THE
GOOD WORD
Jun 14, 2021 - Week
26
Volume 7S-5| Pages 1
SC raps West
Bengal: Adopt
centre’s ‘one
nation-one ration
card’ scheme right
away
Jun 11, the SC bench of
justices Bhushan and
Shah, hearing a case
suo moto, on the food
security for migrant
workers during
lockdown made an
observation that has far
reaching implications
on assuring ration for
beneficiaries across
India and also in
bolstering national
security as it provides
for a nation-wide
implementation of the
Aadhaar card scheme
which helps identify
illegal immigrants.
Tushar Mehta, solicitor
general, informed the
court of a technological
transformation, a one-
nation-one-ration-card
(ONORC) scheme, for
availing ration
introduced under the
Prime Minister’s Garib
Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY),
that will allow about 80
crore beneficiaries to
avail subsidized central
government provided
ration at any electronic
point of sale enabled
fair price shop in the
country with a valid
card that uses
biometric
authentication.
The advocate for the
petitioners had
submitted that there
were nearly 2.8 crore
migrants without ration
cards, who will remain
deprived. The centre
explained that despite
a pandemic a total of
32 States and UTs
covering around 69
crore National Food
Security Act (NFSA)
beneficiaries, i.e. 86%,
were brought under
the ONORC scheme by
December 2020. It
added, if states did not
make ration cards it
would be up to the
state to implement an
alternative scheme.
The petitioners
objected, pleading that
the centre was merely
transferring its burden
to the state. It was
pointed out that even
Bharat First
3
UP Polls: Yogi Adityanath meets PM
Indian president Kovind
and party president JP
Nadda, in separate one
on one meetings.
Earlier BJP general
secretary BL Santosh
and a senior leader had
held meetings with key
ministers and BJP
leaders in Lucknow to
secure feedback to
prepare a poll strategy.
There is speculation
that Yogi government
may expand the cabinet
ahead of the polls to
strengthen alliances.
Yogi’s handling of
the
Jun 5, NIA arrested
fugitive Muhammad
Mansoor at Calicut
airport on his return
from the UAE. He is a
conspirator in the July
5, 2020 smuggling of 30
kgs of gold, cleverly
concealed in import
cargo marked to the
UAE consulate, to evade
duty. The NIA had
earlier arrested Swapna
Suresh, the main
accused, who used
forged documents to
claim diplomatic
immunity and escape
checks. An ex-UAE
consulate staff, she was
allegedly assisted by the
Kerala principal
secretary to CM
Pinarayi Vijayan, M
Sivasankar in clearing
customs. Employed at a
state IT unit, she
revealed that in 2017
the CM had ‘unofficially’
appointed Sivasankar as
a point of contact for
UAE. NIA is probing if
the gold was used to
fund anti-national
activities like anti-CAA
protest. OpIndia, Swarajyamag
NIA arrests
fugitive-Kerala
gold smuggling
Jun 4, Nigeria banned
Twitter indefinitely
after the company
deleted a tweet by its
president Muhammadu
Buhari warning against
secessionist advocacy.
Twitter then suspended
his account for 12
hours.
Koo, the Indian social
media micro blogging
app that rivals Twitter
moved in to fill the void.
The government of
Nigeria opened its
account @nigeriagov on
Koo and has clocked up
35,000 followers in a
matter of a few days.
Jun 11, Twitter came
around, apologetic,
trying to win back
Nigeria’s business, but
with an impudent tweet
that spoke of upholding
open internet, ironically
right after Twitter
suspended Buhari’s
account. Nigeria has
evinced no interest in
resuming talks.
More at: OpIndia
Nigeria bans
Twitter; stages
Koo
Visit IndiaWiki.org
Mehul Chowksi-CBI, MEA intervene at Dominica
leaders to relay his
message to their
community, to ease
pressure on land and
alleviate poverty. He
added the government is
working for the benefit of
all. It is educating
Muslims. Reiterating the
commitment to free such
land of encroachments,
he cited an example of
the Bodo and Mising
communities which have
adopted family planning,
checked population
growth and restricted
encroachment of forest.
More at: Swarajya
Punjab National
Bank.
In 2018, Chowksi took
up citizenship in
Antigua, after fleeing
India. On May 24, under
conflicting versions of
what transpired, he
arrived in Dominica
where he was arrested
for illegal entry.
Appealing for a return to
Antigua, he was denied
bail as the Dominican HC
deemed him a ‘flight
risk’ given a pending
Interpol red corner
notice against him.
More at: FirstPost
Monday, addressing the
burgeoning Muslim
population in Assam,
which has grown from
25% in 1951 to an
estimated 40% of the
state’s total, now, CM
Sarma asked Muslims to
adopt decent population
control measures and
have smaller families.
Addressing criticism of
the government’s anti-
encroachment drive to
free up temple and forest
lands, he noted most of
the encroachers on such
land were Muslims. He
requested Muslim
Jun 13, Bangalore ATS
arrested 2 ISI hired men
Gautam and Ibrahim,
with SIM box call
exchanges in 6 places
and about 30 electronic
devices. More than 900
SIM cards in all were
recovered.
A suspicious call to an
eastern army base from
an officer seeking troop
movements alerted
Military Intelligence
Southern Command and
Bangalore ATS. They
traced the number to a
static SIM in Bangalore
whose CDR showed a
large volume of
outbound but few
incoming calls.
ISI with China, is using
SIM box call exchanges
to convert international
net based (VOIP) calls
and terminate them as
local. ISI operatives
fluent in Hindi or
English then try to glean
military intelligence.
They switch SIMs to
duck detection. A
similar arrest was made
in Hyderabad in 2018.
At: ResonantNews
Jun 11, BJP signaled
the support of its
central leadership for
Yogi Adityanath’s
retaining charge of
Uttar Pradesh, as the
state heads for
assembly election in
2022. The BJP had
secured a resounding
victory in 2017 winning
309 out of the state’s
403 seats.
Monday Yogi arrived
for a 2 day visit to
Delhi to meet prime
minister Modi, home
minister Amit Shah,
UK student bodies and
Hindu groups have
reproached Oxford for
prolonging an
investigation into the
vicious and Hindu-
phobic cyber bullying of
Rashmi Samant, a 22
year old, freshly elected
president of the Oxford
Students’ Union, in
February. Rashmi was
forced to resign and
then returned to India.
An Oxford faculty
member, Abhijit Sarkar,
among others attacked
Rashmi for her faith,
views on colonialism
and even her parents.
The Hindu Federation
filed a police complaint
that accused Sarkar of
inciting religious hatred.
The matter has been
raised by UK MPs and in
the Indian Parliament.
Oxford said it stands
committed to making
people of all
background feel
welcomed. But an
outcome in this March
investigation appears
stonewalled.
Republic, iGlobalNews
Oxford
reproached for
probe delay
June 12, the CBI and
MEA submitted 2
affidavits at Dominica
HC which if accepted will
allow acclaimed lawyer
Harish Salve to plead
India’s case for
Chowksi’s extradition.
He is wanted in India for
a ₹13,500 fraud on the
Maharashtra and
Punjab have
implemented the
ONORC scheme.
States which have not
implemented this
scheme include West
Bengal, Delhi and
Assam. Of these,
Assam faced delays in
introducing NRC which
cascaded to the
creation of Aadhaar
cards and in turn
affected
implementation of the
ONORC scheme. West
Bengal and Delhi were
making excuses to
avoid implementation.
The bench came down
heavily on West Bengal
and declared that the
state implement the
scheme immediately.
When the state counsel
rationalized the
absence of ration cards
on account of delays in
seeding Aadhaar cards,
the bench frowned.
You have to implement
it when others have,
it warned, “You cannot
cite one or the other
problem.”
Delhi has also taken note
it. Union minister, Ravi
Shankar Prasad held a
presser, the same
morning, to address the
Delhi government’s
resistance to ONORC. He
pointed out the AAP
government was trying to
suggest a red herring
alternative, which
required dispensing with
necessary checks and
balances provided in the
central scheme. He
added Delhi was not at
liberty to dictate a change
to the centre’s
nationwide scheme.
Aimed to benefit all 80
crore beneficiaries
ONORC is primarily
targeted at benefiting
migrant workers. The
court kept the order
reserved. Some see it as
having boomeranged on
the applicants.
At: OpIndia,
IndiaTVNews, Hindu
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
Covid pandemic has
been exemplary. A state
with 24 crore people,
about 17% of the
national population,
suffered only 6% of its
Covid fatalities. In May,
the WHO praised Yogi
for initiating door to
door checks in rural
areas to stem Covid.
On June 1, BJP general
secretary had praised
him for the sharp
reduction in the ‘new
daily case count’ by 93%
in a mere 5 weeks.
At ZeeNews, MoneyControl
ISI operatives
caught running
phone exchange
Assam CM, Himanta Sarma urges
Muslims to have smaller families
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
and Prime Minister Narendra Modi
*Estimate
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