The Evening Wrap: When will you restore J&K Statehood, CJI asks Centre

Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on August 29 opened a line of argument for the Centre that Jammu and Kashmir had been converted into a Union Territory for a “stipulated period”, maybe for the sake of “national security”, but pushed the Centre for an answer on when it would revert to a full-fledged State. The Centre said the UnionTerritory status of Jammu and Kashmir was not a permanent feature. “We will make a positive statement the day after tomorrow (August 31) on Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh will, however, remain a Union Territory,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court in the post-lunch session of the hearing. He said elections in Ladakh would be over in September 2023. During the morning session of the hearing, the Chief Justice had asked the Solicitor General, and Attorney General R. Venkataramani, to secure instructions from the government on the period of time within which Jammu and Kashmir would return to being a State. “We do not want to bind you… We understand there are matters of national security involved… We know that preservation of the nation is the overriding concern… So, without putting you [the Solicitor General] or the Attorney General in a bind, can you seek instructions on whether there is some time frame? The government has to make a statement before us that the progression back to Statehood will take place within a time… That this is not a Union Territory permanently,” Chief Justice Chandrachud had told the Centre. The Chief Justice had reminded the Centre that the “restoration of democracy is a vital component for our nation”. The Chief Justice had offered the “national security” line to the government amidst a barrage of questions from the Constitution Bench on whether the Parliament has the power to carve existing and functional border States into Union Territories. “You [the Union Government] can argue that right now we have an extreme situation in terms of national security and we want, for a stipulated period, a Union Territory to be created. You can say the creation of the Union Territory is not a feature of permanence, but it [Jammu and Kashmir] will progress back to its position of a State,” Chief Justice Chandrachud suggested to Mehta. Mehta agreed that this was “exactly what the government had said in the Parliament from day one”. “Jammu and Kashmir will return to being a State after return to normalcy,” he assured. “You can say the Union of India wanted to have control for a certain period… After all, whether a Union Territory or a State, all of us will survive if the nation survives. If the nation does not survive, there is no relevance whether it is a State or a Union Territory… Should we not give that allowance to the Parliament to postulate that for a certain period, for the preservation of the Union itself, this particular State should go into the fold of a Union Territory on the clear understanding that it will revert to Statehood over a period of time?” the Chief Justice posed. In the hearing, Mehta affirmed that Jammu and Kashmir was seeing better days after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. He said the erstwhile State had been plagued by incidents of terrorism, infiltration, pelting of stones, hartals, etc, before. Post-abrogation, local elections had been held. “Democracy has seeped into the grassroots in Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehta said. “The government has a blueprint working,” he added. “But that means normalcy has been restored in Jammu and Kashmir. So is it not time to return Jammu and Kashmir to Statehood?” senior advocate Kapil Sibal intervened to ask the court. The court also voiced its apprehensions about the source of the Parliament’s power to transform States to UnionTerritories even as Mehta said the case of Jammu and Kashmir, which has seen violence and cross border terrorism for decades, was “one of its kind”. “Once you concede that Union of India has the power to reorganise any State, how do you address the apprehensions States feel about this power of yours? How do you ensure that this power may not be used on every State?” Chief Justice Chandrachud asked the Solicitor General. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said there was a “problem” with the Centre’s argument that Jammu and Kashmir was one of its kind. He pointed to Punjab, another border State which saw violence, and the northeastern States. “One of the northeastern States is facing violence right now,” Justice B.R. Gavai said, referring to Manipur. Mehta said the nation has borders with four countries, and not all of them are friendly. “We cannot choose our neighbours. What the Chief Justice apprehends is would you go ahead and reorganise any of these States when you see trouble?… You cannot say that just because it is a border State, it has to be treated differently,” Justice Kaul observed. Chief Justice Chandrachud said Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand were also border States. Justice Kaul said the Parliament under Article 3 could carve out a Union Territory from a State. But could the Parliament convert an entire State into a Union Territory or portion out a part of the State as a Union Territory — Ladakh — and declare the remnant part — Jammu and Kashmir — as another Union Territory, Justice Kaul asked. Justice Sanjiv Khanna questioned whether by suspending the consultation process with the Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly before reorganising the State, the Centre had virtually taken away the role of the State government in decision-making process. Centre slashes domestic LPG cylinders rate by ₹200 ahead of 5 State elections On the occasion of Onam and upcoming Rakshabandhan festival, the Union Cabinet on August 29 approved the reduction in prices of LPG gas cylinder for domestic use to upto ₹200, announced Union Minister Anurag Thakur. The cabinet also approved free LPG connection to 75 lakh women under Ujjwala scheme. All beneficiaries under the Ujjwala scheme will now get ₹400 subsidy per LPG cylinder. The domestic LPG rates were last changed on March 1, when price per cylinder was hiked by ₹50. The price of a 14.2 kg domestic cylinder for households had, back then, consequently shot up to ₹1,103 in Delhi; ₹1,102.50 in Mumbai; ₹1,118.50 in Chennai; and ₹1,129 in Kolkata. RJD accuses Centre of attempting to block caste survey in Bihar The Rashtriya Janata Dal on Tuesday accused the Centre of attempting to stop the caste survey in Bihar and “depriving” a large section of society of their rights. RJD MP and party spokesperson Manoj Jha claimed that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s presence in court on the matter shows that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is directly involved in attempting to block the caste survey. “On PMO’s directions, there is an attempt to block the caste survey which is almost complete in Bihar. This shows that the BJP and the Sangh want to deprive such a big section of society of their rights. This is their priority,” Jha said in a video statement. His remarks come a day after the Centre told the Supreme Court that only it is empowered to conduct a census under the relevant law as the subject falls under the Union list of the Constitution. In an affidavit filed in connection with a batch of petitions challenging the Patna High Court giving the go-ahead to caste survey in Bihar, the Centre said the Union of India is committed to taking all affirmative actions to uplift the SCs, STs, SEBCs and OBCs in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the applicable law. In his remarks, Jha said, “Tushar Mehta’s presence clearly shows that PMO is directly involved in blocking caste survey. The fifth point in the affidavit says ‘census and anything akin to census’, which shows there is an attempt to block the survey also. When a hue and cry was raised they said this was an inadvertent error.” It was not ‘inadvertent’ but it was ‘deliberate’ to block the survey, he said. “You (Centre) are giving life to a volcano by depriving such a large section of the society of its rights. By doing all this, you are getting exposed. You can’t stop the caste survey,” he said. J&K IAS officer alleges irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission A senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer has alleged irregularities in the procurement of pipes for the flagship Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scheme, which has a ₹14,000 crore budget in Jammu and Kashmir. In a detailed complaint to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ashok Kumar Parmar, a 1992-batch IAS officer, has alleged that pipes which were unsuitable for the hilly and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir were shortlisted by a committee that directly reports to the Chief Secretary of J&K, flouting all norms. Parmar was posted as principal secretary of J&K’s Jal Shakti Department between May 4 and August 7, 2022. In another complaint to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), Parmar has alleged that J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and J&K Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta both harassed, intimidated and threatened him, due to their prejudice and bias against him for being a Scheduled Caste IAS officer. He feared that he may be implicated in false cases, as he had pointed out many financial irregularities and acts of omission and commission in the implementation of JJM in the Union Territory. The Scheduled Caste officer, hailing from Bharuch in Gujarat, has more than 30 years of experience. He alleged that after the Jal Shakti posting, he had been frequently transferred, once within 12 days, in violation of the transfer policy of the Government of India. He recounted an incident when he was “thrown out of the meeting room” by the L-G on June 6, 2022, and another incident when he was thrown out of the Committee of Secretaries meeting, held on July 25, 2023. Denying the allegations, a senior J&K government official told The Hindu that the concerned officer was removed on grounds of irregularities. In his complaint to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on July 18, Parmar alleged that the chief engineer of the Jal Shakti department, Kashmir division had floated tenders to supply centrifugally cast (or spun) ductile iron pipes for ₹690 crore, based on an existing contract under a non-JJM scheme. The tender was floated in January 2022 and the orders were placed after a gap of six months in June 2022 under non-JJM specification, the complaint accessed by The Hindu said. Per norms and a government order dated January 9, 2020, the purchase committee led by the chief engineer had to obtain administrative approval from the administrative secretary, in this case, Parmar, for procurement of civil work and pipes. However, this was never done. Parmar alleged this was part of a criminal conspiracy by senior officials of the administration. The J&K government official quoted above said, “The concerned official was removed on ground of irregularities. He has had several issues in the past too. The Chief Secretary and Lieutenant Governor have nothing to do with awarding contracts. The person wanted to head the contracts committee.” A source close to Parmar denied that he wanted to head the committee, adding that a complaint was sent to the Anti Corruption Bureau of J&K too, which had failed to take any action. The JJM scheme aims to provide potable drinking water in taps to all rural homes by 2024. The scheme has a ₹14,000 crore budget for J&K; the pipe component accounts for about ₹3,000 crore. The complaint to the MHA alleged that high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes were recently procured in Jammu at a cost of ₹28.29 crore, in blatant violation of the provisions laid down in the General Financial Rules 2017, the Manual for Procurement of Works 2019, and the Manual for Procurement of Consultancy and Other Services 2017, issued by the Expenditure Department of the Union Finance Ministry. “It is pertinent to mention that the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and District Action Plans (DAPs) with total budget of ₹14,183.56 crore for JJM were prepared with the provision of GMS Tubes (Galvanised Iron Pipes) and ISI marked Centrifugally Cast (Spun) Ductile Iron Pipes only. HDPE pipes are not at all suitable for hilly and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir where people frequently damage these pipes to collect water flowing through the pipes,” the complaint alleged. Delivery workers live in precarity, but are slightly better off than the average urban worker: Report A report released on Monday by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) offers detailed insights on the tenuous place in the urban economy of food delivery workers — overwhelmingly male, and often college-educated — for platforms like Zomato and Swiggy. Delivery agents’ real wages are shrinking as high fuel prices and inflation have eaten away at what little they are saving. And yet, the report says, these workers’ earnings are comparably better than the income of the average urban male worker. The report has been funded by the Indian arm of Prosus, the largest shareholder of food delivery platform Swiggy. It is based on conversations with 924 food delivery workers across the country. Some inferences from the report align with the food delivery platform industry’s claims on contributing to jobs and local economies. For instance, the report says delivery partners generally make more than they did in their previous jobs, or that starting deliveries got them out of a spell of unemployment; and the reason most delivery partners leave is the same reason they joined — a better paying opportunity elsewhere in the job market. 76% of delivery workers made their deliveries where they lived, suggesting those incomes are at least immediately staying within the local economy, the report says. But the findings also paint a portrait of precarity among the workers — even though delivery workers make more than the average urban worker, they spend far more on fuel, which eats up over a third of what they make (averaged across Tier 1-3 cities). After fuel, their income is only about 5% higher than the urban average, with long-shift workers clocking around 11 hours a day doing an average of 15 deliveries. Delivery workers seldom stay — only 14.8% of current and former delivery agents had been making deliveries for more than two years when they were surveyed. Their high education levels (and market-pegged incomes) is well-aligned with the job scarcity in India for college graduates, but the social safety net is also scarce, with workers only insured against road accidents and little else. They generally have no health insurance or pension plans. “Platform economy service providers or gig workers or ‘partners’ function on a day-to-day basis, but are formally treated as entrepreneurs by the platform management,” Shipra, a research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies (CISLS), and Minaketan Behera, Professor at the CISLS, wrote in The Economic and Political Weekly in 2020. This leads to “self-exploitation”, the scholars wrote, characterising the lack of social security and other employment benefits for regular workers as “an attempt to shift the risk of business [which] is normalised and glamourised by idealising entrepreneurial values in non-entrepreneurs”. Some States are responding to calls for enabling gig workers overall to get more social stability. The draft Rajasthan Platform-based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, for instance, envisions the creation of a welfare board in the State for gig workers. The National Coordination Committee on Gig Workers in July demanded that the Union Government create a model law for States that recognises them and widens their social safety net. India says new China map ‘complicates’ border issue resolution India on Tuesday lodged a “strong protest” with China over the publication of a new map that was released by the Chinese government on August 28, showing all of Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin, and other parts of Indian territory within its borders, that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called “absurd claims”. The map, that has in the past claimed Indian territories as well, was published just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed resolving the boundary situation. “We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question,” said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson in a statement, responding to media queries. The spokesperson said that India has lodged “a strong protest through diplomatic channels” with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 “standard map” that was released by the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources. According to Chinese state media, the map was released during what is being called “National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week” in China, and would be followed by other digital and navigational maps. The publication of the map was met with outrage by experts on social media, and criticised by the Opposition Congress party. Speaking to NDTV, Mr. Jaishankar, who served as Ambassador to China (2009 to 2013) said that this was an “old habit” of the Chinese government. “Just by putting out maps with parts of India... this doesn’t change in anything. Our government is very clear about what our territory is. Making absurd claims does not make other people’s territories yours,” Mr. Jaishankar said on Tuesday. As The Hindu had reported, the map that India has objected to also lays claim to the entire South China Sea and Taiwan, all of which are the subject of disputes between China and its neighbours in South East Asia. While the map is an annual exercise, the timing of its release is also significant ahead of the G-20 summit in Delhi on September 9-10, which Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend, along with nearly all other G-20 leaders other than Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has conveyed his inability to attend. Mr. Xi is also invited to Indonesia for the East Asia Summit and ASEAN meetings, where Prime Minister Modi is expected to travel as well. In Brief: Even after 45 days into the new academic session, at least 22 of the 75 colleges affiliated with the North Eastern Hill University in Meghalaya are yet to shift to the 4-year undergraduate course with the teachers’ union actively protesting the university’s push for the course, officials said on August 29. Meghalaya Teachers’ College Association (MCTA) general secretary Dr. Airpeace W. Rani informed that 22 colleges affiliated to the university are boycotting the first semester classes and not undertaking any assignments under the new policy. The association has petitioned vice-chancellor Prof PS Shukla to withdraw the July 12 notification mandating the implementation of NEP 2020 across all affiliated colleges. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 29 August 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( When will J&K Statehood be restored, Supreme Court asks Union government Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on August 29 opened a line of argument for the Centre that Jammu and Kashmir had been converted into a Union Territory for a “stipulated period”, maybe for the sake of “national security”, but [pushed the Centre for an answer on when it would revert to a full-fledged State](. The Centre said the UnionTerritory status of Jammu and Kashmir was not a permanent feature. “We will make a positive statement the day after tomorrow (August 31) on Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh will, however, remain a Union Territory,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court in the post-lunch session of the hearing. He said elections in Ladakh would be over in September 2023. During the morning session of the hearing, the Chief Justice had asked the Solicitor General, and Attorney General R. Venkataramani, to secure instructions from the government on the period of time within which Jammu and Kashmir would return to being a State. “We do not want to bind you… We understand there are matters of national security involved… We know that preservation of the nation is the overriding concern… So, without putting you [the Solicitor General] or the Attorney General in a bind, can you seek instructions on whether there is some time frame? The government has to make a statement before us that the progression back to Statehood will take place within a time… That this is not a Union Territory permanently,” Chief Justice Chandrachud had told the Centre. The Chief Justice had reminded the Centre that the “restoration of democracy is a vital component for our nation”. The Chief Justice had offered the “national security” line to the government amidst a barrage of questions from the Constitution Bench on whether the Parliament has the power to carve existing and functional border States into Union Territories. “You [the Union Government] can argue that right now we have an extreme situation in terms of national security and we want, for a stipulated period, a Union Territory to be created. You can say the creation of the Union Territory is not a feature of permanence, but it [Jammu and Kashmir] will progress back to its position of a State,” Chief Justice Chandrachud suggested to Mehta. Mehta agreed that this was “exactly what the government had said in the Parliament from day one”. “Jammu and Kashmir will return to being a State after return to normalcy,” he assured. “You can say the Union of India wanted to have control for a certain period… After all, whether a Union Territory or a State, all of us will survive if the nation survives. If the nation does not survive, there is no relevance whether it is a State or a Union Territory… Should we not give that allowance to the Parliament to postulate that for a certain period, for the preservation of the Union itself, this particular State should go into the fold of a Union Territory on the clear understanding that it will revert to Statehood over a period of time?” the Chief Justice posed. In the hearing, Mehta affirmed that Jammu and Kashmir was seeing better days after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. He said the erstwhile State had been plagued by incidents of terrorism, infiltration, pelting of stones, hartals, etc, before. Post-abrogation, local elections had been held. “Democracy has seeped into the grassroots in Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehta said. “The government has a blueprint working,” he added. “But that means normalcy has been restored in Jammu and Kashmir. So is it not time to return Jammu and Kashmir to Statehood?” senior advocate Kapil Sibal intervened to ask the court. The court also voiced its apprehensions about the source of the Parliament’s power to transform States to UnionTerritories even as Mehta said the case of Jammu and Kashmir, which has seen violence and cross border terrorism for decades, was “one of its kind”. “Once you concede that Union of India has the power to reorganise any State, how do you address the apprehensions States feel about this power of yours? How do you ensure that this power may not be used on every State?” Chief Justice Chandrachud asked the Solicitor General. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said there was a “problem” with the Centre’s argument that Jammu and Kashmir was one of its kind. He pointed to Punjab, another border State which saw violence, and the northeastern States. “One of the northeastern States is facing violence right now,” Justice B.R. Gavai said, referring to Manipur. Mehta said the nation has borders with four countries, and not all of them are friendly. “We cannot choose our neighbours. What the Chief Justice apprehends is would you go ahead and reorganise any of these States when you see trouble?… You cannot say that just because it is a border State, it has to be treated differently,” Justice Kaul observed. Chief Justice Chandrachud said Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand were also border States. Justice Kaul said the Parliament under Article 3 could carve out a Union Territory from a State. But could the Parliament convert an entire State into a Union Territory or portion out a part of the State as a Union Territory — Ladakh — and declare the remnant part — Jammu and Kashmir — as another Union Territory, Justice Kaul asked. Justice Sanjiv Khanna questioned whether by suspending the consultation process with the Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly before reorganising the State, the Centre had virtually taken away the role of the State government in decision-making process. Centre slashes domestic LPG cylinders rate by ₹200 ahead of 5 State elections On the occasion of Onam and upcoming Rakshabandhan festival, the Union Cabinet on August 29 [approved the reduction in prices of LPG gas cylinder for domestic use]( to upto ₹200, announced Union Minister Anurag Thakur. The cabinet also approved free LPG connection to 75 lakh women under Ujjwala scheme. All beneficiaries under the Ujjwala scheme will now get ₹400 subsidy per LPG cylinder. The domestic LPG rates were last changed on March 1, when price per cylinder was hiked by ₹50. The price of a 14.2 kg domestic cylinder for households had, back then, consequently shot up to ₹1,103 in Delhi; ₹1,102.50 in Mumbai; ₹1,118.50 in Chennai; and ₹1,129 in Kolkata. RJD accuses Centre of attempting to block caste survey in Bihar The Rashtriya Janata Dal on Tuesday [accused the Centre of attempting to stop the caste survey in Bihar]( and “depriving” a large section of society of their rights. RJD MP and party spokesperson Manoj Jha claimed that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta’s presence in court on the matter shows that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is directly involved in attempting to block the caste survey. “On PMO’s directions, there is an attempt to block the caste survey which is almost complete in Bihar. This shows that the BJP and the Sangh want to deprive such a big section of society of their rights. This is their priority,” Jha said in a video statement. His remarks come a day after the Centre told the Supreme Court that only it is empowered to conduct a census under the relevant law as the subject falls under the Union list of the Constitution. In an affidavit filed in connection with a batch of petitions challenging the Patna High Court giving the go-ahead to caste survey in Bihar, the Centre said the Union of India is committed to taking all affirmative actions to uplift the SCs, STs, SEBCs and OBCs in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the applicable law. In his remarks, Jha said, “Tushar Mehta’s presence clearly shows that PMO is directly involved in blocking caste survey. The fifth point in the affidavit says ‘census and anything akin to census’, which shows there is an attempt to block the survey also. When a hue and cry was raised they said this was an inadvertent error.” It was not ‘inadvertent’ but it was ‘deliberate’ to block the survey, he said. “You (Centre) are giving life to a volcano by depriving such a large section of the society of its rights. By doing all this, you are getting exposed. You can’t stop the caste survey,” he said. J&K IAS officer alleges irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission A senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer has [alleged irregularities in the procurement of pipes for the flagship Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scheme]( which has a ₹14,000 crore budget in Jammu and Kashmir. In a detailed complaint to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ashok Kumar Parmar, a 1992-batch IAS officer, has alleged that pipes which were unsuitable for the hilly and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir were shortlisted by a committee that directly reports to the Chief Secretary of J&K, flouting all norms. Parmar was posted as principal secretary of J&K’s Jal Shakti Department between May 4 and August 7, 2022. In another complaint to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), Parmar has alleged that J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and J&K Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta both harassed, intimidated and threatened him, due to their prejudice and bias against him for being a Scheduled Caste IAS officer. He feared that he may be implicated in false cases, as he had pointed out many financial irregularities and acts of omission and commission in the implementation of JJM in the Union Territory. The Scheduled Caste officer, hailing from Bharuch in Gujarat, has more than 30 years of experience. He alleged that after the Jal Shakti posting, he had been frequently transferred, once within 12 days, in violation of the transfer policy of the Government of India. He recounted an incident when he was “thrown out of the meeting room” by the L-G on June 6, 2022, and another incident when he was thrown out of the Committee of Secretaries meeting, held on July 25, 2023. Denying the allegations, a senior J&K government official told The Hindu that the concerned officer was removed on grounds of irregularities. In his complaint to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on July 18, Parmar alleged that the chief engineer of the Jal Shakti department, Kashmir division had floated tenders to supply centrifugally cast (or spun) ductile iron pipes for ₹690 crore, based on an existing contract under a non-JJM scheme. The tender was floated in January 2022 and the orders were placed after a gap of six months in June 2022 under non-JJM specification, the complaint accessed by The Hindu said. Per norms and a government order dated January 9, 2020, the purchase committee led by the chief engineer had to obtain administrative approval from the administrative secretary, in this case, Parmar, for procurement of civil work and pipes. However, this was never done. Parmar alleged this was part of a criminal conspiracy by senior officials of the administration. The J&K government official quoted above said, “The concerned official was removed on ground of irregularities. He has had several issues in the past too. The Chief Secretary and Lieutenant Governor have nothing to do with awarding contracts. The person wanted to head the contracts committee.” A source close to Parmar denied that he wanted to head the committee, adding that a complaint was sent to the Anti Corruption Bureau of J&K too, which had failed to take any action. The JJM scheme aims to provide potable drinking water in taps to all rural homes by 2024. The scheme has a ₹14,000 crore budget for J&K; the pipe component accounts for about ₹3,000 crore. The complaint to the MHA alleged that high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes were recently procured in Jammu at a cost of ₹28.29 crore, in blatant violation of the provisions laid down in the General Financial Rules 2017, the Manual for Procurement of Works 2019, and the Manual for Procurement of Consultancy and Other Services 2017, issued by the Expenditure Department of the Union Finance Ministry. “It is pertinent to mention that the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and District Action Plans (DAPs) with total budget of ₹14,183.56 crore for JJM were prepared with the provision of GMS Tubes (Galvanised Iron Pipes) and ISI marked Centrifugally Cast (Spun) Ductile Iron Pipes only. HDPE pipes are not at all suitable for hilly and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir where people frequently damage these pipes to collect water flowing through the pipes,” the complaint alleged. Delivery workers live in precarity, but are slightly better off than the average urban worker: Report A report released on Monday by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) offers detailed [insights on the tenuous place in the urban economy of food delivery workers]( — overwhelmingly male, and often college-educated — for platforms like Zomato and Swiggy. Delivery agents’ real wages are shrinking as high fuel prices and inflation have eaten away at what little they are saving. And yet, the report says, these workers’ earnings are comparably better than the income of the average urban male worker. The report has been funded by the Indian arm of Prosus, the largest shareholder of food delivery platform Swiggy. It is based on conversations with 924 food delivery workers across the country. Some inferences from the report align with the food delivery platform industry’s claims on contributing to jobs and local economies. For instance, the report says delivery partners generally make more than they did in their previous jobs, or that starting deliveries got them out of a spell of unemployment; and the reason most delivery partners leave is the same reason they joined — a better paying opportunity elsewhere in the job market. 76% of delivery workers made their deliveries where they lived, suggesting those incomes are at least immediately staying within the local economy, the report says. But the findings also paint a portrait of precarity among the workers — even though delivery workers make more than the average urban worker, they spend far more on fuel, which eats up over a third of what they make (averaged across Tier 1-3 cities). After fuel, their income is only about 5% higher than the urban average, with long-shift workers clocking around 11 hours a day doing an average of 15 deliveries. Delivery workers seldom stay — only 14.8% of current and former delivery agents had been making deliveries for more than two years when they were surveyed. Their high education levels (and market-pegged incomes) is well-aligned with the job scarcity in India for college graduates, but the social safety net is also scarce, with workers only insured against road accidents and little else. They generally have no health insurance or pension plans. “Platform economy service providers or gig workers or ‘partners’ function on a day-to-day basis, but are formally treated as entrepreneurs by the platform management,” Shipra, a research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies (CISLS), and Minaketan Behera, Professor at the CISLS, wrote in The Economic and Political Weekly in 2020. This leads to “self-exploitation”, the scholars wrote, characterising the lack of social security and other employment benefits for regular workers as “an attempt to shift the risk of business [which] is normalised and glamourised by idealising entrepreneurial values in non-entrepreneurs”. Some States are responding to calls for enabling gig workers overall to get more social stability. The draft Rajasthan Platform-based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, for instance, envisions the creation of a welfare board in the State for gig workers. The National Coordination Committee on Gig Workers in July demanded that the Union Government create a model law for States that recognises them and widens their social safety net. India says new China map ‘complicates’ border issue resolution India on Tuesday [lodged a “strong protest” with China over the publication of a new map]( that was released by the Chinese government on August 28, showing all of Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin, and other parts of Indian territory within its borders, that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called “absurd claims”. The map, that has in the past claimed Indian territories as well, was published just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussed resolving the boundary situation. “We reject these claims as they have no basis. Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary question,” said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson in a statement, responding to media queries. The spokesperson said that India has lodged “a strong protest through diplomatic channels” with the Chinese side on the so-called 2023 “standard map” that was released by the Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources. According to Chinese state media, the map was released during what is being called “National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week” in China, and would be followed by other digital and navigational maps. The publication of the map was met with outrage by experts on social media, and criticised by the Opposition Congress party. Speaking to NDTV, Mr. Jaishankar, who served as Ambassador to China (2009 to 2013) said that this was an “old habit” of the Chinese government. “Just by putting out maps with parts of India... this doesn’t change in anything. Our government is very clear about what our territory is. Making absurd claims does not make other people’s territories yours,” Mr. Jaishankar said on Tuesday. As The Hindu had reported, the map that India has objected to also lays claim to the entire South China Sea and Taiwan, all of which are the subject of disputes between China and its neighbours in South East Asia. While the map is an annual exercise, the timing of its release is also significant ahead of the G-20 summit in Delhi on September 9-10, which Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend, along with nearly all other G-20 leaders other than Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has conveyed his inability to attend. Mr. Xi is also invited to Indonesia for the East Asia Summit and ASEAN meetings, where Prime Minister Modi is expected to travel as well. In Brief: Even after 45 days into the new academic session, at least 22 of the 75 colleges affiliated with the North Eastern Hill University in Meghalaya are yet to shift to the 4-year undergraduate course with the teachers’ union actively protesting the university’s push for the course, officials said on August 29. Meghalaya Teachers’ College Association (MCTA) general secretary Dr. Airpeace W. Rani informed that 22 colleges affiliated to the university are [boycotting the first semester classes]( and not undertaking any assignments under the new policy. The association has petitioned vice-chancellor Prof PS Shukla to withdraw the July 12 notification mandating the implementation of NEP 2020 across all affiliated colleges. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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