Policies, Laws and Regulations

This draft report by the Planning Commission, which presents an approach to the twelfth five year plan among other things outlines some of the challenges related to agriculture, natural resources management and water resources management.

The restructuring is being proposed primarily to adopt river basins as the fundamental block for integrated planning, development and management of water resources in the country. 

Guest post by: Amita Bhaduri

The drafting of a new legislation on these issues was taken up by a Group of Ministers in May 2007 and this is the second draft bill presented by the UPA Government.

The objective of the scheme is to convert or construct low cost sanitation units through sanitary two pit pour flush latrines with superstructures and appropriate variations to suit local conditions (area specific latrines) and construct new latrines where economically weaker sections household have no latrines and follow the in-human practice of defecating in the open in urban areas. This would improve overall sanitation in the towns.

The Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India has developed draft guidelines expanding the scope of works under schedule 1 Para 1 (ix) of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to include access to sanitation facilities. This has been prompted by demands from several States/quarters for ensuring sanitation facilities in rural areas with the main goal of ensuring a clean environment, thereby bringing about an improvement in the general quality of life and strengthening the livelihood base.

 The Committee took evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in January, 2011.

This document  on the Ministry of Environment and Forests site includes the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules replaces the earlier Recycled Plastics Manufacture and Usage Rules,1999 (amended in 2003).

Article and Image courtesy: Infochange India
Author: Rahul Goswami

Celebrating the fact that per capita agricultural income is increasing faster than overall per capita income, the government is targeting 4% growth in agriculture in the Twelfth Plan period. But this is a rosy view that does not stand up to scrutiny.

The Delhi High Court in its order in C.M. No. 15895/2005 in Writ Petition Number 17682/2005 relating to the National Environment Appellate Authority (“the NEAA”) had vehemently said the following.

Justice (retd.) N. Venkatachala of the Supreme Court headed the NEAA for three years
The image above and on article thumbnail is from the website of the Supreme Court of India 

“The numerous orders passed by this court in the past three years reflect both the concern of the court and the considerable restraint exercised by it in refraining from proceeding against the concerned officials for disobeying its binding orders. However, the government has failed to take satisfactory steps to address the concern expressed by this court. It has failed to comply with the court's orders and has left it with no choice but to issue further mandatory directions to ensure that the legislative mandate contained in the NEAA Act is not frustrated by executive apathy. The government has to be made accountable in law for its disobedience of the court's orders…”

The issues related to the Draft National Food Security Bill approved by the National Advisory Council (NAC) were taken up for discussion by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) in their meeting on 11^th July, 2011 which approved it. The Bill has to be now ratified by the parliament where it is proposed to be introduced in December 2011 to become law. It would need about 61 million tonnes of grains a year, the bulk of which would be wheat and rice.

The EGoM tried to settle the differences between the views of the NAC and the Food Ministry on the contours of the legislation such as on coverage under the Bill, method to be adopted to ensure food security, amount of food grain required and the implication of the Act on the food subsidy ‘burden’. While the NAC had preferred legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrain for 90 per cent of rural population and 50 per cent of urban population, the Food Ministry was interested in lowering of the legal coverage for rural families. The Bill is now with the Law Ministry.