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Sunday, December 27, 2020

Governors on Covid-19 policies: 'We were all trying to figure this thing out as we went'

Larry Hogan and Gretchen Whitmer say they have few regrets about their handling of the pandemic so far.

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Adm. Giroir: Not clear if Christmas travel will lead to surge in Covid cases

"It really depends on what the travelers do when they get where they're going."

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IPS officers Roopa and Nimbalkar in war of words over tender process in Bengaluru Safe City project

Controversy
Karnataka Home Secretary D Roopa on Saturday claimed that Hemant Nimbalkar was trying to favour a private company.
IPS officer Hemant Nimbalkar on Sunday said that the tender process in the multi-crore Bengaluru Safe City Project was not biased amid allegations of irregularities in the tender process. Karnataka Home Secretary D Roopa on Saturday had alleged that there were irregularities in the tender called for the project, particularly that Hemant Nimbalkar was trying to favour a private company.  Hemant Nimbalkar is the chairman of both the Tender Inviting Committee and the Tender Scrutiny Committee for the project. EY is a multinational professional services network, which was preparing the request for proposal document (tender document) in consultation with the tender committee. In a press conference on Sunday, Hemant Nimbalkar stated that the tender process is not biased, "There is no bidder (for the project) at the moment since the final date (for submission of bids) is January 8. After the bid submission, technical bids will be opened and quality and cost will be considered. Then pre-qualification and technical qualification will be checked and they will be asked to give a proof of concept." Speaking about the first two tender processes, he said, "BEL did not compete in Call 1 as a bidder. Three bidders who came forward did not qualify beyond the pre-qualification process and were not considered for the technical qualification process. So there is no question of bias coming here. Then in Call 2, three companies qualified in June - Larsen & Tourbo, Matrix and BEL. BEL's bid was accepted," he said.  "After this, it was decided by the tender committee that Chinese-made products should not be considered and decided to cancel the second tender," he said.  "I am not prepared to speak about personal statements or statements made in social media as the matter stands in court," he added. In response, Roopa D said that the press conference by Hemant Nimbalkar did not answer questions of irregularities in the tender process. "He has called the tender with many irregularities. He has been misleading and giving misinformation to higher ups in the government upto the highest level. Today, (27-12-2020) he held a press conference but did not answer the questions of irregularities and the complaints that led to cancellation of tender two times," Roopa D said. Roopa had earlier mentioned that the tender (request for proposal) was eventually dropped following a complaint made to the Prime Minister’s office by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a Ministry of Defence company, which had also placed a tender for the project but lost out to a private company. A letter by the company written to the Bengaluru Police Commissioner in November 2019 highlights that the terms and conditions for the request for proposal were in favour of one or two companies.  Roopa shared an official memorandum dated June 30 2020 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industries stating that the tender process will not be finalised before grievances raised by a company are not disposed off. She shared another letter by the vigilance wing of the Karnataka Government seeking a report from the Tender Committee on the irregularities.  She also said that there were irregularities even in the latest tender (call 3). According to her, one violation is related to the finance department. "The minimum annual turnover of a bidder must be 2-times the value of tender. Here tender value is Rs 620 Crores but minimum turnover fixed is Rs 250 Crores. Even with the latest amendment the minimum requirement is 100% of tender value or amount payable in the first year. Even that is about Rs 500 crores," Roopa stated. She further alleged that BEL had pointed out that the company which the tender supposedly favored was providing Chinese cameras. She added that rules under the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement too were not followed in the tender process. The Bengaluru Safe City Project also known as the Nirbhaya Project involves setting up 7,500 cameras and other surveillance measures as a means of crime prevention against women and children in the city. On Friday, Times of India published a report saying that an unnamed IPS officer had impersonated the Home Secretary to get confidential information about the project from a private auditor tasked with drawing up the tender documents for the project. While the complaint doesn't explicitly mention Roopa, it does refer to calls made by her. It is unclear where the accusation of impersonation arises since Roopa is the Home Secretary.  Roopa hit back with a complaint against Nimbalkar stating that he was trying to avoid scrutiny of the tender as he was allegedly favouring a private firm for the project. She said that she was scrutinising the tendering process under the instructions of Additional Chief Secretary Home Rajneesh Goel, IAS. She said that she spoke to the auditor EY in her official capacity to collect details about the tender.  She alleged that Nimbalkar made a false and motivated complaint against her. Hemant Nimbalkar has been chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the multi-crore IMA Ponzi scheme case. Read: Roopa IPS accuses Nimbalkar IPS of making ‘fake and motivated’ complaint against her  


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Churches, groceries and vans: How states plan to get vaccines to poor communities

Distrust isn't the only barrier to a successful vaccination campaign.

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Japan halts all foreign arrivals over British variant

Japan has seen a surge in cases.

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How the Mekedatu dam project in Cauvery valley endangers four threatened species

Conservation
The ramifications of flooding one of the last remaining strongholds of four threatened species cannot be compared with the economics of a mega project.
The endangered grizzled giant squirrel photographed hanging upside down feeding on fruit from a tree in the Cauvery wildlife sanctuary.
Grizzled giant squirrel | Pic by Joshua Barton
Very often, an imagined view of ‘wild spaces’ is symbolised as the vast savannahs of Africa, rainforests of Amazon, snow laden tundra of Siberia or the immense iciness of Antarctica. In India, it is difficult to visualise stretches of wildlands shared by humans and wildlife. However, barely 100 km from the urban sprawl of Bengaluru lies a remnant of India’s ancient wildlands, a wind-swept landscape where wildlife still abounds, and forest laden hills stretch as far as the eyes can see. This is the isolated Cauvery valley, the last stretch of the free-flowing mystic river in Karnataka where the arboreal grizzled giant squirrels still screech from the forest canopy, herds of elephants cross the river as crocodiles bask in the distance, otters frolic on the sand banks and fish eagles perch high above. You may see a sloth bear foraging for food beneath boulders or a porcupine hurrying to take shelter in the thickets. If you look hard enough, you may chance upon a leopard vanishing behind the shadow of the hills as scores of spotted deer and four-horned antelopes stand alert in their stiff posture – the Cauvery valley is a veritable paradise. At the valley, you experience a sudden drop of altitude as you enter a seemingly surreal world where the steep landscape changes into an arid shrub land and then into a bustling forest. Villages are left behind and you would be excused for forgetting that you are a mere couple of hours away from the madness of the city. With a predominantly dry climate – albeit rich with water from the Cauvery, the Palar and several streams – the river system is unique in this stretch of the Cauvery. This setting imparts much-needed life into the river systems and unleashes a wealth of diversity with profuse fish populations and an abundance of other life forms. In lieu of its isolated nature, the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary was instituted in the year 1987 providing safe passage to the Cauvery river meandering through it. Cauvery river flowing through the wildlife sanctuary | Pic by Sivaprasad However, the past few decades have seen an increasing clamour to divert water from rivers and prevent it from flowing into the sea. Using this logic, it is proposed to again dam the Cauvery river, which provides Bengaluru about 1,350 million litres of water per day, and permanently alter this ancient landscape. Government analysis estimates that Bengaluru will require 2,285 million litres of water per day by the year 2030, which can be met if the 67 tmc capacity Mekedatu dam project is implemented successfully. More than 50 square km of land will be submerged as a result of a balancing reservoir in the proposed Mekedatu project. Tellingly, only six villages are scheduled to be flooded while the remaining area is mostly forested. Four threatened species at peril A dam can serve the purpose of substantially augmenting the needs of a water stressed city. However, the issue here is that the proposed land for the submergence zone happens to be an Eden for life forms. An international icon, the valley is home to not one but several threatened species, some of which are rapidly vanishing across most of their natural habitat. Straining our neck at the impossibly tall Terminalia arjuna trees that dot the riverbanks, looking for the elusive grizzled giant squirrel, one is aware of standing a few feet away from the natural habitat of the river-dwelling mahseer on one side and the four-horned antelope on the other. These four threatened species thrive in the Cauvery valley and the ramifications of flooding one of their last remaining strongholds cannot be compared with the economics of constructing a mega project. Cauvery valley with the river flowing through it | Pic by Abhijit Dutta Of all the four species, the threatened grizzled giant squirrel counts the valley as one of its last habitats in their northernmost range. The arboreal squirrel seldom comes down to the ground and is found only in few forest patches of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. In Karnataka, it can only be found on the Cauvery banks in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. This riverine species needs the giant arjuna, tamarind and jamun trees that thrive in the Cauvery valley, and with the valley expected to be fully submerged as a result of the proposed Mekedatu dam, the bells of extinction will toll for the squirrels in one of their last remaining homes. Grizzled giant squirrel | Pic by Joshua Barton The critically endangered hump-backed mahseer is a creature of fast flowing rivers and thrives in wild country and deep gorges. The salubrious Mysore plateau has some of the best-preserved stretches of the fish and the region from Shivasamudram to Mekedatu is known to house giant mahseers. The mahseer found in this stretch of the river is already highly threatened due to pollution, poaching and reduction of its natural habitat. Can the species survive another dam in its last home? Mahseer | Pic by Joshua Barton Of the six antelopes found in India, four are found in Karnataka and of those, the vulnerable four-horned antelope competes with other species as the most charismatic of the Cauvery landscape. This small antelope is probably the only antelope in the world with four horns and is generally found in the highlands of the Cauvery valley with occasional visits to the riverbank. Known to leap in fast-motioned sprints upon sensing human presence, the antelope forms an important prey base for carnivores in the sanctuary. Giant Terminalia arjuna trees can be spotted across the banks of the Cauvery river. Generally found near streams and rivers, rural folk in some parts of India believe that this magnificent tree is an indicator of water in the forest. The arjuna trees along the Cauvery are iconic as they are huge in size with several known to be over 100 years old. They form important nesting sites for numerous bird species found here, with birds even living inside the trunk of these trees. Several raptors use these trees as perching sites to locate their prey. The proposed dam will certainly drown the trees and wash away their ancient legacy. Cauvery river | Pic by Sivaprasad Bengaluru, which is blessed to have a biodiverse forest near it, may soon be the reason for the forest’s destruction, risking the very survival of riverine species. The human cost of relocation may be relatively minor. But the existential fate of the grizzled giant squirrels and the mahseer cannot be compared to that of the project, which currently stands at Rs 9,000 crore, as the real economic value of the riverine forests is infinitely more. The project envisages lifting and transporting the water for more than 100 km, all the way to Bengaluru. While the need of the urban dweller may be urgent, fulfilling it at the cost of sinking this wildlife sanctuary and not searching for sustainable solutions is a recipe for disaster. But there is still some hope. The onus is on Bengaluru citizens to make the administrators accountable for harvesting existing sources of water. A city formed by tapping into age-old rainwater harvesting and tank-based irrigation can still spare the Cauvery valley by making the right choices. And while we debate, the grizzled giant squirrels play in their usual manner, jumping from one tree to another, screeching with joy, unaware of what may come next. The Bengalurean needs to take a call on whether he wants to hear a joyful racket from these forests in the future or just the last staccato cackle of the endangered squirrel. Abhijit Dutta works in the field of conservation and Kunal Sharma is a faculty at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. Views expressed are the authors’ own.


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Five daily wage workers returning to Bengaluru after voting killed in accident

Accident
Police said that a Karnataka RTC bus travelling in the wrong direction hit the vehicle in which the workers were returning from Raichur.
A ghastly accident in the early hours of Sunday morning left five people dead on National Highway 150A in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. The accident took place at around 4 am when a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus and a cruiser hit each other. The bus was travelling on the wrong side, police said. Radhika G, Superintendent of Police, Chitradurga told TNM that there were 22 people travelling in the cruiser and of them, five persons were confirmed dead after the accident.  "They were daily wage workers travelling to Bengaluru from Raichur after casting their votes in the Gram Panchayat elections in the first phase. Two more persons were unconscious while 15 others have minor injuries. We are awaiting the doctor's report on the injuries," Radhika G told TNM. The deceased were identified as a couple — Rathnamma and Thimmanna, Durgappa (16), and the driver, Mahesh (20). One more person who died in the accident is yet to be identified.  Others who were injured were rushed to a hospital in Challakere in the district. They were travelling back to Bengaluru from H Siddapur village in Devadurga of Raichur district.  "The KSRTC bus was travelling on the wrong side of the road and the visibility was not good. It was very foggy in the morning," Radhika G said, speaking about the accident. Those travelling in the bus including the driver, escaped unhurt in the incident. The cruiser was heavily damaged and its roof was blown off.  Officials in Molakalmuru in Chitradurga are investigating the incident and Virupakshappa (33), who was driving the KSRTC bus on the wrong side was detained by the police. 


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