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Freshwater-based coal power plants guzzle the most water: CSE

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Even six years after the water consumption norms came into force, the water-guzzling coal power industry is ignoring water regulations and there is a high degree of non-compliance observed in the sector, a new report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says.

Counted among the most water-intensive industries in India, the coal power sector is responsible for nearly 70 per cent of the total freshwater withdrawal by all industries in the country. Indian power plants with cooling towers consume twice as much water as their global counterparts, said the report titled ‘Water Inefficient Power’.

According to the 2015 norms (revised again in 2018), plants installed before January 1, 2017, were required to meet a specific water consumption limit of 3.5 cubic metre of water per MWh; plants installed after January 1, 2017 had to meet the norm of three cubic metre of water per MWh, apart from adopting zero liquid discharge.

Additionally, all freshwater-based plants were required to install cooling towers and subsequently achieve the norm of 3.5 cubic metre of water per MWh. All sea water-based plants were exempted from meeting the norms.

The deadline to meet the water norms was December 2017 which has already passed. The water norms for coal power plants were introduced in 2015 along with the emission norms. Though emission norms timelines for the sector were revised twice by the Ministry of Coal once in 2017 and recently in 2021, the issue of compliance and implementation of water norms has been completely overlooked, the CSE said in a release.

CSE’s programme Director for Industrial Pollution Unit, Nivit Kumar Yadav, said, “This is when many power producing regions of the country are facing acute water shortage. Also there is huge water pollution due to the effluent discharge by the power plants.”

The CSE surveyed more than 154 GW of total coal power capacity and found nearly 50 per cent of the freshwater-based plants to be non-complying. Most of these plants belong to state-owned companies.

The largest number of non-complying plants were from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Belonging to MahaGENCO (Maharashtra’s power generation company) and UPRVUNL (Uttar Pradesh’s power generation company), a majority of these plants are old with inefficient practices which lead to water wastage.

The CSE survey has found that old and inefficient once-through cooling water-based plants in India continue to operate without installing cooling towers. These plants are not just flouting water norms but also emission norms, the survey added.

Built before 1999, all once-through-based power plants in India are old and polluting. Many of these plants were identified for retirement but have not yet been retired. They continue to operate with no plans to upgrade or install either emission control equipment or cooling towers.

“Allowing these older plants to continue to pollute cannot be an option. Plants identified for retirement must be closed down immediately if they have no plans to retrofit or to install emission control technologies and/or cooling towers,” said Deputy Programme Manager, Industrial Pollution unit of CSE, Sugandha Arora.

As per the CSE’s recent estimates, nearly 48 per cent of India’s existing coal power fleet is located in water-scarce districts like Nagpur and Chandrapur in Maharashtra; Raichur in Karnataka; Korba in Chhattisgarh; Barmer and Baran in Rajasthan; Khammam and Kothagudem in Telangana; and Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu. There have been reports of conflicts over water use between industries and local people.

“This sector has a massive water footprint and therefore, all efforts must be made to mitigate this impact. There is huge scope of reducing the sector’s water demand by ensuring implementation of the 2015 standards and addressing the challenges related to accurate reporting of data, old inefficient once-through cooling plants and implementing zero discharge in newer plants.”

National

BJP accuses Congress of opposing voter verification to shield fake votes in Bihar

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New Delhi, June 27: Following Congress’ objection to the Election Commission of India’s special revision of the state’s voter list ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar, the BJP has launched a sharp counterattack, accusing the grand old party of attempting to protect fake voters.

BJP state president Dilip Jaiswal defended the ECI and called Congress’ objections baseless.

“The Election Commission is an independent body which works independently. It is its responsibility to ensure that elections are conducted with complete transparency. If any political party opposes this, it is wrong. Fake voting can be prevented by the revision of the voter list. Voters who have died will be identified. This process will also make it clear whether the voter is actually in Bihar or voting somewhere else. This is a very necessary step for transparency. I congratulate the Election Commission for this,” Jaiswal said.

Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar on Thursday criticised the ECI for initiating the voter list revision process in a limited time frame.

He alleged that the move is part of a conspiracy to suppress the electoral rights of marginalised communities.

Reacting strongly to these allegations, BJP leader and Minister Nitin Nabin questioned Congress’ intent behind opposing the exercise.

“I say that Congress should clarify what exactly they are objecting to. If genuine voters are being verified and fake voters are being removed, is Congress sitting here to commit fraud? I want to ask the opposition members who are opposing this, are you trying to gain power through fake votes? Such fake voters will definitely be stopped, and the parties doing fraud will also be taught a lesson,” Nabin asserted.

The ECI has issued instructions for holding Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, where polls are to be held by year-end. This means electoral rolls for the state will be prepared afresh.

The special voter list inspection has been undertaken by the ECI as a standard pre-election procedure to ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls.

Officials have stated that the process will help remove deceased or duplicate voters and correct errors, ensuring a fair and transparent election.

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Crime

Kerala HC judge files complaint of theft at his residence, police probe on

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Kochi, 27 June: The Kochi police have received a theft complaint from Kerala High Court Judge, Justice A. Badharudeen, according to officials on Friday, stating that six sovereigns of gold were missing from his residence.

The complaint, which was filed on Thursday, mentions that the gold has been stolen from the judge’s bedroom. The police have registered an FIR under Section BNS 305.

What has surprised many is that the thief has decamped with gold from a high-security guarded house located in the heart of the commercial capital of the state.

The judge registered the complaint with the Kalamassery police under which his residence falls.

After the preliminary probe, the police are now planning to prepare a list of those who need to be spoken to, as this incident occurred in the bedroom of the senior judge.

More details are awaited.

The incident has raised concerns regarding the security situation in the state. The Congress-led UDF has been accusing the state government of failing to curb the crimes.

It has been found that Kerala is a haven for organised gangs hailing from neighbouring states who specialise in robbing homes, and the cases against non-Keralaite thieves are also on the increase.

According to information prepared by the home department, which was placed before the Assembly last year, it showed 192 cases of theft involving non-Keralites were registered in 2021, and the numbers have been steadily increasing. This rose to 360 in 2022.

In 2023, the number increased further to 519, and by September 2024, a total of 307 such cases were registered. But the image of the Kerala Police got a boost when over 1,350 thieves during this period were put behind bars.

However, with regards to the case being registered in the burglary at the home of a judge, the police appear to have a tough job ahead.

Likewise, with other crimes also on the increase, the Ernakulam Police have come out with a directive to landlords who are seeking to rent out their properties. The police have urged the landlords to get a police clearance certificate from the prospective tenants from their local police station where they stayed.

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National

Thackeray brothers will jointly hold one anti-Hindi protest: Sanjay Raut

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New Delhi, June 27: Amid plans to hold two protests against imposition of Hindi in schools in Maharashtra, senior Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Friday announced that there would be only one demonstration and the two Thackeray brothers would participate in it together.

Even though there has been no formal announcement on this till now by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) or the Shiv Sena (UBT), but Sanjay Raut’s post on X, in which he has also put up a picture of the two cousins together with a photograph of the late Bal Thackeray in the background, has fuelled speculation of rapprochement between Uddhav and Raj Thackeray and the possibility that they might hold the protest jointly.

Earlier, close to Raj Thackeray’s birthday Uddhav Thackeray had also hinted at a rapprochement between them but nothing concrete had come out of it.

On Thursday MNS chief Raj Thackeray announced the change in morcha date to July 5 instead of July 6 to protest the imposition of Hindi in Marathi and English-medium schools for classes 1 to 5 in Maharashtra.

This was done as the auspicious Ashadhi Ekadashi falls on July 6 when the devotees fast for the day and walk all the way to Pandharpur to pay tribute to the presiding deity Vitthal.

Significantly, Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday extended his party’s support to a morcha organised on July 7 in Mumbai by The Tribhasha Sutra (Three language formula) committee.

Raut’s post is significant because even though both the brothers and their parties had declared that they would not allow the imposition of Hindi, they had announced two different protests.

Insiders from both the parties said that efforts are on to fight as one, in order to avoid a split in the Marathi speaking people opposing the imposition of Hindi.

Now, it remains to be seen whether Sanjay Raut’s post was his own initiative or whether it had the blessings of the leaders of both the parties and the two estranged brothers have finally decided to come together for a cause close to their heart and fight for it jointly.

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