Editorial 1 : When water rises
Introduction: This year, according to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, floods have claimed more than 50 lives and displaced 3,60,000 people. More than 40,000 hectares of crop area have been affected and large parts of Dibrugarh and Guwahati are under water.
State government’s efforts to mitigate impacts of floods
- Last year in October, after flood waters had receded in Assam, state government announced 54 projects to mitigate the effects of swelling rivers.
- These initiatives were supposed to bring state close to a flood-free state.
- But as the data of recent floods are showing, the state government is nowhere close to securing people’s lives and properties against the rising and raging waters.
Assam’s vulnerability to floods
- Assam’s vulnerability stems from a complex combination of hydrological and climatic factors.
- The state has more than 120 rivers, several of which originate from the hills and mountains of extreme rainfall hotspots in Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya as well as in China and Bhutan.
- But it’s also a fact that for nearly 70 years, the Centre and Assam government have not found ways to control the damage caused by rivers in spate.
The vulnerability is compounded by failures of government agencies
- Despite flood after flood exposing the hazards of the embankment-centred approach, the state’s authorities have not course corrected.
- Most of these flood control structures date back to the 1960s and 1970s, when the hydrology of Assam’s rivers, including the mighty Brahmaputra, was poorly understood.
- Solutions such as tapping into the knowledge systems of indigenous people to build flood-resistant houses, dredging rivers, arresting erosion or even building more resilient embankments have either remained on paper or haven’t been adequately implemented.
- In 2021, a parliamentary panel asked the Centre to set up modern weather stations in the upstream catchment of the Northeast’s dams and install sirens to alert people downstream of floods.
- However, the region continues to lack state-of-the-art warning systems.
The peculiar case of Guwahati
- Guwahati is a bowl-shaped lowland, susceptible to water logging.
- Historically, marshes and water channels worked together to make the city habitable.
- In the last 70 years, however, construction projects have chipped away at these critical ecological features.
- Like in most Indian cities, Guwahati’s drainage system is in disrepair.
- Rainwater from neighbouring Meghalaya and the surrounding hills causes flash floods.
Some measures to mitigate the flood problems of Assam
- Improved flood forecasting and early warning systems:
- Enhance meteorological and hydrological monitoring
- Develop more accurate prediction models
- Implement efficient communication systems for warnings
- River management:
- Dredging and desilting of rivers to increase their water-carrying capacity
- Strengthening and maintaining embankments
- Creating and maintaining flood channels
- Afforestation and soil conservation:
- Large-scale tree planting in catchment areas
- Soil erosion control measures in hills and along riverbanks
- Wetland conservation and restoration:
- Protect and restore natural wetlands that act as water retention areas
- Create artificial wetlands where appropriate
- Sustainable land use planning:
- Restrict construction in flood-prone areas
- Implement zoning regulations
- Promote flood-resistant building designs
- Improved drainage systems:
- Upgrade urban drainage infrastructure
- Maintain and clear drainage channels regularly
- Community preparedness:
- Conduct regular flood drills
- Educate communities about flood safety and evacuation procedures
- Establish community-based flood management committees
- Infrastructure development:
- Construct elevated roads and bridges
- Develop flood shelters and safe zones
- Inter-state and international cooperation:
- Coordinate with neighboring states and countries for better water management
- Share data and resources for flood mitigation
Conclusion: For at least a decade now, it’s been evident that governments in the Northeast — and the Centre — need to put their heads together to mitigate flood-related damages. The people of Assam, and the Northeast, deserve governance solutions, instead of an administration that blames floods on geography.
Editorial 2 : Not an open and shut case
Introduction: There has been a seismic shift in criminal law in India. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) has replaced the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, has come in the stead of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 replaces the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
What has not changed in BNS when compared to Indian Penal Code, 1860?
- Experts suggest that 80 to 90 per cent of the IPC is retained in the BNS, 2023.
- What has been revised are the provision numbers, but the essence of the provisions has been maintained.
- This includes provisions pertaining to culpable homicide, murder, assault, forgery, criminal intimidation, defamation and rape.
- For instance, murder, which was represented by the classic sections 300 and 302 in IPC, is now in sections 101 and 103 of the BNS.
Which provisions have only minimally revised from IPC to BNS?
- Sedition as an offence has been retained (section 152 BNS), but the definition has been expanded, the nomenclature changed and the punishment for the offence made more severe.
- One can now attract the offence of “acts endangering sovereignty” by exciting secession, or armed rebellion, or subversive activities or encouraging feelings of separatism or endangering sovereignty.
- Under the BNS, the punishment is now seven years to life imprisonment, an increase from three years to life.
- The BNS also specifically punishes death caused by negligence of a “registered medical practitioner” while performing a medical procedure.
- The erstwhile section 304A that could be used against doctors, did not specifically mention this.
- The legislative intent is now to explicitly punish the negligent medical practitioner — this takes us into the domain of what is truly negligent and what is the gap between life, death and medical science.
- Another reform has come in the form of the new provision on theft.
- Section 303 of the BNS provides for community service for offenders who have been convicted for the first time and where the value of the stolen property is under Rs 5,000. Given that most theft is petty theft, this is a welcome provision.
What has been redefined in BNS?
- BNS is at odds with the established legislative practice of having separate and distinct harsh special statutes with procedural checks and balances.
- This is the case with Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967 (UAPA) and the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime, 1999 (MCOCA) used to combat organised crime in Delhi and Maharashtra.
- BNS brings such special statutes into the framework of general criminal law.
- It includes within the definition of organised crime (section 111) unlawful activities including kidnapping, robbery, vehicle theft, land grabbing, contract killing, and trafficking of human beings, weapons and drugs by two or more persons acting singly or jointly.
- The punishment ranges from five years to life imprisonment.
- Petty organised crime, including theft, snatching, pick pocketing, shoplifting and cheating shall be punishable with one to seven years imprisonment.
- Similarly, erstwhile UAPA offences have been brought under section 113 “terrorist act” of the BNS.
- The UAPA definition of who commits a terrorist act has been replicated in the BNS, 2023.
- If death results from such terrorist acts then the punishment could be life imprisonment or death. And in any other case it will range from five years to life.
- The definitional provisions of the UAPA and BNS are similar with the difference that the former special statute has comparatively greater procedural safeguards.
- Now, the BNS provides that an officer, not below the rank of Superintendent of Police, shall decide whether to register the case under BNS or UAPA.
Conclusion: The need for law reform in postcolonial nations is undeniable. However, the contours of that postcolonial law reform must be in consonance with the Constitution’s values. In the context of criminal law, this includes fair trial, a presumption of innocence and procedural justice.