THE INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE
1.7 NEW DISTRICTS IN WEST BENGAL — HOW AND WHY ARE DISTRICTS CREATED OR ABOLISHED IN INDIA?
THE CONTEXT: The West Bengal cabinet has approved the creation of seven new districts in the state. It will take the number of districts in West Bengal to 30 from the existing 23.
THE EXPLANATION:
• The Chief Minister told a press conference that a new Sundarban district will be carved out of South 24-Parganas district; two new districts will be created out of North 24-Parganas district — Ichhamati in Bongaon subdivision and a yet unnamed district in Basirhat; Ranaghat, a city and municipality in Nadia district, will become the fourth new district; a new district of Bishnupur will be carved out of the existing Bankura district; and two new districts of Baharampur and Jangipur will be created out of Murshidabad district.
Why have these districts been created?
• States keep creating new districts from time to time. The idea everywhere is, generally, that smaller units would make governance easier and would benefit the people by bringing the government and the administration closer to them, and making them more accessible. Sometimes, the decision to create a new district is driven by local demands.
• As per Census 2011 figures, almost 4 million people lived in each of West Bengal’s 23 districts on average — among the highest in the country.
Who decides on creating or scrapping districts, or changing their boundaries?
• This power lies with the state governments, who can pass a law in the Assembly or simply issue an order and notify it in the gazette. The Centre does not have a say in the matter.
• The central government does play a role, however, when a change of name of a district or railway station is contemplated. The request of the state government in this regard is sent to several central government departments before a no-objection certificate is issued.
Have Indian states been creating a lot of new districts?
• The number of districts around the country has been going up steadily over the years. The 2001 Census recorded 593 districts, which went up to 640 in 2011. India currently has more than 775 districts.
• Uttar Pradesh has the most districts (75) in the country, followed by Madhya Pradesh (52). Goa, by contrast, has only 2 districts. However, the number of districts in a state is not always a function of the area of the state, or of its population.
• West Bengal, for example, has 42 Lok Sabha MPs but only 30 districts even after the addition of the 7 new districts, and Andhra Pradesh, even after the recent doubling of the number of districts to 26, has only one more district than the number of Lok Sabha seats. Tamil Nadu, which has 39 MPs in Lok Sabha — after only Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal — has one fewer district.
• In general, the largest districts in India by area cover sparsely populated areas — for example, Kachchh in Gujarat, and Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Barmer, and Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
THE SOCIAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
2.EXPLAINED: WHAT THE LAW SAYS ON PROTECTING CHILDREN AGAINST CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
THE CONTEXT: Recently, three private school teachers in Pune have been booked under the Juvenile Justice Act over allegedly thrashing three Class 10 students, and threatening to grade them poorly in internal assessments. A look at the legal provisions that bar corporal punishment, and who has the responsibility to protect children against abuse.
THE EXPLANATION:
What is corporal punishment?
By definition, corporal punishment means punishment that is physical in nature. While there is no statutory definition of ‘corporal punishment’ targeting children in the Indian law, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 prohibits ‘physical punishment’ and ‘mental harassment’ under Section 17(1) and makes it a punishable offence under Section 17(2).
• According to the Guidelines for Eliminating Corporal Punishment in Schools issued by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), physical punishment is understood as any action that causes pain, hurt/injury and discomfort to a child, however light.
• Examples include hitting, kicking, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling the hair, boxing ears, smacking, slapping, spanking, hitting with any implement (cane, stick, shoe, chalk, dusters, belt, whip), giving electric shock and so on.
• It includes making children assume an uncomfortable position (standing on bench, standing against the wall in a chair-like position, standing with school bag on head, holding ears through legs, kneeling, forced ingestion of anything, detention in the classroom, library, toilet or any closed space in the school.
What are provisions under the law against such punishment?
• Section 17 of the Right to Education Act, 2009, imposes an absolute bar on corporal punishment. It prohibits physical punishment and mental harassment to children and prescribes disciplinary action to be taken against the guilty person in accordance with the service rules applicable to such person.
• Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act prescribes punishment for cruelty to children.
o Whenever a child is assaulted, abused, exposed or neglected in a manner to cause physical or mental suffering by any person employed by or managing an organisation, which is entrusted with the care and protection of the child, the punishment would be rigorous imprisonment upto five years and fine up to Rs 5 lakh.
o If the child is physically incapacitated or develops a mental illness or is rendered mentally unfit to perform regular tasks or has risk to life or limb, then imprisonment may extend upto ten years.
• Section 23 of the JJ Act, 2000 states: “Whoever, having the actual charge of, or control over, a juvenile or the child, assaults, abandons, exposes or wilfully neglects the juvenile or causes or procures him to be assaulted, abandoned, exposed or neglected in a manner likely to cause such juvenile or the child unnecessary mental or physical suffering shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or fine, or with both.”
o While Section 23 is likely to be applied most often to personnel in childcare institutions regulated by the JJ Act, it arguably applies to cruelty by anyone in a position of authority over a child, which would include parents, guardians, teachers and employers.
• Meanwhile, the RTE Act does not preclude the application of other legislation that relates to the violations of the rights of the child, for example, booking the offenses under the IPC and the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act of 1989.
What do NCPCR guidelines say about eliminating corporal punishment?
• The NCPCR guidelines for eliminating corporal punishment against children require every school to develop a mechanism and frame clear cut protocols to address grievances of students.
• Drop boxes are to be placed where the aggrieved person may drop his complaint and anonymity is to be maintained to protect privacy.
• Every school has to constitute a ‘Corporal Punishment Monitoring Cell’ consisting of two teachers, two parents, one doctor, one lawyer (nominated by DLSA), counsellor, an independent child rights activist of that area and two senior students from that school. This CPMC shall look into complaints of corporal punishments.
3.EXPLAINED: 30K KG OF DRUGS DESTROYED BY NCB – WHAT RULES GOVERN DISPOSAL OF SEIZED NARCOTICS?
THE CONTEXT: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on July 30 2022 destroyed 30,000 kg of seized drugs at four locations – Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi and Guwahati — in the virtual presence of Union Home Minister. The narcotic substances were destroyed under a drug disposal campaign that began June 1 as part of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
THE EXPLANATION:
What is the law that allows the destruction of seized drugs?
• Section 52-A of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985 allows probe agencies to destroy seized substances after collecting required samples. Officials concerned must make a detailed inventory of the substance to be destroyed.
• “A five-member committee comprising the area SSP, director/superintendent or the representative of the area NCB, a local magistrate and two others linked to law enforcement and legal fraternity is constituted. The substance is then destroyed in an incinerator or burnt completely leaving behind not any trace of the substance,” according to the MHA official.
What is the exact procedure that is followed?
• The agency first obtains permission from a local court to dispose of the seized narcotic substances. These substances are then taken to the designated place of destruction under a strict vigil. The presiding officer tallies the inventory made at the storeroom with that material brought to the spot. The entire process is videographed, photographed.
• Then one by one, all the packets/gunny bags of the substance/s are put in the incinerator. As per rules, committee members cannot leave the place until the seized drugs have been completely destroyed.
Which agency is authorised to carry out such an exercise?
• Every law enforcement agency competent to seize drugs is authorised to destroy them after taking prior permission of the area magistrate. These include state police forces, the CBI and the NCB among others.
• For instance, On June 20 2022, Chandigarh Police, along with NCB sleuths, had jointly destroyed 102.260 kg heroin, 0.495 gm charas, 0.250 kg poppy-husks, 16.6 kg cannabis, 48 injections of Buprenorphine and Pheniramine Maleate, 904 tablets of tramadol in Mohali.
What is the need to destroy seized drugs?
• The hazardous nature of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, their vulnerability to theft, substitution, constraints of proper storage space are among the reasons that make agencies destroy them.
• “Also, there have been instances when seized narcotics were pilfered from the storeroom. To prevent such instances, authorities try to destroy seized drugs immediately after collecting the required samples out of the seized substances.
VALUE ADDITION:
India and Drug Abuse
• According to a report by the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), India is one of the major hubs of illicit drug trade ranging from age-old cannabis to newer prescription drugs like tramadol, and designer drugs like methamphetamine.
• The money from the drug trade is used to finance terrorism, human trafficking, illegal businesses etc.
• India lies in the middle of two major illicit opium production regions in the world, the Golden Crescent in the west and the Golden Triangle in the east which makes it a viable hub of the illicit drug trade.
• Golden Triangle: It includes the regions of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand and is Southeast Asia’s main opium-producing region and one of the oldest narcotics supply routes to Europe and North America.
• Golden Crescent: It includes Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan and is a principal global site for opium production and distribution.
Legal Provisions in India and World
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act)
• It outlaws the recreational use of cannabis.
• Under the Act, the production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transport, and use of cannabis is a punishable offence.
• The NDPS Act, however, does not apply to the leaves and seeds of cannabis plants.
• In case the CBD is extracted from the leaves of the cannabis, then technically it is not illegal.
• CBD oil manufactured under a licence issued by the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 can be legally used.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)
• It is vested with the power to charge individuals in cases related to the illegal use and supply of narcotics.
• India is a signatory to various international drug-related UN conventions and the responsibility of implementation of the provision of these international conventions also lies with NCB.
The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND)
• It is the central policy-making body for the UN drug control system, which meets on an annual basis
• The Vienna-based CND was founded in 1946.
• It is to decide on the scope of control of substances by placing them in the schedules of global drug control conventions.
THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
4.WHO WERE THE RAZAKARS, ACCUSED OF HORRIFIC CRIMES DURING THE 1971 BANGLADESH LIBERATION WAR?
THE CONTEXT: Six members of ‘Razakar Bahini’, a locally recruited paramilitary force that collaborated with the Pakistan army during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, were sentenced to death for ‘crimes against humanity’ by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal on July 28 recently.
THE EXPLANATION:
• In 2010, almost 40 years after its violent struggle for independence from Pakistan, Bangladesh established its International Crimes Tribunal in order to administer justice to those accused of committing war crimes against its people.
Who were the Razakars?
• The Razakars were an auxiliary force of the Pakistan army during the 1971 Bangladesh War. Composed of mostly pro-Pakistani Bengalis and Biharis from Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), the approximate 50,000 Razakars assisted the army in raids against the local population and were accused of committing horrific atrocities.
• Razakar literally means ‘volunteer’ or ‘helper’ in Persian and Urdu, but has come to mean ‘collaborator’ and is associated with betrayal in Bangladesh. According to the anthropologist, it is used as an abuse.
• Razakars mostly consisted of Urdu-speaking Bihari Muslims and religious parties that opposed the separation of East and West Pakistan, like Jamaat-e-Islami, Al Badr and Al Shams. Ethnic Bihars who had moved to Bangladesh after the partition in 1947 were in particular denounced as foreigners and collaborators by other locals.
Fate after the Liberation War
After Bangladesh achieved independence in December 1971, the newly formed government very quickly banned organisations that collaborated with Pakistani state forces, such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, and many of its influential leaders escaped to Pakistan.
Road to justice
In March 2010, the government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina established Bangladesh’s three-member International Crimes Tribunal to investigate and administer justice to those suspected of being involved in torture and killings during the country’s struggle for independence. The ruling Awami League had pledged to prosecute war criminals of 1971 and had won a landslide victory in the 2008 general election.
VALUE ADDITION:
About 1971 the Bangladesh Liberation War (OPERATION JACKPOT)
• The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was the first war between the countries that did not involve fighting over the Kashmir region.
• At this time, the Dominion of Pakistan was divided into West Pakistan and East Pakistan (initially East Bengal). These two regions were separated by the larger nation of India.
• Fought under the leadership of then-prime minister Indira Gandhi and chief of army staff (COAS), General Sam Manekshaw, the war ended in less than two weeks with a decisive victory for India, and resulted in the creation of Bangladesh, which was then known as East Pakistan.
THE ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
5.THE TECHNOLOGY POWERING HYBRID ELECTRIC VEHICLES
THE CONTEXT: In recent months, automakers Maruti Suzuki, Toyota and Honda have launched hybrid electric vehicles in India, offering car buyers more choices in the nascent electric vehicle market.
THE EXPLANATION:
These new hybrid electric vehicles from different automakers, are relying on hybrid technology and its advantages over conventional internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered vehicles to change car buyers’ minds.
What is a hybrid vehicle?
Commonly called hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), a hybrid car is simply one that relies on two different power sources for motion. The two different power sources are typically petrol and electricity and diesel and electricity.
There are three main types of hybrid vehicle; full hybrids, mild hybrids and plug-in hybrids.
• A full hybrid (FHEV) can run on just the combustion engine (i.e. diesel/petrol), the electric engine (i.e. power from batteries), or a combination. The Honda City HEV is an example of this. A full hybrid is not plugged in to recharge; the battery is recharged by running the combustion engine.
• A mild hybrid has an electric motor and combustion engine which always work together. An example of this is the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza (Soon to be made available). Mild hybrids cannot run in just electric or just combustion engine mode; the engines/motors always work in parallel.
• Plug-in hybrids usually have greater electric-only ranges than full hybrids. Plug-In hybrids essentially serve as a half-way point between full hybrid vehicles and fully electric vehicles. One of the requirements of plug-in-hybrids is bigger battery pack.
What is regenerative braking and how does it work?
• Regenerative braking is a mechanism found on most hybrid and full-electric vehicles. It captures the kinetic energy from braking and converts it into the electrical power that charges the vehicle’s high voltage battery.
• Regenerative braking also slows the car down, which assists the use of traditional brakes.
• In a conventional braking system, a car slows down due to friction between the brake pads and rotors. But this system is highly inefficient when it comes to conserving energy. Nearly all of the kinetic energy propelling your car forward is lost as heat when you apply the brakes. That’s a lot of wasted energy!
• Regenerative braking solves this problem by recapturing upwards of 70% of the kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost during braking. The amount of energy recovered depends on your car model and driving behaviour.
How does regenerative braking provide electricity?
• Regenerative braking turns kinetic energy into electricity by reversing the process that drives the car forward.
• In electric cars, the drivetrain is powered by a battery pack that powers a motor (or motors), creating torque–rotational force–on the wheels.
• With regenerative braking, the energy from your spinning wheels is used to reverse the direction of electricity – from the electric motor(s) to the battery. All you have to do is remove your foot from the accelerator or, in some cases, press the brake pedal to activate regenerative braking. The electric motor not only acts as an electric generator, but it also helps slow your car down because energy is consumed by the wheels as they rotate the shaft in the electric motor.
Advantages of regenerative braking
• Brake pads & rotors may last longer
• Extended range possibilities for electric vehicles
• Better fuel efficiency for hybrids
Disadvantages of a regenerative braking system
• May be less effective at lower speeds
• Brake pedal may feel different
• Potentially less stopping power
Government Measures
• Government has approved Phase-II of FAME Scheme with an outlay of Rs. 10,000 Crore for a period of 3 years commencing from 1st April 2019. Out of total budgetary support, about 86 percent of fund has been allocated for Demand Incentive so as to create demand for xEVs in the country.
• This phase aims to generate demand by way of supporting 7000 e-Buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars (including Strong Hybrid) and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers. However, depending upon off-take of different category of xEVs, these numbers may vary as the provision has been made for inter as well as intra segment wise fungibility.
6.NEW E-WASTE RULES THREATEN JOBS, COLLECTION NETWORK
THE CONTEXT: A proposed framework by the Centre for regulating e-waste in India has upset a key link of India’s electronic waste collection system and threatens the livelihood of thousands of people.
THE EXPLANATION:
• Electronic waste, or electronic goods that are past their productive life and old parts, is largely handled by India’s vast informal sector.
• Spent goods are dismantled and viable working parts refurbished, with the rest making their way into chemical dismantling units. Many of these units are run out of unregulated sweatshops that employ child labour and hazardous extraction techniques. This electronic detritus contaminates soil and aggravates plastic pollution.
• To address all of this, the Environment Ministry brought the E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016, which introduced a system of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compelling makers of electronic goods to ensure a proportion of the goods they sold every year was recycled.
• They are expected to maintain records annually demonstrating this. Most companies however did not maintain an in-house unit in charge of recycling and this gave rise to a network of government-registered companies, called producer responsibility organisations (PRO) which acted as an intermediary between manufacturers of electronic goods and formal recycling units and were technologically equipped to recycle end-of-life electronic goods safely and efficiently.
Certified proof
• The PROs typically bid for contracts from companies and arrange for specified quantities of goods to be recycled and provide companies certified proof of recycling that they then maintain as part of their records. Several PROs work on consumer awareness and enable a supply chain for recycled goods.
• As of March, 2022 the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has registered 74 PROs and 468 authorised dismantlers, which have a collective recycling capacity of about 1.3 million tonnes.
• The Ministry estimated 7.7 lakh tonnes of e-waste to have been generated in 2018-19 and around one million tonnes in 2019-20 of which only a fifth (about 22% in both years) has been confirmed to be “dismantled and recycled”.
‘Improve accountability’
• According to sources, new rules would improve accountability because it would rely on an electronic management system that would track the material that went in for recycling with the output claimed by a recycler when they claimed GST (Goods and Services Tax) input credit.
• “Currently, the entire system is not remunerative for recyclers, which actually do the job of recycling. This current system incentivises them to invest in a dependable supply chain that will collect and recycle waste”.
• “The current system managed by PRO isn’t always reliable as there have been several instances of double-counting (where the same articles recycled once for one company are credited into the account for multiple companies). Also, the CPCB was still testing such a system though it wouldn’t automatically solve the problem of routing all electronic waste from informal channels to formal channels.
VALUE ADDITION:
India specific:
• There are 312 authorised recyclers of e-waste in India, with the capacity for treating approximately 800 kilotonnes annually.
• About 90 per cent of the country’s e-waste is recycled in the informal sector.
• India’s first e-waste clinic for segregating, processing and disposal of waste from household and commercial units has been set-up in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
• According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generated more than 10 lakh tonnes of e-waste in 2019-20, an increase from 7 lakh tonnes in 2017-18. Against this, the e-waste dismantling capacity has not been increased from 7.82 lakh tonnes since 2017-18.
Concerns:
• Toxicity: E-waste consists of toxic elements such as Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, Chromium, Polybrominated biphenyls and Polybrominated diphenyl.
• Effects on Humans: Some of the major health effects include serious illnesses such as lung cancer, respiratory problems, bronchitis, brain damages, etc. due to inhalation of toxic fumes, exposure to heavy metals and alike.
• Effects on Environment: E-waste is an environmental hazard causing groundwater pollution, acidification of soil and contamination of groundwater and air pollution due to the burning of plastic and other remnants.
THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS OF THE DAY
Q. Consider the following statements with respect to the regenerative braking system:
1. Regenerative braking turns kinetic energy into electricity by reversing the process that drives the car forward.
2. In regenerative braking system the electric motor functioning as an electric generator.
Which among the above statements is/are correct?
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2
ANSWER FOR THE PRACTICE QUESTION
ANSWER: C
EXPLANATION:
• Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this mechanism, the electric traction motor uses the vehicle’s momentum to recover energy that would otherwise be lost to the brake discs as heat.
• Regenerative braking turns kinetic energy into electricity by reversing the process that drives the car forward.
• In electric cars, the drivetrain is powered by a battery pack that powers a motor (or motors), creating torque–rotational force–on the wheels.
• With regenerative braking, the energy from your spinning wheels is used to reverse the direction of electricity – from the electric motor(s) to the battery. All you have to do is remove your foot from the accelerator or, in some cases, press the brake pedal to activate regenerative braking. The electric motor not only acts as an electric generator, but it also helps slow your car down because energy is consumed by the wheels as they rotate the shaft in the electric motor.
