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A week after 11 convicts serving life imprisonment in the Bilkis Bano gangrape and murder case from the 2002 Gujarat riots were released from the Godhra sub-jail, the National Human Rights Commission is likely to take up the issue for “discussion”.
Bilkis Bano, pregnant at the time, was gangraped and her three-year-old daughter Saleha was among 14 killed by a mob on March 3, 2002, in Dahod during violence that broke out across the state after the Sabarmati Express was attacked in Godhra and 59 passengers, mainly kar sewaks, were killed.
Significantly, in 2003, it was the NHRC’s crucial intervention that ensured legal assistance for Bano to approach the Supreme Court after the Gujarat police had closed the case.
The human rights body, under former Chief Justice of India J S Verma, had met her when he visited a relief camp in Godhra in March 2002.
The NHRC had appointed senior advocate and former Solicitor General Harish Salve to represent her before the Supreme Court.
Salve argued for a fresh probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and, subsequently, for a transfer of the trial from Gujarat to Bombay. Bano’s case was the only Gujarat riots-related case that was investigated afresh by the CBI.
On January 21, 2008, CBI special court judge U D Salvi convicted 13 accused, sentencing 11 to life imprisonment on the charge of gangrape and murder. In May 2017, the conviction was upheld by the Bombay High Court.
The NHRC’s decision to discuss the issue comes in the backdrop of mixed reactions from members of the Commission. Besides the Chairperson, the NHRC has three members; six ex-officio members; and a special invitee. Several members either said they were not aware of the issue or declined to comment.
Voter number row: J&K admin note claims facts misrepresented (Page no 3)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The Jammu and Kashmir administration Saturday issued a notification in local newspapers over “media reports” of more than 25 lakh voters being added to electoral rolls as part of the ongoing special summary revision, calling this a “misrepresentation of facts”.
The notification, issued by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations of the Government of J&K, said: “This (the 25 lakh figure) is a misrepresentation of facts, which is being spread by vested interests.
This revision of electoral rolls will cover existing residents of the UT of J&K and increase in numbers will be of the voters who have attained the age of 18 years as on 1.10.2022 or earlier.”
The notification went on to add that the special summary revision of J&K state in 2011 had put voters at 66,00,921, while the number of electors as on today (pre-roll revision) was 76,02,397. This increase was also mainly due to the new voters who attained the age of 18 years, it said.
Going by the above, between 2011 and 2019, when the last summary revision was done, voter numbers increased by 10 lakh.
It was Chief Electoral Officer of J&K and Ladakh Hirdesh Kumar who, during a press meeting, said that they expected an addition of nearly 25 lakh voters in the ongoing special summary revision, being held for the first time in J&K since 2019. Usually, summary revision of electoral rolls is an annual exercise.
The statement had led to an immediate uproar among mostly Kashmir-based political parties over “voters from outside J&K” exercising their franchise whenever elections were held in the UT.
The National Conference accused the BJP of “importing voters”. Parties in the region will hold a meeting Monday to decide their line of action on the issue.
Officials had subsequently claimed that the increase in voters was largely due to the rise in first-time electors, citing Census projections.
Based on the population projections by the Registrar General of India, the projected 18+ population in J&K as on July 1, 2022, is expected to be 98.96 lakh, whereas the registered electors as on date are over 76 lakh.
There is a gap of 22, 93,603. It is this gap, which was used to convey the tentative expectation from the special summary revision.
Express Network
97 of127 dry Jharkhand blocks meet drought terms: Report (Page no 8)
(GS Paper 3, Disaster Management)
As many as 97 rain-deficient blocks across 15 districts in Jharkhand fulfil all parameters that define drought, as per an assessment report prepared by the state Agriculture Department. The state is yet to take a call on declaring drought in the affected areas.
With IMD data for June 1-August 15 showing 18 districts as ‘rain deficient’ this kharif season, the department’s assessment report says paddy has only been sown on 5.4 lakh hectares till August 15 as compared to last season’s 16.3 lakh hectares (91% of the total area) for the same period.
Overall, the report says, all five kharif crops — paddy, maize, pulses, oilseeds, and coarse cereals — cover (till August 15) only 10.51 lakh hectares against last year’s 23.4 lakh hectares for the same period.
Officials said the mean sown area in 127 of the 260 blocks in 24 districts was found to be less than 33.3 per cent.
Sources in the department said the steps involved in declaring drought as per the 2016 manual, involve establishing two triggers — rainfall deviation-dry spells; and vegetation cover-hydrology. Based on the department’s assessment of trigger one, 22 districts have received ‘deficient and scanty rainfall’.
Under the contingency plan, the department is focusing on promotion of crop diversification to make for the production shortfall.
Focus on early rabi crops such as toria, rapeseed, mustard, gram, lentil, pea…forage crops like berseem and barley for increasing area coverage.
The report underlines requirement of Rs 36.89 crore to provide seeds of late kharif, early rabi and rabi crops at 50% subsidy, and Rs 55.33 crore for 75% subsidy.
The department has also registered 7.28 lakh farmers under its Jharkhand Fasal Rahat Yojna, which aims to provide relief to farmers in the event of crop loss due to “natural calamity”.
Under the scheme, there is a provision of Rs 3,000/acre relief (maximum up to 5 acres) compensation in event of 30-50% crop loss; and Rs 4,000 per acre (maximum up to five acres) in case the crop loss was more than 50%, the department said.
Economy
PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan to help prevent cost overruns: Goyal (Page no 11)
(GS Paper 3, Indian Economy)
The Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti National Master Plan will help develop the future infrastructure in a planned manner, prevent cost overrun, and increase India’s cost competitiveness, besides saving taxpayers’ money, Union minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.
He said 1,000 geospatial maps have been formed for forests, wildlife sanctuaries, highways and railway infrastructure, power plants and industrial zones in India.
Maps of states are also being integrated with them. By the last count, around 450 infrastructure data has been mapped.
Gujarat-based Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N), which works to implement map-based Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), has developed the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan, Goyal said.
These maps are all interconnected, because of which the future infrastructure will be developed in a planned manner,” he said at an investors’ round-table conference organised by the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) and the Dholera Industrial City Development (DICDL).
He said the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan will help in planning the construction of an overbridge, diverting routes if a forest or wildlife sanctuary comes in the way, and figuring out how to construct a bridge with the smallest length for a river, etc.
All these can be more effectively planned to prevent time and cost overrun so that the projects are completed in time. Its benefit will ultimately go to the citizens.
Any delay in government projects or infrastructures is a waste of taxpayers’ money,” the Union minister said. Goyal, who also holds the charge of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said if a project is completed in time, it will increase India’s competitiveness.
“I believe the Gati Shakti project is perhaps the first-of-its-kind in the world, and there is a lot of inquisitiveness across the world to know about this,” he said.
Goyal also talked about the National Single Window System, a portal for investors to obtain regulatory approvals from the Centre and states.
“Going forward, we will also try to include approval of local bodies from the same single window,” he said, adding that investors and entrepreneurs should get approval from the same system and provide feedback for improvement.
Goyal said Dholera has the potential to become one of the world’s biggest and best manufacturing industrial zones. He said Dholera SIR is the first platinum-rated industrial smart city in India.
Goyal further said that as many as 75,000 startups were registered in the last six years and lakhs of youths connected with the startups are getting employment opportunities.