{"id":127982,"date":"2020-06-13T03:55:02","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T22:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=127982"},"modified":"2020-06-13T03:55:02","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T22:25:02","slug":"misplaced-priorities-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2020\/06\/13\/misplaced-priorities-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Misplaced priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Delhi on Tenterhooks<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\nBy Insaf<\/strong>
\nNational capital, Delhi, has lot on its plate it can handle. The health department has projected the Covid count could cross 1 lakh by June-end and shall breach the 5 lakh-mark by July 31. Amidst this frightening scenario, Chief Minister Kejriwal\u2019s pronouncement that Delhi hospitals are for Delhiites alone has been over ruled by Lt-Governor Baijal. Plus, he has to deal with the NHRC over mismanagement of COVID-19 cases. On Wednesday last, Baijal directed hospitals to treat patients from across the country, scrapping CM\u2019s order. Refraining from his usual open backlash, Kejriwal agreed to it in \u201cletter and spirit\u201d, as \u2018it wasn\u2019t the time for bickering\u2019. But sadly between him and his Deputy Sisodia, preparations look afoot to eventually pass the buck to BJP, as they claim it \u2018had forced L-G\u2019s hands,\u2019 to overrule the CM. And so first comes the warning: Delhi would now require 1.5 lakh hospital beds by July-end as people from \u2018other States\u2019 accounted for 50% plus occupancy and then the blame: the BJP \u2018would be responsible\u2019 for Corona deaths in the city. Other than the AAP-BJP politics, the Congress steps in too. It has filed a complaint with NHRC accusing both North Block and AAP over negligence, including insufficient testing, non-availability of beds, rising deaths and delay in last rites! Surely, the political drama in the midst of the epidemic is the least that the people expect from an elected government. Shocking misplaced priorities!<\/p>\n

Thumbs Up For HCs
\nThe Supreme Court has now come to the aid of High Courts. In the ongoing hearings on migrants\u2019 distress, the court was not in tune with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta\u2019s criticism of HCs \u201crunning a parallel government.\u201d Instead, it reaffirmed these \u201cbeing constitutional courts are well within their jurisdiction to take cognisance of violation of fundamental rights of migrant workers….\u201d On Tuesday last, it further spelt out steps that both Centre and State governments need to take: complete process of sending migrants back to their home States within 15 days; consider withdrawing cases against them for walking to their homes \u2018by force of circumstances\u2019 flouting lockdown rules; Railways adhere to demand of 170-odd Shramik trains between June 3 and 16 and \u201cnext stage of attending (to their) needs\u201d be worked out. These include, set up counselling centres to maintain record of all migrant workers who had returned, their details, nature of skill, place of earlier employment, plus share information regarding schemes and other avenues of employment. Bottom line being: benefits announced \u201cmust reach those for whom they are meant\u201d, and law enforcing agencies must deal with them in a \u201chumane manner\u201d. A clear reflection on the system! Need more be said?<\/p>\n

Rajasthan Poaching?
\nNot again! Congress-ruled Rajasthan is now nervous about BJP poaching on its MLAs. On Wednesday last, its chief whip Mahesh Joshi lodged a complaint with Director General, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), alleging \u201c…like Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, attempts are being made to destabilise the government in Rajasthan.\u201d Guess given the idiom once bitten, twice shy, its 107 MLAs, including independents, in a House of 200, have been transported to a luxury resort in Jaipur before the June 19 Rajya Sabha poll. As of now Chief Minister Gehlot and AICC in-charge Surjewala are confident of winning two of the three seats, with one going to BJP. However, the BJP has put up two candidates, raising eyebrows rather a frown as only recently 3 of its MLAs in Gujarat had crossed over to the saffron side, denting its prospects. The Grand old party can ill-afford a repeat. Fingers are crossed its flock stays tight till D-day.<\/p>\n

TN\u2019s Unreported Deaths
\nTamil Nadu may turn out to be a pointer to what could be happening across the country. The AIADMK government has ordered a Covid death audit in capital Chennai after it emerged that \u201cnot less than\u201d 200 deaths suspected to be linked to the infection, weren\u2019t part of the State\u2019s official toll. The estimate, it\u2019s reported is based on a \u201cpreliminary assessment\u201d of its corporation\u2019s records. Till Wednesday last, the death toll was 326, including 260 in Chennai alone. Denying accusations of fudging of numbers, the government has set up a nine-member reconciliation committee to streamline data, as it claims there\u2019s a \u201cmismatch\u201d on a \u201cprocedural lapse,\u201d as before the epidemic, there was no system of reporting deaths on a daily basis to the government and certainly not from all hospitals or medical colleges. Unreported cases were either seen as home deaths or which occurred at private clinics, etc. But with anti-corruption initiative, Arappor Iyakkam, questioning 3 Covid deaths in government medical college and over 20 others at a Railway hospital not included in the data, the government has had to get its act together. Will similar initiatives in other States open a Pandora\u2019s box?<\/p>\n

J&K Media Gag
\nJammu and Kashmir\u2019s woes seem never-ending. The latest assault is the new media policy. It gives the administration powers to decide what is \u201cfake\u201d, \u201cunethical\u201d or \u201canti-national\u201d news and take legal action against journalists or media organisations concerned, including stopping government ads and sharing information with security agencies. Preposterous! Rightly political parties have spoken out and demanded a rollback. The National Conference has warned \u2018such anti-democratic gags will obstruct dissemination of free and fair press. Worse, it\u2019s \u2018an infringement of people\u2019s right to information and shall choke the already constrained space for free working of press\u2019. It\u2019s a step towards \u2018absolute censorship\u2019, reacted the PDP, adding this \u2018character certificate\u2019 business for journalism is another instrument to stifle the voice of J&K\u2019. The People\u2019s Conference said it\u2019s a \u201cnew low\u201d and will \u201cherald the darkest era of curbing press freedom\u201d. Indeed, in new India, this will be the new normal for the people, already denied of 4G connection, unlike the rest of the country. The media fraternity needs to stand up against it for as said there will be \u201cno prizes for guessing, anything remotely true or critical of the government will be categorised as fake or anti-national news!\u201d<\/p>\n

No More Freebies
\nNo more freebies, says Uttarakhand High Court. On Tuesday last, a two-member bench declared null and void key provisions of the Uttarakhand Former Chief Ministers Facility (Residential and other facilities) Act 2019, which granted bungalow at cheap rent, vehicle, driver and other perks for free to them. Interestingly, the government had brought in this Act after the High Court in May last year ordered eviction of government residences and recovery of house rent at market rate from former CMs, following a PIL. The Act granted protection to ex-CMs, who had been given these facilities till 31 March 2019, after which no one could avail these. According to PIL, since the State was created in 2000, it has had seven CMs, of which two \u2014Nityanand Swami and ND Tiwari have died since, Harish Rawat hasn\u2019t availed the facilities, money \u2018needs to be recovered\u2019 from Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal \u2018Nishank\u2019, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and BC Khanduri and Vijay Bahuguna. The big question is will the State exchequer get its dues? A lot depends on whether and if the BJP government acts. \u2014\u2014INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delhi on Tenterhooks By Insaf National capital, Delhi, has lot on its plate it can handle. The health department has projected the Covid count could cross 1 lakh by June-end and shall breach the 5 lakh-mark by July 31. Amidst this frightening scenario, Chief Minister Kejriwal\u2019s pronouncement that Delhi hospitals are for Delhiites alone has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-127982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}