CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that any discrepancy would raise a doubt on the integrity of the entire electoral process.
•“On VVPAT and EVM tallies, the EC is yet to come out with a procedure in case there is a mismatch. Even if there is one mismatch in the VVPAT samples picked for counting and EVMs, to maintain integrity of the electoral process, all VVPATs in that Assembly segment must be counted,” Mr. Yechury said.
•The delegation is likely to include Ahmed Patel and Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress, Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, Satish Chandra Misra of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mr. Yechury and Mr. Raja. The leaders will meet at Andhra Bhavan here before going to the Election Commission.
•The Opposition parties expressed confidence that the exit polls did not reflect the actual result. The agenda of the meeting would include discussions on the way forward after the results. “Our efforts will continue,” Mr. Yechury said. “All the parties that have declared to defeat the BJP will rally together.”
📰 Kilogram update to spur revision of textbooks
The unit will no longer be defined by physical objects
•With the definition of the ‘kilogram’ getting a global, technical makeover, textbooks — from those used in schools to ones recommended by engineering colleges in India — are set to undergo an update.
•Until Monday, the kilogram derived its provenance from the weight of a block of a platinum-iridium alloy housed at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in France.
•All other prototypes that served as national reference standards, including the one at New Delhi’s CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL), were calibrated to it. No longer.
•On May 20, the kilogram joined other standard units of measure such as the second, metre, ampere, Kelvin, mole and candela that would no longer be defined by physical objects.
•The measures are all now defined on the basis of unchanging universal, physics constants. The kilogram now hinges on the definition of the Planck Constant, a constant of nature that relates to how matter releases energy.
•The CSIR-NPL, which is India’s official reference keeper of units of measurements, on Monday, released a set of recommendations requiring that school textbooks, engineering-education books, and course curriculum update the definition of the kilogram.
•The institute is also in the process of making its own ‘Kibble Balance’, a device that was used to measure the Planck Constant and thereby reboot the kilogram, said Dinesh Aswal, Director of the NPL.
•“We have already written to the NCERT and the AICTE to update the curriculum,” Dr. Aswal told The Hindu . “A Kibble Balance capable of measuring at least a kilogram takes about Rs. 50 crore to manufacture. So it’s still a work in progress,” he added.
•An updated kilogram doesn’t mean that weights everywhere will be thrown off balance. For everyday measurements, consumers wanting to calibrate their instruments — whether it’s for high-precision drug manufacturing or retail weighing machines — will continue doing it the same way.
•The National Physical Laboratory itself will be relying on the kilogram maintained in the U.S.-based National Institutes of Standards and Technology to calibrate its one-kilogram weight.
📰 Thirsty Gujarat will supply treated waste water for industrial use
State has detailed a plan for directing fresh water for drinking and irrigation
•Shortage of water is an annual story in Gujarat, with limited sources of fresh water and rising demand. Every year, the State faces water shortage, particularly for drinking water in far-flung areas in Saurashtra and north Gujarat, both drought-prone regions in the State.
•In the current year, more than 750 villages in the State are supplied water through tankers due to non-availability of local sources, as most of the dams and reservoirs have gone dry, owing to deficit rainfall in the last monsoon.
Detailed plan
•Now, the State government has come up with a comprehensive plan to address the water shortage by limiting the supply of fresh water only for drinking and irrigation purposes, while the growing demand of industries will be met through treated waste water, which will be supplied by the State.
•“In the next 3-4 years, more than 80% of the water requirement of industries will be met through the supply of treated waste water (TWW), which will be supplied from Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs),” said Gujarat’s Chief Secretary J.N. Singh, adding that industry will get only treated water in order to reserve fresh ground water for drinking and irrigation.
•“As of today, our total sewage water generation is 4,000 MLD (million litres per day), while our treatment capacity is 3,500 MLD. In the next 2-3 years, new capacity of 1,500 MLD will be added, with the setting up of new STPs and expanding the existing ones,” said J.P. Gupta, Principal Secretary on water supply for the State.
•According to Mr. Gupta, the State has limited sources of fresh water while demand is rising, which forces the authorities to adopt novel ways to address the issue. “By treating waste water that’s generated in sewage and supplying it for industrial consumption, we will also resolve the issue of pollution in cities and towns,” he added.
•“We have capacity to treat water at STPs and since there is no demand for treated water, it gets diluted and treated water is released into water bodies or farms.”
•“Now, we will be making it mandatory for industries to use treated waters so that our STPs will also have to meet and maintain standards,” Mr. Gupta said, adding that, so far, industries get fresh water from various sources.
•Both Mr. Gupta and Chief Secretary Dr. Singh emphasised that by cutting down the supply of fresh water for industries, authorities can augment its supply for drinking water in drought-prone regions.
•Presently, the Narmada is the main source of water in Gujarat, with its canal and pipeline network. The river supplies water to approximately 8,000 villages and 150 towns and big cities like Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Rajkot and Vadodara.
📰 Stubble burning incidents down in Punjab this harvest season
Awareness of the ill-effects one key reason for the dip, say experts
•Farmers in Punjab, the key grain producing State, seem to have exercised restraint in burning the wheat crop residue during the ongoing harvesting season.
•The incidents of burning dipped compared to last year, officials told The Hindu. Agriculture experts and officials believe that awareness of the ill-effects is one key reason for it.
•The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) data shows that the State had from April 15 to May 16 witnessed 5,981 incidents of stubble burning as against 9,900 cases reported during the corresponding period in 2018.
•Sangrur district topped the list with 553 incidents followed by Bathinda district (548) and Amritsar district (536). Rupnagar district recorded the lowest number 31 this season.
•“It’s an indication that farmers are relatively more aware of the ill-effects on health and environment,” said PPCB’s Chief Environmental Engineer Krunesh Garg. “Also we are imposing penalties on farmers as there’s a ban on burning the residue. All the incidents are not deliberate as there are several cases of accidental fire too,” he said.
•Wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, is sown from late October to December while the harvesting usually starts from mid-April onwards.
•P.S. Rangi, an agriculture expert and former State Farmers Commission adviser, said it was an encouraging sign. “But we will have to wait till the paddy harvesting season in October-November which the burning is associated with.”
Paddy residue
•He said farmers use wheat residue as fodder for cattle and it’s only the stalk that is set on fire. The paddy residue is not used as fodder as it’s unfit and hence farmers burn both the paddy stalk and straw close to autumn every year which is a key contributing factor of pollution causing breathing problems in the northern region.
📰 ‘Every drop of pollution in Ganga is a matter of concern’
NGT pulls up NCMG for not providing proper action plans
•The National Green Tribunal has pulled up the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) for not providing “concrete action plans” pertaining to the rejuvenation of the Ganga in stretches where the river crosses the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
•A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said, “The NMCG has not filed the precise information about the status of projects planned and executed between Kanpur to Ganga Sagar. Thus, the affidavit of NMCG is of no assistance. The counsel appearing for the NMCG is not ready and merely dependent on (the NMCG officer), who is also not competent to assist this tribunal.”
•Directing the NMCG to take remedial action to provide “assistance” to the tribunal, the Bench further added, “During the interaction, we find his approach to be that of the polluters instead of remedying the pollution which is the mandate of the law and the orders of this tribunal.”
•Highlighting urgency of the matter, the Bench said, “Every drop of pollution in the river Ganga is a matter of concern. The attitude of all the authorities has to be stringent and depict zero tolerance to pollution of river Ganga. No amount of wealth generation or commercial activities can get priority over cleanliness of Ganga.”
