Nitin Sethi and Subhayan Chakraborty, Business Standard

Image of Ranveer and Deepika Photoshopped, Shows Them Campaigning for BJP

The effort tries to portray unwilling A-grade celebrities endorsing the BJP using B-grade photoshop skills.

A photograph of movie stars Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone has been posted by a page on Facebook. The photograph shows the two sporting saffron scarves on which ‘Vote for BJP N Modi’ is printed. The text accompanying the image reads, “कमल का बटन दबाकर देश की तरक्की में भागीदार बनें’ (Press the lotus button, become a part of the nation’s progress.)“

The post is by the page Ek Bihari 100 Pe Bhari. The page has a rather modest following of a little over 36,000. The post however has been shared over 4,000 times already. It has also been posted on the group Main Bhi Chowkidar. A post by an individual user has garnered over 2,600 shares.

Photoshopped images

As expected, the image is digitally altered. Alt News reverse searched the image on Google and found the real photograph, which was clicked on November 30, 2018. Singh and Padukone had visited the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai, where the picture was clicked. It was carried by several media publications.

As is evident from the image above, the duo had sported plain saffron scarves and not BJP scarves. The original picture was tampered with. The two images – photoshopped and real, have been posted together below for comparison.

Credit: Alt News

This article was originally published at Alt News. Read the original here.

Final Number of Inviolate Coal Blocks Down From 206 to Less Than 35

The environment ministry has figured that the government does not have mapped data of where India’s perennial rivers, its hydropower and irrigation projects are located.

The environment ministry has figured that the government does not have mapped data of where India’s perennial rivers, its hydropower and irrigation projects are located

Open cast miniing in Jharia. Credit: IAC/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

To be finalised soon by the government, the number of inviolate coal blocks where mining will be banned is likely to be reduced from the originally identified 206 to less than 35. The environment ministry has decided to again dilute the parameters for identifying which of India’s 793 blocks are located under healthy and important forest patches, not to be chopped down.

Beside other parameters, the ministry was to map which forests are important as catchments for perennial rivers and water bodies, irrigation and hydroelectric projects. Mining of coal in these forests was also to be restricted under the inviolate forest policy.

But documents reviewed by Business Standard show the coal ministry repeatedly warned this would severely impact many blocks.

Documents also show that after more than a year of deliberations between different agencies, the environment ministry has figured that the government does not have mapped data of where India’s perennial rivers, its hydropower and irrigation projects are located. So, the ministry has decided to dispense with the parameters measuring the importance of forests that are essential for these features. This conclusion by the ministry will now limit the inviolate coal blocks to merely 35 for good. Of these, too, the already operational blocks are expected to be taken off the list.

The 35 coal-bearing zones constitute 7.86% of the area of all the blocks. The coal ministry has noted that three of these 25 blocks, namely Lekhapani, Vijay West and Durgapur Extension in Assam, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, respectively, are already operational. These too, it has recommended be taken off the list.

Many environmental organisations had earlier criticised the T.S.R. Subramanian committee report for recommending a dilution of the inviolate norms, which the government is now close to achieving. The committee had been formed to review environmental laws, and, among other things, had suggested a limited scope of the inviolate policy to free up mining.

“A transparent, scientifically rigorous and inviolate forest policy was the right thing to do, in order to rearrange coal mining in such a way that it had less impact on forests, tribal communities and wildlife. At the same time, this would have ensured greater certainty for investors and project developers. But the ministry of environment has showed it is unable – or unwilling – to protect some of India’s last remaining forests from mining,” said Nandikesh Sivalingam from Greenpeace India.

The policy for inviolate forests was first mooted as “No-Go” areas policy by then environment minister Jairam Ramesh, under the earlier United Progressive Alliance government. That policy, which stopped mining in 47% of the areas in identified coal blocks, was opposed by others in the UPA. This began the process of dilution.

Under Jayanthi Natarajan it was named the inviolate forest policy. Though the initial set of parameters decided by an expert committee to identify such forests were comprehensive, the UPA, and then the NDA government put pressure to repeatedly dilute them. The coal ministry advocated the dilution and records show that under both governments, the environment ministry repeatedly tinkered with the parameters and consequently kept bringing down the area kept out of mining.

Business Standard had earlier reported how some of the other parameters to identify good forests were watered down.

Now, documents show that the coal ministry also warned that a large chunk of coal blocks near water bodies would be ‘sterilised’ if the parameters recommended by experts to identify the hydrological value of forests were followed. Forest Survey of India (FSI), an arm of the environment ministry, was asked to conduct detailed studies as to the nature of rivers. They requested information from the Central Water Commission (CWC).

After repeated back and forth communication between the environment ministry, FSI and CWC, it was declared that “information on nature (perennial/non-perennial) of first-order streams are not available”, with any of the stakeholders. It also concluded that the details of hydropower and irrigation projects were not available on a map.

The environment ministry then asked CWC to provide in writing their inability to gather data. Subsequently the ministry on March 11, 2015, decided to amend the parameters altogether in a meeting attended by top forest division officials.

This final dilution of the parameters related to hydrological data only adds to the tweaking already done by the ministry, which collectively has helped reduce the number of coal blocks where mining would have to be banned.

Centre Bypasses Law to Restart Work on Polavaram Project

Chhattisgarh and Odisha were kept in the dark, statutory public hearings weren’t held, and clearances were never sought in the two states

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar. Source: YouTube Screengrab

Without completing the statutory public hearings in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar has done away with a stop-work order against the Polavaram dam, allowing construction work to resume.

He did so at the personal request of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and without informing Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Also, the orders of the environment ministry have not been put in the public domain.

The project is expected to displace about 200,000 and affect 300 villages, according to the 2010 environmental clearance order which uses data of 2001 population of these villages. The population over the decade and a half has risen considerably. It is to irrigate about 300,000 ha of agricultural land, store 550 million cubic metres of water and generate 960 Mw of power.

The project is to be built on the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. But the water is expected to inundate many tribal villages in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, too. Construction has to be carried out for the project in these states, too.

A July 3 letter by Javadekar to Naidu, reviewed by Business Standard, reads: “I have your letter dated April 25 regarding continuation of works of the Indira Sagar Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh. I have got the matter examined in my ministry… with the anticipation that the pending public hearing will be resolved through discussions and persistent engagement with Odisha and Chhattisgarh, my ministry has taken the decision to keep the ‘stop-work order’ in abeyance for a period of a year. A copy of the office memorandum in this regard is enclosed for your information.”

The letter attaches executive orders from joint secretary Biswanath Sinha, dated June 23. It says, “This ministry has decided to keep the stop-work order in abeyance for a period of a year.” It conceded public hearings hadn’t been carried out in the two states and that both had approached the Supreme Court against the project and the verdicts were pending. The order is marked to principal secretary (irrigation) in the Andhra Pradesh government.

Baijendra Kumar, principal secretary to the Chhattisgarh chief minister, told Business Standard, “We have not been informed of this order. We have filed a plea in the Supreme Court against the project. Mandatory public hearings have not been conducted in the state. Sometimes, they say four villages in our state will be submerged and sometimes they say 40. How can we know the exact situation till studies are done and public hearings are carried out in our state as well? We are surprised how the Centre keeps permitting work be carried out like this. The project has been almost completed like this, illegally.”

Pradeep Kumar Jena, Odisha’s water resources secretary, confirmed the state hadn’t been informed of the decision, though the Centre was aware the state had taken strong objections to the project.

While Chhattisgarh has a BJP government, headed by Chief Minister Raman Singh, Odisha has a Biju Janata Dal government, under Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

A detailed questionnaire sent to Javadekar did not elicit a response till the time of going to print.

Oddly, the executive order from his ministry reads, “During the first three-six months of this period of one year, the government of Andhra Pradesh shall ensure public hearings are conducted in the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and submit the outcome of the public hearings to the environment ministry.” This is despite the fact that public hearings in the two states cannot be organised by the Andhra Pradesh government; these have to be carried out by the respective state government, through the state pollution control board concerned.

The Environment Protection Act makes it mandatory for public hearings to be held for all areas impacted by a project. Only after the hearings can an environment-impact assessment be conducted. A positive appraisal of the assessment permits the Centre to give a nod. Construction on the project can take place only after this and other clearances.

In 2005, the Andhra Pradesh government secured a clearance for the project component falling within its territory. In 2010, the state sought clearance for the parts of the project in the two other states. The Union environment ministry gave its approval that year. However, in 2011, it issued a stop-work order when Chhattisgarh and Odisha protested that their areas would also be impacted, adding no studies or hearings had been conducted. Subsequently, the two approached the Supreme Court separately against the project.

The executive order of the environment ministry says, “The government of Andhra Pradesh has assured it will bring about changes in the design and operating parameters of the project in case warranted as a result of public hearings in Chhattisgarh and Odisha and such changes would be carried out in consultation with the CWC (Central Water Commission) and the consent of all states. In that case, change in design or/and operating parameters might be required to ensure the area falling in the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha does not come under submergence due to impounding of the project reservoir.”

It wasn’t explained how the project could be retrofited once near completion.

An executive order of the ministry has to operate within the legal provisions of the environmental laws governing clearances. The law provides only for a prior-informed consent for the project. The ministry order says a similar order to let work on the Polavaram project continue had been issued on January 1, 2014, for six months.

Business Standard had asked the environment minister under what provisions and on what legal grounds the stop-work order for the Polavaram project had been withdrawn, and whether Chhattisgarh and Odisha had been consulted on the matter before the decision or informed of it after the decision was taken.

This article originally appeared in Business Standard.