India livid over bloated...

mathematical models should not be used for projecting excess mortality numbers for India. The Indian government on Tuesday published the CRS report 2020 based on birth and death reports.

Not just India, other countries have also underreported the Covid fatalities. In Mexico, the excess death toll during the first two years of the pandemic was twice as high as the government’s official tally of Covid deaths. In Egypt, excess deaths were roughly 12 times as great as the official toll. In Pakistan, the figure was eight times as high.

“It’s absolutely staggering what has happened with this pandemic, including our inability to accurately monitor it,” said Dr. Prabhat Jha, an epidemiologist at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto, who was a member of the expert working group that made the WHO calculations. “It shouldn’t happen in the 21st century,” he told New York Times.

The NYT report explains that WHO had assembled the expert team in the first months of the pandemic and tasked it with attempting to calculate a measure known as excess mortality: the difference between the number of people who died during the pandemic and the number who would have been expected to die in normal times. The calculations combined national data on reported deaths with new information from localities and household surveys, and with statistical models that aimed to account for deaths that were missed.

India has consistently questioned WHO's own admission that data in respect of seventeen Indian states was obtained from some websites and media reports and was used in their mathematical model. This reflects a statistically unsound and scientifically questionable methodology of data collection for making excess mortality projections in case of India, it is pointed out.

City will choke on metro...

In blatant violation of environment norms, metro tankers have been dumping slurry and muck at secluded spots in the Vikhroli and Wadala mangroves under the cover of darkness. The 33.508km, underground Mumbai Metro Line 3 tender specifies that

the contractor must use the muck and debris

generated for the landfill at JNPT Terminal 4, minor ports in Maharashtra and the filling of abandoned quarries in Raigad and Thane districts outside Mumbai limits. Documents accessed by The Free Press Journal specify that the contractor DogusSomas JV has to deploy dumpers and tankers for 591 trips daily, from metro sites to outside Mumbai limits for the dumping of the waste generated for Rs 347 crore and additional payments of Rs 1.6 crore for transport by sea route. The rules stipulate that the dumping sites should not be ecologically sensitive areas, should be free of pristine habitats and shall not be in the channel of small streams flowing through the dumping sites. A quick check of Vashi and Airoli Mumbai Entry Point Toll centre records showed an average of just eight tankers and trucks exiting and entering daily for the dumping of metro debris outside Mumbai (of the required 591 trips daily). The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRC) agreed to pay Rs 372 crore to Dogus-Soma JV for environmental clearances, transportation cost (via road & sea) to dispose of the excavated debris, muck and slurry removed by the giant tunnel boring machines (TBMs) at metro sites.

An MMRC spokesperson, responding to a detailed questionnaire, admitted that a few cases of violation of illegal disposal of slurry had been brought to their notice and the civil contractor had terminated the contract with the transportation subcontractor and a financial penalty had been levied on the contractor.

“The Mumbai Metro underground rail network is supposed to dispose debris, muck and silt generated from station excavation and tunnelling activities outside Mumbai to MIDC Mahape, Kalwar-Bhiwandi, Dhapode, Mankoli as approved by the Government of Maharashtra and responsibility of muck disposal was with the contractors” reads the MMRC mail.

The debris is used for the land-filling of JNPT Terminal 4 and minor ports at Rajauri Creek, Raigad. The underground metro construction activity involves tunnelling, cut-and-cover, foundation, fill and embankment, generating about 5.40 mm3 of debris and muck. According to the MRCC, the disposal is done by transporting sub-contractors engaged by the respective civil contractors and is not disposed of into any water bodies or any environmentally sensitive locations.

Activist Ankush Kurade had raised objections against the malpractice of of illegal discharging the muck and slurry generated from metro sites into the BMC rainwater drainage canals (SWD Nallah) on the Eastern Express Highway at Vikhroli and the National Sports Club (NSC) Nallah, posing a threat to the protected mangroves. “I had demanded a criminal complaint against the Mumbai Metro authorities and the contractors Dogus Soma JV for dumping muddy silt and slurry illegally. Mumbai Metro has been giving lame excuses of terminating the sub-contractors employed by Dogus Soma JV while the illegal dumping into BMC drains continues brazenly without fear,” Kurade had alleged.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had objected to the unauthorised dewatering of the grey slurry from the construction site at the Nehru Science Centre Metro Station RMC plant into the NSC nallah. The BMC had sent repeated letters about the unloading of the illegal slurry into the nallah by metro contractors, causing environmental harm to mangroves and marine life. Environmentalist Stalin Dayanand echoes the objection of the dumping of debris in stormwater channels, which reduces the carrying capacity of the channel. “It will cause flooding of nearby land masses and the toxic silt dumped into urban rivers contaminates marine life and environment. The mangroves of Mumbai and Thane are choking because of the illegal dumping by infra contractors,” he explained.

Residents of the Mahalaxmi Racecourse Stable employees’ quarters adjacent to the Nehru Science Centre metro site are the worst affected, as the slurry water daily floods their homes. “Our complaints to Mumbai Metro and BMC of the daily flooding of our homes with dirty water and slush falls on deaf ears. We had eight children slip in the slush and get injured, while two elderly people got fractures,” complained resident Shivbaran Singh.

Mumbai Metro assistant general manager Rohit Tilak, defending the contractor DogusSoma JV, insisted the slurry and silt is treated through sedimentation and centrifuge process before discharge as per rules. Dogus-Soma JV project manager Navlesh Kumar refused to speak with The Free Press Journal on the illegal dumping of muck and slurry in nallahs and mangroves, saying that he was not authorised to speak with the media and directed this reporter to meet the MMRC