NATIONAL NEWS
Assam, Mizoram CMs bat for talks after call from Shah
The Chief Ministers of Assam and Mizoram have sought to ease tensions along their troubled inter-State border after a telephonic discussion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. An exchange of fire between the police forces of both the States on July 26 left six Assam policemen and a civilian dead and 60 others, including Cachar district’s Superintendent of Police Nimbalkar Vaibhav Chandrakant injured. Assam claimed the firing was one-sided and unprovoked while Mizoram said they had retaliated to the aggression by the Assam police. Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Sunday took to Twitter to say he had a telephonic discussion with Shah and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma we agreed to resolve the Mizoram-Assam border issue amicably through meaningful dialogue, he tweeted. He also asked the people of Mizoram to avoid posting sensitive messages and make judicious use of their social media platform to prevent any possible escalation of the situation. He later deleted the tweet but retweeted a post by Dr. Sarma. Our main focus is on keeping the spirit of North-East alive. What happened along the Assam-Mizoram border is unacceptable to the people of both states, the Assam Chief Minister said, adding, Border disputes can only be resolved through discussion. Later, he told reporters in Guwahati that the Assam government would approach the Supreme Court in 15 days for an amicable solution to the boundary row for both the States to follow. The two States share a 164.6 km volatile border with each government accusing the other of not maintaining the status quo and encouraging its people to encroach. The border conflict is decades old but things started getting violent from October 2020. Since the July 26 incident, locals in Assam have blocked the National Highway 306, besides uprooting a stretch of the lone railway track connecting Mizoram. Transportation of people and goods to and from Mizoram has thus been affected. The Mizoram government is likely to withdraw the FIR filed against Dr Sarma, the State’s Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo told reporters in Aizawl on Sunday. Our Chief Minister has suggested that I should look into the inclusion of the Assam Chief Minister’s name in the FIR, he said, pointing out that naming Dr. Sarma in the FIR did not have Zoramthanga’s approval. The Chief Secretary did not specify if the cases against six Assam officials and 200 other unidentified police personnel would be withdrawn. The Mizoram police had booked four senior Assam police officers, including an Inspector-General of Police, the Deputy Commissioner and Divisional Forest Officer of Cachar district on various charges, including attempt to murder and assault. They were asked to appear before the investigation officer at Vairengte police station in Mizoram’s Kolasib district. Likewise, the Assam police summoned Mizoram’s Rajya Sabha member K. Vanlalvena and six others officials, including the Kolasib Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police for questioning at Cachar’s Dholai police station on Sunday.
Centre to use satellite mapping to resolve NE border disputes
With the inter-State border dispute between Assam and Mizoram flaring up and resulting in the death of six people last week, the Centre could be relying on satellite mapping to demarcate boundaries and settle such disputes, senior officials of the government of India said on Sunday. Two top officials, however, told The Hindu that the Centre has no plans to hold a ‘neutral probe’ into the July 26 firing incident between the two police forces that left five Assam Police personnel dead and over 50 injured. Return of normalcy and confidence-building is necessary in the area and that is why CRPF forces are patrolling the areas under the direct supervision of the Centre, the officials said. Both the State governments are cooperating and the Central government is assured that there will be no more border flare-up, one of the officials quoted above said. For a more permanent solution to deal with inter-State border issues, the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC) has been asked to map and demarcate State boundaries using satellite imaging. The idea of using satellite imagery for settling border disputes was mooted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah a few months ago, said one of the officials. A joint initiative of the Department of Space (DoS) and the North Eastern Council (NEC), the Shillong-based NESAC is already being used for flood management in the region. In January this year, the Ministry for Development of the North East Region (DONER) gave the satellite imagery project to NESAC. Since there will be scientific methods in the demarcation of borders, there will little scope for discrepancy and there shall be better acceptability of the boundary solutions by the States, one of the officials said. However, an Assam government official, who didn’t want to come on record, contested such a claim. Disputes arise mainly because there is a difference in perception regarding what constitutes our area and what constitutes their area. For example, Mizoram wants to follow the 1875 notification regarding Lushai Hills but it’s not acceptable to us, the official said. The Mizoram government claimed that a 509 square-mile stretch of the inner-line reserve forest notified in 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873 belongs to it. The Assam government, on the other hand, maintained that the constitutional map and boundary drawn by Survey of India in 1933 was acceptable to it.
Jammu and Kashmir to deny passport, jobs to locals with ‘adverse police report’
The J&K police move to deny security clearance to those involved in crimes prejudicial to the security of the State, including stone-pelting is likely to impact hundreds of families in Kashmir, where the official list of street protesters swelled significantly between 2008 and 2017 up to around 20,000. All the field units of CID SB-Kashmir are hereby directed to ensure that during verification related to passport service and any other verification related to government services, schemes, the subject’s involvement in law and order, stone pelting cases and other crime prejudicial to the security of the State be specifically looked into and same must be corroborated from local police station records, the fresh order reads. It called for collecting digital evidence like the CCTV footage, photographs, videos, audio clips and quadcopter images available in the records of the police, security forces and agencies as references. Any subject found involved in any such cases must be denied the security clearances. Top sources said the list of persons including lawyers, journalists, politicians, civil society members with adverse background reports is growing longer in the last one year. Many mainstream leaders, even from the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, were denied passport and travel documents. Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti was also denied passport in March after an ‘adverse’ report by the CID. She approached the High Court but the judge observed that the scope of this Court in the matter of grant or otherwise of passport in favour of an individual is very limited. The fresh order is likely to leave hundreds of locals ineligible for passport and jobs in the Valley, which saw major upheavals and prolonged cycles of street protests and civilian killings during the 2008 Amarnath land row, the 2009 Shopian ‘murder’ case, the 2013 hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, the 2016 Burhan Wani killing and the protests after the Centre’s move to end J&K’s special status on August 5, 2019. According to the official figures, 3,773 cases of law and order were registered in 2016 and 2017 and resulted in the arrest of 11,290 people. Around 9,730 people faced charges between 2008 and 2017 for participating in the protests. Later, the Omar Abdullah and the Mehbooba Mufti governments announced amnesty in many cases.
CIC slams Centre’s denial of information on medical oxygen committee
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has slammed the Centre’s blanket denial of information related to a committee overseeing medical oxygen supplies during the pandemic, saying its rationale was far fetched and unjustified. In its order on Saturday, Information Commissioner Vanaja Sarna directed the Centre to respond to the Right to Information (RTI) request within ten days. The RTI request filed by activist and freelance journalist Saurav Das in April 2021 sought information on a nine-member Empowered Group set up a year earlier under the Chairmanship of the Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. When the first wave of the pandemic began, it was responsible for coordinating the supply of PPE kits, RT-PCR test kits, N-95 masks and gloves. It subsequently became responsible for the supply of medical oxygen as well. Das requested information on the dates, agenda and minutes of the committee’s meetings till date, and presentations made to the committee. The Centre denied the request, citing the sections of the RTI law which allow exemptions on the grounds of national security, strategic interests, commercial confidences, intellectual property and Cabinet papers. In a hearing on Saturday, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) argued that the Empowered Group was set up in a time of crisis to cut across the several arms of the government, ensure that bureaucratic hassles did not impede decision making, and brought together government and private entities, both domestic and foreign. These proposals and deliberations contain highly sensitive information regarding technologies, strategies and processes to be adopted, regarding the commercial and costing aspects of different industries and commodities. The public disclosure of this information could greatly impede the scientific, strategic and economic interests of the state, he said, adding that it could also irreparably harm the competitive position of government and private entities. Given that the committee’s discussions were deliberated at the highest level, it must be protected from disclosure given the larger intent to protect such information from being misused or being adversely used against the interest of the state, he added. The CIC dismissed the Centre’s defence, saying that the citing of exemption on the grounds of Cabinet discussions appears to be an afterthought which seems far fetched also. The exemption cited related to national security was also not justified, it said. With regard to commercial confidence and intellectual property rights, the CIC said a blanket denial of all requested information was unjustified. The CIC directed the CPIO to provide a suitable point-wise reply within 10 days, warning that if any particular point was denied, it should be suitably justified with the relevant clause.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
India, U.K. to conduct clinical trials of ‘Ashwagandha’ for promoting recovery from Covid-19
The Ministry of Ayush has collaborated with the U.K.’s London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to conduct a study on ‘Ashwagandha’ for promoting recovery from CCovid-19 A Ministry release said that the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Ayush, and the LSHTM recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to conduct clinical trials of ‘Ashwagandha’ on 2,000 people in three U.K. cities Leicester, Birmingham and London (Southall and Wembley). ‘Ashwagandha’ (Withania somnifera), commonly known as ‘Indian winter cherry’, is a traditional Indian herb that boosts energy, reduces stress, and makes the immune system stronger. It is an easily accessible, over-the-counter nutritional supplement in the U.K. and has a proven safety profile. The positive effects of ‘Ashwagandha’ have been observed in Long COVID, which is a multi-system disease with no evidence of its effective treatment or management.
Pak. Finalises Bill to grant new status to Gilgit-Baltistan: report.
Pakistani authorities have finalised a law to award provisional provincial status to strategically located Gilgit Baltistan, a media report said on Sunday. India has clearly conveyed to Pakistan that the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of the country by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession. India maintains the Government of Pakistan or its judiciary has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it. Dawn newspaper reported that under the proposed law by the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Supreme Appellate Court (SAC) of Gilgit Baltistan may be abolished and the region’s election commission is likely to be merged with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Sources in the Law Ministry told the newspaper that the draft of the Bill titled ‘26th Constitutional Amendment Bill’ had been prepared and submitted to Prime Minister Imran Khan. According to the sources, the draft Bill has been prepared after careful reading of the Constitution of Pakistan, international laws, the UN resolutions especially those related to a plebiscite on Kashmir, comparative constitutional laws and local legislation. The stakeholders, including the governments of Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, had been consulted on the proposed constitutional amendment, the report quoted sources.
SPORTS NEWS
Tokyo Olympics: Sindhu secures bronze in badminton singles while India enters men’s hockey semis after 49 years
Star Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu on Sunday became only the second Indian to win two Olympic medals, securing a bronze after a straight-game win over world no.9 He Bingjiao of China in the women’s singles third-place play-off here. Sindhu, who has returned with medals from each of the big-ticket events such as Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and BWF World Tour Finals in the last five years, outwitted eighth seed Bing Jiao 21-13 21-15 to add a bronze to her silver that she had secured at the 2016 Rio Games. Wrestler Sushil Kumar is the first and only other Indian to win two Olympic medals, following up his bronze at 2008 Beijing with a silver at the London edition. Up against an opponent who has beaten her nine times so far in the last 15 meetings, Sindhu showed great determination to outplay Bing Jiao with her aggression to scoop India’s second medal at Tokyo. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu has already gone back after collecting a silver, while boxer Lovlina Borgohain is assured of at least bronze so far. With this win, the sixth seeded Sindhu also made up for the straight-game loss to world no.1 Tai Tzu Ying in the semifinals on Saturday. She had beaten Japanese world no 5 Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, the Indian men’s hockey team defeated Great Britain 3-1 today in a quarterfinal match to qualify for the semifinals of the Olympics Games. India scored three field goals through Dilpreet Singh (7th minute), Gurjant Singh (16th) and Hardik Singh (57th) to seal the win for the eight-time Olympic champions. The lone goal for Great Britain was scored by Sam Ward in the 45th minute. Even though India’s last of the eight Olympic gold medals came way back in 1980 Moscow Games, there were no semifinals in that edition as only six teams participated in the event. The last time India featured in the semifinals of the Olympics was in 1972 Munich Games where they lost 0-2 to arch-rivals Pakistan. India will take on world champions Belgium in the semifinal on Tuesday. Belgium defeated Spain 3-1 in another quarterfinal to seal their place in the last four round. The other semifinal of the men’s hockey competition will be played between Australia and Germany.
