Drought relief: Karnataka govt to pay Rs 3,000 each to 16 lakh small and marginal farming families
Bengaluru, May 9: The Karnataka government, for the first time, has decided to pay Rs 3,000 each to 16 lakh agricultural families involved in small and marginal farming to compensate for the loss of their livelihood due to drought, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said on Thursday.
With the rains picking up in the state, he also said that the government has designed measures to prevent loss of life due to lightning strikes.
"There are about 16 lakh families of small and marginal farmers involved in dry farming. It has been decided to give Rs 3,000 each to these families to compensate for the loss of their livelihood due to drought, and officials have been directed to take action in this regard immediately," Gowda said.
While speaking to reporters here, he said, "This will be paid to farmers from both SDRF and NDRF funds, and also funds from the state government. It will be about Rs 460 crore. Officers have been directed to work this out. This is being done for the first time. But, there is a provision for it in the drought manual."
Karnataka had declared 223 out of 240 taluks as drought-hit; 196 of them were categorised as severely drought affected.
Noting that all together about Rs 4,300 crore would be credited to the accounts of the farmers in the state as drought relief, the minister said it may take 20 days to complete this process, and already about Rs 3,000 crore has been deposited to the bank accounts of over 32 lakh farmers.
He said, "After going to the Supreme Court and the legal fight, so far about Rs 3,454 crore has come (from the Centre) as drought relief, which the government has started depositing into the bank accounts of farmers from last Monday itself. And so far, the relief has been completely been deposited to the accounts of 32.12 lakh farmers."
Together, from the first and second installments, so far Rs 3,000 crore has been deposited to the bank accounts of the farmers through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), he added.
Noting that the second installment of relief is yet to be deposited to the accounts of about 1.5 lakh farmers, he said it is in the verification stage due to minor technical issues. "Once it is cleared, relief would have gone to over 33 lakh farmers' accounts," he added.
Apart from this, it has been decided that compensation would be distributed for rain-fed and irrigated crops which were not included in the drought relief list in some taluks, despite them being eligible, he said. About 3 lakh eligible farmers would get the relief of Rs 400-500 crore in total.
"The process has started and this will be done within 10 days after verification by Deputy Commissioners of the districts," he added.
Responding to a question on whether the drinking water scarcity has reduced due to rains, the minister said, "It has not reduced, but chances of it aggravating are fewer. Drinking water is being supplied through tankers to 270 villages and through private borewells to 594 villages."
"In urban areas, supply is done through tankers to 150 wards and through private borewells in 29 wards," he said, adding that things seem to be under control.
Stating that there are reports predicting good rains in the state this year, Gowda said most parts of the state are likely to get above-normal rains this time.
From April till now, 17 persons have died due to lightning strikes. Last year, this number was 68, he said, adding that certain preventive measures have been designed in this regard, but the government has not been able to implement it due to the Lok Sabha polls and Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
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SC refuses to entertain plea against new criminal laws, allows withdrawal of petition
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition which challenged the enactment of three new laws that seek to overhaul India's penal codes.
A vacation bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal allowed petitioner advocate Vishal Tiwari to withdraw the plea.
The Lok Sabha, on December 21 last year, passed three key legislations -- the Bharatiya Nyaya (Second) Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha (Second) Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya (Second) Bill. President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the bills on December 25.
These new laws -- the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act -- will replace the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act respectively.
At the outset, the bench told Tiwari, "We are dismissing it (petition)".
The bench said these laws have not come into force so far.
As the court showed its disinclination to entertain the plea, Tiwari urged that he be allowed to withdraw the petition.
"The petition has been filed in a very casual and cavalier manner," the bench observed, adding, "If you had argued more, we would have dismissed it with cost but since you are not arguing, we are not imposing cost".
Seeking a stay on the operation of the three new laws, the PIL filed by Tiwari had claimed they were enacted without any parliamentary debate as most of the opposition members were under suspension.
The plea had sought directions from the court for the immediately constitution of an expert committee that will assess the viability of the three new criminal laws.
"The new criminal laws are far more draconian and establish a police state in reality and violate every provision of fundamental rights of the people of India. If the British laws were considered colonial and draconian, then the Indian laws stand now far more draconian as, in the British period, you could keep a person in police custody for a maximum of 15 days. Extending 15 days to 90 days and more is a shocking provision enabling police torture," the plea had claimed.
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita encompasses offences, such as acts of secession, armed rebellion, subversive activities, separatist activities or endangering the sovereignty or unity of the country, in a new avatar of the sedition law.
According to the new laws, anyone purposely or knowingly, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, by visible representation, by electronic communication, by use of financial means, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite secession or an armed rebellion or subversive activities, or encourages feelings of separatist activities or endangers the sovereignty or unity and integrity of India or indulges in or commits any such act shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment that may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.
According to IPC section 124A, which deals with sedition, anyone involved in the crime may be punished with life imprisonment or with a three-year jail term.
Also, for the first time, the word "terrorism" has been defined in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. It was absent in the IPC.
Under the new laws, the magistrate's power to impose fines has been increased as well as the scope for declaring a proclaimed offender.
