5 trapped in the Meghalaya coal mine after a dynamite blast

• A dynamite blast led to the flooding of a coal mine in the East Jaintia Hills district in Meghalaya, trapping five labourers.

Illegal Mining in Meghalaya

• According to available government data, Meghalaya has a total coal reserve of 640 million tonnes, most of which is mined unscientifically by individuals and communities.
• In 2011–12, rat-hole mines produced about 10 million tonnes of coal. This large coal production in a small state had a devastating impact on the environment.

Some of the areas of Coal mining in Meghalaya are

• Ksan in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills

What is a rat hole mine?

• A rat-hole mine comprises a deep vertical shaft with narrow horizontal tunnels, two to four feet in dimension, dug on its sides.
• Miners (mostly child labourers) go into these horizontal tunnels for hundreds of feet to take out coal. Primitive tools are used to build and operate these mines and accidents are common and most are not reported.
• Rat hole mining involves digging of very small tunnels, usually only 3-4 feet high, which workers (often children) enter and extract coal.
• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned it in 2014, on grounds of it being unscientific and unsafe for workers. The state (Meghalayan) government has challenged the NGT ban in the Supreme Court.
• Despite a ban, rat-hole mining remains a prevalent practice for coal mining in Meghalaya, where a mine has recently collapsed.
• Since the coal seam is extremely thin in Meghalaya, no other method would be economically viable. Removal of rocks from the hilly terrain and putting up pillars inside the mine to prevent collapse would be costlier. In Meghalaya, this is the locally developed technique and the most commonly used one.

Government policy?

• The government does not have a policy in place to regulate mining and the new mining policy drafted in 2012 has not yet been implemented,
• Moreover, the NGT found the 2012 policy inadequate as it does not address rat-hole mining.

Impact of Meghalaya coal mining

• Meghalaya coal has high sulphur content, leading to the discharge of sulphuric acid from these mines. The acid discharge in some areas is so severe that they have made the rivers acidic, affecting aquatic life and corroding machinery at hydroelectric projects and dams.
• The water also has a high concentration of sulphates, iron and toxic heavy metals, low dissolved oxygen (DO) and high BOD, showing its degraded quality.
• The roadside dumping of coal is a major source of air, water and soil pollution.
• None of the rat-hole mines had leases; they simply didn’t exist on paper. All of them were operating without any environmental clearance from the environment ministry or from the pollution control board. These illegalities were enabled by the so-called legal ambiguity regarding mining in Sixth Schedule areas as mentioned in the Constitution.
• As Meghalaya is a Sixth Schedule state, and the power to make laws with respect to the land belongs to the Autonomous District Councils, landowners can mine without any permission from the state or the Union governments. To bolster the argument, it alluded that the coal mines in Meghalaya were never nationalised.
• However, it was found that the coal mines of Khasi and Jaintia were nationalised under the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973.
• It is also found that paragraph 9 of the Sixth Schedule clearly stipulates the need for “Licences or leases for the purpose of prospecting for, or extraction of, minerals”.
• In addition, it is legally established that all central mining and environmental laws are applicable to the coal mines in Meghalaya.
• On a case filed by the All Dimasa Students’ Union that highlighted the unregulated coal mining in the Jaintia Hills, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned them in April 2014. But reports now indicate that in the guise of transporting already-mined coal, illegal mining was happening all along in collusion with the local and the state government.
• The political class supports these mines. The state government has challenged the ban in the Supreme Court and the state assembly in 2015 adopted a resolution urging the Centre to exempt Meghalaya from central laws so that rat-hole mining can continue.
• But such mines are environmentally damaging and unsafe to be allowed, and hence must be banned. The bottom line is the right to self-governance does not translate into the right to destroy the environment, even in the Sixth Schedule areas.
• Off-road movement of trucks and other vehicles in the area for coal transportation also adds to the ecological and environmental damage to the area.
• The practice has been declared as unsafe for workers by the NGT.
• The mines branch into networks of horizontal channels, which are at constant risk of caving in or flooding.

IIT Ropar developed AmbiTag

• Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (IIT Ropar) in Punjab has developed a first-of-its-kind IoT device – AmbiTag that records real-time ambient temperature during the transportation of perishable products, vaccines and even body organs and blood.
• That recorded temperature further helps to know whether that particular item transported from anywhere in the world is still usable or perished because of temperature variation.
• This information is particularly critical for vaccines including Covid-19 vaccine, organs and blood transportation.
• Shaped as USB device, AmbiTag continuously records the temperature of its immediate surroundings “from -40 to +80 degrees in any time zone for a full 90 days on a single charge.
• Most of the similar devices available in the international market record data only for duration of 30- 60 days.
• It generates an alert when the temperature goes beyond a pre-set limit. The recorded data can be retrieved by connecting the USB with any computer.
• The device has been developed under Technology Innovation Hub – AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub) and its Startup ScratchNest.
• AWaDH is a Govt of India project. Prof. Kumar said that the device is certified with ISO 13485:2016, EN 12830:2018, CE & ROHS.
• Besides perishable items including vegetables, meat and dairy products it can also monitor the temperature of animal semen during transit.
• So far, such devices are being imported by India in a massive quantity from other countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, and China.

Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP)

• In a pilot phase, the programme will be implemented in 12 horticulture clusters out of the total 53 clusters selected for the programme.
• A central sector programme implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, CDP aims at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive.
• The programme will address all major issues related to the Indian horticulture sector including pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding.
• The programme is designed to leverage geographical specialisation and promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters.
• Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) has identified 53 horticulture clusters, of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the programme.
• CDP will benefit about 10 lakh farmers and related stakeholders of the value chain.
• With this programme, we aim to improve exports of the targeted crops by approx. 20% and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops.
• The clusters of the pilot phase include Shopian (J&K) and Kinnaur (H.P.) for Apple, Lucknow (U.P.), Kutch (Gujarat) and Mahbubnagar (Telangana) for Mango, Anantpur (A.P.) and Theni (T.N.) for Banana, Nasik (Maharashtra) for Grapes, Siphahijala (Tripura) for Pineapple, Solapur (Maharashtra) and Chitradurga (Karnataka) for Pomegranate and West Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya) for Turmeric.
• These clusters will be implemented through Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs) which are appointed on the recommendations of the respective State/UT Government.
• The programme is expected to converge with other initiatives of the Government such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund which is a medium - long-term financing facility for investment in projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets and will leverage the central sector scheme of the Ministry for Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs).

Maratha community brought under EWS Quota

• In a bid to extend relief to the Maratha community in the State, the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra on Monday extended the benefits of reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) to the Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC).
• Previously, the government had decided that the Maratha community could not take advantage of the 10% EWS category as the Maratha reservation was in force in the State.
• The Supreme Court, however, scrapped the SEBC reservation in jobs and education, making it possible for the State government to extend the benefit of the EWS quota to the Marathas.
• As per the government resolution, a person fulfilling the criterion for EWS would be eligible for a 10% reservation in educational institutes, barring minority institutes.
• This would also be applied to State government recruitment. The resolution said the reservation would be above the existing reservation.
• It also stated that the benefit would be available from September 9, 2020, when the apex court brought an interim stay on the reservation, to May 5, 2021, when the final verdict was announced.

Arun Kumar Mishra likely to be the new NHRC Chairperson

• Former Supreme Court Justice Arun Kumar Mishra is likely to be the new Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) after a high-powered recommendation committee proposed his name.
• Former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Mahesh Mittal Kumar, and former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, Rajiv Jain, had also been recommended by the high-powered panel as members of the NHRC, but the official notification is yet to be out until the filing of this report.
• The selection panel consisted of

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi;
2. Home Minister Amit Shah;
3. Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, Harivansh;
4. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla; and the
5. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.

• For over five months now, the NHRC has been without a full-time head after Justice H.L. Dattu retired last December.
• A highly-placed source said while 12 names were shortlisted for the two vacancies, the shortlisted candidates for the position of Chairperson included three former Chief Justices of India (CJIs).

NHRC and SHRC, 1993

• Both are Statutory Autonomous bodies established under Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.
• It is the watchdog of Human Rights in India. They are Rights w.r.t. Life, Liberty, Equality & dignity guaranteed by Constitution or of International Covenants. Accordingly 25 States have constituted SHRCs through official Gazette Notifications.

• Tenure (of both NHRC & SHRC): 5 years or 70 years whichever is earlier. Not eligible for further Employment under Center or States.
• Removal (of both NHRC & SHRC) by Prez: (Same as of UPSC, CVC, CIC) Removal is done only by Prez under the following conditions:
  1. If he has gone bankrupt or If, according to Prez, he is of unsound mind or If he is involved in paid employment outside the duties of office.
  2. Prez can also remove her in case of Misbehavior or incapacity (defined in Constitution), Prez refers this matter to SC. SC’s decision is binding on Prez. Then he may remove. During the course of enquiry by the SC, Prez can suspend them.
• The salary, allowances & service conditions are determined by C / S govt & can’t be varied to his disadvantage post appointment.
• Functions of Both:
  1. To strengthen the institutional arrangements through which human rights could be addressed in their entirety and in a more focused manner.
  2. To inquire into any violation of Human Rights, either suo motu or on a petition presented to it or an order of a Court. SHRC can only enquire into matters related w State List or Concurrent List of the 7th Schedule of the Constitution. However if any such cases is enquired by NHRC or any other Statutory Commission, then SHRC doesn’t inquire into that case.
  3. To intervene in any proceeding involving allegation of violation of Human rights pending before a Court.
  4. To visit jails or detention places, study the living conditions of inmates and make recommendations.
  5. To review the Constitution and legal safeguards for the protection of HRs and make recommendations.
  6. To review the factors including acts of terrorism that inhibit the enjoyment of rights and recommend remedial measures.
  7. To spread human rights literacy and encourage the efforts of NGOs working in this direction.
  8. To study treaties and international agreements on Human Rights and make recommendations.
  9. To undertake and promote research in the field of Human Rights.
  10. To undertake such other functions as it may consider necessary for the promotion of human rights.
• Working:
  1. It can't by itself punish the guilty. That is the responsibility of courts. It makes independent and credible enquiry into any case of violation of human rights. Also if any govt officer neglects.
  2. It regulates its own procedure. It has all the powers of a Civil Court and its proceedings have a judicial character. It may call for info or reporty from C & S govts or any subordinate authority.
  3. The NHRC has its own nucleus of working staff for investigation. Besides, it is empowered to utilize the services of any officer or investigating agency of C or S govt. It has also established effective coop with NGOs with 1st hand info about HR violations.
  4. It can only look into the matter of violation within 1 year of its occurrence and not after that.
  5. After enquiry, It may recommend the concerned government or authority
     1. To make payment of compensation or damages to the victim.
     2. The initiation of proceedings or any other action against the guilty public servant.
     3. For the grant of immediate interim relief to the victim.
  6. It may approach the SC or HC concerned for the necessary directions, orders and writs.
  7. It can summon witnesses, question any govt official, demand any official paper, visit any prison for inspection or send it's own team for on the spot inquiry.
• Criticisms:
  1. It has no power to punish the violators of Human Rights nor can it provide any relief to the victim.
  2. The functions are mainly recommendatory in nature. Not binding. But it should be informed about the action taken on its recommendations within 1 month.
  3. The Commission has a limited role, powers and jurisdiction wrt violation of human rights by the member of Armed forces. In this sphere NHRC may seek a report from Govt and make recommendations. Center has to inform on actions taken within 3 months.
  4. Yet the govt considers cases forwarded by it. It is therefore improper to say that the Commission is powerless. It enjoys great material authority and no govt can ignore its recommendations.
  5. NHRC submits its annual report to Central govt and State govt concerned. SHRC submits to State govt.
• Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 also provides for the establishment of Human Rights Courts:
  1. Acc to the act, HRC can be est in every district for speedy trial of violation of Human Rights.
  2. These Courts can be set up by the State govt only w the concurrence of concerned CJHC.
  3. For every HRC, State govt specifies a public prosecutor or appoints an advocate (practice > 7 years) as a special public prosecutor.
  4. Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act, 2006
     1. NHRC can undertake visits to jails even without intimation to State Govt.
     2. Chariman and members of NHRC resign to Prez, and SHRC resign to Guv.
     3. NHRC can transfer complaints received by it to SHRCs.