• Views and Statement on EIA
• Draft EIA Notification – a Unique Text That Places Violators Front and Centre
• On September 7, 2020, the Karnataka High Court extended its interim order, until further orders, prohibiting the Centre from finalising the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020.
• Four days prior to that, the Centre – through the environment ministry – had filed a review petition before the Delhi high court requesting it to review its earlier judgment directing the ministry to translate the draft EIA in “at least” the 22 languages, mentioned in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.
• The draft EIA is a unique text that places the violators of the law front and centre. It looks at environmental law through the eyes of the violators – in terms of the permissions to be sought, impact assessment studies to be conducted, EIA consultants to be compensated, people to be convinced and, of course, the bribes to be paid and processes to be surpassed.
• After having identified the many problems and hardships faced by violators, the draft EIA deals with them one by one. If an ignorant industrialist or builder has invested a few hundred-crore rupees to illegally construct a shopping mall or power plant, the draft EIA implicitly recognises the ‘nation-building’ effort that this is, and stipulates that the violator will have to pay a princely sum of Rs 5,000 per day (at best).
• However, the bureaucrats in the environment ministry have concluded that these laws could hurt the ‘ease of doing business’. So the draft EIA notification replaces ‘imprisonment’ with ‘atonement’.

(Science The Wire, 25 September 2020) News Link

• DCL to Release Environmental Impact Assessment of Lighthouse PointKey points:
• Appropriately called an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the Bahamas’ Director of the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection, Rochelle Newbold, stated in a press conference on September 24 that Disney’s EIA will be released for public review “in a matter of weeks.”
• Now, Disney Cruise Line submitted their EIA in December 2019, but construction cannot begin until the EIA as well as Disney’s Environmental Management Plan is accepted by the Bahamian government as The Walt Disney Company’s second “private island” destination will be set in the Bahamas; at the southern tip of the Island Eleuthera.
• Even though Disney’s report was filed 10 months ago, it is still not public because the Government is still in the process of finalizing the EIA.

(Inside The Magic, 25 September 2020) News Link

• Ram Mandir vyavastha

1. जानिए, क्यों SSF को राम मंदिर की सुरक्षा की जिम्मेदारी देने की तैयारी में योगी सरकार?

Key points:

1. अयोध्या के साथ ही राम मंदिर की सुरक्षा का जिम्मा भी एसएसएफ के जवानों के कंधों पर होगा. इसके अलावा सरकार प्रदेश के प्रमुख धार्मिक स्थल काशी और मथुरा की सुरक्षा की जिम्मेदारी भी एसएसएफ को देने पर विचार कर रही है.
2. यूपी सरकार हाल ही में चर्चा में रही विशेष सुरक्षा बल (एसएसएफ) के हाथों राम नगरी अयोध्या की सुरक्षा देने की तैयारी में है. अयोध्या के साथ ही राम मंदिर की सुरक्षा का जिम्मा भी एसएसएफ के जवानों के कंधों पर होगा. इसके अलावा सरकार प्रदेश के प्रमुख धार्मिक स्थल काशी और मथुरा की सुरक्षा की जिम्मेदारी भी एसएसएफ को देने पर विचार कर रही है. बतादें कि एसएसएफ के जवानों को आधुनिक संसाधन, हथियार व विशेष अधिकार दिए जाएंगे. इसमें विभिन्न सुरक्षाबलों के चुनिंदा जवान समेत कम उम्र में रियाटरमेंट लेने वाले युवा सैनिकों को रखा जाएगा
3. दरअसल, साल 1990 में तत्कालीन मुलायम सरकार में कारसेवकों को रोकने के लिए तमाम सुरक्षा एजेंसियां नाकाम साबित हुई थी. बाबरी विध्वंस के बाद से ही ये इलाका छावनी में तब्दील है. जनवरी 1993 में 67.77 एकड़ भूमि के अधिग्रहण के बाद अयोध्या की सुरक्षा को और कस दिया गया. समय-समय पर यहां पुलिस के अलावा पीएसी, सीआरपीएफ और आरएएफ के जवानों को सुरक्षा के लिए लगाया गया. हालांकि, अलग-अलग फोर्स होने के कारण इनके तालमेल पर सवाल उठाए जाते रहे हैं. यही वजह है कि योगी सरकार अब एसएसएफ को राम मंदिर की सुरक्षा का जिम्मा देने की तैयारी कर रही है.
4. सीआईएसएफ की तर्ज पर यूपी एसएसएफ को भी तलाशी लेने, गिरफ्तार करने, हिरासत में लेकर पूछताछ करने के अधिकार होंगे. इतना ही नहीं आने वाले वक्त में यूपी एसएसएफ को थाने का पावर दिया जाएगा जिससे वो कानूनी प्रक्रिया का भी पालन कर सके.

(ABP Live, 25 September 2020) News Link

• POJK
• ‘Pakistan treating us like animals’: PoK activist seeks UN help to restore political and civil rights

Key points:

1. Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), activist Sajjad Raja has sought United Nations’ help to restore their political, civil and constitutional rights. He also alleged that the Imran Khan-led government is treating the citizens of the PoK region like animals.
2. “We the people of Pakistan occupied Kashmir plead the council to stop Pakistan from treating us like animals. The POK election Act 2020 has taken away all of our constitutional, civil and political rights. Our activities opposing accession to Pakistan have been declared anti-state in flagrant violations of United Nations Resolutions,” ANI quoted Prof Sajjad Raja, Chairman of the National Equality Party JKGBL, as saying.
3. While making an intervention during the 45th Session of the UNHRC in Geneva on Thursday, the PoK activist broke down in tears as he made the appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
4. Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), activist Sajjad Raja further said, “We are treated as traitors in our own home simply for defending it. By declaring our political activities illegal, this act gives the Pakistan Army a free hand to assassinate our people through targeted killings and enforce disappearances.”
5. “Pakistan is brainwashing innocent youth on both sides of the border in Jammu and Kashmir making them cannon fodder in the proxy war with India. Pakistan continues to run terror camps from POK,” Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), activist Sajjad Raja added.

(Times Now News, 25 September 2020) News Link