-Article-14.com Excess deaths in UP districts with highest official caseload were between 10 to 335 times higher than the government’s Covid-19 death toll over nine months to 31 March 2021, we found after analysing mortality data, obtained under the right-to-information law. New Delhi: The number of people who died in 24 Uttar Pradesh (UP) districts over nine months to 31 March 2021 was, cumulatively, 43 times higher than the total official Covid-19...

-TheCitizen.in The Farmers’ agitation starting November 26 2020, was against three Farm Laws. The Essential Commodities Amendment Act, 2020, (ECA Act) is one of them. ECA Act amends the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, (EC Act) enacted “in the interest of the general public, for the control of the production, supply and distribution of, and trade and commerce”, and more precisely, “for controlling the rise in prices or preventing the hoarding of any...

-Newslaundry.com The state’s River Training Policy appears designed to allow near unfettered mining of sand and boulders by private contractors, bypassing green clearance and scientific assessment. In November 2020, a few months before floods ravaged Uttarakhand, the deputy collector of Purnagiri in Tanakpur district announced an open auction of tenders to desilt the riverbed in Champawat’s villages. Tenders for government work usually seek the lowest bidder, the contractor willing to do the job...

-The Hindu SWAN, which relaunched its helpline in April, releases findings based on over 8,000 callers Bengaluru: Migrant workers, one of the more vulnerable groups left in lurch during the national lockdown called by the Centre last year, are facing another crisis during the second wave of COVID-19. This time around, the problem is compounded by a lack of savings, which they used up last year. Around 92% of the country’s workforce who...

-The Hindu Remigration of young, trained workers Bihar, Jharkhand workers at minimal levels A survey of young, semi-skilled migrants from rural Bihar and Jharkhand in April 2021 has found that last year’s lockdown led to an informalisation of labour among men, while most of the women simply dropped out of the work force altogether. It also found that the number of out-of-State migrants halved between March 2020 and 2021, with no net effect...