Round The States
New Delhi, 13
February 2021
Didi-Shah
Brawl
West Bengal Hots Up
By
Insaf
West Bengal is
hitting headlines and may well turn out to be the political flavour of the
season. The tu-tu-mein-mein between
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-Union Home Minister is getting personal. The parivar bug has entered the unsavoury fiery
speeches with Didi dragging his son, Jay Shah for alleged corruption charges, following
his weaving in her nephew being groomed to take over. But she needs to
concentrate on the bigger picture. Her flock of leaders are slowly leaving,
what may be to them, a sinking ship and sending a strong message to the
electorate. Her trusted lieutenant Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi on Thursday last
said he is resigning, as he had reached an inflection point and was “feeling
suffocated,” specially after looking at “the kind of violence taking place in
his State.” The question doing the rounds is whether Shah has him under his
fold. So far 2 ministers, 7 MLAs and one MP have already quit the TMC. Plus,
Shah has struck on Didi’s vote bank of Matua community, migrated from East
Pakistan, and assured grant of citizenship under CAA, to begin soon after
control over COVID-19. The BJP has given itself a target of 200 seats in the
294-member Assembly, which Didi scoffs at as a pipe dream. However, there is no
denying the saffron party is making inroads. But will Shah take a mega leap
from 3 seats to his target? Tall order alright, but it’s a long way from now as
polls are slated for April-May. It could turn out to be the mother of all
battles!
* * * *
Maharashtra
‘Maligned’
Maharashtra’s tussle between
Raj Bhavan and Chief Minister’s office turns ugly and petty to say the least. Governor
Koshyari had to disembark from the State’s aircraft and instead take a
commercial flight to Dehradun, Thursday last, as the MVA government denied permission.
Obviously, triggering a blame game. The Opposition accuses Uddhav Thackeray of
showing disrespect to Governor and State’s image maligned, and the latter quotes
Home Ministry rules for use of government machinery for private/personal use
and blames Raj Bhavan Secretariat for not ensuring it had permission to use the
plane before his departure from his residence. The negligence is by Governor House
and officials will have to face action, warns Thackeray’s office, adding the
request for aircraft was pending approval till Wednesday night and his office
was duly informed. Besides, it asks
why Koshyari doesn’t put some burden on Goa’s BJP government, as he is its Governor
too or for that matter as he’s using Raj Bhavan for party activities rather
than State affairs, the BJP could offer one of its commercial planes! Clearly,
the government continues to smart under Governor’s refusal to clear Cabinet’s
recommendation of the 12 nominated members to the Council. Is there more to
come?
* * * *
Odisha-Andhra
Row
Odisha government is
peeved with Andhra Pradesh. It warns of a constitutional crisis and accuses the
Jagan Reddy government of ‘invading’ into its territory. The Naveen Patnaik
government has knocked on Supreme Court’s door petitioning contempt action
against the Telugu officials for notifying Panchayat polls in three villages
controlled by it! It alleges them of
violating the court’s status quo order of 1968, with the Andhra Collector
notifying polls on March 5, 2020, wherein the 3 villages from the ‘Kotia Group
of villages’ falling under Koraput district territory were roped into Salur Mandal
of Vizinagaram district and the names ‘clandestinely changed.’ This it did by
‘tactfully converting’ the villages of one Gram Panchayat under its territory
to 3 different Gram Panchayats. The territorial dispute of 21 districts, known
as Kotia Group of villages, had first reached the apex court in 1968, when
Odisha accused Andhra of trespassing. Both States then were directed to
maintain status quo till the disposal of suit and “there shall be no further
ingress or egress on the territories in dispute, on the part of either party”.
Similar orders were issued in 2006 with both States’ consent. Will the court be
able to broker an agreement, which stands the test of time?
* * * *
Good news For Ladakh?
Is Ladakh convinced
of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s assertion that the country has not
conceded anything in the sustained talks with China and “won’t allow even an
inch of territory to be taken by anyone”? Whether fear, suspicion or hope is to
follow following the statement in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday last, the
Congress has questioned the agreement between New Delhi and Beijing on
disengagement at Pangong Tso in Ladakh. It accuses Modi government of “brazenly
compromising” national security and territorial integrity, which doesn’t help matters
in tense Leh, since the stand-off. In Pangong Tso Lake Area, the country was
occupying Finger 4 and patrolling up to Finger 8 on north bank, but notes with
suspicion Singh’s statement saying our troops will withdraw now to Finger 3. It
asks doesn’t this ‘tantamount to redrawing the LAC’ to our disadvantage and
creating a buffer zone between Finger 3 and Finger 8…that is on our side of the
LAC?” Further, it alleged that ‘our armed forces will be withdrawing from these
vantage points in Kailash Ranges on the Southern Bank’. For the citizens, it
may all be too technical, as their concern is whether this means that jets
circling or convoys moving will eventually stop. Will the movement of civilians
beyond Leh be allowed now and will communication blackout in border areas be
lifted?
* * * *
Uttarakhand
Tragedy
The worst is not yet
over. Uttarakhand continues to be on the edge. There is a fresh scare at Rishi
Ganga and Dhauli Ganga rivers-- sites of the flash flood in Chamoli district, following
rise in water levels. Worse, it has put on temporary hold rescue operations.
While 160 people are still missing, the death toll rose to 36. Rescue teams are
unable to reach 34 labourers, said to be stuck inside a tunnel at NTPC’s hydro
power project site. Unfortunately, there were no warning signs before the
tragedy struck as according to officials ‘even half-an-hour of warning could
have made all the difference’. However, there is more that needs to be
considered. Do hydro power projects are amplifying force to disasters? Remember,
their construction involves deforestation, submergence, blasting, tunnelling,
roads, townships, destruction of terrestrial biodiversity, among others, which have
an adverse impact on local ecology and local capacity to withstand/adapt to
impact of disasters. There is additional warning. According to a recent study by
environmental think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water on extreme
weather hotspots, over 85% of districts in the State, home to 9 crore-odd people,
are hotspots of extreme floods and its associated events! Will the government
pay heed, tread cautiously and not forget the adage: once bitten, twice
shy.
Chhattisgarh Halts
Vaccine
An unhealthy battle
is brewing between Chhattisgarh and the Centre. The State Health Minister Deo
has in a letter to his counterpart in New Delhi asked halting of Bharat Biotech
Covaxin’s supply until two issues were addressed: incomplete third-phase trials
and absence of expiry date on its vials. Harsh Vardhan has written back saying
don’t ‘sensationalise a non-issue’ and instead focus to step up measures to
improve the ‘abysmally low vaccination coverage’ in your State—it has covered
only 9.55% of 2,09,512 frontline workers through the vaccine’s first dose. Plus
there was hard hitting tweet: “Is it really befitting of a state's Health
Minister to stoke inhibitions regarding efficacy of COVID-19 Vaccine? In such
unprecedented times, you should help address any vaccine hesitancy & do
what’s in best interest of people, not further vested interests.” All vaccines
supplied, he asserted were “safe and immunogenic”, should be used expeditiously
and that expiry date on vials is mentioned. The big question is will the
response satisfy Deo’s Health Department as desired or will the Congress
government continue to find fault and take on the Centre? ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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