Archives for 2020

The TMC’s declaration comes amidst mounting criticism by the major anti-BJP parties in the state for not passing a resolution opposing CAA.

KOLKATA: The ruling Trinamool Congress on Tuesday announced that it will bring a resolution against the amended Citizenship Act in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on January 27, the third such move after the Kerala and Punjab Houses against the contentious law.

The TMC’s declaration comes amidst mounting criticism by the major anti-BJP parties in the state for not passing a resolution opposing CAA.

State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said the TMC had submitted a resolution under rule 169 to the Assembly Speaker on January 20, which will come up in the house on coming Monday.

Faced by a lot of “rumours and canards” from the fellow opposition parties over its position regarding CAA and National Population Register, Chatterjee said they “do not need lessons from others on how to continue its fight against CAA-NPR-NRC.”

“We have submitted a resolution to the speaker on January 20 regarding it. The resolution against CAA will be placed in the state assembly on January 27. Our government in principle is opposed to CAA,” Chatterjee said.

He said they would appeal to all the opposition parties to extend support to the resolution so that its approved unanimously.

Adoption of the resolution in the house would not be a difficult task considering the fact that Mamata Banerjee’s party on its own enjoys an overwhelming majority in the 295- member Bengal assembly.

The development comes just a day after West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had said that an anti-CAA resolution would be placed in the assembly very soon.

When asked whether the government was also mulling to move to the Supreme Court to challenge the law, Chatterjee said “the government and the party will fight it out on the streets and then take a call, if needed, whether to move a court or not”.

Kerala and Punjab assemblies have already passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

If the resolution is adopted, West Bengal will the third state to do so.

The Left Front and the Congress have been criticising the TMC government for not adopting a resolution against the CAA.

The West Bengal state assembly has earlier passed an all-party resolution, baring BJP, against NRC in September last year.

In January this year, during a one-day special session, opposition Congress and Left Front wanted to bring a resolution against CAA.

But their demand was turned down by the government, drawing sharp criticism from both the parties which had termed TMC as “B team” of the BJP in Bengal.

Banerjee’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kolkata on January 11 had further sharpened the charge of a “political match-fixing between the two parties”.

The TMC had trashed the allegations as baseless.

Congress and the Left Front have welcomed the TMC’s move to bring the resolution as a “positive step”.

Praising the initiative, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Abdul Mannan of the Congress said it’s better than the TMC realised the necessity for such a resolution.

“When we had said, they had opposed it. But it’s better TMC has decided to bring it, at least they have realised the need for such a resolution,” Mannan said.

Left Front Legislature Party leader Sujan Chakraborty said “we want an anti-CAA resolution be passed but, would not take a call unless and until we have a look at the resolution brought in by the TMC government”.

BJP legislature party leader Manoj Tigga said they would oppose the move as it is “unconstitutional” to bring a resolution against a law (CAA) which has been passed in the Parliament.

The new legislation to give citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the Centre four weeks to respond to pleas challenging the validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said it will set up a five-judge Constitution bench to hear the petitions.

While making it clear that it will not grant any stay on the CAA without hearing the Centre, a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde restrained all high courts from hearing pleas on CAA till it decides the petitions.

The bench said it will hear petitions pertaining to Assam and Tripura separately as the problem with CAA in these two states is different from rest of the country.

“The petitions concerning Assam and Tripura as well as matters related to Uttar Pradesh, which is going ahead with the implementation of CAA without framing any rules, can be dealt with separately,” the court said.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that the government has been given copies of around 60 pleas out of the 143 petitions. He said it wanted time to respond to pleas which have not been served on it.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal urged the bench to put on hold operation of CAA and postpone exercise of the National Population Register (NPR) for the time being.

The court said it will not grant any stay on CAA without hearing the Centre on the matter. “Will pass order on granting any interim relief to petitioner opposing CAA after four weeks,” the bench said.

The CAA seeks to grant citizenship to migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian, Jain and Parsi communities who came to the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on or before December 31, 2014.

President Ram Nath Kovind gave assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on December 12, turning it into an Act.

Several petitions have been filed challenging the constitutional validity of the CAA, including by RJD leader Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi.

Several other petitioners include Muslim body Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Peace Party, CPI, NGOs ‘Rihai Manch’ and Citizens Against Hate, advocate M L Sharma, and law students have also approached the apex court challenging the Act.

New Delhi, Jan 21: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to why he or his government did not accept his suggestion of the PM holding an open debate with five critics of the amended Citizenship Act and let people draw their own conclusion.

“I had suggested that the PM should select five of the most articulate critics and hold a Q&A session with them. Why doesn’t the PM/Government accept the suggestion?

“Let five critics of CAA-NPR debate the PM. Let the event be televised live. And let the people draw their own conclusions,” he said on Twitter.

In another tweet, he said, “HM (home minister) has dared the Opposition to debate CAA. Is that not what the Opposition, jurists, academics, writers, artists, students and youth have been doing since Dec 12?”

Accusing the opposition of “misleading” people on the amended citizenship law, Amit Shah threw a challenge for the debate to Rahul Gandhi (Congress), Mamata Banerjee(Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav(Samajwadi Party) and Mayawati(Bahujan Samaj Party).

West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh’s statement came after he had stated that 50 lakh Muslim infiltrators will be identified and chased out of the country if needed.

COOCH BEHAR: Amid anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of India (NRC) protests across the country, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday said that two crore Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators have entered India and no Bangladeshi Muslim will be allowed to stay here.

“Two crore Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators have entered India, one crore is in West Bengal and one crore have spread across the country. We will not allow any Bangladeshi Muslims to stay here. If their names are in voters’ list then it will be removed,” said Ghosh during a public rally.

His statement came after he had stated that 50 lakh Muslim infiltrators will be identified and chased out of the country if needed.

Addressing a rally in the North 24 Parganas district, he had said, “50 lakh Muslim infiltrators will be identified, if needed they will be chased out of the country.”

Cornering West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for opposing Citizenship Amendment law and NRC, he said, “Firstly, the names of Muslim infiltrators will be removed from voters’ list then didi (in reference to Mamata Banerjee) cannot appease anyone.”

He said there will be a reduction in the number of votes to Banerjee in the 2021 state assembly elections following the process of removing infiltrators’ names from the voters’ list.

“Once this is done didi’s votes will be reduced and in the coming elections, we will get 200 seats, she will not even get 50 seats,” he said.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

Jharkhand Dhanbad, known for its rich coal reserves and industries, is the second-most polluted city in India, according to the report based on analysis of PM10 data from 287 cities.

NEW DELHI: The coal-belching town of Jharia in Jharkhand continues to be the most polluted city in India, while Delhi has made marginal improvement in reducing its air pollution level, according to a Greenpeace India report released on Tuesday.

Delhi is the 10th-most polluted city in India, according to the report.

The city was at the eighth spot a year ago, according to the report for that year.

Average annual levels of PM10, particulate matter less than 10 micrometres in diameter that can enter the lungs and even the bloodstream, in Jharia was 322 micrograms per cubic metre in 2018, more than six times the safe limits of 0-60, according to the report.

Jharkhand Dhanbad, known for its rich coal reserves and industries, is the second-most polluted city in India, according to the report based on analysis of PM10 data from 287 cities across the country.

The annual average of PM10 levels in Delhi reduced from 240 micrograms per cubic metre in 2017 to 225 in 2018.

Lunglei in Mizoram is the least polluted followed by Meghalaya’s Dowki, according to the report.

Six of the top-10 polluted cities are in Uttar Pradesh — Noida, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Allahabad, Moradabad and Firozabad.

The Greenpeace report also said 231 of the 287 cities recorded PM10 levels above 60 micrograms per cubic metre on at least 52 days in 2018.

The Central Pollution Control Board has identified 0-60 µg/m3 as a safe limit for PM10 levels under National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

“For NAAQS, pollution data for 104 days covering all seasons is collected. It is done to maintain uniformity in data collection,” according to Dipankar Saha, former head of the CPCB’s air quality lab.

In 2015, the Environment Ministry identified 102 cities as “non-attainment” cities (which do not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards) under the National Clean Air Programme that aims for a 20-30 per cent reduction in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations by 2024, Avinash Chanchal, one of the two authors of the report said.

Ideally, all these 231 cities are non-attainment cities and should be included in NCAP, he said.

“Based on 2018 data, West Bengal, Punjab, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa have 36, 21, 21, 20 and 15 non-attainment cities respectively,” the report said.

The report also said pollution levels across much of the country are so high that even a 30 per cent reduction will still leave levels above NAAQS.

 The Centre has approved creation of 2,000 posts in the CISF, the force that is mandated to ensure security at vital installations, including airports, atomic installations, metro networks.

 NEW DELHI: The Centre has approved creation of 2,000 posts in the CISF, the force that is mandated to ensure security at vital installations, including airports, atomic installations, metro networks.The Central Industrial Security Force guards about 60 civil airports in the country and has an elite VVIP security wing under its command called the Special Security Group (SSG). The Union Home ministry has recently given approval for the creation of about 2,000 posts in the CISF, a senior home ministry official said on Tuesday.

With the sanctioned posts, from constables to the inspector level, the CISF can raise two more battalions (1,000 personnel each) within the next two years, the official said. The current strength of the CISF is about 1.8 lakh personnel.

The CISF guards civil airports, nuclear plants, power stations, vital government buildings, Delhi Metro besides a host of other key installations. Centre is also all set to hand over the security related duties at Srinagar and Jammu airports to the CISF by the end of this month. The CISF will replace the J-K Police.