9 states have successfully completed One Nation One Ration Card system — finance ministry - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

9 states have successfully completed One Nation One Ration Card system — finance ministry.

The reform includes grant to the states of additional borrowing permission of 2% of the Gross State Domestic Product in the year 2020-21.

As many as nine states have successfully completed reforms in Public Distribution System (PDS) and implemented the ‘One Nation One Ration Card System’, under which a beneficiary will be able to buy subsidised foodgrains from any Fair Price Shops (FPS) across the country.

The states, which have implemented ‘One Nation One Ration Card System’ are Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, said a Ministry of Finance statement.

The release said this has been made possible as the central government has strengthened the hands of the states through multiple measures for mobilisation of financial resources in view of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The measures include grant of additional borrowing permission of 2 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in the year 2020-21. This has enabled the states to mobilise additional financial resources to fight the pandemic and maintain the standards of service delivery to the public. However, to ensure long-term debt sustainability and prevent any adverse impact on future, a part of the additional borrowing was linked to the states carrying out reforms in the sectors critical for service delivery to the citizens,” the release said.

It said one of the sectors identified for reforms is the Public Distribution System. “Out of the additional borrowing limit of 2 per cent of GSDP, 0.25 per cent is linked to the implementation of One Nation One Ration Card system,” it added.

The release further said this was aimed to ensure that the beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes, especially the migrant workers and their families, get ration from any FPS across the country.

“Other aims of the intended reform were to better target beneficiaries, elimination of bogus/ duplicate/ ineligible ration cards and thus enhance welfare and reduce leakage. For this, the reform conditions stipulated Aadhar Seeding of all Ration Cards, biometric authentification of beneficiaries and automation of all the Fair Price Shops in the state,” it said.

The release said this has been made possible as the central government has strengthened the hands of the states through multiple measures for mobilisation of financial resources in view of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The measures include grant of additional borrowing permission of 2 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) in the year 2020-21. This has enabled the states to mobilise additional financial resources to fight the pandemic and maintain the standards of service delivery to the public. However, to ensure long-term debt sustainability and prevent any adverse impact on future, a part of the additional borrowing was linked to the states carrying out reforms in the sectors critical for service delivery to the citizens,” the release said.

It said one of the sectors identified for reforms is the Public Distribution System. “Out of the additional borrowing limit of 2 per cent of GSDP, 0.25 per cent is linked to the implementation of One Nation One Ration Card system,” it added.

The release further said this was aimed to ensure that the beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes, especially the migrant workers and their families, get ration from any FPS across the country.

“Other aims of the intended reform were to better target beneficiaries, elimination of bogus/ duplicate/ ineligible ration cards and thus enhance welfare and reduce leakage. For this, the reform conditions stipulated Aadhar Seeding of all Ration Cards, biometric authentification of beneficiaries and automation of all the Fair Price Shops in the state,” it said. (Source: theprint.in)

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9 states have successfully completed One Nation One Ration Card system — finance ministry.

Gwalior, Orchha in UNESCO world heritage cities list: MP Govt - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Gwalior, Orchha in UNESCO world heritage cities list: MP Govt.

An official of the government's public relations department on Monday said tourism experts have termed the inclusion as a major achievement for the state.

The historical fort cities of Gwalior and Orchha in Madhya Pradesh have been included in the list of UNESCO's world heritage cities under its urban landscape city programme, according to the state government.

An official of the government's public relations department on Monday said tourism experts have termed the inclusion as a major achievement for the state.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), an agency of the United Nations, aims at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, the sciences, and culture.

"After getting included in the heritage city list, the face of Gwalior and Orchha will totally change and UNESCO along with the state tourism department will make a master plan for the beautification of the two places," the official said.

A UNESCO team will visit the state next year and after having a look at the heritage properties will prepare a master plan for their development and conservation, he said.

"The project will prove to be an example for South Asia.

Under the plan UNESCO will suggest best measures and resources for the development of these places under the Historic Urban Landscape recommendations, the official said.

Gwalior was established in 9th century and ruled by Gurjar Pratihar Rajvansh, Tomar, Baghel Kachvaho and Scindias.

The memorabilia left by them is found in abundance in memorials, forts and palaces in the area.

Gwalior is known for its palaces and temples, including the intricately carved Sas Bahu Ka Mandir temple.

The Gwalior Fort occupies a sandstone plateau overlooking the city and is accessed via a winding road lined with sacred Jain statues.

Within the forts high walls is the 15th-century Gujari Mahal Palace, now an archaeological museum.

Orchha is popular for its temples and palaces and was the capital of the Bundela kingdom in the 16th century.

The famous spots in the town are Raj Mahal, Jehangir Mahal, Ramraja Temple, Rai Praveen Mahal, and Laxminarayan Mandir, the official said.

After inclusion in the World Heritage City list, chemical treatment of historic spots like Mansingh Palace, Gujri Mahal and Sahastrabahu Temple will be done so that art inscribed on them will become more visible, the official said.

Guards will be posted at these places to welcome tourists as per the Indian traditions, he said. (Source: The Indian Express)

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Gwalior, Orchha in UNESCO world heritage cities list: MP Govt

Centre not required to take prior environmental clearance for NH projects: Supreme Court - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Centre not required to take prior environmental clearance for NH projects: Supreme Court.

The Centre has framed rules under the 1956 Act and even they do not “remotely suggest” that the government is obliged to obtain prior permission under environmental or forest laws.

The central government is not required to obtain “prior environmental or forest clearance” under the laws before declaring a stretch as national highway (NH) and expressing its intention to acquire the land for building, maintenance or operating such roads, the Supreme Court held on Tuesday.

This significant observation was made by the top court in its judgement upholding the notification for acquisition of land for the Rs 10,000-crore Chennai-Salem eight-lane green corridor project.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari dealt with relevant provisions of the National Highways Act, 1956, the National Highways Rules, 1957 and the National Highway Authority of India Act, 1988 while examining the Madras High Court’s decision that a prior environmental clearance was needed for the project.

The High Court verdict on April 8, 2019 had held as “illegal and bad in law” the notifications issued under Section 3A(1) of the National Highways Act for acquisition of specified lands for construction of the new highway which was part of the larger “Bharatmala Pariyojna– Phase I5″ project.

Justice Khanwilkar, in the 140-judgement, said: “There is nothing in the 1956 Act, which impels the Central Government to obtain prior environment clearance before exercise of that power and in issuing notification under Section 2(2), much less Section 3A expressing its intention to acquire the designated land.

“None of these enactments/rules specify any express condition requiring Central Government to obtain prior environmental/forest clearance before issuing notification under Section 2(2) declaring the stretch/ section to be a national highway or Section 3A of the 1956 Act to express intention to acquire land for the purpose of building, maintenance, management or operation of a national highway, as the case may be.”

The Centre has framed rules under the 1956 Act and even they do not “remotely suggest” that the government is obliged to obtain prior permission under environmental or forest laws.

“Reverting to the notification issued by the MoEF dated September 14, 2006, even this notification does not constrict the power of Central Government to issue notification under Section… There is nothing to suggest that before expressing intention to acquire any land for the purpose of the 1956 Act, prior environmental/forest clearance is required,” it said.

The environmental or forest clearance, however, is, required to be obtained by the executing agency in terms of this notification ”before commencing the actual work or executing the proposed project, it said.

The top court, however, said that it has not expressed any opinion either way on the correctness and validity of the permissions or clearances accorded by the competent authorities under the environment and forest laws.

It said that the orders granting permissions under the environment and forest laws were not the subject matter or the issues before the High Court and hence, it would be open to the affected persons to question the validity before the appropriate forum.

“We have not examined the efficacy of the permissions/clearances granted by the competent authority under the environment or forest laws, as the case may be. If those permissions/clearances are assailed, only then the decisions (previous judgements)…may be looked at,” it said.

Referring to judgements referred on legality of grant of environmental clearance to projects, the top court said that in those cases it was called upon to “examine the challenge in the context of permissions given by the competent authority under the environment laws.”

The ambitious 277.3-km-long eight-lane green field project connecting Salem and Chennai under the Centre’s “Bharatmala Pariyojana” scheme aims to cut travel time between the two cities by half to about two hours and 15 minutes.

However, it has been facing opposition from a section of locals, including farmers, over fears of losing their land, besides environmentalists who are against felling trees for it.

The project runs through reserve forest and water bodies. (Source: The Indian Express)

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Centre not required to take prior environmental clearance for NH projects: Supreme Court.

China’s 'super dam' a threat to India’s security - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

China’s 'super dam' a threat to India’s security.

Yarlung Tsangpo is one of the most important rivers in south-western Tibet, supporting life along its fertile shore as the river runs through Kongpo (Nyingtri Prefecture) valleys in southern Tibet.

The river is fondly called Brahmaputra as it enters India and Bangladesh, where it supports millions of people for their daily livelihood. This mighty river faces a huge threat from a ‘super dam’.

According to a Global Times report on November 29, 2020, the Chinese government plans to construct a ‘super hydropower dam’ on the Yarlung Tsangpo in its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25). The report claimed that the hydropower dam would be “meaningful for the environment, national security, living standards and international cooperation.”

In reality, the ongoing excessive damming on the Yarlung Tsangpo is neither eco-friendly nor is it beneficial for the local community. It is part of a state-engineered, long-term preparation for a mass influx of Chinese migrants into the Kongpo region for permanent settlement. Such an eventuality could cause irreversible damage to the local ecology, diminish local Tibetan identity and greatly destabilise the hydrological balance across northeastern India.

Unlike in the 1960s, the large hydropower dams are no longer considered eco-friendly and sustainable. According to a BBC report (November 5, 2018), more than 90 per cent of the dams which have been built since the 1930s around the world were “more expensive than anticipated”, and that these dams have “damaged river ecology, displaced millions of people.”

The demolition of Yacla de Yeltes Dam (Nature, April 2018) in Spain was hailed by ecologists as a milestone for river-restoration efforts in Europe, and that the United States removed (American Rivers, February 6, 2020) 90 dams in 2019 alone for river restoration efforts.

But in Tibet, the Chinese government is on a dam-building spree along the 1,600-km stretch of Yarlung Tsangpo in Lhokha and Nyingtri. Nyingtri, traditionally known as Kongpo, is home to one of the world’s oldest forests and a safe habitat for primitive species. In fact, a group of Chinese scientists in 2015 discovered an extremely rare and primitive macaque monkey in the forest of Metok in Kongpo, a county where the ‘super dam’ is proposed to be built. One of the Chinese scientists even described Kongpo as “an ancient museum of nature”.

China has long planned 11 hydel dams on the river with Zangmu and Gyatsa already completed, Dagu and Jeixu under construction, Lengda recently receiving permission and more to begin soon as part of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Large dams inevitably inundate vast area of land around it for water storage, leading to massive loss of vegetation and wildlife habitat.

Dams also induce seismic activity, landslides, sudden change in the local ecosystem, and emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The dam construction is only one part of a state-engineered, infrastructure development plan in the Kongpo region of Southern Tibet to facilitate eventual mass migration from China to this scarcely populated region of Tibet. The region has seen rapid upgrading of the 5,476-km-long National Highway-318, which connects Chinese cities as far as Shanghai and Chengdu to Nyingtri city. The much-reported Chengdu-Nyingtri-Lhasa railway line (1,629 km), once completed, would be a direct passage for mass migration into the region.

The lack of trees and a harsh climate were the primary reasons for the Chinese migrants’ inability to permanently settle in some parts of the interior Tibet despite Beijing’s generous incentives. This makes Kongpo (Nyingytri Prefecture) in Tibet an ideal spot for mass migration as the region has pleasant mild weather with extensive forest and vegetation cover.

So for Tibetans in the region, the ongoing excessive infrastructure development is a colonial trap to marginalise the Tibetans in their own land.

Every infrastructure development along the Indo-Tibet border would bring a new degree of threat to India’s border security. But the construction of a ‘super dam’ in Metok means the threat expands all the way to Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The close proximity of the location to India’s border means any sudden release of water from the dam could quickly and forcefully reach India with very little time for evacuation.

India would inevitably face a twin disaster in the future — water shortage in the winter as the ‘super dam’ could swallow much of the flow during dry season, and flash floods in the summer as excess water from the dam would be released during the monsoon season.

As highlighted by this author in 2018, infrastructure development in the region is a means to bring more Chinese migrants into the region for permanent settlement to counter the Indian border challenges. The objective is becoming clearer by the unusual importance the Chinese leadership has given to the region in recent years by making successive visits and fast-tracking infrastructure development works.

Dams are known to alter the natural characteristics of a river system and also disrupt the lives of millions of people living along the river basin. The ‘super dam’ planned on the Great-Bend of Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) Grand Canyon in Metok, if it gets the go-ahead from Beijing, would have a catastrophic impact on the lives of millions in India and Bangladesh.

Therefore, the huge investment on a massive infrastructure development drive in the region is part of a state-engineered, long-term plan to facilitate mass migration of Chinese into the Kongpo (Nyingtri Prefecture) region, which shares a long border with India. Such a strategic plan is aimed at countering both domestic Tibetan resistance as well as border challenges from India. A Chinese-dominated population in the region could give the People’s Liberation Army stationed in the region much-needed popular support from the local community, which it obviously lacks.

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China’s 'super dam' a threat to India’s security.