Gist of EPW February Week 4, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The Land–Sea Conundrum

2. The Dam Safety Act, 2021
3. Making Election Manifestos Legally Binding
4. EWS Reservation and Principle of Social Justice
5. Urban Waste Management

1. The Land–Sea Conundrum

What is an international supply chain?

• It is the worldwide system that a business uses to produce products or services. In other
words, it refers to the cross-border organisation of the activities required to produce
goods or services and bring them to consumers through inputs and various phases of
development, production and delivery.
• Benefits of the global supply chain
o It reduces the cost of production and transportation of goods and services.
o A global supply chain can make it easier to sell to customers around the world.

Historical instances of the creation of physical infrastructure to enhance the supply chain:

• The Berlin Baghdad Railway Line

o By the late 19th century, railroads had become attractive to the great powers as
a tool to extend imperial reach and control. The Ottoman Empire was in decline
and the race among imperial powers to establish spheres of influence in the
region intensified.
o The BBR offered an alternative land-based route that would have reduced the
significance of the Suez Canal in the conduct of international trade.
o But, the BBR projects had failed to take off completely due to mutual tussle
among the great powers then.

Present context:

• The vast space from Eastern Europe to Central and East Asia and from the Baltic Sea to
the Indian Ocean is now a crucial geopolitical chessboard. The five continental powers,
China, Russia, Germany, France and India are leading the revival of modern
transcontinental connectivity networks.

India’s connectivity insight:

 • India’s postcolonial strategy has largely been focused on ensuring that free trade flows
through the oceans and not across borders. Until lately, connectivity with Central Asia
and Eurasia was neglected.
• But, there has been a shift in the policy initiatives and the Indian government is tilting in
favour of the Indo–Pacific alliance but it requires engaging with Russia and reaching out
to Eurasia as it is an important element in its strategy to balance China’s hegemony in
the region.
o India in collaboration with Tehran and Moscow has operationalised the
International North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a 7,200 km long multi-modal
route, linking the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea.
o The transportation of goods through INSTC takes considerably less time than the
traditional route via the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
o India is pushing the idea for optimum use of Chabahar Port, during its presidency
of the SCO in 2023.
• Additionally, on various occasions, India had expressed disappointment with respect to
Pakistan’s refusal to give India transit trade access by land to Afghanistan and Central
Asia.
o Better regional connectivity is only possible if members grant each other full
transit rights.

Why is land-based transportation the need of the hour?

• Land-based transportation technologies are likely to outpace the new ones being
developed in the marine sector. For example, Hyperloop is one such technology which
is most suitable for online markets that seek faster transportation means to reach out to
their customers.
• Decarbonised transport through greater use of high-speed electric trains is making the
railroads more attractive than sea-based transportation.

The international supply chain must be diverse and participative. Excessive reliance on one
mode of transportation could render us helpless on some occasions like the Suez canal
blockage issue in 2021, where a ship was stuck and transportation was affected for many
days.

2. The Dam Safety Act, 2021

Stats related to dams:

• After China and the USA, India is the 3rd largest dam-owning nation in the world. There
are around 5,700 large dams in the country, of which about 80% are already over 25
years old. Nearly 227 dams that are over 100 years old are still functional.
Dam Safety Act, 2021

• The Dam Safety Bill provides for adequate surveillance, inspection, operation, and
maintenance of all the large dams in the country so as to prevent dam failure-related
disasters.
• The Bill provides for an institutional mechanism at both Central and State levels to
address structural and non-structural measures required for ensuring the safe
functioning of dams.
• A National Committee on Dam Safety (NCDS) will be constituted to help evolve uniform
dam safety policies, protocols, and procedures.
• The Dam Safety Bill also addresses, in a comprehensive manner, critical concerns
related to dam safety on account of emerging climate change-related challenges. This
Bill provides for regular inspection and hazard classification of dams.
• There is provision for an emergency flood warning system to address the safety
concerns of downstream inhabitants.

Centralised feature of the bill

• The provisions on the establishment of the National Dam Safety Authority (NCDS) reflect
the unilateral decision-making authority of the union government.
• The provisions give the authority to the union government to constitute a national
committee, nominate all its members, reconstitute the national committee every three
years, disseminate the information collected and knowledge generated, prepare
expenditure outline incurred on the national committee as well as have the
representative of the concerned dam, etc.
o Chapter 3 of the act has assigned the union government with sweeping
authority.
o The government would appoint the head of the National Dam Safety Authority
(NDSA).
o Direct and discharge functions, including inspection, surveillance along with
safeguarding of particular dams.
• The act added that every decision of the NDSA shall be binding upon all the parties to
the issue.
o It loads the union government with additional power to appoint such a number
of employees and officers that it may consider necessary.
o The act solely relies on the union government to recruit expertise in the field of
dam safety, including hydro-mechanical engineering, dam design, hydrology,
instrumentation, geotechnical investigation, and dam rehabilitation.
• The act mandates the union government to disqualify any agency for taking up
investigation, construction or alteration, and design of the specified dams. This
particular provision can be seen as authoritarian as it empowers the union government
 to muzzle the media and civil society’s freedom to report environment-related issues to
the public.

Impact on interstate relations:

• The establishment of the NCDS and NDSA may badly affect the interstate relations and
“federal consensus” in India, particularly in the context of the Cauvery river dispute
between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
o It is to be added here that Kerala and TN have been trading charges against
each other over the safety, operation and maintenance of the Mullaperiyar
dam.
o The National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) and the Central Water
Commission (CWC) reported that the water storage lake behind the Mullaperiyar
dam had developed several cracks and could breach, which would result in
massive floods that could inundate many acres of land leading to major
disasters downstream.
• In an environment where conflict over water allocation and utilisation issues is almost
inevitable, assigning unilateral powers to the union government to take a final decision
would invite more political discontent and dissent.
• In India, dam construction, maintenance, interstate rivers, and water sharing are
already becoming sites of confrontations and contestations between states, fuelled by
flawed economic instruments for food security and conflicting views of property rights.

The Dam Safely bill, 2021 rests enormous power on the central government and thus paves the
way for conflicts in the federal structure of the country. The bill must be reoriented to meet the
demand of the federal structure so as to reduce conflict between the centre and the state.

3. Making Election Manifestos Legally Binding

What is an electoral manifesto?

• A manifesto is generally defined as a published declaration of the intentions, motives or

views of an individual, group, political party or government whosoever issues it.
• The Election Manifestos are generally drafted by the Political Parties keeping an eye on
forthcoming elections and are generally published and well-publicised.
• By comparing the ideologies, policies and programmes of the political parties, the
electors can decide which party they should vote for to meet their expectations and
aspirations.

Legal status of electoral manifesto in India:

 • Manifestos normally indicate broad policies/programmes of a political party/candidate
on political, economic and social matters. Even though the manifesto is issued by the
political parties, it cannot be legally enforced.
o In 2013, the Supreme Court in the case of S Subramaniam Balaji v Government of
Tamil Nadu held that the manifesto promises were not legally enforceable.
o It, therefore, directed the Election Commission to frame guidelines on the
election manifesto after consulting with all the recognised political parties.
• In other words, no remedies lie with the voters if the political parties do not fulfil any
promises made in the manifesto. The only remedy that exists is in the form of
answerability of the parties in the next election.

International Manifesto Practices

• In the United States of America, policies affecting large populations are discussed
broadly on topics such as economic policy, foreign policy, healthcare, governance
reform, environmental issues, and immigration to name a few. No specific benefits are
discussed.
• Western Europe is more concrete in terms of its manifestos where financial paragraphs
are added which can be audited to calculate how realistic the promise is.

Making Manifestos Legally Binding: Alternative Options and Necessity

• Civil society organisations must act as a watchdog for tracking the implementation of
the manifesto promises and building pressure on the ruling political party to implement
its manifesto promises.
o For example: The public campaign by civil society activists played a significant
role in ensuring that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 was
passed by Parliament.
• The promises made before the election, and upon achieving power, have a moral duty
to be fulfilled. It may fructify such an offer by any democratic strategy or means
available in line with socio-welfare ideas for the masses.
• It will prevent the parties from giving election promises, which they are not capable of
performing, as that would be misleading.
• Making a manifesto legally binding would rest more power in the hands of the citizens
to hold the parties responsible for the promises that they have made.

Manifesto lies at the centre of the electoral process. Therefore, the manifesto must not be a
tool for the parties to mislead people rather it should serve as an instrument for the citizens to
hold the parties accountable to their promises.

4. EWS Reservation and Principle of Social Justice

Details

• India is in the third decade of post-liberalization policies.

• The liberalized market has introduced an upward-mobile professional elite class in India.
However, a large section of people still lives in precarious socio-economic conditions.
• The vulnerability of weaker sections of society has further increased due to multiple
factors like poverty, rising inflation, lack of employment, demonetization, and the
COVID-19 pandemic.
• It is also argued that the increasing economic depravity has also impacted the social
elites and made them a part of the poor mass.
• The government adopted a welfarist approach and announced multiple policies for
the poor. It also extended the reservation policy for the Economically Weaker Section
(EWS).

Also read: Who is eligible for EWS Certificate for UPSC?

Reservation for Economically Weaker Section

• Extension of reservation for EWS acknowledges the fact that a significant section of
social elites lives in poor conditions.
• It aims to provide institutional support and bring some solace to the upper-caste
downtrodden.
• It should be noted that still government jobs and admission in the institutions of higher
education are symbols of middle-class status and the lower classes look upon these
sectors with great aspirations.
• Doubts were raised on the legal validity of the reservation, but the Supreme Court
endorsed the amendment.

For more details, read here: EWS Quota: Sansad TV Perspective

Reservation Policy in India

The three major guidelines and historical background that led to reservation policy in India
are:

• It acknowledges that the social history of caste relationships in India has resulted in
perpetually burdening some sections of society.
o They suffered from subhuman social practices like disallowing access to basic
human entitlements like potable water and education.
o Multiple constitutional safeguards and laws were introduced in independent
India to include the worst-off social groups in the nation-building process.
 • The Indian constitution also directs that public institutions should display social plurality
thereby making them inclusive and responsible toward the vulnerable sections of
society.
• During the formation of the reservation policy (particularly for OBC), the state clarified
that backward caste identity can be based on multiple criteria of deprivations like
identity, economic, and educational backwardness.
o The Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case notified that caste and class
inequalities overlapped and resulted in backwardness and vulnerability.
o However, the concept of the “creamy layer” was applied.

Counter arguments or EWS Reservation

• The EWS case is different from the socio-historic exigencies of other vulnerable sections
as they did not face historic disadvantages or discrimination.
• Notably, there was negligible public pressure, or social movements demanding
reservations for the upper-caste poor.
• The section did not face any exclusion from the job market.
• It is argued that their vulnerability could have been addressed by free education,
health facilities, housing facilities, etc.

Associated Concerns

• The reservation highlights that the social justice agenda and principles of reservation
policy will undergo a dramatic change.
• It will also have implications for the existing reservation policy for the Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribe.
• Some critics of the reservation policy argue to introduce the concept of creamy layer in
reservation for SCs and STs. This has the potential to overlook caste-based social
inequalities.
• It is also seen that the rich dominant sections in SCs and STs exploit social justice policies.
• There is a growing demand that Muslim minorities shall be made beneficiaries of the
reservation policy. Moreover, various other communities like Jain and Christians might
claim their share. For instance,
o The Dalit Christians are demanding special social status and separate quotas
highlighting that they suffered identical social exclusions to Hindu Dalits.
• It is suggested that EWS might expand the domination of social elites in state institutions.

Conclusion

The introduction of the Economically Weaker Section has introduced economic

backwardness as the criterion to avail the benefits of the reservation policy in India.
5. Urban Waste Management

Details:

Technology plays a very important role in the delivery of public services and in improving the
quality of these services. With the proliferation of affordable smartphones and an increase in
internet use, websites/applications for interpersonal communication and sharing commonly
known as social media have tremendously increased.

Technology and waste management:

• Social media platforms like WhatsApp are increasingly being used by governments to
“invite” public participation, including information sharing, awareness generation,
grievance redressal and feedback.
• These technologies are the preferred mode of communication since they are deeply
penetrated into society and widely used by human beings with convenience.

Use of WhatsApp in Mumbai’s waste collection:

• Solid waste management (SWM) in Mumbai has historically been a centralised process:
waste collected through vehicles from across the city is transported to dumpsites in its
peripheries.
o Further, there was no formal regulation of the sector until the Municipal Solid
Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000, which prescribed collection,
segregation, and scientific disposal of waste.
• Under the latest arrangement, resident groups referred to as Advanced Locality
Management (ALM) are responsible for monitoring the collection and segregation of
waste in a locality, and are encouraged to compost biodegradable waste.
• National-level changes brought about city-level transformations in the nature of
participation, also paving the way for use of communications technology like
WhatsApp.
o WhatsApp, thus, acted as a tool to expand the geographical ambit of the ALM
through virtual means, gradually forming non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), and enabling ALM leaders to act as mediators to solve personal, civic,
and criminal issues in their locality.
• These changes led to greater micro-monitoring of Advanced Locality Management
(ALM) by Municipal Corporations.
• Complaints lodging and monitoring: The residents of a region can lodge complaints
regarding the non-collection of waste in their vicinity in the group which would
immediately alert the person responsible for such waste management.
o The ALM WhatsApp groups were primarily used for complaint-making by
residents, who shared photos/videos, locations, and nature of the complaint, for
example, a clogged drain, a pothole, and un-lifted garbage.
 • It is also used for the generation of awareness among the citizens in the locality. With the
help of WhatsApp, citizens are motivated to segregate the waste into biodegradable
and non-biodegradable formats thus making the work of others in the chain easy.
• Through apps, the accountability of the person responsible for the performance of work
can be fixed.
• This is also used for giving ratings to the areas based on service delivery. Thereby, it
promotes the spirit of competitiveness among the service providers to perform more.
• Through WhatsApp group members, the administration is informed of the problems
across their jurisdiction, in a continuous and regular manner, which is otherwise not
possible through field inspections

Limitations of these technologies:

• The group administrator can remove the members from the group with whom he does
not gel well.
• Service delivery depends upon the prior relationship of the person to the area. This limits
the effectiveness of the technology and promotes exclusion.
• Waste workers, who otherwise had no protective equipment, were given gloves and
coats while posing for photos, and one compost pit was clicked from several angles
using different banners to report as multiple pits.

Involving citizens in governance is considered to make it more accountable and transparent,

and improve representativeness and inclusivity, thereby, promoting democracy. Technology
has the capacity to make administration more citizen-friendly and citizen-oriented. Therefore,
technology should be kept at the centre of the administration.