By A Representative Gujarat government has refused to accept the main demand of the Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG) for cancellation of the special investment region (SIR) notification for the Bhechraji-Mandal SIR, proposed as an industrial hub spread over 44 villages encompassing 530 sq km. A JAAG communique, following a meeting between JAAG representatives in Gandhinagar with a ministerial committee appointed by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to look into JAAG demands, said, "The ministers categorically refused to entertain the demand for withdrawal of the SIR notification."

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit. 

By Ashok Shrimali* The Jharkhand Human Rights Movement has asked Satyabrata Pal, member, National Human Rights Commission, to urgently investigate and take "necessary legal action" on police firing, took place at Pagar village comes under Keredari police station of Hazaribagh district in Jharkhand at 1 pm on July 23, 2013, which led to death of Mr. Kesar Mahato and caused several injuries. 

By A Representative In an order which can adversely affect further construction of the Narmada dam, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has given its accent to the right to land-based rehabilitation of thousands of Sardar Sarovar Project affected families (PAFs), directing the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) and the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) to stop all cash payments in lieu of land entitlements. Recently, a high-level inter-state meeting in New Delhi cleared the proposal to raise the dam height to full reservoir level, 138.64 metres from the present 121.92 metres.

By A Representative The Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG) and the Azad Vikas Sangathan, the two main organisations campaigning against the Mandal-Bhecharaji special investment region (SIR) in North Gujarat, have sharply criticised certain unnamed "individual in the business of land dealings" for "raising a pro-SIR voice." A joint statement issued by them said, they have "gone to Gandhinagar with their demand", adding, "We need to remain alert and continue our efforts to strengthen the local organisation, the Azad Vikas Sangathan, and the movement against the SIR."

By A Representative Two senior leader of of Jameen Adhikar Aandolan Gujarat (JAAG), which is behind the campaign against the Mandal-Bhechraji special investment region (SIR), Lalji Desai and Sagar Rabari, have finally admitted that the movement they were leading today stands divided in the face of the powerful offensive launched by the Gandhinagar rulers. In a statement, they have explained how this happened starting with July 9.

By A Representative Over 700 non-resident Indians and citizens have signed onto an online petition addressed to the President of India, expressing their support for the decision of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) on June 3, 2013, to bring six national political parties of India under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Since the national political parties receive substantial funding from the government for their functioning, they were deemed by the CIC as public authorities, under Sections 2(a) and 2(h)(d) of the RTI Act.

A manual scavenger at work in “posh” Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad By Jitendra Rathod* Despite strong denials from the Gujarat government, the heinous practice of manual scavenging remains prevalent in Ahmedabad city, the business capital of the state. Manual scavenging is manual removal of excreta (night soil) from “dry toilets”, which are toilets without modern flush system or adequate water supply. A just-completed survey by Manav Garima, a community-based organization, fighting for the rights of the scavenging community, Valmikis, in Ahmedabad, has found that there are 126 spots where manual scavenging is practiced under the aegis of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). More, the survey suggests, 188 dry latrines still continue to operate in the city. The practice continues in violation of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, which provides for punishment to those employing manual scavengers or those who order construct...

By A Representative The Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC), the premier state public sector undertaking (PSU), has again failed to get environmental and coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) clearance for its proposed onshore gas terminal, a 20 MW captive power plant, 20 underground gas pipelines along with optical fibre cable (OFC), and 10 inches effluent disposal pipeline -- of which it badly needs for commercial production of KG basin gas it struck several years ago. Some of these facilities were to pass through CRZ area of Yanam-Puducherry along the Andhra Pradesh coast. It simultaneously  failed to get clearance for its offshore process-cum-living quarter platform in KG Basin in Andhra sea, where the top PSU had claimed in 2005 to have found 20 trillion cubic metres (tcf) of gas -- a claim which has been questioned.

Protest against administrative apathy towards IDP colony in Vatwa By Hofeza Ujjaini and K Mohan Krishna* The communal carnage in Gujarat, which took place in 2002, not only saw the death of nearly 2,000 persons, mainly Muslims, but it also forced thousands of people to flee from their residence, whether it was an urban township or a village. They fled in search of security and safety. The Gujarat government did set up 102 relief camps to cater to the immediate need of the security and shelter of those who were forced to flee. By the first week of April 2002, an estimated 1,13,697 people from the minority community were living in these camps. All these persons fitted well into the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), which say that IDPs are “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situ...

By Teesta Setalvad* Seven days before Reuters published its exclusive, a privilege denied by PM aspirant to an Indian news agency or channel, we had been contacted persistently by a Reuters correspondent while I was in New Delhi (July 5). Not Ross Colvin or Sruthi Gottipati who now carry the journalistic honour of grabbing moments with a man who rarely likes to be questioned, especially if the questions are persistent like say those of Karan Thapar in 2007.

Anti-SIR stir... led by rich farmers By A Representative Lalji Desai and Sagar Rabari, main leaders of the Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), have claimed "victory of the people’s movement" against the Mandal-Bechraji special investment region (SIR). A statement issued by them suggests that they were "convinced" by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who met them in Gandhinagar on Thursday. The meeting came amidst apprehensions among a section of activists fighting against the SIR that the movement would fizzle out, as it is mainly led by rich and propertied land owners, who had limited interest in ensuring that their landed interests were taken care of. Only one demand appeared to have been satisfied, that the Narmada command would not be de-commanded.

By A Representative The movement against the plan to convert the Mandal-Bhecharji region into a special investment region (SIR) is fast acquiring a spontaneous character. Even as leaders of the Jamin Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), who spearheaded the movement against SIR a year ago, were busy working out a new strategy in Gandhinagar's Ambedkar Hall, nearly 10,000 women met in village Dalod to on Monday to protest against the proposed Mandal-Bechraji SIR. "They had done so on their own, right from the planning to the logistics management", said Persis Ginwall, a senior activist involved in the movement.

A new study, “Homeless in Homeland: A Study on Internally Displaced Persons in India”, prepared by the Centre for Social Justice, Ahmedabad, has identified the urgent need for a major policy intervention to take care of the internally displaced persons (IPDs) who are forced to leave their habitat because of violent conflicts. Based on a survey of five states, it wants a law to protect the IDPs and calls for action to protect them in the intervening period. A report: *** While conflict-induced internally displaced persons (IDPs) are increasingly being recognized internationally as an important category who need urgent attention in the countries where such displacement takes place due to violence, pitifully, in India, so far, no police framework, let alone a legal framework, exists which can take care of them. The UN Guiding Principles on IDPs describes IDPS as “persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence,...

Locked toilet in a Kutch school By A Representative A high-level National Protection for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) team is expected to visit Gujarat in the third week of July this year on the basis of inquiries it made following a recent NGO survey, “Study on Implementation of Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009”, which found that the Gujarat government has failed to implement the main provisions of the RTE. According to informed sources, the team is likely to particularly focus on Kutch schools, from where it got ground-level reports that the situation with regard to implementation of RTE is the worst, especially in the remote villages.

By A Representative In a strongly-worded statement, the Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat's (JAAG), formed in the wake of the movement against the Bhecharaji-Mandal special investment region (SIR) and the threat to evict the farmers from their land, has said that the “situation in Gujarat on several fronts of livelihoods land, agriculture, water, common property resources is today more serious than ever before”, adding, “Reality in Gujarat is, big corporate houses are being gifted away large tracts of lands, including privately held agricultural lands as well as common property resources of pastureland, wastelands and water bodies.”

Wonders the statement by Citizens for Peace and Justice on arguments of Zakia Jafri's protest petition in Ahmedabad. Full text: Arguments in the Zakia Jafri Protest Petition against Narendra Modi and 59 Others continued for the fifth day on July 4, 2013 with counsel for Smt Jafri , Adv.Mihir Desai highlighting the deliberate lacunae by the Special Investigating Team in probing the illegal post mortems that were held in wide public view at the Godhra railway yard as part of the high-level Conspiracy masterminded by A-1 Narendra Modi with the full connivance of A-2 then health minister Ashok Bhatt, now deceased, A-5 Gordhan Zadaphiya and others, with the active participation of A-21 Jaideep Patel and other VHP men who were deliberately galvanized to use the fact and sight of the tragically burnt corpses to build up and spill venom against innocent members of the Muslim minority.