Editorial 1:Double brake

Introduction

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana is leaving no stone unturned to fight back a resurgent Congress, as the State is scheduled to have a single-phase Assembly election on October 1 for all 90 seats.

Key Dynamics of State election in Haryana

• Political parties power play: The attempts of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) to retain its position as a third player, and of the Aam Aadmi Party to emerge as one, continue, though a sharp polarisation between the two national parties appears likely.
• Anti-incumbency: The BJP has to tackle double anti-incumbency as it has been in power in both the State and the Centre for the last 10 years.
• Change in Chief ministers:  the BJP replaced then Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini, in March ahead of the general election.
• Pacifying interest groups: Mr. Saini has been trying to pacify various interest groups, by reversing many decisions of his predecessor and announcing new schemes.
• Local Governance: Sarpanches who are up in arms over the curtailing of their rights have got their expenditure limit increased for the gram panchayats from ₹5 lakh to ₹21 lakh.
• Governance initiatives: He has organised special camps, or ‘Samadhan Shivirs’, to address people’s grievances; and 1.20 lakh contractual employees have been ensured job security until the age of superannuation.
• Backward classes: The creamy layer annual income for Other Backward Classes, that was reduced to ₹6 lakh by Mr. Manohar Lal Khattar, has been restored to its level of ₹8 lakh.
• Agniveer support: A 10% horizontal reservation for Agniveers in various State government posts, and an expanded minimum support price regime for crops have been promised.
• Haryana’s fundamental social cleft: between Jats and non-Jats had worked to the BJP’s advantage in the last two Assembly elections. But the multi-caste alliance behind the BJP had begun to weaken by the 2019 Assembly election, with the farmers’ agitation and the Agnipath scheme undermining it further in the last five years.
• Focus on Unemployment: Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is helming the Congress campaign, appears to have his focus is on unemployment and the crisis in the agricultural sector.

Conclusion

The Congress still has the task of ensuring that its factional leaders remain united until the end. Communal polarisation, though at its lowest in the last 10 years, can still wreck the party’s plans. Despite a decline, the BJP managed to avoid a total rout in the Lok Sabha election. The Congress and the BJP shared the 10 Lok Sabha seats equally, while the Congress increased its vote share across the State. The outcome in Haryana will have implications for the Congress and the BJP at the national level.

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Editorial 2:Power play

Introduction

While Wayanad in Kerala limps back to normal life after the devastating landslide last month, a landslide on Tuesday in Sikkim caused damage to six houses and a building of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) at its Teesta-5 hydropower station in Gangtok.

Causes of Concern

• Damage to hydropower: This is the second natural-disaster-led assault on a hydropower project along the Teesta.
• Details of the damage: A deluge from the South Lhonak glacier in North Sikkim last October washed away the Chungthang dam that was critical to the Teesta-3 power station (which is not operated by the NHPC).
• The Teesta-3 (1,200 MW) power project: It was the largest hydroelectric power project in the State until it was effectively grounded after the outburst.
• Power supply: Only a tenth of the power originally being supplied by the project is now available.
• Non-functional project: The Teesta-5 project, at 510 MW, has also been made non-functional since the glacial lake outburst. 

About Teesta River

A tributary of the Brahmaputra, the Teesta river originates from the Tso Lhamo Lake at an elevation of about 5,280 metres in north Sikkim. The river travels for about 150 km in Sikkim and 123 km in West Bengal, before entering Bangladesh from Mekhligunj in Cooch Behar district; it flows another 140 km in Bangladesh and joins the Bay of Bengal. In theory, the river’s course through undulating terrain is what tempts governments to extract as much benefit as possible for power projects

Dynamics of the Hydropower Projects

• Total number of Projects: From initial proposals nearly three decades ago to have 47 power projects along the run of the Teesta in Sikkim and West Bengal, only five projects exist and about 16 are in various stages of consideration.
• Auctions: Through the decades, several companies have bid for projects auctioned out by State governments.

Conclusion

It has been a complicated exercise in balancing the environmental risks, costs of properly insuring for those risks, public perception and aiming for profit. The reports have emerged that the developers, in order to save on costs, built a concrete-faced rock fill dam as opposed to a concrete gravity dam hence one reason why it was completely washed away. Of hydropower projects in the region must give a clear estimate of the actual costs involved. This will not only bolster public faith in these projects but also be environmentally sustainable.