Wake Up CJI

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.48…………..20/05/2020

Editorial: Wake Up CJI
Judges must introspect , judge themselves, judge their own actions first. Then alone we will witness an independent impartial judiciary.

Judges should strike down executive actions that are unconstitutional, says Justice Deepak Gupta

The retired Supreme Court judge said the AK Patnaik committee report that investigated alleged manipulation of the court should be placed before the bench.
Sruthisagar Yamunan
Justice Deepak Gupta retired from the Supreme Court on Wednesday and became the first judge to have a farewell via videoconferencing due to the Covid-19 lockdown. An articulate judge, Justice Gupta has in the past spoken about why dissent is essential for a society to function well. In this interview to Scroll.in, he talks about several controversies that rocked the court over the last two years, including the sexual harassment complaint against former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. He also said the report of Justice AK Patnaik committee that investigated the alleged fixing of Supreme Court benches should be placed before the relevant bench.
Excerpts from the interview:
You have said appointments to higher judiciary should solely be on merit. But there is criticism that the higher judiciary including the Supreme Court, is dominated by upper castes. There was a nine-year gap in appointing a Dalit judge to the bench.
When I say merit, I refer to the different categories that have to be represented. We are a big country. If we go strictly by merit, we will have judges only from a few High Courts. The big matters are argued in four or five High Courts. It is not that merit doesn’t exist in smaller courts. We need more women judges. We need to ensure representation to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes to make it truly the Supreme Court of the entire country.
Has the time come for reservations in the higher judiciary?
I am personally against reservations at the very high level, whether it is judiciary or other places. I am not in favour of it.
There is also a feeling that there is nepotism in the higher judiciary. That members of certain families, invariably upper caste, in the legal profession get preference on the bench and in the bar. And that the court has not done much to break this stranglehold.
I don’t think nepotism is the right word. I don’t think nepotism in the sense we refer to the term exists. But what happens is, the legal profession is a patriarchal form of profession. The children, more often than not, join the father’s profession. When they do, they have a head start over others.

I joined the profession in 1978, nine years after my father died. But I still had some advantage that those who have no connection to the profession do not. Those who have the connection get referred at a very young age and so find more cases. That reflects in the bench as well as they do more cases. Though I don’t call it nepotism, I do agree that the system is not much in favour of first generation lawyers. But having said this, I should say the Supreme Court has a number of first generation lawyers as judges.
Have the judges discussed remedies to neutralise these privileges?
We have not discussed it nor decided it either way, that is to promote it or discourage it. Personally, I can tell you that when I was chief justice of a High Court, I turned down one or two proposals for elevation as there were already judges in the family, though the candidates may have been deserving.
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The Supreme Court collegium has faced a lot of criticism for being opaque. Recent case is the transfer of Justice Muralidhar to Punjab from Delhi. Other transfers in the last two years have also attracted a lot of criticism. The court dismissed the National Judicial Appointments Commission but the memorandum of procedure for judicial appointment is still stuck in limbo. Why is there no urge to reform the collegium system?
As far as Justice Muralidhar’s case is concerned, I had asked one of the judges in the collegium and I was told that he is being sent to the Punjab and Haryana High Court as the second senior-most judge and could become a chief justice at some point. But I agree there are certain issues. As per the NJAC judgement, there has to be a good secretariat attached to the Supreme Court. In case of the High Courts, at least six months before the vacancy arises, the process of finding a replacement should start.

In my opinion, the most important reform should be objective evaluation of the candidates. What are the judgements the person has delivered if a judge is being considered, what are the cases they have argued, if a lawyer is considered, the nature of arguments and such things. We should not wait for the government to make a recommendation. The collegium should be ready with options through such objective evaluation. The level of vacancies at the moment is ridiculous. It is ridiculous to expect the High Court to function with such a level of vacancies.

This brings me to the Intelligence Bureau reports placed before the collegium. The IB is a wing of the government and has vested interests. The reports are a powerful tool to degrade the reputation of a candidate if such a course of action is found to be in the executive’s interest. Has the time come for the court to do away with these IB reports?
The government does rely on IB reports. But sometimes the reports are not correct, sometimes they are also correct. I don’t want to denigrate the entire IB by saying they do only as they are told by the executive. Chief justices do ask some dependable police officials to verify personally and report on the candidates before we send the recommendation to the Supreme Court collegium.
You see, we don’t independently have a mechanism to ascertain the antecedents outside the court. Something like whether the person has indulged in some immoral or illegal activities or has undisclosed properties is something which the court can’t ascertain. Many times, IB reports make vague allegations. So without specific evidence, we do not bank on them. But we have to rely on the IB to a certain extent for integrity assessment.
There have been demands for benches of the Supreme Court in other parts of the country and also that the Supreme Court should only deal with Constitutional matters.
I don’t agree with the first demand. I don’t think circuit benches or permanent benches are the answer. Even in the High Courts, circuit benches do not function as expected of them. If you set up one bench of the Supreme Court, say in South India, other regions will also ask. I think the better option is to expand the use of technology, like how we are doing during the Covid-19 lockdown. We can have e-filing and e-arguments so that people can access the court from where they are.
But I agree that between the High Court and the Supreme Court, there could be a court of appeals with regard to things like criminal matters, service matters and such. If that is done, we could even reduce the strength of the Supreme Court to nine or 11 judges who hear only Constitutional matters.
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You have been very vocal about the need for dissent in the society. There have been demands for reforming the contempt laws. As a journalist, I can tell you that the contempt laws hang over our heads like a sword. We are forced to be too cautious when commenting on the judiciary and this sometimes leads to self-censorship. There is a feeling the contempt laws are not used very objectively by the courts. What makes an Indian judge so special that we need a contempt law of this manner?
I don’t want to respond to this question because my last judgement was on contempt. I had convicted some lawyers. Since my judgment may be subject matter of review in future, I do not want to comment on it.
For the last two years, Attorney General KK Venugopal has been pointing out that the judiciary is overstepping its boundaries and going into the domain of the executive. In particular, he has spoken strongly about the use of Article 142 [which gives the Supreme Court powers to pass any order to achieve the ends of justice] and concepts such as constitutional morality.
I have great regard for the attorney general, who is a doyen of the bar. But I do not agree with him on all counts. You see he has also appreciated the court on issues such as child rights, food security and prison reforms. I am an activist judge. I am proud to say I am an activist judge. But I never tried to transgress the boundaries of law. We have been given the power of judicial review. We should not hesitate to set aside actions of the executive or legislature that are unconstitutional. The issue is with policy. The courts should not enter into the domain of policy unless there is a gap, like for example the Vishaka guidelines.
It is more about perceived misuse than use. For example, the Ayodhya matter was a title suit but the court used Article 142 to make the final settlement. Is the court filling gaps or using Article 142 to do what it wants to?
Let me be categorical in saying that Article 142 should be used very very sparingly. It cannot be used to do something in contrary to established law. I can give you the example of a case I dealt with, regarding food adulteration. In the case, the parties wanted us to do something we felt was against established law. We refused to. Article 142 is for those rare occasions when the field of law is vacant or when the court may not have the laws but not deciding it will cause harm to justice.
In your interview to the Indian Express, you said you were not privy to the merits of the matter regarding the sexual harassment complaint against former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. First, the woman sent a letter detailing the charges to 22 judges, including you. Second, is it not problematic when sitting Supreme Court judges say they were not privy to a matter that was the most important development of that time?
The woman did send the letter to us, so I was aware of the allegations made by her. When I say I was not privy to it, I meant that I was not privy to what happened before the committee. Allegations were made. They were not accepted by the then chief justice or the committee.

But this was the problem, is it not? When something of this magnitude happened, the other judges were silent.
I am of the view that this is a matter that you cannot give to somebody else. You can argue that this is against the principle that judges should not decide on their own cause. The only other option is to take it to Parliament for impeachment. You cannot have others probing judges. The independence of the judiciary will otherwise come crashing down.
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But it could be people within the judicial system. Like former judges of the court.
I would like to make it clear that all of the judges knew about the constitution of that committee, that there was a recusal [of Justice NV Ramana] and then a replacement. All of us were made aware of it.
The problem was the perception that the committee was not fair. The woman was not allowed representation despite her physical disability.
I don’t want to comment further on this. It was for the committee to follow procedures. If someone was aggrieved, they should have moved a petition challenging it. I don’t want to comment on it.
But even the report is barred from public scrutiny. Is this not a little difficult to digest?
I don’t know if it has been sought by the public or not. I don’t even know if it should be released. I am not very certain about it.
One thing that happened along with the sexual harassment case was a lawyer alleging that powerful forces are behind the complaint to manipulate the judiciary and that there was attempt to fix benches. A committee under former judge AK Patnaik was formed at breakneck speed. But the report of the committee submitted more than six months ago has not seen the light of day. Does this not erode the credibility of the proceedings?
All I can say is that the committee’s report should have been placed before the bench. It should be placed before the concerned bench even now. But this is a problem even otherwise with the registry. Cases should come up as per the timetable.
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I have seen some times that when big law firms or lawyers handle matters, the case is listed exactly on the date fixed. But when it is a poor client or a young lawyer, even if it is a petition that deals with the liberty of the citizen, more often than not it will be dropped from the list and will come up after four or five months. This is something that needs to be looked into. We need to develop a total computarised system.
The chief justice office has faced criticism in the last two tenures of Justices Dipak Misra and Gogoi. There was a lot of talk on the powers of the chief justice as the master of the roster. Has the office of the chief justice become too powerful, much more than the constitutional mandate?
There can be no doubt that the chief justice is the master of the roster. Though the chief justice has the discretion to send cases to any bench, once you set up a roster, you should let the roster operate objectively. I was a chief justice in a smaller high court for over four years. There are many problems in the smaller courts. Sometimes, judges might say they cannot hear many matters. I framed a roster and let it operate by itself by letting the computer decide where the case should go. It has to be a random program.

The discretionary powers should be used only when the computer cannot decide based on the permutations. The chief justice’s office is powerful. The roster is an important part of this power. It is not that the office has become too powerful but how the office is used. If the power is used properly, not one will raise questions.
But was it used properly in the last two tenures?
I am not going to comment on individuals. It is the system I am concerned about and how to make it better.
There have been comparisons of the current court to that of the court during the Emergency and that it has become too close to the executive, especially in the context of Gogoi taking up a seat in the Rajya Sabha.
My answer is please read my farewell address to the bar.

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Murders/ Hunger Deaths

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.47…………19/05/2020

Editorial : Hunger Death due to Corona Lock down
– Wake Up Modiji , NHRC Chairman & CJI

Refer :
DEPOJ/E/2020/02420.
MINHA/E/2020/06034
DARPG/E/2020/09352

Our Honourable Prime Minister Mr.Modi has taken right decision to enforce countrywide lock down , to prevent spread of Corona virus. Corona warriors – doctors, nurses, paramedics, safai Soldiers, police all have done a commendable job. Our heartfelt respects, salutes to them all.

However few police personnel behaved like demons – they brutally kathie charged innocent poor people to death for violating lock down. The same police let off rich guys violating lockdown actress sharmila mandre car holly ride in Bangalore, illegal liquor transport meant for higher police officers, marriage of politicians, etc. Police didn’t have guts , nerves to punish the guilty.

Government didn’t provide food to migrants, foot path dwellers. Authorities just made show off of food distribution in city centres to get press coverage.

In india most of the real poors don’t have BPL card, Jan Dhan accounts. However cronies of politicians, rich persons doing money lending to the tune of lakhs of rupees, earning thousands of rupees rental income have submitted fake income certificates and illegally got BPL card , opened Jan Dhan accounts. Even some old age pensioners are rich, undeserving.

Financial aid transferred to Jan Dhan accounts, old age pension accounts and ration provided is reaching undeserving persons. As a result poor are suffering more and dying due to hunger.
Rich people , cronies of politicians have illegally secured BPL ration cards and enjoying benefits of it, while utterly poor are denied the same. Your corona management is a sham, people have died due to hunger. We offer conditional services to legally apprehend unfit BPL card holders , are you ready ?
Honourable Chief Justice of India & NHRC Chairman , you didn’t show the needed alacrity to address the issue of migrant labours inspire of PILs. The inhuman attorney general who takes hefty pay cheque from tax payer’s money was arrogant and termed them as petitions from PIL factory worthy of dismissal. Actually AG deserves dismissal from his post.
PM, CJI, NHRC Chairman, AG you are all responsible for these hunger deaths, lathi charge deaths, death due to lack of medical care and you are literally murderers of those innocents.

India has enough food grain stock but still poor die due to hunger. It is mismanagement of food distribution. You have to learn lessons and show commitment to duty. Food is needed for life of a human being. Right to life is a human right of every individual. You are violating poor’s human rights.

Hereby , we urge you to :
1. To clearly identify poor with measurable parameters.
2. To weed out undeserving beneficiaries of BPL Card, old age pension, jan dhan account.
3. To recover money from illegal beneficiaries.
4. To legally prosecute responsible corrupt public servants who aided them in their crimes.
5. To legally prosecute police personnel who brutally lathi charged innocents causing murders of commoners.
6. To legally prosecute rich guys who violated lock down norms.

More than 300 Indians have died of the coronavirus, and nearly 200 of the lockdown

A cost-benefit analysis of India’s coronavirus lockdown must take into account the deaths caused by the lockdown itself.
SHIVAM VIJ
in a modified form for another two weeks, here’s another statistic we need to think about: at least 195 people have died of the lockdown.
Had the lockdown been better planned and more judiciously thought out, many of these lives could have been saved.
The dataset of 195 deaths (and counting) has been created by researchers Thejesh GN, Kanika Sharma and Aman. It has been collected from credible news or social media reports from across India, many of which are listed on this Twitter thread.
The human cost of lockdown
Of these, 53 deaths were caused by exhaustion, hunger, denial of medical care, or suicides due to lack of food or livelihood.
At least seven people were killed in violent crimes, such as people turning into vigilantes and attacking others for violating the lockdown.
Migrant labourers wanting to return home were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres on highways that speeding vehicles were expecting to be empty. At least 35 migrants were accidentally run over.
It is well known that alcoholics can die of delirium tremens, withdrawal symptoms or driven to suicide if suddenly denied alcohol. India’s lockdown shut all alcohol stores. At least 40 people have died or committed suicide because we don’t consider alcohol as an essential commodity.
Another 39 people have committed suicide because they feared getting the coronavirus infection, thanks to the panic created by the lockdown, or because of loneliness or being quarantined. Yet another 21 deaths were caused for miscellaneous reasons.
These are just the reported deaths, the real numbers would likely be much higher.
Dying to prevent coronavirus deaths
Take a moment to think about the absurdity of this: Indians died due to measures that were meant to save them from dying.
It is clear that the lockdown is being extended, though thankfully it seems it will be more nuanced, targeting hotspots differently from other areas that haven’t seen any Covid-19 positive cases yet. There is likely to be limited opening up of the economy. These efforts will remain risky considering we still aren’t testing aggressively enough.
If the Narendra Modi government had prepared early on, starting in February, for aggressive testing, indigenously made testing kits, had manufactured more PPEs at war footing instead of exporting what we had, we wouldn’t have needed a mindless lockdown.
The harshest lockdown in the world that closes public transport, trains and flights, prevents people from travelling for emergency reasons, and makes it difficult for people to even feed themselves — this isn’t the humane way to deal with a national health crisis.
What’s the point of living?
The lockdown is meant to save our lives from the coronavirus. But for some, it made life so difficult that surviving the virus was pointless. They took their own lives.
One such person was Rambhavan Shukla, 52, who hung himself from a tree branch because he couldn’t find labour to harvest the wheat crop on his farm in Banda, Uttar Pradesh. Instead of facing a year of financial ruin, he cut short the misery.
Another example is that of Aldrin Lyngdoh, a young man from Meghalaya who was sacked and kicked out by a restaurant he worked at in Agra. In his suicide note, he said the owners of the restaurant, which is ironically named Shanti Food Centre, knew they could get away with anything since one of their relatives is a minister in the UP government.
Lyngdoh committed suicide because he was an orphan with no one to look after him, and nowhere to go. Not that he could have managed to reach Meghalaya amid the lockdown even if there was someone there to support him.
Before the virus can kill you, there’s the police
What sort of a pandemic-prevention lockdown makes it difficult for people to get medical help? Enforced by the trigger-happy police officers through lathis, this lockdown has been so cruel it wouldn’t even let ambulances pass in some places, such as in Mangaluru, where two people died as a result.
In Maharashtra, the police assaulted an ambulance driver for allegedly ferrying passengers rather than patients. The officers took a bribe and let the ambulance go to the hospital so that the driver could be treated for assault injuries. The driver died anyway. He was hit hard on the head with a lathi.
These Manto-esque incidents make you wonder if this lockdown was about saving lives or just asserting the might of the state on hapless citizens?
A 29-year-old Dalit man returned from Gurgaon to his village in Uttar Pradesh. He claimed he had undergone a Covid-19 test and had tested negative. He was still humiliated and beaten up by a police constable so badly that he committed suicide. Who needs the coronavirus?
All other patients are free to die
As our healthcare system gears up to save lives from Covid-19, people unable to use that system or see through a brutal lockdown may please go home and die anyway.
In Madhya Pradesh, a state without a health minister amid a pandemic, a hospital set up to help the victims of the continuing Bhopal gas tragedy kicked out the very patients it was meant to serve. The hospital was readying itself for Covid-19 patients. Munni Bee, 68, died for want of care. No other hospital would take her.
It’s as if India is already making the dark choices about which lives it wants to save and which lives are expendable. What cause of death makes for headlines less troubling for the political establishment? Which statistic should be allowed to rise?
Let them eat lockdown
It is a shame that in a food surplus country, we let people die of starvation, such as these two people in Bellary, Karnataka; or this 11-year-old Dalit boy in Bhojpur, Bihar; or this daily wage labourer in Cyberabad, whose body was found by the police.
Not everyone waited for starvation to kill them; some cut short the agony with suicide, like Sagar Deogharia in Odisha. The government is carrying out a “detailed probe into the incident,” of course.
The lockdown has meant there is no work for daily wagers, and hence no food. So they travelled back home where getting food might have been easier. Some died just trying to reach home. Like a group of migrant labourers in Jammu and Kashmir died of the cold, their bodies found under five feet of snow. They took a dangerous mountainous route to reach home thanks to the lockdown.
Footnotes of history
If the lockdown continues in its present form, it is bound to kill more people — through starvation, unemployment, stigma, government indifference, and police brutality.
But the government doesn’t have to worry much: these are poor, voiceless people whose deaths will be reported as stray incidents. Nobody will light diyas or bang pots and pans in their honour. They are collateral damage in the war against coronavirus.
They won’t even count as footnotes in the history of India’s response to the pandemic. Unless you can find a Muslim-bashing angle, these lives aren’t outrage material on prime time.

Sufferings of Migrant workers

Mr. Pandit, a construction worker, was stuck in Delhi for three days and could not see his dying son in Bihar.
Rampukar Pandit, who became a snapshot of India’s migrant tragedy with his photograph sobbing by a road in Delhi, is back in Bihar, broken at not being able to see his son before he died.
“We labourers have no life, we are just a cog in the wheel, spinning continuously until we run out of life,” the 38-year-old said.
The construction labourer, who worked at a cinema hall site in Delhi, was spotted weeping as he talked on the phone by the side of the Nizamuddin Bridge in Delhi by PTI photographer Atul Yadav on May 11. The powerful image of the distraught man, struggling to reach home in Begusarai, almost 1,200 km away during the lockdown, was widely shared across all media. Mr. Pandit had been stuck there for three days before help arrived.
When the photograph was taken, he said he was anguished at the thought that he might not get home on time to see his baby. Shortly after the photo was taken, his son, who had not yet turned one, died. “I pleaded to the police to let me go home but none helped,” he told PTI over the phone. “One policeman even said, ‘Will your son become alive if you go back home. This is lockdown, you can’t move’.”
A woman in Delhi and a photographer — he did not know Mr. Yadav’s name — were his saviours, he said. “A journalist asked why I was so upset and tried to help me by taking me in his car, but the police did not allow him. The woman gave me food, ₹5,500 and booked my ticket in the special train, and that’s how I reached home.”
“The rich will get all the help, getting rescued and brought home in planes from abroad. But we poor migrant labourers have been left to fend for ourselves. That is the worth of our lives,” he said. “Hum mazdooron ka koi desh nahin hota (We labourers don’t belong to any country.
Mr. Pandit, who also has three daughters, said he had named his son Rampravesh, as his name also has a Ram in it. “Will a father not want to go home and even mourn the death of his son, with his family?”
Mr. Pandit, who moved to Delhi’s Uttam Nagar during his childhood along with his uncle to eke out a living, still hasn’t managed to meet his family.
“I reached Begusarai from Delhi by train a couple of days ago. We were then taken to a nearby screening facility and kept there overnight. In the morning, a bus took us to a school just outside Begusarai town, and since then I am here,” he said.
He still doesn’t know when he will be reunited with his family.
Mr. Pandit is now at a quarantine centre on the outskirts of Begusarai. “My wife, who is unwell, and my three daughters, are waiting for me. The wait just doesn’t seem to end,” he said.
Fortunately, he has found a friend in his hour of grief.
Ghanshyam Kumar, 25, his neighbour in his village Bariarpur, is also quarantined in the same school.
“I work as a labourer in Kanpur, and reached the U.P.-Bihar border after taking a bus, and from there a train. At the station, I recognised Rampukar. Grief tears us apart, and sometimes unites us too,” he said.

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Wake Up PM

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.46…………18/05/2020

Editorial : Hunger Death due to Corona Lock down
– Wake Up Modiji , NHRC Chairman & CJI

Government didn’t provide food to migrants, foot path dwellers. Authorities just made show off of food distribution in city centres to get press coverage.

Five Year Old Girl Dies of Hunger in Jharkhand

The death of a 5-year old girl in Hesatu village (Donki GP, Latehar district) on 16 May 2020 is widely attributed to hunger by local villagers.
Nimani, about 5 years old, was the daughter of Jaglal Bhuiyan and Kalawati Devi. This Dalit family of ten (husband, wife and eight children aged from 4 months to 12-13 years) has no land and no ration card. The house, a run-down two-room mud house with a big hole in the roof, is bare of any belongings except for a few utensils, some bedding and a torn mosquito net. All 10 family members are visibly undernourished.
During the last few months, Jaglal Bhuiyan was working in a brick kiln in Sukulkhut (near Latehar) with two of his children. He came home with some money for Holi, but went back to the brick kiln after that and he has been away ever since, until 17 May. At the brick kiln, he and the two children get food, but the wages are not paid until the end of the season – around June he expects. So, he was unable to send any money home during the last two months.
Meanwhile, Kalawati was struggling to feed her children, with no food in the house most of the time. She received no support from the government except for one instalment of Rs 500 in her Jan Dhan Yojana account and small amounts of food or cash from the school and anganwadi. She and her children survived mainly by borrowing from here and there, and some support from neighbours. When we asked Kalawati what she and her children had been eating in the last few days, she broke down and said, “What can we eat when there is nothing to eat?”.
Both Kalawati and the neighbours maintained that Nimani was not suffering from any illness. But on 16 May, in the evening, she fell unconscious and then died after some time. Kalawati mentioned that she had also thrown up earlier in the day.
The local anganwadi worker, Asha Devi, mentioned that Nimani had bathed in the river in the hot mid-day sun, and that perhaps she had been struck by “loo” after that, or something of that sort. This does not contradict the view, expressed by most other witnesses (including Nimani’s parents and neighours), that hunger was the main factor.
Gopal Oraon, “mukhiyapati” of Donki GP (Parvati Devi, his wife, is the mukhiya), came to Jaglal and Kalawati’s house at 12 pm on 17 May and confirmed that no rice had been given to them from the Rs 10,000 contingency fund kept by mukhiyas for that purpose. He said that the fund had run out and that the mukhiya had formally written to the BDO for a second instalment, without success.
The local PDS dealer, Ishwari Prasad Gupta, said that there was no provision to distribute rice to households without ration card, unless they have applied online of a ration card. He has received a list of 7 such households, and gives them 10 kg of rice per month. He said that he had prepared a list of 64 other households in Hesatu and Naihara that have no ration cards, and sent the list to the BDO, but so far no provision has been made for them.
The “sahiya” (ASHA), Radha Devi, broadly confirmed other testimonies. She said that one Subedar Bhuiyan had come to her in the afternoon of 16 May and told her that Ninami had fallen unconscious due to hunger. He said that she had not eaten for three days. She advised them to take Nimani to a health centre. By the time she visited them, Nimani was no more.

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Corona Hunger Death

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.45…………17/05/2020

Editorial : Wake Up Modiji , NHRC Chairman & CJI
Rich people have BPL ration cards and enjoying benefits of it, while utterly poor are denied the same. Your corona management is a sham, people have died due to hunger. We offer conditional services to legally apprehend unfit BPL card holders , are you ready ?

Five Year Old Girl Dies of Hunger in Jharkhand

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Safari Soldiers

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.44…………16/05/2020

Shall We Change The Status Of Safai Sainiks Now? | Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd

Corona attack on India seems to have suddenly changed our understanding of Safai karmacharis of India. They are now seen as desh bhakts even by those who never recognized their desh bhakti. When the life of rich who treated them lowly and unworthy of respect and dignity are in danger as never before, they are recognizing what I call the Safai Soldiers along with doctors, nurses as praise worthy. Doctors always have been respected in modern times. Nurses too have status even earlier, though basically seen as female profession.
But the recognition of safai soldiers is the first ever in Indian history. This is a contribution of corona mahammari. Their work of cleaning and bleaching the roads that are seen as harbours of deadly virus day and night with hardly any protective gears, unlike doctors and nurses, is a valueless work.
Now the nation knows that theirs is a work of courage and sacrifice like the soldiers on the borders. But what is their life at home when life after work needs to be at least comfortable?. Did our nationalism recognize them as the saviors of nation like soldiers, politicians, teachers and saints and provide them a good life?
What is their place in our written texts of social, spiritual, political and economic life? Did any religious text give them at least ‘half status’ that the priests, mullahs and bishops and monks got?
How many divine men are on the roads to save the life of the nation at a time when the Satanic (in Christin and Muslim language) or rakshas (in Hindu language) corona is taking the life of rich and poor without discrimination quite brutally? With whom is Easwar, God, Allah live now? The priests, saints, bishops, mullahs, monks all are home ridden as all laymen, and the temples, churches and masjids, viharas are locked down. Easwar, God, Allah are virtually with the safai sainiks. Is that realization on us now in the world and in our nation?
No doubt religion will not die after corona, but if the worker on the roads are seen as more godly than the priests, bishops, Mullahs and monks and that will be a miraculous change.
They are the cleanest and neatest people ( particularly Indians) now because of which corona is afraid of them. Hereafter in the post corona world they should be most respected, having come from the former untouchable background (most of them in India).
In times of social isolation maintaining disease distance even from wife and children why and how these safai sainiks are working to save life? What value the nation should give them in the post-corona nation of nationalism?
Prime Minster, Narendra Modi, along with lock down of the nation announced that all top bracketed salaried people’s salaries from President of India downwards are reduced 30 percent. The State Governments have introduced their own salary cuts. But is it not nationalistic step to increase 30 per cent of salaries of all safai soldiers? Why does not PM think of such a positive nationalist step?
For years Bejawada Wilson was fighting for changing the status and life of the nation’s safai sainiks. PM has done a tokenist job by washing four -five safai kamacharis’ feet at Kumbhamela some time back, but never thought of changing their real living conditions.
A real nationalist idea is that the most basic servants of nation should get a salary by which their children should be able to study in the same schools that the children of top politicians, bureaucrats, doctors, engineers and teachers of universities could study and change their occupation easily. Should not the rich of the nation psychologically prepare that their own children also be ready to do the sacred job of safai soldier in future?
It is not just enough to praise that they are doing great nationalist work with courage and commitment. It is not morally right to decorate them with a ten rupee note garland by the rich when they themselves are dead scared of life with a devilish virus. How many of them are ready to say ‘cut our salaries, tax us more and pay them much better salaries’ across the nation? Where are the lovers of matrubhoomi to ask for equal status to them with saints and sadhus as they are giving this matrubhoomi life in the face of major threat to life ?
The nation and nationalists know that their salaries always have been meager. Their earnings as of now do not allow them to eat well, shelter well and educate their children to change their parental occupation, which in normal times is disrespected and maltreated.
It needed a modern globalized virus which made the rich and arrogant humble. Till Covid-19 convinced that the more you air travel, the more you are vulnerable for attack of this satan. The best of the world hospitals cannot cure you. The safai sainiks working in airports could never think of traveling in those flights. Now all the flying rich are afraid of flights because of corona rakshasi.
Why are the safai soldiers not so afraid of this mahammari? They are born out of soil, live on soil and eat food the rich despised (including beef) and yet they are facing devil on the roads even without masks on the face. How?
The more you are on the soil, soiling your hands the more courage, confidence and immunity you have to fight this mahammari. Where from the courage, confidence and immunity came for this poor, despised mass, who live in slums, not in spacious bungalows? It comes from the poor’s common sense that they came from the soil and go to the soil if this mahammari attacks them. They know that it cannot kill all of them. They have lived through many such mahammaris, which did not touch the rich travelling in air conditioned plane or train or bus, lived in air conditioned houses. But corona told them that they are less safe if they live unequal life like this. It told them that not hospitals would save them but the very poor whom they hated can save them.
Safai soldiers are doing that with equal commitment that the soldiers stand on our borders.
Imagine if the safai sainiks go on strike for one day asking for good pay and equal respect as human beings in these times of corona crisis. We all would die out of fear of corona everywhere on the roads. If we are nationalists let us resolve that we shall start reducing inequalities by upgrading the soldiers that are saving us in every street, all over the country, from this deadly virus.

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Corrupt Indian Bankers

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.43………..15/05/2020

Fight VVIP corruption, not Industry

That a mountain in labour may produce a mouse has long been a truism of the human existence. India has an array of anti-corruption watchdogs, including the Central Vigilance Commission, the Central Bureau of Investigation, several Lok Ayuktas and the Comptroller & Auditor General of India. The expenditure on this immense machinery has been rising by the day, and yet thus far, the only individuals of any political consequence that have successfully been prosecuted for corruption are Bangaru Laxman, Lalu Prasad Yadav and now P. Chdambaram. Although the latter has been involved in several transactions, the only case against him has been a relatively minor one of bribery.

Now that payments largely go through digital channels, data on the same can be revived even in cases where they have been erased. However, hundreds of cases of transparent over-invoicing and under-invoicing of exports and imports remain forgotten. Goods are sold from India to a shadow entity based in a tax haven, which almost immediately resells the same produce to another entity at a much higher price. Clearly the price quoted by the exporter from India is not the value that he or she is getting, for it stands to reason that these shadow entities are beneficially controlled in most cases by the exporter. In much the same way, goods get imported into India at prices much above that charged by the same supplier to other buyers.

Air India was involved during the UPA period in a huge transaction for purchase of aircraft that was imported at a much higher price than identical aircraft imported by Go Air and Indigo. Why was this allowed to happen? More to the point, why are those responsible still avoiding accountability? The anti-corruption mechanism in India needs to bestir itself so that the evil of corruption that is so affecting the daily lives of the population get tackled in a manner far more effective than has been the case this far.

At the same time as top politicians escape accountability for making millions of dollars through illegalities committed in the course of their duties, the anti-corruption agencies harass honest officials who make a genuine mistake in the performance of their duties. This is affecting the economy of the country, an example being the drying up of working capital to several units as a consequence of bankers fearing the attention and wrath of the CBI and other agencies as a consequence of genuine mistakes made in evaluating the suitability of giving working capital or other loans to struggling units.

To a mind trained to believe that human beings are inherently prone to criminal actions, and who know nothing about the business cycle and the risks of doing business (especially in an economy where the rate of growth is half what it was a few years ago), any NPA is a criminal act. Whenever a bank loan goes bad because of business reasons and not for any wrongdoing, those responsible for the sanctioning of such a loan often find themselves subjected to daily inquisitions, initially by the internal watchdog mechanisms of the banks themselves. Rather than go into the intent behind the sanctioning of a loan, these enquiries zero in on “procedural defects”. Given that procedures in India are complex to a degree that would have led to an immediate nervous breakdown by Franz Kafka, it is an easy task to locate some “procedural lapse” or the other as a stick to beat the hapless bank official with. Soon the case gets handed over to the CBI, and the mere fact that a loan has not been repaid becomes reason enough to threaten prosecution or to actually go ahead with incarceration.

Small wonder than bank managers are these days chary of sanctioning loans, given the potential penalties for even unintended and unavoidable transformation of the loan into an NPA. Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitaraman has acted creditably in seeking to assuage the fears of bank officials. She has promised them that they can sanction loans without fear of unpleasant consequences, provided such sanctions are bona fide. However, this is where the problem enters. Who is to say which loan is “bona fide” or not?

Even those NPAs which result from changes in the business cycle leading to a crash in business are not spared from the relentless quest for affixing blame and imposing punishment. As Minister of Finance, Arun Jaitley too had assured bankers that they were at liberty to act without fear in the granting of loans. Today, several such loans are the subject of enquiries and prosecutions. Sitaraman will need to be more persuasive to ensure that this time around, the words of the FM do not appear to bankers to be an exercise in futility. The CBI Director must ensure that the officers commanded by him gain the ability to distinguish between loans gone bad as a consequence of business vagaries and those loans that were given in the knowledge that they would never be repaid.

The travel and other expenses of family members of select individuals in the banking fraternity may need to be examined. This needs to be done unobtrusively rather than overtly wherever possible. If the collateral given as lien to the bank is secure and of sufficient value, even “evergreening” of loans should be permitted so as to keep the enterprise running. Providing working capital is an essential function of banks, and cover for the same needs to be presented to officers who are functioning in a transparent and professional manner.

Indian Banks Have Lost Rs 6,60,000 Crore To Bad Loans Since Modi Govt Came To Power

In 2013-14, the bad loans were equal to Rs 205 thousand crore, which increased to a whopping Rs 1,173 thousand crore in 2018-2019.
By Navya Singh

Indian banks have written off bad loans or Non-performing assets (NPAs) worth Rs 660 thousand crore since 2014, as per the Reserve Bank of India data analysed by News Click. The amount of loans that were written off is equal to half of the total bad loans that were recorded in the banks’ financial books.
The data by Central Bank also shows that Rs 237,000 crores were written off from the financial books of the banks in financial year 2018-19 alone.
There was a sharp increase in the amount being written off which were often referred as technical write-offs by banks. This helped banks keep their books clean when they failed to recover the loans.

As per the RBI data, bad loans on the Indian bank’s financial books have experienced a steep rise ever since 2014, the year which also saw the Bharatiya Janata Party come to power.
In 2013-14, the bad loans were equal to Rs 205 thousand crore, which increased to a whopping Rs 1,173 thousand crore in 2018-2019. This startling rise in NPAs took place under the BJP, party that vowed to “take necessary steps to reduce NPAs in banking sector” in the 2014 elections.
The bank fraud cases also rose drastically during the same period. Cases of more than Rs 1 lakh stood at 4,306 in 2012-13, and increased to 6,801 in 2018-19.
According to RBI’s annual report for 2018-19, the amount of money lost to bank frauds in March 2013 stood at Rs 10.2 thousand crore, which further increased to Rs 71.5 thousand crore in March 2018.
The repercussions of rising bad loans, NPAs and increasing cases of bank frauds has affected several depositors, the latest being the crisis at the private lender, Yes Bank.
In on of the biggest ever bank failures, Yes Bank collapsed, forcing RBI to impose a moratorium on March 5.
Several industry experts, analysts and bank employees’ unions have cited rising NPAs, written off bad loans, bank fraud cases for turbulences in the future of the Indian banking system.
Indian banks which claimed to have recorded high growth numbers in the past few quarters have been plagued with excessive bad loans or new non-performing assets.
State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and several other top banks have reported a sharp increase in new NPAs or slippages in the December quarter, pointing at the continuous troubles of asset quality and credit risk associated with it.
According to a recent report by the Reserve Bank of India on Trend and Progress of Banking 2018-19, Indian lenders have the highest percentage of bad loans as against 10 emerging economies including Brazil, China, Indonesia, Philippines and Turkey.

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Vizag Industrial Accident

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.42…………14/05/2020

Visakhapatnam Accident: Time For Strict Action
— by E A S Sarma

To
Shri C K Mishra
Secretary
Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC)
Govt of India
Dear Shri Mishra,
You are aware of the ghastly gas leak accident that took place at LG Polymers unit near Visakhapatnam in the early hours of 7-5-2020. Several persons in the vicinity of the accident site could not escape to safe places and got asphyxiated to death. Several others had to be hospitalised for serious health problems associated with their lungs, eyes, nose, skin etc. The impact of the toxic gases that got released from the accident site extended upto 5-10km from it. The disease burden caused by the accident will stay on for decades to come. In short, irrespective of the laws, the rules and the procedures in force, such an accident should shake the conscience of the nation and prompt those in authority to introspect and self-correct.
Initial reports suggest that the gases released in the accident predominantly comprise Styrene.
According to a study conducted by IIT, Mumbai (“Vizag gas leak: Styrene levels 2,500 times more on May 8: CSE Analysis” reported at https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/tab=wm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgxwHNMTsTdtrpdGPcnSWPrcFQqrM), Styrene levels in the air at several locations around the accident site shot up by more than 2,500 times compared to the safety threshold. If this were to be taken as an accurate estimate, exposure to this of the population residing within 5-10km of the site would have resulted in both short-term and long-term disease burdens. It would result in ailments associated with the lungs, the kidneys, the eyes and so on. Styrene is known to cause cancer. Considering the known toxicity of Styrene, it would also result in stunting the affected children’s mental abilities. All these social costs far outweigh the perceived benefits of giving a red carpet treatment such industrial activity.
Your Ministry cannot afford to assume the role of a passive onlooker in the case of the accident at LG Polymers or any other similar accident. You may have unwittingly or otherwise breached the Constitutional obligation of the State to protect the human rights of the citizens by facilitating ex post facto approvals for such potentially dangerous industrial units to operate.
Article 48A of the Constitution requires your Ministry as well as the State to protect the environment. Article 21 obligates the government to protect the citizen’s right to life. Article 39 directs the government to ensure the citizen’s good health.
In pursuance of Article 48A, your Ministry had brought in the Environment (Protection) Act [EPA] and issued several rules and notifications from time to time. The central theme of this statutory framework is to ensure that no industrial project is undertaken without understanding its adverse impact on the environment, without understanding its implications for the people’s health and without taking into confidence those likely to be affected. That is the rationale underlying the concept of prior Environment Clearance (EC) being obtained by a project proponent. If an industrial project gets implemented without an environmental impact appraisal and without public consultation and if your Ministry becomes a rubber stamp to “regularise” such projects, it will defeat the purpose of Article 48A and EPA.
Over the years, in the absence of a firm commitment to the letter and the spirit of Article 48A, I am afraid that your Ministry has gradually transformed itself from an independent regulatory authority into a an agency that provides a regulatory garb to thousands of hazardous industries and polluting industries that endanger the people’s lives, damage the environment and affect the people’s health.
The LG Polymers accident represents the tip of the iceberg of what is going happen in the case of several thousands of industrial units handling hazardous chemicals, not subject to any worthwhile regulatory scrutiny, beyond public accountability and operating without any meaningful oversight and monitoring.
The notifications issued by your Ministry such as SO 804(E) dated 14-3-2017 and SO 1030(E) dated 8-3-2018 that granted the largesse of ex post facto approvals “condoned” many errant units that preempted a stringent technical scrutiny, avoided a strict environment impact appraisal procedure and escaped a public consultation process. Had your Ministry respected the letter and the spirit of Article 48A of the Constitution and respected the Precautionary Principle in environmental jurisprudence, ghastly accidents such the one that disrupted the lives of lakhs of people around the industrial unit of LG Polymers would not take place.
We seem to have learnt very little from the Bhopal gas tragedy and I doubt whether we will draw any lessons from the latest Visakhapatnam disaster. In the ultimate analysis, it is the people who are forced to pay the price for the extra-ordinary affection displayed by the rules towards the larger businesses.
A time has come when your Ministry can no longer pretend that the changes being made in the environment impact assessment procedures would subserve the public interest.
I refer to the Draft Notification issued by your Ministry in March, 2020 proposing far reaching “simplifications” and paving the way for ex post facto approvals.
In this connection, I have extracted below an observation made by the Hon’ble Supreme Court on 1-4-2020 in Civil Appeal No. 1526 of 2016
“The concept of an ex post facto EC is in derogation of the fundamental principles of environmental jurisprudence and is an anathema to the EIA notification dated 27 January 1994. It is, as the judgment in Common Cause holds, detrimental to the environment and could lead to irreparable degradation. The reason why a retrospective EC or an ex post facto clearance is alien to environmental jurisprudence is that before the issuance of an EC, the statutory notification warrants a careful application of mind, besides a study into the likely consequences of a proposed activity on the environment. An EC can be issued only after various stages of the decision-making process have been completed.
Requirements such as conducting a public hearing, screening, scoping and appraisal are components of the decision-making process which ensure that the likely impacts of the industrial activity or the expansion of an existing industrial activity are considered in the decision-making calculus. Allowing for an ex post facto clearance would essentially condone the operation of industrial activities without the grant of an EC. In the absence of an EC, there would be no conditions that would safeguard the environment. Moreover, if the EC was to be ultimately refused, irreparable harm would have been caused to the environment. In either view of the matter, environment law cannot countenance the notion of an ex post facto clearance. This would be contrary to both the precautionary principle as well as the need for sustainable development “
While an ex post facto approval may enhance the “ease of doing business” as it is fashionable to describe it these days, it is simultaneously encouraging industrial units which are unsafe, which pollute and which damage the people’s heath. I would therefore earnestly request you to revisit the need for issuing the Draft Notification of March, 2020. instead of diluting the environment laws and procedures, in the public interest, it is necessary to strengthen them and introduce a greater sense of public accountability in environmental regulation.
I understand that there are thousands of industrial units which have escaped environmental scrutiny and are awaiting the munificence of your Ministry to “regularise” their dangerous existence. If you grant ex post facto approval for such units, you will only be paving the way for more and more such units to come up, defying any kind of scrutiny and monitoring. Please move away from the repugnant idea of such approvals and introduce professional systems of prior environmental scrutiny.
I would also request your Ministry to identify all such units that handle hazardous substances and all such units that cause heavy pollution and close then down if they have failed to be in strict compliance with the environmental norms. If you take the public into confidence, it will become easy for you in the process of identifying those units because it is the local communities that bear the brunt of pollution and risk.
I hope you will take immediate action on this.
Regards,
Yours sincerely,
E A S Sarma
Former Secretary to GOI
Visakhapatnam

Editorial : Harshal Murdered by Industrial Waste
GOI & SCI must provide justice to the kid Harshal murdered by Industrial Waste in Mysuru. The case has been covered up. Read :
https://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/boy-s-death-by-industrial-waste

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Crushing Labor Laws

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.41…………13/05/2020

Crushing Labor Laws
– Why NOT corporate accountability ?

Crushing Labour Laws Amidst Successive Industrial Accidents Is Serious Insult to Injury
State governments have undertaken a slew of labour law reforms that could lead to higher exposure to occupational health and safety risks and no appropriate protection for workers.
– Rahul Suresh Sapkal

Industrial accidents are far too common in India.
Two disastrous incidences of gas leakage at Visakhapatnam’s LG Polymers plant and a boiler blast at NCL India Limited’s thermal power station in Tamil Nadu evoked memories of several unfortunate industrial accidents that have taken hundreds of workers lives.
In last year, few reported industrial incidents such an explosion in a chemical factory in Maharashtra, a massive fire at the ONGC plant at Bombay High, a blast in NTPC’s Rae Bareli plant and Bawana industrial area in Delhi, attest to the fact that India’s industrial preventive measures and the safety inspection systems are inadequate and ineffective in ensuring the workers’ safety.
Even if it is just the industrial accidental tragedy with the significant toll that makes the headlines, its actual impact for making comprehensive occupational health and safety legislation seems to be a far-off prospect. In the time of a health crisis, the government adopted stringent measures not only to restrict the movement of people but also enforced a total shutdown of industrial factories – except those units producing essential commodities – and other working establishments to ensure physical distancing.
With this policy, India may be able to contain the virus; however, it could be a staggering task for the state to avert potential industrial accidents due to 42 days of a complete shutdown of factories and their operations that use synthetic inflammable substances and hazardous chemicals. For ensuring smooth production, the manufacturing units need to undertake routine maintenance tasks and those must be inspected by the Directorate General Factory Advice Service periodically.
However, owing to the higher overhead repairing costs, it is observed that Indian employers pay more attention to corrective maintenance (i.e. replacement of machinery when the complete breakdown occurs) relative to preventive maintenance where scheduled maintenance of machines and equipment is undertaken at regular intervals to avoid breakdowns.
Also read: Longer Working Hours, Employee Productivity and the COVID-19 Economic Slump
So in order to minimise the recurring costs, employers are engaging in risky behaviour by allowing workers to work in hazardous conditions. Therefore, on one hand, employers are reluctant to incur preventive maintenance costs to avoid additional overhead. On the other, the Indian labour administration is under tremendous pressure from the government’s pro-employer policies that are offering leeway to employers from regulatory controls.
In this case, neither the employers nor employees would be better off, as it will promote unhealthy competition among Indian firms and would eventually thrust out around 19.5 million of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises from the product market.
Labyrinth of India’s labour legislations
The principle legislation of the Factories Act of 1948 ( the Act) governs the working conditions and safety measures for registered factory workers. Despite its vast volume, the existing legislation is applicable only to factories that employ ten or more workers; it covers only a small proportion of workers.
According to the Sixth Economic Census, 97.39 million (45%) work in establishments without any hired worker; whereas, 118 million (55%) of workers works in establishments with at least one hired worker. Broadly, the former category falls under the Shops and Establishment Act and later with the Factories Act.
Across the employment threshold sizes, 172 millions of workers (79.85%) works in the establishments that have less than nine workers and 20.1 million are employed in establishments which have more than 10 and less than 49 workers. Only 17.60 million (8%) work in establishments with more than 100 workers.

A migrant worker rides a cart with his family on a highway as they return to their villages, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, March 27, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi/Files
As per the annual report of Directorate General Factory Advice Service, there are 31,602 factory units are registered under the hazardous industry category employing 1.97 million workers in 2013, which increased to 32,956 units employing 2.32 million in 2014 u/s 2(CB) of Factories Act, 1948. Due to its constricting legislative approach, 169.3 millions of workers who legally may not be working in the scheduled hazardous industries but are engaged in the hazardous process are absolutely excluded from the purview of occupational safety and health laws due to the employee threshold criteria of the Act.
Also read: Adityanath Govt in UP to Suspend Key Labour Laws, Workers’ Rights for Three Years
Industrial accidents and prevalence of fatality risk
The prevalence of industrial accidental deaths is notably high in the manufacturing industries. It will have a multiplier effect in exacerbating the risk when it is accompanied by the prolonged dysfunctional manufacturing processes and inadequate staff during the lockdown period.
Data from the Ministry of Labour and Employment also reveals that 3,562 workers lost their lives and around 51,124 were injured in factory accidents between 2014-16. These figures may have increased; however, the official statistics are yet to be updated for the last two years. According to the official figures of labour bureau the fatal accidental incidental rate per 1,000 workers was 0.53% (fatal) in 2013 which increased to 0.63% in 2014 for the factories registered under the Factories Act of 1948.
Similarly, the frequency rate for fatal accidents per lakh worker was 0.30% (in 2013) that increased to 0.43% point in 2014. Despite the increasing manufacturing and mining activities, regulatory authorities ensuring occupational safety have been limited to 1,400 safety officers, 1,154 factory inspectors, and 27 medical inspectors for the central sphere across all states. Therefore, the health hazard and fatality risk of working in Indian factories have increased tremendously and it could likely to continue unless a routine inspection and mandatory safety clearance are enforced effectively.
Turing a blind eyes
An uncertainly of livelihood, wage loss and layoffs would likely to linger much longer and will be persisted in the post-lockdown period. In these difficult times, many state governments have undertaken a slew of labour law reforms that potentially lead to higher exposure to occupational health and safety risks, no appropriate protection, and an increased likelihood that they will suffer from illness, accident or death.
For instance, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh have amended the Factories Act that allows firms to extend a factory worker’s daily shift to 12 hours per day, from the existing eight hours per day to revive the economy. Excessive working hours have negative effects on workers’ health which leads to poor immunity and exposes them to a higher risk of industrial accidents.
Also read: Labour Law Reform: Was a Sledgehammer Needed When Employment Itself Is Uncertain?
Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh took a frog’s leap to exempts all from labour legislation for the next three years as a measure to revive the economy. This reform may further give reason to employers to circumvent essential labour laws but will cause them severe productivity losses. In a bid to accelerate the economic recovery, the state is externalising the cost of reform onto workers by waning out its own enforcement mechanism.
India’s efforts in encouraging occupational and industrial safety remain frail. The proposed Code in the de jure spirit obliges employers to provide for a risk-free workplace and instruct employees on safety protocol. It further assumes that all employers will self-enforce these Codes without any deterrence from enforcement authorities.
Existing evidence shows that if we allow self-enforcement of labour laws though nudging the behaviour of employers, then employers would likely engage in an opportunistic rent-seeking behaviour to maximize their own self-interests of profit. Hence, the behavioural altruism on the part of employers offers less credence in safeguarding the rights of workers.
Second, the labour inspectorate is entrusted with the power to inquire into accidents and conduct inspections and to frame penalties – both civil and criminal – on employers in case of non-adherence. However, in the proposed Code, the statutory powers of labour administration have been curtailed severely. It will be considered as inspector-cum-facilitators who initiate the legal proceedings but will not able to frame criminal penalties on employers.
Instead of protecting the workers, it is now redefined to protect the interest of employers. The code also restricts the appeal of a person aggrieved due to industrial accidents or industries or any employment-related causes thereof is to file a writ petition before the relevant high court. This may lead to the denial of access to justice to challenge issues before a lower court. As a result, there will be longer pendency of labour disputes and delayed justice to the aggrieved workers.
India’s jump from 130th (2016) to 63rd (2019) rank in the Ease of Doing Business (EDB) is boasted across all industries. Every year, whenever India tops the higher rank on EDB, our global ranking point estimate slips towards the bottom quartile in all global parameters such as hunger, peace, slavery, worst formed labour and workers’ rights indexes on the lowest scale.
To soothe the Centre, all states government are now engaged in a race to bottom to reform existing labour market institutions to encourage ease of doing business and to promote flexibility. Hence, the two unfortunate disastrous incidents that recently took place have propelled us to reimagine the future of Indian workers and industrial relation systems in the neoliberal order and the pandemic

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BPL card Golmaal

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Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.40………..12/05/2020

Editorial : Failure to feed needy
– An appeal to Honourable Supreme Court of India

At the outset we salute all health care workers , doctors , nurses and police for ensuring health care of all and containing spread of Corona virus. Both central and state governments are putting their maximum efforts to feed the needy. Please read the following articles.
However these efforts are getting derailed by greedy people :
1. PDS shops are collecting money for ration. The weighment of ration provided is also less and all ration items are not given.
2. Government is disbursing relief aid based on BPL data. Most of the BPL card holders have got BPL card by their political connections and they are capable of feeding themselves. Still they are getting reliefs from government, NGOs. Whereas those who really need relief aid don’t have BPL card ( as they don’t have political connections ) and are denied relief.
3. Government is transferring relief aid to Jan Dhan accounts. Here also many of the account holders are well off.

The intention of government is good. However greed of man know no bounds. There are people who have cars, rented out houses, lending money in lakhs still they have BPL card , Jan Dhan account , old age pension and get all the benefits associated with it. They have political connections.

These greedy fellows are literally snatching away food meant for the needy. Hereby we request the honourable supreme court of india to order authorities :

1. To give relief aid to the needy even if they don’t have BPL card , Jan Dhan account.
2. To take action against errant PDS shops.
3. To identify fake BPL card, Jan Dhan and old age pension holders and recover money from them.
4. To initiate criminal prosecution of public servants who issued BPL cards , old age pension , Jan Dhan accounts to rich , unfit people.
5. We offer our conditional support to SCI to identify fake BPL card holders, fake old age pensioners, fake Jan Dhan account holders.
6. By denying BPL card, Jan Dhan account , Old age pension to needy whereas giving the same to undeserving rich persons concerned public servants are violating “ Right to Life “ of poor.

If SCI doesn’t act now, needy will starve to death whereas greedy will snatch away relief meant for needy. It is robbery of tax payers money. We request honourable SCI to protect poor people’s Right to Life ie right to food & medical aid. Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.

Your’s
Nagaraja Mysuru Raghupathi.

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Forgotten Industrial Tragedy

Dalit-Online
Daily e news paper
Editor: Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.16…..Issue.39………11/05/2020

Forgotten Industrial Tragedy of Mysuru

PIL – Young Boy HARSHAL ’s Death due to Industrial Waste

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL WRIT PETITION NO. OF 2017

IN THE MATTER OF

NAGARAJA . M.R
editor SOS e Clarion of Dalit & SOS e Voice for Justice
# LIG 2 , No 761 ,, HUDCO First Stage , Laxmikantanagar ,
Hebbal , Mysore – 570017 , Karnataka State
….Petitioner

Versus

District Pollution Control Board officer , Mysuru
Joint Director , Department of Industries , Mysuru
Joint Director , KIADB , Mysuru
Deputy Commissioner , Mysuru
& Others
….Respondents

PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 12 to ARTICLE 35 & ARTICLE 51A OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR ISSUANCE OF A WRIT IN THE NATURE OF MANDAMUS UNDER ARTICLE 32 & ARTICLE 226 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA.

To ,
Hon’ble The Chief Justice of India and His Lordship’s Companion
Justices of the Supreme Court of India.

The Humble petition of the Petitioner above named.

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH :
1. Facts of the case:
Young boy HARSHAL died by burn injuries caused by industrial waste in mysuru , Karnataka.
During planning of Industrial Areas in Mysuru , waste dumping yards were NOT planned suitably and NOT allocated sufficient lands for the same , keeping in view industrial requirements 20 years down the line.
It is like building a house without toilet.
It is criminal negligence of duty by KIADB , Industries department officials who planned and approved development of these industrial sites.
It is criminal negligence of duty by District Industries department who gave license to these industries in the beginning without physically verifying about the waste disposal methods of these industries.
It is criminal negligence of duty by Karnataka state pollution control board officials who gave No Objection Certificate to these industries in the beginning without physically verifying about the waste disposal methods of these industries.
It is criminal negligence of duty by Karnataka state pollution control board officials , District Industries department officials who are renewing License / No Objection Certificate to these industries annually , without physically verifying about the waste disposal methods of these industries.
It is criminal negligence of duty by Deputy Commissioner , Mysuru District to ensure adherence to law by other department officials.
It is criminal negligence of duty , violation of law , CRIMES by responsible Executives / Owners of the industries who are dumping these industrial wastes in a hush hush manner.

Read details at following websites :
http://www.newscrunch.in/2017/04/teenager-dies-earth-suddenly-catches-fire-mysore-%E2%80%93-toxic-waste-dumped-says-official-video ,
http://starofmysore.com/boy-walks-vacant-plot-loose-soil-succumbs-chemical-burns/http://starofmysore.com/boy-walks-vacant-plot-loose-soil-succumbs-chemical-burns/
http://indiablooms.com/ibns_new/video-details/N/92557/watch-soil-catches-fire-due-to-presence-of-rubber-factory-chemical-waste.html ,

2. Question(s) of Law:
Is commonman’s life so cheap , dispensable ? If so , why cann’t you dispense off with the lives of children of PCB , KIADB officials , Industrialists ? Are not officials , Industrialists accountable for this criminal act of negligence ?

3. Grounds:
Requests for equitable justice , Prosecution of guilty officials , Responsible Industry owners.
4. Averment:
Hereby , I do request the honorable supreme court of India to consider this as a PIL for : “writ of Mandamus” and to issue instructions to the concerned public servants in the present case, to perform their duties & to avert further loss of lives.

PRAYER:
In the above premises, it is prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased:

1. To order for fencing of the whole area , where industrial waste is dumped causing fire.
2. To order for 24 X 7 police vigil preventing any tress passers.
3. To order for supreme court monitored enquiry , as the industrialists are high & mighty and may manipulate the samples itself.
4. To immediately order district administration not to go ahead with spraying other chemicals over the dumping yard to neutralize the waste chemicals. As it will alter the samples and criminals , guilty industrialists will escape.
5. To order for sample collection by multiple bodies , NGOs , so that nobody can manipulate the samples.
6. After sample analysis by supreme court empanelled experts , based on expert advice steps to diffuse chemical waste must be taken.
7. To initiate criminal prosecution against public officials who planned , approved these industrial area without provision for suitable waste dumping yard.
8. To order for criminal prosecution against guilty industrialists.
9. To order for criminal prosecution against KSPCB , KIADB , Industries department officials who gave NOC , renewing licenses every year to these guilty industries.
10. To order Government of Karnataka , to pay two crores compensation to deceased boy Harsha’s family immediately and to recover it from the guilty industrialist.
11. To treat this as a PIL and to issue writ of mandamus to concerned officials in the current case.

FOR WHICH ACT OF KINDNESS, THE PETITIONER SHALL BE DUTY BOUND, EVER PRAY.

Dated : 19.04.2017……… ………………….FILED BY: NAGARAJA.M.R.
Place : Mysuru , India……………………. PETITIONER-IN-PERSON

Shocking but true! Mysuru has no place for dumping industrial waste

Truth is like a bitter pill. It is tough to swallow. Mysuru, which has bagged the ‘Cleanest city’ award for two consecutive years, does not have an exclusive place for dumping industrial waste. Shocking but it’s true!
The industrial area in the Mysuru district does not have any specific place to dump the industrial waste or hazardous waste. As soon as the news of a 14-year-old boy Harshal, who succumbed with severe burns after stepping in to an open site at Sadanahalli, came to light, localites alleged that the boy may have died when he stepped in to the chemical and hazardous wastes that were dumped illegally in the open place.
City Today went on a reality check to identify where the chemical and industrial wastes are dumped in the city. We found that there is not even a single dumping yard or industrial waste disposal unit across the district.
There are over 11 industrial areas including Hebbal, Metagalli, Koorgalli, Belavadi and nearly 32,000 industries in the district but most of these industries do not have an earmarked place for dumping industrial wastes. Though there is a rule from the KIADB which states that at least 20 acres of land in all industrial area must be reserved for disposal of Hazardous waste, the concerned officials in the district have failed to act.
For more than a decade, Mysore industries Association (MIA) has been battling to bring a dumping yard in the district. In 2007, the MIA requested the KIADB to allot land to set up a waste disposal unit. However, in the year 2009, the state government allotted three acres of land near Koorgalli Industrial area and decided to grant the maintenance responsibility to MIA. But later, the KIADB handed over only part of the land from the allotted property. Realising the fact that the industrial waste can’t be disposed in the partial land, MIA requested the KIADB to at least provide 5 acre of land and the officials agreed orally. But nothing has happened so far.
Speaking to City Today, Secretary of MIA, Suresh Kumar Jain said, “There is no dumping yard or an industrial waste disposal unit in the district. Though we have met and discussed with the concerned officials to sanction a suitable place, the proposal is still in papers and hasn’t come in to force.”
“The issue was brought to the notice during single window meetings but no proper action has taken place till now,” he added.
Last year, Mysuru’s waste management scored over Chandigarh to clinch cleanest city title. It is high time for concerned officials to allot an exclusive place for dumping industrial waste in the district keeping health hazards in mind.

Mysuru: Boy’s death – did currency note printing chemical wreak havoc?

Mysuru, Apr 18: It has been confirmed that waste containing water sensitive chemicals had claimed the life of a boy at Naganalli in the outskirts of the city.
A team of experts, led by the district administration, which collected samples of sand from the area, has sent them for laboratory testing. The team found that the temperature of sand at the spot, which is finer as compared to sand found in other areas in the village, has brown and grey hues. Temperature at the spot stands at 110 degree Celsius, which is quite high. Chairman of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, Laxman, said that four samples from the spot and five from other areas around it have been collected and sent for testing. Geologists and environment pollution officials were among those who visited the area.

Some villagers have complained that discharge of poisonous chemicals by some factories located near this area has caused this catastrophe. Former chief minister of the state, H D Kumaraswamy, relying on certain sources, has placed the blame on the government mint in the city for the tragedy, duly accusing it of disposing off printing chemical waste at the spot. Secretary of Mysore Industries Association, Suresh Kumar Jain, also has supported this notion. He has alleged that the association had complained about the unscientific disposal of printing chemicals by Reserve Bank of India about five years back and that the Reserve Bank neither took steps to correct its mistakes nor did it establish waste processing plant.
Some scientists attribute this phenomenon to the presence of chemicals like Phosphorous and Sodium Hydrate. There have also been chances of graphite and lead having caused the death. The experts hope to receive test reports in about two weeks time. Senior environmental officer in Karnataka State Pollution Control Board here, K M Lingaraju, said that the officials were dumbstruck about the cause of fire in an open field where garbage or chemical were not found to have been strewn around. He also added that the place is far away from proper roads and that no tyre marks were found around the area.
In the meanwhile, district in-charge minister, H C Mahadevappa, announced an ex gratia of two lac rupees to the family of Harshal (14), who died of burns during his visit to the open field for defecation on Sunday. As Manoj (17) suffered burns after sitting on a heap of sand, Harshal, who had accompanied him, had pulled Manoj out. During this effort, Harshal reportedly fell into the heap and suffered severe burns.
Harshal’s father, Murthy, who held the factories located around the area responsible for the death of his son, also criticized the officials for not doing their duty of taking steps against the guilty promptly. He wants the officials to at least wake up now to the danger posed by chemical waste and take preventive measures before the waste causes further devastation.

NSG Team in Belavatha – Radio Active Waste ?

NSG team in city to probe Belavatha Mystery Fire

Home page :
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https://dalit-online.blogspot.com ,

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