-The Hindu Bihar government’s reluctance to publish number of deaths is uncalled for, says Division Bench. The Patna High Court has pulled up the Bihar government again for not maintaining its records of births and deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic and said that State’s reluctance to publish the number of deaths was “uncalled for” and was “not protected by any law”. The Division Bench of the court, comprising chief justice Sanjay Karol and...
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Early floods in Bihar after heavy rainfall in catchment areas of Gandak in Nepal -Mohd Imran Khan
-Down to Earth Bihar usually gets heavy rains in July and August; floods in June are an unusual occurrence, experts said Several villages have been flooded after 3-4 days of early monsoon rains in the catchment areas of the Gandak and Burhi Gandak rivers in Nepal and north Bihar. Affected districts include West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur. Other rivers including the Bagmati, Koshi, Kamla Balan, Bhuthi Balan and Ghaghara are also...
More »Is Uttarakhand abusing disaster management laws to allow rampant riverbed mining? -Mukta Joshi
-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...
More »‘Record’ FDI inflows, yes, cause for celebration, no -Biswajit Dhar and KS Chalapati Rao
-The Hindu The inflows during 2020-21 have not been in sync with the Government’s priorities for economic recovery In an otherwise gloomy economic scenario, one area of cheer for the Government has been the numbers on inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). In a recent press release, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced that “India has attracted highest ever total FDI inflow of U.S.$81.72 billion during the financial year 2020-21 and...
More »Assam saw 28,000 more deaths than normal in months when first wave of Covid-19 struck -Arunabh Saikia
-Scroll.in The excess deaths were 30 times the official Covid-19 death count. Assam reported 77,845 deaths, or 55% more than the usual number, in four months of 2020 that coincided with the first wave of Covid-19 in the state, Government data shows. The excess mortality was 30 times the official Covid-19 death toll in these months. August, September and October accounted for over 75% of Assam’s total Covid-19 cases in 2020. Since there...
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