{"id":169411,"date":"2021-08-18T01:33:39","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T20:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=169411"},"modified":"2021-08-18T01:33:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T20:03:39","slug":"sc-hammer-on-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2021\/08\/18\/sc-hammer-on-states\/","title":{"rendered":"SC hammer on states"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Criminalisation of Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<strong>By Insaf<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Three cheers to Supreme Court. State governments can no longer aid criminalisation of politics. \u201cWe deem it appropriate to direct that no prosecution against a sitting or former MP\/ MLA shall be withdrawn without the leave of the high court,\u201d was a clear directive issued by it on Tuesday last. Further it asked the HCsto examine \u201cwithdrawals, whether pending or disposed of since 16 September last year\u201d in light of guidelines it had laid, whereby Chief Justices were asked to constitute Special Benches to monitor progress of criminal cases against sitting and former legislators.Plus, all HCs were directed to provide details of judges\u2019 posting and number of pending and disposed cases before them; that judicial officers presiding over Special Courts or CBI courts involving such prosecution shall not be transferred until further orders so as to ensure speedy disposal of pending cases.<br \/>\nThe apex court directives follow a PIL seeking setting up of fast-track courts for cases against legislators. It was in November 2017, that the SC had ordered the same in each State but so far only 12 such courts have come up. Worse, instances of State governments withdrawing or wanting to withdraw cases against legislators, came into sharp focus: 61 cases withdrawn in Karnataka last August; Uttarakhand wanting to withdraw a murder case against a sitting MLA and UP wanting to do so in 4 cases; Maharashtra deciding to withdraw political cases against activists registered before December 31, 2019. Apparently, the prosecution was withdrawing cases under political consideration, to stifle process of law, rather than what is permissible i.e. in public interest. Further, it came to light that investigating agencies such as CBI and ED had ignored directives. Peeved, the SC expressed disapproval over non-filing of status report on cases against MPs\/MLAs being probed and warned it may set up a special bench to hear this matter. The big question is whether State governments would pay heed this time. Or will intended \u2018Operation Clean Up Politics\u2019 continue to languish. Time will tell.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u2018Sacrilege\u2019 In RS<br \/>\nThe Council of States, the Rajya Sabha, witnessed a new low in the history of Parliament. A \u2018sacrilege\u2019 as described by its Chairman Naidu. Though his views were echoed by the many a minister in Modi government, the Opposition said \u201cvoice of 60 per cent population was crushed,\u201d as there was \u2018no Parliament session\u2019. The monsoon session ended abruptly on Wednesday, two days earlier than scheduled given Opposition protests over the\u00a0Pegasus snooping controversy and the three contentious farm laws, which marred proceedings daily from the start. Not just murder of democracy, is the Opposition charge, but Rajya Sabha MPs accused the Presiding officers of being partisan players and worse women Congress MPs on Wednesday last were allegedly \u201cphysically bullied by male marshals as they were protesting in the Well\u00a0 of the House\u201d. On the other side, the chair described Opposition MPs climbing atop a table and throwing an official file at the Chair and some squatting on the tables in the front row as \u2018sacrilege.\u2019 The House functioned for 17 hours out of roughly 97 hours. In all 19 Bills were passed, but in minutes, without discussion. The Government-Opposition standoff has led the people\u2019s voice being stifled, with their representatives not doing their job. Enough is enough, did one hear.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">TN Financial Crunch<br \/>\nTamil Nadu needs to tighten the purse strings. It\u2019s fiscal deficit, says its Finance Minister is \u201cunsustainable\u201d and \u201calarming\u201d. A White paper on Monday last, proposes to usher in major structural changes to drag the State \u2018out of the financial sinkhole.\u2019 As explained: Revenue generation is said to have come down and \u201ca government without revenue cannot address problems.\u201d Predictably there is politics involved too. The DMK minister blamed the previous AIADMK government for the financial mess: a revenue deficit of Rs 61,320 crore in 2020-21 \u2014 which made up over half of the fiscal deficit in that year, Rs 92,305 crore. Since 2017-18, the share of revenue deficit in the fiscal deficit had a substantial increase of up to 50% or more, which means government\u2019s borrowing is not for capital expenditure but for current expenditure. And, quick fixes would not suffice, as the State\u2019s current debt of about Rs. 5.7 lakh crore translates to a debt burden of around Rs 70,000 on each citizen. This is apart from Rs 1.10 lakh debt per person generated from operational losses of the electricity department, transport corporationand interest payment. All eyes will now be on how Chief Minister Stalin gets the State out of the red.<br \/>\nSetback For UP<br \/>\nHoly Cow! The Uttar Pradesh government should be red in the face. The Allahabad High Court has quashed the detention of three individuals picked up in Sitapur district in July last year under the National Security Act in a cow slaughter case. While hearing habeas corpus petitions filed by the families of the three, the court in its order said: \u201c\u2026an act of slaughtering a cow in the secrecy of one\u2019s own house in the wee hours probably because of poverty or lack of employment or hunger, would perhaps only involve a law and order issue.\u201d And, \u201ccould not be said to stand on the same footing as a situation where a number of cattle have been slaughtered outside in public view and the public transport of their flesh or an incident where an aggressive attack is made by the slaughterers against the complaining public, which may involve infractions of public order.\u201d It ordered their release forthwith. Clearly, the Additional Government Advocate\u2019s argument that \u201ccutting of beef to sell it offends religious faith and feelings of a section of society\u2026\u201d did not hold water. Much less detention under the draconian law. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath must see the writing on the wall and stop abusing the NSA.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Chhattisgarh\u2019s First<br \/>\nChhattisgarh may have a first to its credit. Its police in Dantewada district is creating a township exclusively for surrendered Naxals. Dantewada SP said that it will provide not only accommodation for their safety but offer skill training to lead a better life. The official claimed it to be the first-of-its-kind of initiative in the country and said some of the surrendered Naxals are also involved in the construction of the township. Remember Dantewada is one of the worst naxal-hit districts in Bastar region, which has witnessed many deadly Maoist encounters. Just 400 km from the capital\u00a0Raipur, the State government hadin June last year launched a surrender\/rehabilitation drive \u2018Lon Varratu\u2019 (return to your home\/village) to encourage naxals to quit the gun. The Rs 9 crore township project, funded by Home Affairs Ministry is being developed in 39 acres in front of Police Lines, Dantewada and shall be inauguratedon 26 January 2022. It will have 108 one BHK (bedroom-house-kitchen) apartments, a recreational centre, yoga centres-cum-gym, a primary school, primary health centre, transit hostel, anganwadi, alivelihood college to offer training in 20-odd different trades, including modern farming, motorcycle repair work and processing of minor forest produce. So far 400 naxals have surrendered and the township should not only give hope to them, but set a precedent for other States to follow. \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Criminalisation of Politics By Insaf Three cheers to Supreme Court. State governments can no longer aid criminalisation of politics. \u201cWe deem it appropriate to direct that no prosecution against a sitting or former MP\/ MLA shall be withdrawn without the leave of the high court,\u201d was a clear directive issued by it on Tuesday last. [&hellip;]<\/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-169411","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\/169411","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=169411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}