-The Indian Express Normalisation of surveillance destroys what sustains a civilisation — human interaction filled with trust, care. Even though Delhi Government’s decision to install CCTV cameras in school classrooms has generated an interesting debate, it is important to see beyond the classrooms, and reflect more intensely on the meaning of living in a society that normalises and sanctifies surveillance. As an ideology that seeks to become hegemonic, the practice of surveillance...

-The Times of India NEW Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to shut down polluting industries in “critically polluted” and “severely polluted” areas across the country within three months, saying that economic development cannot take place at the cost of public health. The directions, put up on the NGT website on Tuesday, were issued on July 10 on the basis of a study carried...

-The Times of India Group, which has supported the Citizenship Bill, denies ties to the BJP, demands an ‘error-free’ register New Delhi: Seeking “sample re-verification” of Assam’s draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the Supreme Court, the Union Home Ministry, in its affidavit, attached a letter from an Assam-based NGO, Sachetan Nagrik Mancha, Axom (SNM), that had demanded an “error-free NRC”. The Supreme Court has directed that the final NRC be published...

-The Hindu Stress on trained cleaners, protective gear New Delhi: Concerned by the incidents of workers dying while cleaning sewers and septic tanks, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has asked all States and Union Territories to set up emergency response sanitation units (ERSU), which would include trained cleaners wearing protective gear. In letters to all Chief Secretaries on July 12, Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra wrote: “The...

-The Hindu Seek 20% recount in border districts, extension of July 31 deadline for final list New Delhi: The Centre and the State of Assam on Tuesday made an urgent mention before the Chief Justice of India for an extension of the deadline for the final publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from July 31, 2019, to a “future date”. In identical but separate applications, they urged the Supreme Court for...