NATIONAL NEWS
A) Yogi Adityanath’s move to control population
Following in Assam’s footsteps, whose Chief minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma, has been vocal in advocating population control for Muslims, the most populous state in India, Uttar Pradesh, is working towards a law that will restrict social welfare schemes, ration, government jobs and elections to local bodies, to those with two children, excluding all those who fail to conform to the two-child norm. The scheme of the state government finds an outlet in the controversial population draft law which has been prepared by the Uttar Pradesh Health Department based on the findings of the National Family Health Survey-4. On more than one occasion, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has publicly commented on the urgent need to control population growth. He had even tweeted two years ago that nuclear family is an expression of patriotism. The draft bill states that persons with more than two children after the enactment of the law shall be excluded from benefits of government-sponsored welfare schemes, will be barred from contesting election to local bodies, and shall be ineligible to apply for government jobs under the state government. They will be effectively barred from getting a promotion in a government job; their ration cards will be restricted to four members per family and he or she shall be ineligible to receive any kind of government subsidy. Control, stabilisation and welfare is what the law aims at, said the UP Law commission chairman A N Mittal. The introduction of the draft law which will be discussed has drawn the ire of opposition Samajwadi Party which said that the policy targets the second largest religious community, namely the Muslims, whose population accounts for 19.23 % of the state’s population. The proposed bill offers a slew of incentives to those with two children and these range from a soft housing loan, rebate on charges for utilities such as water, electricity, and house tax among other things. State Government employees who conform to the two-child norm will also get two additional increments during the entire service, maternity or paternity leave of 12 months with full salary and allowances and free health care facility and insurance coverage to the spouse. In addition, those with only a child will be entitled to free health care facilities and free insurance coverage to the single child till they turn 20, preference will be given to the single child in admission in all educational institutions, including IIMs and AIIMS, free education up to graduation level, scholarship for higher studies in case of a girl child and preference to a single child in government jobs. Public servants sticking to the one-child norm will be eligible for four additional increments in all apart from the incentives promised to the general public doing the same. The law, when it comes into force, will be applicable to all married couples in the state of Uttar Pradesh who have attained legal age of marriage. India was one of the first countries in the world to initiate a family planning programme, in 1952, aimed at lowering fertility and slowing the population growth rate. State governments in the past, both Congress and the BJP, have tried to control population by incentivising those with two children and excluding those with more. India’s National Family Planning Programme is looking at reducing India’s overall fertility rate to 2.1 by 2025. Uttar Pradesh will be going to polls next year.
B) Milk gets more expensive
Leading milk supplier Mother Dairy has increased milk prices in Delhi-NCR and other cities by ₹ 2 per litre with effect from Sunday in all its outlets, citing rising input costs. Milk prices were last revised in December 2019. It may be recalled that milk cooperative Amul had hiked milk prices by Rs 2 per litre on July 1. Along with increase in Petrol prices selling at upwards of Rs 100 a litre and diesel hikes, to a rise in LPG prices, the burden on the common man has only increased. With the Opposition party, Congress declaring its intent of going on a nationwide campaign against rising fuel prices, concerns are that the hike in milk prices will only burn a hole in consumer’s pockets. Mother Dairy is available in over 100 cities and the price rise has been attributed to rising procurement costs which had gone up by 8-10 % in the last one year, according to reports. Prices of Mother Dairy milk are also being revised across India east and central Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Nagpur and Kolkata from July 11 onwards to the tune of ₹ 2/litre on the current prevailing MRP in respective markets, according to reports appearing in the press. Mother Dairy sells around 30 lakh litres of milk per day in Delhi-NCR, while the total sale is 35 lakh litre per day. As per the revised prices, token milk will be sold at ₹ 44 per litre from Sunday as against the current price of ₹ 42 per litre. Full cream milk poly pack will be available at ₹ 57 per litre up from ₹ 55 per litre now. Prices of toned milk has been revised to ₹ 47 from ₹ 45 per litre, while double toned milk rates have gone up to ₹ 41 from ₹ 39 per litre. Cow milk will cost ₹ 49 from Sunday as against ₹ 47 per litre now. Rates of half litre milk pouch have been increased by ₹ 1, which means an effective hike of ₹ 2 per litre.
C) Assam’s cow protection bill raises concern among its neighbours
Assam’s Cattle Preservation Bill has raised concerns among its immediate beef-eating neighbours, chief of whom, the state of Meghalaya has declared its intent off flagging its concerns with the Union Government. The Bill was introduced by Chief Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma on July 7, who has said that the proposed legislation will seek to ban the movement of cattle to and from the State primarily to check cattle smuggling to Bangladesh. The Bill will be placed before the State Assembly in the upcoming session and seeks to replace the existing Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 1950, that allows the slaughter of cattle above 14 years of age after approval from local veterinary officers. It will become an act, if passed by the state assembly .We will raise the issue not only with the Assam government but also the Centre if the law affects transit of cattle to Meghalaya from other States after studying the legislation, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said. Sagma said the Meghalaya government had already discussed the Assam Bill with cattle-supplying states such as Bihar, Telangana and West Bengal. Transportation of cattle from these States to Meghalaya should not be a problem., Sagma said. All steps will be taken from our side to ensure that supply is not hampered because of the law to be passed by the Assam government, Sangma said. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have legislations for the protection of cows and states like MP and UP have seen the brutal lynching of innocents by vigilante mobs on the suspicion of smuggling cattle. Very few arrests have been made in such cases.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) China evacuates citizens from Afghanistan
China evacuated 210 nationals from Afghanistan as U.S. troops stepped up their withdrawal from the war-torn nation, the airline that carried out the emergency chartered flight said. A Xiamen Airlines flight departed the capital Kabul for the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, on July 2 carrying Chinese citizens who had been stranded in Afghanistan, it said in a Thursday social media post. Among them were 22 people who were later confirmed to be infected with coronavirus, despite the airline taking top-notch epidemic prevention measures during the flight and upon landing, it added. The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that recent returnees included coronavirus patients and called on all nationals to leave Afghanistan, without revealing further specifics of the evacuation flight. In order to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Afghanistan, the Chinese government has reminded citizens in Afghanistan to leave the country as soon as possible and provided necessary assistance, its Consular Affairs Department said in a Wednesday social media post. Chinese health authorities reported 25 new imported coronavirus cases in Hubei province on Wednesday, 22 of which were from the Kabul flight. The flight was organised by the Chinese government, reported the state media tabloid Global Times. In recent weeks, Beijing has harshly criticised what it sees as a hasty and chaotic withdrawal by Washington. The U.S. disregards its responsibilities and duties and withdraws troops from Afghanistan hastily, dumping the mess and war on the Afghan people and countries in the region, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a routine briefing Friday. The U.S., as the original culprit of the Afghan issue, bears unavoidable responsibility for the current situation in Afghanistan. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to discuss the deteriorating Afghan security situation with counterparts from Russia, India, Pakistan and numerous Central Asian countries at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation next week. The evacuation flight was hailed as a patriotic victory by Chinese social media users, with related trending hashtags gaining more than 300 million views on Weibo.
B) Afghanistan to rush troops to border as Taliban extend gains.
Afghan authorities prepared on Saturday to try to retake a key border crossing seized by the Taliban in their sweeping offensive to capture new territory that led a veteran warlord to deploy his militiamen in the western city of Herat. As US troops continued their withdrawal, the Taliban said its fighters had seized two crossings in western Afghanistan completing an arc of territory from the Iranian border to the frontier with China. It now holds 85 percent of the country, a Taliban official said, controlling about 250 of Afghanistan’s nearly 400 districts a claim impossible to independently verify and disputed by the government. Meanwhile Beijing, which has criticised Washington for its hasty withdrawal, urged its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible after evacuating 210 nationals. The complex and severe domestic security situation prompted the evacuation warning, the foreign ministry said. On Friday Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said their fighters had captured the town of Islam Qala on the Iranian frontier and the Torghundi crossing with Turkmenistan. A spokesman for the governor of Herat province said on Saturday the authorities were deploying fresh troops to retake the Islam Qala post, the biggest trade crossing between Iran and Afghanistan. They will be sent there soon, he said. The Afghan government has repeatedly dismissed the Taliban’s gains as having little strategic value, but the seizure of multiple border crossings and the taxes they generate will likely fill the group’s coffers with new revenue. With the Taliban having routed much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, the government holds little more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be reinforced and resupplied by air. The air force was under severe strain even before the Taliban’s lightning offensive overwhelmed the government’s northern and western positions, putting further pressure on the country’s limited aircraft and pilots. The status quo is not an option, Biden said of staying in the country. I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan. Biden said the Afghan people alone should determine their future, but he acknowledged the uncertainty about what that would look like. Asked if a Taliban takeover was inevitable, the president said: No, it is not. Afghan commandos clashed with the insurgents this week in a provincial capital for the first time, with thousands of people fleeing Qala-i-Naw, in Badghis province.
