News & Events 2020

A place for short notes about the events and news that have positively impacted us or organized by us. Some of them would be global in nature, some national and some very local. Our goal is to 'report' in an unbiased way about the news & events that we have truly 'felt' and 'experienced' in our lives.

Know about EIA 2020

With the newly proposed EIA 2020 Act (Environment Impact Assessment), projects that impact the Environment adversely may get approved easily.

The Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change has put out the draft notification for public consultation till 30th June 2020. Request everyone to send an email to eia2020-moefcc@gov.in mentioning your views before 30th June!


To understand the History of EIA, please click here

To read about the EIA2020, please click here

To know expert opinions about the EIA, please click here


After going through the information, if you believe the EIA draft notification needs to be altered, please draft an email explaining your opinion and send it to MOEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change) via email eia2020-moefcc@gov.in. If you are uncomfortable drafting on your own, you can copy paste the following content and send it to eia2020-moefcc@gov.in.


It's a responsibility every educated citizen of India should undertake, to participate in the shaping the governing policies of the Country!

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Dear Sir/Madam,


We wish to see the following changes in the EIA 2020:

The new rule, instead of reducing the time for public consultation, should focus on ensuring access to information as well as awareness about the public hearing and its impact upon the whole EIA process.


In order to improve ease of doing business, the government should bring down the average delay of 238 days in granting environmental clearance, that emanates from bureaucratic delays and complex laws.


The clause that says 'Detailed scrutiny' by the Expert Committee is required for new construction projects up to 20,000 square metres should be retained. (the new rule suggests to increase the project size to 1,50,000 square metres. Such projects are entitled to be exempted from EIA studies and public consultation.


Regards

Vegetables Raw Food - Demo & Sale

On 20th June 2020 evening, Sri Narayan Bhat came to Prakriti Store to demonstrate and sell various kinds of Vegetables raw food - a tasty snack/meal made out of uncooked fresh vegetables and spices. The participants were excited at the taste of such wholesome meal options and enquired about the composition, do's and don'ts of such food.

Sri Narayan Bhat has over 30 years of experience in making delicious snack/meal out of raw vegetables. He was the first to introduce Banana stem as a raw ingredient in the road side eateries 25 years back. He's creative, knowledgeable and simple. He has studies astronomy, astrology and various other traditional disciples.

The vegetables were cleaned properly and disinfected with extra care due to the current Covid-19 crisis.

Resource person: Sri Narayan Bhat

Learning the difference between cooked food and uncooked food can happen only through Experience!

Local Governance: Roots of Democracy

In the administration of Indian Democracy, Local Governance Bodies are established to empower the common man and to decentralize the powers of the State. As per the Constitution, the finance provided by the Centre to the States should be distributed to the Local Governance Bodies by the State Governments - for Infrastructure Development and other Essential Utilities work like road laying, water management etc.

For such works to happen effectively, Contract are to allocated based on the resolutions passed in the corresponding Local bodies. However, against this norm, the Tamilnadu Government took Suo motto decisions on issuing these contracts without involving the Local Bodies in 2019.

A few local leaders went to the Court saying its 'unconstitutional'. At the end of the proceedings at the Hight Court, the order was passed in favour of the Local leaders, cancelling contracts worth 2,650 crores of rupees.

Its a Judgement that every Indian who believes in the Constitution should appreciate and apply in their own context!Let's make Bharath Matha proud again!

For more details, the Judgement can be downloaded from here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Xcc7Txs1suy9sWdkVHcu64TnWUmU8z5/view?usp=sharing

Translated from Anandha Vikatan, 21st Oct 2020, P6

Honey Adulteration in India

The Delhi based CSE (Center for Science & Environment) has yet again done useful research to bring out some ugly facts about Honey in India.

It took many months of investigation to find that Sugar syrup imported from Chinese companies can PASS the test prescribed by FSSAI for adulteration in India. Only when it was tested through the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) test, the adulteration was identified.

CSE has also exposed the modus operandi of different companies on both the Indian and Chinese side who are involved in the import/export of this high tech sugar syrup. 9 out of the 13 major brands has failed so far in this NMR Test. To know more, please read:

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/health/it-s-sugar-honey-and-it-s-a-crime-74489

The fact that a Germany based testing laboratory is required to prove the purity of our Indian Honey shows how complex our Food system has become. How much more can be handle this ever increasing complication in the food we eat? The simplest and easiest thing one can do as a common man is start buying honey from the neighborhood stores which sells unbranded honey coming directly from local farmers and cooperatives.

Buying local improves Local Economy. Better Local Economy brings better Local Governance. Better local governance ensures better well being of the Community one lives in.

Thoughts on Farm Laws 2020

Published on: 13 Feb 2021
by: C. Balachandran

There is an overwhelming consensus on the opinion that the current APMC (Agriculture Produce Market Committee) system is totally corrupt and is a hindrance rather than a facilitator in the Agri produce marketing. The question is, should APMC be fully dismantled or reformed. The recently passed law doesn't do both. It just leaves it as is and tries to build a parallel system that will be managed by the private players akin to the current Education system wherein the Government schools are run in parallel to the Private schools.

The Essential Commodities Act came into existence earlier when there was a shortage of Food production in the Country. The Act enforced certain control in the storage and sales of those commodities that are classified as 'Essential'. The new Law removes the 'Essential' classification from those commodities to ensure greater efficiency in the Supply chain of those products. The question is, as the 'essentialness' of those products is crucial for Public Health, shouldn't they continued to be regulated? By scraping the Government regulations around those commodities, it gets 'privatized', meaning they go through the price fluctuations and supply-demand manipulations by the market forces.

The Agriculture Standing Committee has been recommending the development and maintenance of Gramin Haats for every district in the country. This one recommendation has the true potential to double the farmers' income across the country. Since 2000, both the State and Central Governments has been vouching the significance of this initiative but fails to allocate budget saying its the other's domain. The Union Government says its a State subject and the State says it should be spearheaded by the Centre. For a small farmer, geographical proximity of the Market is a critical need, which would give the much needed autonomy and options in decision-making. Why no political party is coming forth to make it happen is anybody's guess!

The current Farmers Protest in Delhi has reached a state of entanglement wherein both the end may end up losing. The only way to exit on a winning note is to educate the common man by creating awareness on the pros and cons of privatizing the Agri production & marketing in our Country by comparing with the experiences of other countries.

Conflicts are as old as Food and Sleep in the Life of Humanity. The only way to overcome conflicts is through cultivation of our Knowledge individually and collectively.