CounterView

Several civil rights groups and activists have come together to condemn "illegal detention and custodial torture" of Dadhi Kadraka, forest rights activist of the Niyamgiri Surakshya Samiti (NSS), by the Rayagada Police, Odisha. They have also condemned the threat being issued to Lingaraj Azad by the Superintendent of Police of Kalahandi District in order to force him not to organize any meeting and protest in the locality and suppress him to postpone the proposed rally against police brutality for October 23 at the district headquarters.
In a joint civil society statement, they have described such incidents as attack on democratic rights of people as well as state-sponsored attack on dissent, and in the interesst of corporate giant Vedanta. "On October 6, the police picked up Kadraka from his village without any warrant and severely tortured him for four days and left him in a nearby police station on October 10. He is incapable to walk", the statement said.
Those…

Ahmedabad-based environmental non-government organization (NGO), Paryavaran Mitra, has decided to create public awareness campaign for preserving environment during the Navratri festival in the city. The NGO will be involving college-going students from October 15 to 17 for this on e-waste, pastic waste and cleanliness.
The students, who will be identified "Green Catalysts", will be holding skits during the garba programme in Gujarat Vidyapeeth, a communique by the NGO convener, Mahesh Pandya, said, even as calling upon all to participate in the programme.

A conglomerate of several civil rights organizations, Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) has decided to hold a Janmanch, a meeting with political parties on the proposed Bullet Train project to discuss its various facets on October 15 at the Constitution Club, New Delhi.
In a statement ahead of the consultation, BAA has said, the project is being implemented in violation of land acquisition law and is an assault on democratic norms, adding, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor has already hit a roadblock, as its main financiers, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has decided to “revisit” the project, especially taking cognizance of opposition to the project, led by farmers and other stakeholders.
Quoting reports, BAA says, JICA, which has till now given Rs 125 crore till now, wants the government to take notice of the agitation of the farmers. “The bullet train aimed to be constructed by 2022 will pass through Maharashtra and Gujarat acquiring hundreds of hectares rich t…

In a letter to Prakash Javadekar, Union human resources minister, Firoz Bakht Ahmed, who was recently appointed chancellor of the Hyderabad-based Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), has complained that its vice chancellor Dr Aslam Parvaiz has “curtailed” his entry into the campus because he has “envisioned a reform plan of the university badly mauled owing to its deeply mired into corruption of all types.”
Ahmed, who claims to be grand nephew of Maulana Azad, said in his letter that the VC convened an almost three-hour meeting on October 4, 2018 in the Academic Council, “condemning all the reforms of the Chancellor, including reviving the Maulana Azad Centre for Progressive Studies and the Centre for Empowerment of Muslim Women”, adding, the council also displayed “the lowest ethics by leading a hate campaign against me to by condemning my constitutional and legal prerogative of taking steps to reform the university.”

A Haridwar-based civil rights organization, Matu Jansangthan, expressing anguish over the death of Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand (GD Agrawal), who was on hunger fast for 111 days, has characterized this as “government assassination” of the top environment campaigner for cleaning up Ganga.
Former professor of at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, one who served as the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB's) member secretary, the 87-year old campaigner, said Matu Jansangathan, demanded free flow of Ganga at a time when top government ministers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi callous towards his demand.
Signed by the organization’s convener, Vimal Bhai, its statement said, an FIR should be registered under Sec 302 of IPC, and in this Narendra Modi, Nitin Gatkari and Uma Bharti should be named “for the murder of the Swami, because in a letter he has said that Modi will be responsible for his death.”
Pointing out that Matu Jansangathan has been raising environ…

The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), in a statement October 10, the 16th World Day Against the Death Penalty, has insisted that there is a need to "draw attention to the rights abuses inherent in the practice of capital punishment, with this year focusing on the living conditions of those on death row."
"At CJP, we have fought for reformative justice in the courts since our inception. We stand by the evidence that the death penalty is an ineffective method in deterring serious crimes, that fails to treat the true problem at hand and disproportionately affects offenders of minority groups", it said.
"CJP was born as a response to the horrific instances of violence displayed during the 2002 Gujarat riots, where we have battled over 68 cases to bring powerful, but criminally culpable people to justice. Although the crimes committed during the carnage were gruesome and premeditated, we worked with survivors to fight for life sentences, not the death penalty&qu…