{"id":223440,"date":"2023-09-02T00:22:16","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T18:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=223440"},"modified":"2023-09-02T00:22:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T18:52:16","slug":"tall-claims-nagging-doubts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2023\/09\/02\/tall-claims-nagging-doubts\/","title":{"rendered":"Tall claims, nagging doubts"},"content":{"rendered":"

J&K Statehood<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Insaf<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Is the Centre putting the cart before the horse, is a question being asked in Jammu and Kashmir. This, as despair and cynicism continues among the political parties in the UT from proceedings underway in the Supreme Court over constitutionality of abrogation of Article 370. On one hand, the Centre asserted elections \u2018can be held anytime from now. It\u2019s for ECI and UT election commission to take the call\u2026\u2019, and on the other said \u2018J&K\u2019s UT status is a temporary thing\u2026exact time frame for restoration of complete statehood can\u2019t be given at the moment. It might take some time\u2026\u2019 This was in response to the five-judge Constitution bench asking \u2018specific time frame\u2019 to restore actual democracy. As \u2018lack of electoral democracy can\u2019t be allowed to go on indefinitely\u2026 This has to come an end…\u2019 The principal parties, the National Conference and PDP have debunked the Centre\u2019s stand as \u2018diverting the issue\u2019, \u2018nothing new being said\u2019 \u2018elections without Statehood don\u2019t mean anything\u2019 and Apni Party seen to be close to Centre said, \u2018it\u2019s the same casual statement they have been giving for past three years!\u2019<\/p>\n

And while the Centre has been justifying its stand on removing the special status enjoyed by J&K, it\u2019s also going at great lengths to claim that its steps to restore normalcy in the region are yielding results. These include: Rs 28,400 crore central sector schemes for industrial development; Rs 78,000 crore of private sector; Rs 2,153 crore actual investment done in 2022-23; of 53 projects sanctioned under PM\u2019s Development Package, 32 are complete; terror-related incidents down by 45.20% compared to 2018; infiltration down by 90.20%, law and order events reduced 97.20%; incidents of stone-pelting and hartals are nil as against 1,767 in 2018; casualty of security personnel down by 65.90%, organised bandhs by secessionist groups down from 52 in 2018 to nil; tourism has\u00a0 footfall of 1.88 crore in 2022, and till date, over one crore people have visited the UT. Be that as it may, the region deserves restoration of its democratic rights, deprived for over five years, since the fall of the PDP-BJP government in 2018. Enough is enough!<\/p>\n

\n

Assembly & General Polls<\/p>\n

Elections in five States \u2014 Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan by year-end may have the Centre now contemplating rolling out its pet project, simultaneous Lok Sabha polls (due May-June) and advancing these. Rumours to this effect are floating since Thursday last following the government constituting a committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind to explore the feasibility of \u2018one nation, one election\u2019, as was the case in 1967. How soon the committee meets and prepares its report is a question. Importantly, the decision comes 24 hours later after the government decided to call a special session of Parliament between September 18 and 22, with no agenda spelt out. This has made the Opposition bloc \u2018INDIA\u2019 meeting (the third) in Mumbai see urgency in finalising its strategy and setting up a coordination committee, sub-groups to work on common agenda, seat sharing, media strategy, joint actions for campaign and rallies etc. The aim being that it should be ready for all contingency plans to take on the NDA\u2019s surprise element strategy and \u2018gimmicks.\u2019 A tall order alright. Doubling of efforts will depend till the secrecy of the special Parliament session being called is out in the open.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMockery\u201d In Manipur<\/p>\n

\u2018Stop mockery, let\u2019s save democracy\u2019 slogans in Manipur Assembly on Tuesday last were not off the mark. The one-day session was less than an hour and adjourned sine die! The blame was put on Congress MLAs for shouting slogans demanding the session be extended to five days to discuss the grave situation prevailing. Instead, the House passed resolutions among others to \u2018resolve all differences among the people, till complete peace returns to the entire State, through dialogue and constitutional means.\u2019 Clearly, dialogue isn\u2019t working as all 10 Kuki MLAs, including BJP\u2019s 7 were absent, making pale the resolution \u2018to work for oneness and harmony of all the people of Manipur, irrespective of caste, community, region, religion or language.\u201d The absentee MLAs reasoning being given Biren Singh\u2019s failure in protecting lives of common people and officials, convening the session \u2018is devoid of logic and rationality\u2019. Apparently, the session was called to avoid a constitutional crisis as it must be convened every 6 months and the last was held in March. The exercise over, the government is at odds to restore normalcy. At least 6 persons were killed on Thursday last in firing going on for three days between Kuki-Zomi-dominated Churachandpur district and Meitei-dominated Bishnupur district. Perhaps it\u2019s time for the BJP headquarters to consider replacing the Chief Minister as being demanded to instil semblance of some confidence among the people.<\/p>\n

\n

Punjab\u2019s No To Corruption<\/p>\n

\u2018Zero tolerance against corruption\u2019, is Punjab government\u2019s message to its employees. \u2018Neither any corrupt element nor their sympathisers will be spared in the drive to make the system transparent, clean and effective in the public\u2019s larger interest\u2019, warned Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday last. A day earlier, ESMA was invoked, barring all government officials and employees from leaving their place of posting till October 31 or till further orders. The trigger: over 2,000 employees under banner of \u2018Revenue Patwar Union\u2019 and \u2018Revenue Kanungo Association\u2019 have called for a pen-down indefinite strike from Friday (September 1) over a corruption case registered a week ago against two revenue officials in Sangrur district. While the Unions say they aren\u2019t buckling down, Mann tweets: \u201c\u2026they are free to go ahead with a pen-down strike, but the government will later decide whether to give them their pens back or not \u2026 we have many educated unemployed people who are ready to hold your pens. The people of Punjab will not be allowed to suffer.\u201d Moreso, as revenue officials and staff are critical for disbursement of crop compensation to and relief material to farmers affected by the floods. Will Mann\u2019s policy to wipe out corruption succeed? Easier said than done.<\/p>\n

\n

Delhi, Most Polluted<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s Capital, Delhi, now holds the distinction of being the world\u2019s most polluted city! A report, Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) by Energy Policy Institute, University of Chicago, warns its 18 million residents are on track to lose \u201811.9 years of life\u2019 if current levels of pollution continue to be higher than the limit set by WHO and 8.5 years relative to the national guideline. If it\u2019s any consolation for Delhiites, \u2018all of India\u2019s 1.3 billion people live in areas where the annual average particulate pollution level exceeds the 5 \u00b5g\/m3 limit\u2019; and 67.4% of these live in areas which exceed the country\u2019s own national air quality standard. The country also was responsible for 59.1% of the world\u2019s rise in pollution from 2013 to 2021 and is among only six others\u2014Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Nigeria and Indonesia where 3\/4th of people lose \u2018one to over 6 years of their lives because of the air they breathe\u2019. While India declared a war against pollution in 2019 with its \u2018National Clean Air Programme\u2019, it failed to meet the target in those 101 cities. There\u2019s a fresh target and fingers be kept crossed if \u2018New India\u2019 breathes clean air. \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J&K Statehood By Insaf Is the Centre putting the cart before the horse, is a question being asked in Jammu and Kashmir. This, as despair and cynicism continues among the political parties in the UT from proceedings underway in the Supreme Court over constitutionality of abrogation of Article 370. On one hand, the Centre asserted […]<\/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-223440","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\/223440","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=223440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}