News Analysis India

Tag: Environment

  • SC notice to Centre on plea against supply of electoral roll to candidates

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Centre and others on a plea challenging certain provisions of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960 by which the Election Commission is bound to supply two copies of the electoral roll to every contesting candidate.

    The PIL filed by two advocates has sought an alternative to save the enormous expenditure as well as the usage of large quantities of paper.

    It alleged that the country had to bear a cost of about Rs 47.84 crore for printing electoral rolls and supplying them free of cost to the candidates of the recognised parties contesting.

    A bench of Chief Justice U U Lalit and Bela M Trivedi issued notices to the Centre and the Chief Election Commissioner on a plea challenging Rules 11(c) and 22(c) of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960.

    It is submitted that in terms of these Rules, the Election Commission is bound to supply two copies of the electoral roll to every contesting candidate who is assigned a symbol in terms of the Rules.

    It is further submitted that on this count alone, an expenditure of Rs. 47,84,38,000 was incurred by the Election Commission in the last elections.

    “Challenge is therefore raised as to the validity of these Rules and it is submitted inter alia that an alternative be devised so as to save the enormous expenditure as well as the usage of large quantities of paper. Issue notice returnable on November 28, 2022,” the bench said.

    The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocates Hargyan Singh Gahlot and Sanjana Gahlot challenging Rules 11(c) and 22(c) of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960.

    They claimed that about 31 trees are chopped every day for printing voter lists.

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Centre and others on a plea challenging certain provisions of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960 by which the Election Commission is bound to supply two copies of the electoral roll to every contesting candidate.

    The PIL filed by two advocates has sought an alternative to save the enormous expenditure as well as the usage of large quantities of paper.

    It alleged that the country had to bear a cost of about Rs 47.84 crore for printing electoral rolls and supplying them free of cost to the candidates of the recognised parties contesting.

    A bench of Chief Justice U U Lalit and Bela M Trivedi issued notices to the Centre and the Chief Election Commissioner on a plea challenging Rules 11(c) and 22(c) of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960.

    It is submitted that in terms of these Rules, the Election Commission is bound to supply two copies of the electoral roll to every contesting candidate who is assigned a symbol in terms of the Rules.

    It is further submitted that on this count alone, an expenditure of Rs. 47,84,38,000 was incurred by the Election Commission in the last elections.

    “Challenge is therefore raised as to the validity of these Rules and it is submitted inter alia that an alternative be devised so as to save the enormous expenditure as well as the usage of large quantities of paper. Issue notice returnable on November 28, 2022,” the bench said.

    The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocates Hargyan Singh Gahlot and Sanjana Gahlot challenging Rules 11(c) and 22(c) of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960.

    They claimed that about 31 trees are chopped every day for printing voter lists.

  • PM Modi asks BJP-ruled states to boost biz environment, ensure complete coverage of welfare schemes

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday held a marathon meeting with chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, and asked them to ensure saturation-level coverage of welfare schemes and boost the business environment in the country.

    The meeting, which lasted for over four hours, was attended by chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of 18 states. BJP president J P Nadda was also present.

    During the meeting, Modi emphasised on better implementation of some key schemes and initiatives of the government such as GatiShakti, Har Ghar Jal, Svamitva, DBT implementation and others, the BJP said in a statement.

    “Prime Minister Modi stressed on the need to ensure saturation-level coverage of all key schemes and said that BJP-ruled states should take a lead towards this,” it read.

    Emphasising on the need to ensure ease of doing business, Modi spoke about several initiatives taken by his government. “He encouraged the states to take steps towards further boosting the business environment in the country,” the party statement said.

    Modi also asked the chief ministers to ensure that their states accord due importance to sports and ensure availability of the best facilities to encourage participation and engagement of youngsters in large numbers.

    Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and Vinay Sahsrabuddhe, who heads the party’s good governance cell, were also present in the meeting.

    The chief ministers and the deputy chief ministers of 18 states where the BJP is in power on its own or in alliance with other parties held deliberations on achieving a 100 per cent target of all centrally sponsored welfare schemes and flagship programmes, sources said.

    Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma are among those who attended the meeting.

    Nagaland Chief Minister Nephio Rio, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha are also present.

    Several deputy chief ministers including Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis and Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi from Bihar attended the meeting.

    NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday held a marathon meeting with chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, and asked them to ensure saturation-level coverage of welfare schemes and boost the business environment in the country.

    The meeting, which lasted for over four hours, was attended by chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of 18 states. BJP president J P Nadda was also present.

    During the meeting, Modi emphasised on better implementation of some key schemes and initiatives of the government such as GatiShakti, Har Ghar Jal, Svamitva, DBT implementation and others, the BJP said in a statement.

    “Prime Minister Modi stressed on the need to ensure saturation-level coverage of all key schemes and said that BJP-ruled states should take a lead towards this,” it read.

    Emphasising on the need to ensure ease of doing business, Modi spoke about several initiatives taken by his government. “He encouraged the states to take steps towards further boosting the business environment in the country,” the party statement said.

    Modi also asked the chief ministers to ensure that their states accord due importance to sports and ensure availability of the best facilities to encourage participation and engagement of youngsters in large numbers.

    Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and Vinay Sahsrabuddhe, who heads the party’s good governance cell, were also present in the meeting.

    The chief ministers and the deputy chief ministers of 18 states where the BJP is in power on its own or in alliance with other parties held deliberations on achieving a 100 per cent target of all centrally sponsored welfare schemes and flagship programmes, sources said.

    Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma are among those who attended the meeting.

    Nagaland Chief Minister Nephio Rio, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha are also present.

    Several deputy chief ministers including Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis and Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi from Bihar attended the meeting.

  • Only warning notices for SUP ban violation till Jul 10; action will include fine, jail term: Rai 

    Action will include a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh or a jail term of up to five years or both under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, he said.

  • Modi has weakened environmental laws in India, posing as eco-champion on world stage: Ramesh

    He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of hypocrisy and alleged that while he has weakened all environmental and forest laws in India, he is posing as an eco-champion on the world stage.

  • PM Modi calls for ‘one earth, many efforts’ to make environment better

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched the ‘Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) Movement’, a global initiative, and asserted that its vision is to live a lifestyle that is in tune with our planet and does not harm it.

    Those who live such a lifestyle are called “pro-planet people,” he said in a video address, and added that “Mission LiFE’ borrows from the past, operates in the present and focuses on the future.

    Giving the slogan of “one earth, many efforts”, he said India is ready to lend its support to actions to make environment better and improve global wellness.

    With the launch coinciding with World Environment Day, Modi said our planet’s challenges are well-known, and the need of the hour is human-centric, collective efforts and robust actions that further sustainable development.

    “Reduce, reuse and recycle are the concepts woven in our life. Circular economy has been an integral part of our culture and lifestyle,” Modi said, noting that gods and goddesses in India have plants and animals associated with them, and nature equated with divinity.

    “Mahatma Gandhi talked about a zero-carbon lifestyle. In our daily life choices, let us pick the most sustainable options. Let us follow the principle of reuse, reduce and recycle. Our planet is one but our efforts have to be many. One earth, many efforts,” he said.

    India has been able to do many good things for the environment, with its forest cover increasing and so is the population of lions, tigers, leopards, elephants and rhinos, he said.

    He added, “Our commitment to reach 40 per cent of installed electric capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources has been achieved, nine years ahead of schedule. We have achieved 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol, five months ahead of the November 2022 target. This is a major accomplishment given that blending was hardly 1.5 per cent in 2013-14 and 5 per cent in 2019-20.”

    The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had earlier said the launch will initiate “LiFE global call for papers,” inviting ideas and suggestions from academics, universities and research institutions to influence and persuade individuals, communities and organisations across the world to adopt an environment-conscious lifestyle.

    Bill Gates, Co-Chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was among many dignitaries who attended the programme.

  • 2020 ties with 2016 to be ‘warmest year on record’ globally, Carbon dioxide emissions on rise globally

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: According to the lastest data released by the Copernicus Climate Change Service the year 2020 was on par with the warmest year ever recorded, globally, marking the end of the warmest decade on record. The data also showed that Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels continues to rise around the world.

    The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) of European Union (EU) reveals that globally 2020 was tied with the previous warmest year 2016, making it the sixth in a series of exceptionally warm years starting in 2015, and 2011-2020 the warmest decade recorded.

    Meanwhile, Europe saw its warmest year on record, 0.4 degree Celsius warmer than 2019, which was previously the hottest year.

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    Together with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), C3S also reports that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have continued to rise at a rate of approximately 2.3 ppm/year in 2020 reaching a maximum of 413 ppm during May 2020. 

    Both C3S and CAMS are implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission with funding by the European Union. 

    C3S’s dataset for surface air temperatures shows that 2020, globally, was on a par with the 2016 record as 2020 was 0.6 degree warmer than the standard 1981-2010 reference period and around 1.25 degree C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period, making the last six years the warmest six on record.

    The largest annual temperature deviation from the 1981-2010 average was concentrated over the Arctic and northern Siberia, reaching to over 6 degree C above average.

    ​ALSO READ | Over 4.5 cr people in India will be forced to migrate from homes by 2050 due to climate disasters

    “Parts of the Arctic and northern Siberia saw some of the largest annual temperature deviations from average in 2020, with a large region seeing deviations of as much as 3 degree C and in some locations even over 6 degree C for the year as a whole. On a monthly basis, the largest positive temperature anomalies for the region repeatedly reached more than 8 degree C,” it said.

    Western Siberia experienced an exceptionally warm winter and spring, a pattern also seen over summer and autumn in the Siberian Arctic and over much of the Arctic Ocean. 

    Furthermore, the wildfire season was unusually active in this region, with fires first detected in May, continuing throughout summer and well into autumn.

    “As a result, poleward of the Arctic Circle, fires released a record amount of 244 megatonnes of carbon dioxide in 2020, over a third more than the 2019 record. During the second half of the year, Arctic sea ice was significantly lower than average for the time of the year with July and October seeing the lowest sea ice extent on record for the respective month. In general, the Northern Hemisphere experienced above average temperatures for the year, apart from a region over the central North Atlantic. In contrast, parts of the Southern Hemisphere saw below average temperatures, most notably over the eastern equatorial Pacific, associated with the cooler La Niña conditions developing during the second half of the year. It is notable that 2020 matches the 2016 record despite a cooling La Niña, whereas 2016 was a record year that began with a strong warming El Niño event,” according to the analysis.

    ALSO READ | The stormy and fiery 2020: When climate disasters wouldn’t stop

    Carlo Buontempo, Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), said “2020 stands out for its exceptional warmth in the Arctic and a record number of tropical storms in the North Atlantic. It is no surprise that the last decade was the warmest on record, and is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions to prevent adverse climate impacts in the future.”

    Director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), Vincent-Henri Peuch, said “While carbon dioxide concentrations have risen slightly less in 2020 than in 2019, this is no cause for complacency. Until the net global emissions reduce to zero, CO2 will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere and drive further climate change.”

    In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been estimated by the Global Carbon Project that there was a reduction of around 7 per cent of fossil CO2 emissions.

    “To what extent this was a factor in the lower total increase is debatable though, as the variations in global growth rate are dominated by natural processes. We must continue efforts to decrease CO2 net emissions to reduce the risk of climate-related change”, Vincent-Henri Peuch adds.

    “The extraordinary climate events of 2020 and the data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service show us that we have no time to lose. We must come together as a global community, to ensure a just transition to a net zero future. It will be difficult, but the cost of inaction is too great, which is why the commitments made under our European Green Deal are so very necessary”, highlights Matthias Petschke, Director for Space, European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence industry and Space.

  • NGT bans sale, use of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR from midnight till Nov 30

     In a bid to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from worsening owing to poor air quality, the National Green Tribunal on Monday imposed a total ban on the sale and use of firecrackers in the National Capital Region from midnight of November 9 to midnight of November 30.

    A bench of the NGT, headed by its chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, directed that the order will also apply to all cities and towns in the country where the average of ambient air quality during November (as per available data of last year) falls under ‘poor’ or worse category.

    “The cities/towns where air quality is ‘moderate’ or below, only green crackers be sold and the timings for use and bursting of crackers be restricted to two hours during festivals, like Diwali, Chatt, New Year, Christmas, etc, as may be specified by the concerned state,” the order said.


    The NGT said that restrictions are optional for the authorities at other places, but added that if there are more stringent measures under orders of the authorities, the same will prevail.

    The tribunal, in its order, also said that all the states, Union Territories, Pollution Control Boards, and Pollution Control Committees may initiate special drives to contain air pollution from all sources in view of the potential of aggravation of COVID-19.

    “The Chief Secretaries and DGPs of all the States and Union Territories may issue and circulate an appropriate order in above terms with appropriate enforcement guidelines to all the District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police, PCBs/PCCs,” the order said.