Tag: UP

UP, Bihar at bottom of India’s justice league.

Source – indiatoday.in

Law and order has always been a major concern in the two big states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Despite claims of improvement over the years by respective state leaderships, a recent report by Tata Trusts has statistically proven that these two states have the worst justice system in India.

The study, titled India Justice Report’, which Tata Trusts published on Thursday, developed an index of justice system across the country using four parameters police, prisons, judiciary and legal aid. An assessment of 18 bigger states revealed that UP and Bihar have the worst justice system in India. While UP ranked at the bottom of the list, Bihar stood at number 17.

On the basis of these parameters, a score was allotted to each state on a scale of 10. None of the states had the perfect score. UP and Bihar got a score of 3.32 and 4.02 respectively. Following them from the bottom were Jharkhand (4.3), Uttarakhand (4.49), Rajasthan (4.52) and Andhra Pradesh (4.77).

The state with the best justice system according to the report is Maharashtra with a score of 5.92. It is followed by Kerala (5.85), Tamil Nadu (5.76), Punjab (5.53) and Haryana (5.53).

The average score of all the bigger states turned out to be 4.95, which means more than 50 per cent conditions to get a perfect score for the justice system have not been met. In fact, of the 18 big states surveyed, 11 had a score of above 5.

Collectively, the data paints a grim picture. It highlights that each individual sub-system is starved for budgets, manpower and infrastructure; no state is fully compliant with the standards it has set for itself. Governments are content to create ad hoc and patchwork remedies to cure deeply embedded systemic failures. Inevitably, the burden of all this falls on the public, the report says.

Why UP, Bihar rank at the bottom

A deeper look at the statistics reveals that in almost every aspect, UP and Bihar exchanged the last and second last position.

Policing

The study took several factors to assess the police system in the states, ranging from modernisation, inducing women, diversity, budgeting, human resource planning and infrastructure.

On this front, the best score was achieved by Tamil Nadu 6.49. UP received a score of 2.98, whereas Bihar got 3.77. UP fared poor in terms of budgeting, spending on police per person, vacancies and diversity.

Prisons

This parameter was assessed on various factors ranging from overcrowding, inclusion of women staff, adequate human resources, budgeting, infrastructure, etc.

Jharkhand fared the worst with a score of 3.46. It was followed by Uttarakhand (3.72), Punjab (4.35), Andhra Pradesh (4.35) and UP (4.42). Surprisingly, Bihar stood at number six with a score of 5.61. The best in this regard was Kerala with a score of 7.18.

Judiciary

This parameter was assessed on availability of judges, clearance of cases, spending on judiciary, etc.

Bihar, with a score of 2.41, fared the worst in this regard. It was followed by UP (3.7), Karnataka (3.76), Uttarakhand (4.17) and Jharkhand (4.3). Tamil Nadu again featured on the top in terms of judiciary with a score of 6.99. It was followed by Punjab (6.57), Haryana (6.23) and Maharashtra (5.96).

On an average, Bihar saw a bleak growth in expenditure on judiciary in comparison to total spending. From 2011 to 2016, the state expenditure rose by 17.8 per cent; however, expenditure on judiciary rose by only 8 per cent.

Legal aid

The report also highlighted the importance of legal aid. It said that almost 80 per cent of India’s 1.25-billion population is eligible for free legal aid, but only 15 million people have availed it since 1995.

Here too, the parameter was assessed on the basis of budgeting, human resources, diversity, infrastructure and work load. With a score of 2.5, UP fared worst, followed by Uttarakhand (4.46), Bihar (4.52) and Odisha (4.61).

Monsoon Intensifies in North; Extremely Heavy Rainfall in UP, Bihar and Uttarakhand

Source: weather.com

The Indo-Gangetic plain has been witnessing very heavy rainfall since Tuesday. As the monsoon gains strength over the region, the rains are forecast to increase and persist throughout the week.

On Tuesday, some areas in Uttar Pradesh witnessed torrential rainfall, with Bahraich recording 202 mm. Other regions, including Gorakhpur and Sultanpur in UP and Bhagalpur in Bihar, also witnessed rainfall of around 100 mm.

More rains are expected from Wednesday to Friday as the atmospheric circulation over the region is expected to be active. The cause for the downpour is a monsoon trough—an extended region where the atmospheric pressure is the lowest—that persists from east to west on the Indo-Gangetic plain. The well-marked low-pressure is expected to move up north along the Himalayas gradually. Therefore, in addition to UP and Bihar, Uttarakhand is also likely to experience extremely heavy rainfall this week.

The India Meteorological Department has issued a red warning (its highest level of vigil/action) in Uttar Pradesh from Wednesday to Friday and in Uttarakhand for Thursday and Friday. During this period, the department forecasts heavy to very heavy with extremely heavy rain at isolated places in the region. Bihar also has a yellow ‘watch’ warning for the entire week, with likelihood of heavy to very heavy rain and extremely rain at one or two places.

Normally, monsoon sets in over Uttar Pradesh on or around June 15. However, this year the arrival was delayed by over a week, and the monsoon reached the state only by June 22. The resulting deficit in rainfall in the northern region ranges from 23% in east UP to 31% in West UP and 47% in Uttarakhand from June 1 to July 9.

Why A 16-Year-Old Boy Refuses To Post Anything On Journalist Jailed In UP

Source: ndtv.com

Meerut: 

A 16-year-old boy was detained by the Uttar Pradesh police in August last year for his Facebook post on the day former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee died. In his post, the teenager had expressed his anger at Mr Vajpayee and alleged that he was involved in the demolition of Babri Masjid. He spent 39 days in custody.

Such is the impact of his time in custody that the boy and family have decided not to post anything on social media over the arrest of journalist Prashant Kanojia that has sparked a huge debate on social media on freedom of expression in the country.

In August 2018, the police went to the boy’s home in a village in Meerut, looking for him. Since he was in Delhi then, his father was taken to the police station in Jewar, 116 km away, near Greater Noida.
The teenager surrendered before the police the next day and his father was released.

“I got to know that my post was viral on many RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological) and the Bajrang Dal pages on Facebook. A day later, I got to know that a case had been registered against me. I also heard that people on social media had said that my post should be reported. I had seen the posts circulating. The Hindu Jagran Manch in Jewar filed the complaint,” the teenager told NDTV.

The police sent him to a juvenile justice home for 39 days. He was charged of “promoting enmity between different groups”, “assertions prejudicial to national integration” and “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings” and under the Information Technology Act.

The boy’s 23-year-old brother too was booked for sharing a different post about Atal Bihari Vajpayee and charged for “disturbing public peace” and defamation. But the elder brother was given anticipatory bail.

The 17-year-old, who aspires to be a doctor, recalls the traumatic days and is worried about his future. “It was a horrible time. I stay in a family where nobody indulges in drugs but those in the jail were drug addicts. The food too wasn’t good. Most kids were dependent on drugs and that was very tough on me. I am doing a coaching for NEET(National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) for MBBS. There is a fear because of my documents have been tainted due to the case,” he said.

But the social boycott that he faced is what has broken him the most. “I got a lot of support from my social circle. But my friends in the village reduced. A communal angle came in.They started thinking that because I wrote against Mr Vajpayee, I am a staunch Muslim. That led to a lot of problems. But friends on social media supported then too and continue do so. They say I did nothing wrong,” he said.

“My non-Muslim friends circle completely boycotted me. They don’t talk at all. But among school friends, some talk to me and some don’t,” he added.19 COMMENTS

The student has now made it a rule not to post anything political, no matter how strongly he may feel about them. He said, “There is fear. My father explained to us that we have to stop political posts completely. Since the arrest of Prashant Kanojia, so many of our friends have been sharing posts using various hashtags. But we aren’t writing anything about it even though Mr Kanojia seemed to have been taken without reason. We don’t upload political things anymore.”