NATIONAL NEWS
After 15 months, Farmers go home victorious
Fifteen months after they arrived in large convoys of tractors to lodge a passive resistance against the passage of three contentious farm laws by the government, several protesting farmers who had picketed on the borders of the Capital and in their respective states, began returning to their home states triumphant. The farmers lifted blockades on highways at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders and took out a ‘Victory March’ to celebrate the repeal of the three laws and other demands, including constituting a committee for legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for crops. They had also demanded the withdrawal of cases registered against them. Emotions ran high as the farmers set off for their homes in different States, including Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, after a successful movement. Farmers packing their belongings during the process of vacating the Ghazipur border on December 11 Tractors bedecked with colourful lights rolled out of the protest sites blaring songs of victory while the elderly flaunted their colourful turbans and danced with youngsters. Thousands of farmers had been protesting at the borders of the national capital since November 26 last year to demand the repeal of the three farm laws. On November 29, the Parliament passed the Bill to repeal the farm laws, one of the main demands of the farmers.However, the farmers refused to end their protest, demanding that the government fulfil their other demands that included legal guarantee on MSP and withdrawal of police cases against them. As the Centre accepted the pending demands, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farm unions spearheading the stir, on December 9 decided to call off their agitation and announced that farmers will go back home on December 11 from the protest sites at Delhi borders. Farmer leaders said that they will again meet on January 15 to see if the government has fulfilled their demands. To recap, Parliament passed a bill on November 29 to repeal the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and the Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.
India sends medicines to Afghanistan
In a significant gesture, India on December 11, sent the first consignment of medicines as part of humanitarian assistance to help the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan deal with the deteriorating health situation in the country. India has not recognised the Taliban administration in Afghanistan and has urged the international community to proceed cautiously in dealing with the Taliban in view of its rigid position on issues related to human rights. The consignment was sent in a special Kam Air flight that brought 10 Indians and 94 Afghan minority community members here on December 10, said the Ministry of External Affairs. “The medicines will be handed over to the representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Kabul and will be administered at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital, Kabul,” a statement from the Ministry added. This is the first time India has sent humanitarian aid to Afghanistan after the Taliban took over Kabul in August by dislodging the government of President Ashraf Ghani. It is an important development and is likely to be followed by large-scale humanitarian assistance from India to Afghanistan, which will be given through a transit facility in Pakistan.
PM inaugurates the Saryu canal project; lashes out at those who didn’t complete Pakistan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the Saryu Canal National Project which will provide assured water for irrigation to over 14 lakh hectares of land and benefit about 29 lakh farmers, mainly in eastern Uttar Pradesh and used the opportunity to criticise the “opposition” in the state for not working in farmers’ interest in finishing the project earlier. Mr Modi’s political comments were made at a government event. In an address laced with sarcasm, Mr Modi said some people only cut ribbons and then forget about completing the work. With Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by his side, the Prime Minister said, “When I started from Delhi, I was waiting since morning ki kab koi aayega aur kahega (when will somebody come and say) … we laid the foundation stone for this project. Some people do this out of habit, maybe they cut the ribbon for this project in their youth. Some people’s priority is ‘imagination’, our priority is execution.” The project has been completed at a cost of over ₹9,800 crore, out of which more than ₹4,600 crore was provisioned in the last four years. Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya were among those present at the project inauguration programme. The Saryu canal project also involves interlinking of five rivers — Ghaghara, Saryu, Rapti, Banganga and Rohini — to ensure optimum usage of water resources of the region. Work on the project started in 1978 but due to lack of continuity of budgetary support, interdepartmental coordination and adequate monitoring, it got delayed and was not completed even after nearly four decades, according to an official statement. Consequently in 2016, the project was brought under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana with the target to complete it in a time-bound manner. The renewed focus has resulted in the project being completed in only about four years, it said. The project will provide assured water for irrigation to over 14 lakh hectares of land and benefit about 29 lakh farmers of more than 6,200 villages, the statement said. It will benefit nine districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, namely Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Siddharthnagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur and Maharajganj, it said. The farmers of the region, who were the worst sufferers of the inordinate delay in the project, will now immensely benefit from the upgraded irrigation potential, the statement said. They will now be able to grow crops on a larger scale and maximize the agri-potential of the region, it said.
Racial profiling in Arunachal
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has registered a complaint filed by the Chakma Development Foundation of India (CDFI) on December 2 against racial profiling of Chakmas and Hajongs in Arunachal Pradesh through an exclusive census of both the communities from December 11-31. The Deputy Commissioner of Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district had on November 26 notified the “census of Chakmas and Hajongs 2021”, which the CDFI said was in clear violation of their right to life, including the right to privacy and the right to equality. The Deputy Commissioner has denied such a notification. The PMO wrote to the State’s Chief Secretary on December 7 seeking appropriate action on the complaint and informing it on the matter. There are about 65,000 Chakmas and Hajongs in the State; about 4,500 are migrants from 1964 to 1969. The rest are descendants and citizens by birth under Section 3 of the Citizenship Act of 1955, the CDFI said. The migrants were primarily displaced by the Kaptai dam in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of present-day Bangladesh, then called East Pakistan. The CDFI had termed the exclusive Chakma-Hajong census in the State as an act of racial profiling “because there is no census on the illegal immigrants from Myanmar and China, the illegal immigrants who had entered through Assam as well as thousands of people who had entered Arunachal Pradesh without inner line permit (ILP)”. “On the contrary, the Chakmas and Hajongs were settled by the Union of India from 1964 to 1969 to permanently settle them in the State and they do not require ILP,” the CDFI said. ILP is a temporary travel permit required for Indian citizens to enter Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland besides Arunachal Pradesh. The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873 necessitates this permit. Many indigenous groups see the Chakmas and Hajongs as outsiders and have been demanding their “deportation” besides denial of voting rights and access to government schemes.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Powerful tornadoes kill at least 78 in five U.S. states.
Dozens of devastating tornadoes ripped through five US states overnight, leaving more than 70 people dead Saturday in Kentucky — many of the workers at a candle factory — and inflicting deadly damage at a sprawling Amazon warehouse in Illinois. The western Kentucky town of Mayfield was “ground zero” of the storm — a scene of “massive devastation,” one official said early Saturday.
Vizag-born professor named president of Penn State varsity.
A professor of Indian origin, Neeli Bendapudi, is the first woman and person of color to be named as president of America’s prestigious Pennsylvania State University. This was announced by the educational institution on Thursday. Ms. Bendapudi was born in Visakhapatnam and had gone to the U.S. in 1986 for pursuing her higher studies. She is at present serving as president and professor of marketing at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. “She has been unanimously named as Penn State’s next president by the Penn State Board of Trustees on December 9,” the university disclosed in a statement on its website. Ms. Bendapudi is the 18th president of the University of Louisville and is a recognized leader in higher education, who specializes in marketing and consumer behavior. In a career spanning nearly 30 years, she has taught marketing and has served in a variety of administrative roles, including provost and executive vice-chancellor at the University of Kansas, Dean of the School of Business at the University of Kansas, and founding-director of the Initiative for Managing Services at Ohio State University.
