The Evening Wrap: Punjab passes its own three farm Bills

The Hindu Newsletter - Here are the biggest news stories of the day [The Hindu Logo]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Youtube]( [Linkedin]( [Instagram]( Tuesday 20, October 2020 [alt_text]( The Evening Wrap [Here are the biggest news stories of the day]( [alt_text]( Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Punjab passes its own three farm Bills The [Punjab Legislative Assembly today unanimously passed three Bills to negate the Centre’s three new agriculture laws](. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said the Bills being presented would form the basis of the State’s legal battle ahead and hence needed to be thoroughly vetted before presentation. The draft resolution expressed the Assembly’s deep regret over the “callous and inconsiderate attitude of the government of India in attending to the concerns of the farming community on recent farm legislation enacted by them.” The Bills passed by the Assembly include the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020. Presenting the Bills earlier, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh described the Central laws “anti-farmer”. Earlier, as the proceedings of the House special session began, the Chief Minister moved a draft resolution rejecting the Central farm laws and the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020, and demanded that they be scrapped. The draft resolution seeks annulment of the farm laws and the proposed Electricity Bill, as well as promulgation of “a fresh ordinance making the procurement of food grains on the Minimum Support Price a statutory right of the farmers”. It also calls for the continuance of “procurement by Government of India through FCI and other such agencies.” “These three legislations, along with the proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020 are clearly against the interests of farmers and landless workers, and time-tested agriculture marketing system established not only in Punjab but also in the original green revolution areas of Punjab, Haryana, and western UP,” it said, adding that the government of India had clearly enacted trade legislation and not farm legislation. Don't lower your guard until there is a vaccine: PM Modi [ A woman wearing a protective mask watches Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation, in Ahmedabad on October 20, 2020. ] A woman wearing a protective mask watches Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation, in Ahmedabad on October 20, 2020. [In his seventh address to the nation since March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked people]( not to ease up on coronavirus precautions during the festive season. He observed that even though India’s coronavirus situation is better than other countries, people must not think that normalcy has returned. “Lockdowns are gone, but the coronavirus is still there,” he said. Noting that the government is making all efforts to ensure that the Covid-19 vaccine, whenever it is launched, reached every Indian, he said anyone who is careless and moving around without a mask is putting themselves, children, and the elderly at risk. He also called on the media and people on social media to spread awareness about the need to follow Covid-19 guidelines. Election Commission raises poll spending limit for candidates [A crowd gathers near an election campaign vehicle outside the BJP office in Patna on September 2, 2020. ]A crowd gathers near an election campaign vehicle outside the BJP office in Patna on September 2, 2020. [The poll spending limit for candidates contesting Lok Sabha and assembly elections]( has been increased by 10%, based on the recommendation of the Election Commission that contestants be allowed to spend more on campaigning given the difficulties they may face due to Covid-19 curbs. The hike in expenditure limit will help candidates contesting the Bihar assembly polls as well as the by-polls to one Lok Sabha and 59 assembly seats. Over a month ago, the Election Commission had recommended a 10% hike in expenditure for all elections to be held during the Covid-19 pandemic. The hike was recommended keeping in mind the difficulties candidates may face in campaigning amid the restrictions imposed, including those on holding rallies amid the pandemic. The notification issued by the Law Ministry on Monday night said the maximum expenditure a candidate can incur in campaigning for a Lok Sabha seat is ₹77 lakh. Until now it was ₹70 lakh. For assembly campaigns, it has been hiked from ₹28 lakh to ₹30.8 lakh. Manipur cut off as road bridges remain unsafe [Image for representational purpose only | The landlocked State solely depends on Assam and other States for all items in general, and consumer goods in particular.]Image for representational purpose only | The landlocked State solely depends on Assam and other States for all items in general, and consumer goods in particular. [Manipur remained partially cut off from the rest of the country]( for the second day on Tuesday as the wobbly bridges along NH 37 that link Manipur to other parts of the country continued to be unsafe for loaded trucks. The Makru bridge was damaged on Monday midnight. The landlocked State depends on Assam and other States for all items in general, and consumer goods in particular. It has triggered a price hike in Manipur from Tuesday onwards. A spokesman of construction agencies reportedly told some reporters who reached the damaged bridges that overloaded trucks were responsible for the breakdown of the bridges. Truck drivers, however, have denied this allegation. The All Manipur Transporter, Drivers and Motor Workers’ Union said that officials deployed along the NH 37 enforced the permitted weights and no truck was allowed to carry goods more than the approved weights. The drivers said the Makru, Barak, and Irung bridges have been in bad shape for decades. An activist said governments of different parties were busy passing the buck on the company undertaking repairs of roads and bridges. U.S. Justice Dept. to file landmark antitrust case against Google [The Trump administration has long had Google in its sights. File]The Trump administration has long had Google in its sights. File The [United States’ Justice Department is expected to file a lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that Google]( has been abusing its online dominance in online search to stifle competition and harm consumers. The litigation marks the government’s most significant act to protect competition since its groundbreaking case against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. The suit could be an opening salvo ahead of other major government antitrust actions, given ongoing investigations of major tech companies including Apple, Amazon and Facebook at both the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission. Lawmakers and consumer advocates have long accused Google, whose corporate parent Alphabet Inc. has a market value of just over $1 trillion, of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising to stifle competition and boost its profits. The case is expected to be filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., and will allege, among other things, that Google uses billions of dollars collected from advertisers to pay phone manufacturers to ensure Google is the default search engine on browsers. Trump has often criticised Google, recycling unfounded claims by conservatives that the search giant is biased against conservatives and suppresses their viewpoints, interferes with U.S. elections, and prefers working with the Chinese military over the Pentagon. A recent report from a House Judiciary subcommittee, following a year-long investigation into Big Tech’s market dominance, concluded that Google has monopoly power in the market for search. It said the company established its position in several markets through acquisition, and snapping up successful technologies that other businesses had developed, buying an estimated 260 companies in 20 years. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 76,40,661 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,15,858. Cautioning that Covid-19 infection can recur without sustained caution, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general Balram Bhargava on Tuesday said that any negligence can lead to re-infection. “Covid-19 re-infection in India is currently under investigation and we are collecting data on this,” he said. ([Click here for live updates]() Bhargava added that the government is also keenly following the Solidarity trial interim results, which seemed to indicate that remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and interferon regimens appeared to have little or no effect on 28-day mortality or the in-hospital course of Covid-19 among hospitalised patients. The Solidarity trial is an international clinical trial launched by the World Health Organisation to compare untested treatment options for Covid-19. “The results are interim, not peer reviewed. Debate and discussion is ongoing and we will take the results of these trials into consideration,” he said, at a Health Ministry press conference. In Brief: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has held that environmental clearance (EC) to Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) was granted ex post facto, after completion of substantial work, by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) “in violation of law”. It has also observed that accountability needs to be fixed and remedial measures taken. For that purpose, it has directed the MoEF&CC to constitute a seven-member expert committee to go into the matter in light of the observations in the present case. An analysis of election affidavits filed by candidates for the first phase of the Assembly elections in Bihar has found that 31% of the candidates in the fray have declared criminal cases against themselves, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said. The report, released by ADR on Tuesday, analysed 1,064 out of the 1,066 candidates in phase one of the elections and found that 328 had declared pending criminal cases. Of their total candidates in phase one, the RJD and the BJP had 73% and 72% of candidates respectively with criminal cases against them. Of all the candidates analysed, 23% had declared serious criminal cases against themselves, including rape, murder, assault and kidnapping. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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