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Showing posts from May, 2017

What needs to be done to address environmental issues plaguing Earth

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* On May 28th 2017 German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an election rally very strongly stated that Germany and Europe could no longer rely on the US under the leadership of President Donald Trump. The next day, her spokesperson reiterated that Chancellor Merkel was right in confronting President Trump during his visit to Europe last week, over the need to tackle climate change. In their meetings with him, the G7 leaders urged Tump not to pull US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change which emphasises the need and importance of cutting down carbon dioxide emissions. The US (under President Obama) together with 194 countries is a signatory to this path-breaking agreement. Scientists and other experts are convinced that the implementation of this agreement is critical if the planet is to have any chance of tackling catastrophic climate change, which is having disastrous effects in so many parts of the globe. Trump has consistently pooh-poohed this ‘agreement’ r

CIC upholds MHA decision not to make public Naga Framework Agreement

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Government of India (GoI) signed a peace accord (Naga Accord) with the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-IM (NSCN-IM) in August 2015 in the presence of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. A press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) called it a “framework agreement” and hinted at releasing the details and the execution plan soon after (2nd attachment). Given the concerns raised by several quarters about continued confidentiality of the contents of the Naga Accord, more than a month later, I filed an RTI application with the PMO seeking the following information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act): “Apropos of the news release dated 03/08/2015 caused to be published by your public authority on the website of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) relating to the signing of the “framework agreement”, between the Government of India and the representatives of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), I would like to obta

Alternative housing for slumdwellers only physical buildings, infrastructure?

At the underground water tank By Darshini Mahadevia, Renu Desai, Shachi Sanghvi, Suchita Vyas* In the mid-2000s, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) moved away from in-situ slum upgrading under its Slum Networking Project (SNP) to two inter-related interventions: large-scale slum displacement for urban beautification / infrastructure projects and construction of public housing under Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) to resettle the displaced households. The BSUP sites, constructed under the Government of India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), comprise of four-storey buildings with infrastructures for running water, a toilet and bath, drainage, and electricity in each house, and electricity in the building corridors. At the site-level, there are paved streets, common open spaces, street lights, drainage, and physical structures for social amenities like anganwadis (government-sponsored child-care and maternal-care centres for children in the 0-6 ag

Relocation of Ahmedabad slumdwellers reduced effective income

Map 1 By Darshini Mahadevia, Renu Desai, Shachi Sanghvi, Suchita Vyas, Vaishali Parmar* Urban beautification and infrastructure projects in Ahmedabad such as the Sabarmati riverfront project, the Kankaria lakefront project and road-widening projects, including for the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), have displaced thousands of poor households since the mid-2000s. Many have been resettled in public housing built by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) under the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) programme of the Central Government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Almost half of this BSUP housing is built at seven adjacent sites in Vatwa. (Map 1). AMC allotted flats at three of these sites between 2010-2014. The constrained mobility and stressed livelihoods created by displacement and resettlement to sites like Vatwa is a form of structural violence inherent in the development paradigm adopted in Ahmedabad over the past decade. Four dimensions of urb

24 PSU banks dealt with just 7% of RTI pleas by 1,903 CIC public authorities

By Venkatesh Nayak* In May 2014, an expert committee under the Chairpersonship of Mr. P. J. Nayak submitted a report to the Reserve Bank of India, reviewing the governance of boards of banks- both public and private in India. The committee blamed the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) as a major constraint on the governance of public sector banks. The Committee believed that the coverage of public sector banks (PS Banks) under the RTI Act severely inhibited their ability to compete with their rivals in the private sector. This impressionistic view was not supported by any credible evidence or facts and figures in the Committee’s report. Although the Central Government has not acted on this recommendation yet, it has not conclusively rejected this recommendation either. Ever since, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has conducted an assessment of the workload of RTI on public sector banks and their treatment of RTI applications year after year to lay bare the trends

Truncated legal opinion ensured 16th Lok Sabha wouldn't have LoP

By Venkatesh Nayak* Earlier this week, I explained why the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s discovery of the way forward to appoint the Lokpal using a truncated Selection Committee, minus the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, unintentionally facilitates the government’s domination over the selection process. Here, I share information obtained under The Right to Information Act (RTI Act) about the decision of the Hon’ble Speaker, Lok Sabha to keep the position of the LoP vacant. How the office of the Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha was kept vacant in 2014 In Common Cause vs Union of India and related matters [Writ Petition (Civil) No. 245 of 2014, judgement dated 27 April, 2017] the judgement records the explanation offered by the Attorney General of India (AGI) for the LoP vacancy as follows: “10. In reply, Shri Mukul Rohatgi, learned Attorney General has submitted that in the present case the Congress Party had claimed the post of LOP in the present Lok Sabha. However, the

Establishing Lokpal: Apex court ruling to create new, long-lasting problems

By Venkatesh Nayak* While amendments to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 (LL Act) are languishing in Parliament, for the last three years, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has seemingly cleared the way for setting up the apex anti-corruption investigation and prosecution agency at the Centre. In the matter of Common Cause etc. vs Union of India and related matters [Writ Petition (Civil) No. 245 of 2014, judgement dated 27 April, 2017], the Apex Court has interpreted the law to show that the technical difficulties, which the Central Government was pointing out as an excuse for not setting up the Lokpal, are not insurmountable. With the deepest respect to the wisdom of the Apex Court, it must be said that Common Cause is likely to create more problems while seeking to resolve existing ones. Background to the Lokpal Act implementation controversy Readers will recollect that the enactment of a comprehensive anti-corruption law was one of the outcomes of a very vibrant people’s movem