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Showing posts from March, 2014

In a mid-night swoop, Gujarat police arrest JAAG leader ahead of farmers' agitation on Dholera SIR

Dholera farmers' meet By A Representative Ahead of the proposed agitation against the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) on March 29, the Gujarat police in the wee hours of March 26 arrested one of the senior farmer leaders of the area, Rajbha Chudasma. A statement issued by Jamin Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), which organized the agitation, called arrest as smacking of “political pressure to suppress a non-political movement”. To be implemented in the south of Ahmedabad in 22 villages encompassing 900 sq km, DSIR has been envisaged as a modern industrial township in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), but has invited farmers’ ire over Gujarat government decision to take away 50 per cent of the farmers’ land in the name of developing infrastructure.

Nearly 150 human rights activists protest rejection of anticipatory bail application of Teesta Setalvad

Gulberg Society, March 2002 By A Representative Nearly 150 prominent citizens -- mainly activists, academics and professionals -- have expressed their “deep shock” at the rejection of the anticipatory bail application of top human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and four others in the so-called Gulberg embezzlement case by the city sessions court of Ahmedabad. The statement said, “From its beginning, the so-called embezzlement has been the concoction of elements instigated by the Government of Gujarat, including the Gujarat crime branch.” It culminated in January 2014, when an FIR was registered against the five for “defrauding the members of the Gulberg Society of funds meant for the building of the Gulberg Memorial commemorating the state-sponsored carnage.”

Lok Sabha polls: Post-Rahul Gandhi visit, Congress all set to hand over salt-pan workers to BJP on platter

An agariya in the Little Rann of Kutch By A Representative The agariyas or salt-pan workers of Gujarat, who produce salt in the Little Rann of Kutch, face a dangerous predicament, hitting their livelihood. As on April 1, 2014, the Indian Railways is all set to close down the facility provided to more than 15,000 small salt producers to transport salt to the rest of India. Despite representations to the railway minister, Congress members of Parliament Madhusudan Mistry and Somabhai Patel, and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Indian Railways has declared that the Kuda public siding in Surendranagar, which provides the facility thrice a month to transport salt, will be “closed” with effect from April 1, 2014 and “no further notice will be given for closure.”

Official government resolution on how Gujarat was made "preferred destination" for Tatas

It is a matter of general knowledge that five years ago the Tata  Motors was provided huge subsidies to shift its Nano plant from West Bengal to Gujarat, following a meeting between Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and top tycoon Ratan Tata. Ever since then, he has been hardselling Gujarat as the topmost investment destination for India. However, for long the Gujarat government kept a document which allowed the subsidy allowed subsidies a well-guarded secret. Prominent environmentalist Rohit Prajapati has now put the document in public domain: Sanction of Loan to M/S Tata Motors Ltd. for Nano Car Project Government of Gujarat, Industries and Mines Department Resolution No. TMI./10/2008/51/1 Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar Date:- 1/1/2009 Preamble: For more than three decades, Gujarat is the preferred destination for investment in almost all industrial sectors, barring a few. As a result of the proactive role of the state government to attract investments, numbers of entrepreneurs / in...

Sixteen questions posed to PM on crucial issues bogging Gujarat’s hotspots

Senior environmentalist Rohit Prajapati of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti has has sought the reply of prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi on 16 issues related with issues bogging Gujarat’s environmental hotspots. He faxed his letter to the Gujarat chief minister’s office on March 20, 2014. Excerpts: The so-called success story of the two-digit growth and tall claims of capital investment in Gujarat has masked the several digit realities of loss of livelihood, land acquisition, displacement, irreversible damage to environment and permanent loss of natural resources, which are treated as free goods in this development model. The investment figure, without the figures for displacement, destruction and depletion of natural resources and the employment figure without loss of livelihood do not make sense. No wise person would talk about income without talking about the cost of acquiring that income or wealth. My questions relate to the ‘development model’ celebrated and propagated by y...

Commentary. Rights activist's experience of an unreserved compartment: India in diversity, pluralism

By Fr Cedric Prakash* It has been a long and eventful day for me, culminating in a train journey. Although I still have a fever and feel rather exhausted, here I am putting this down as I promised a lady on the train that I would write and tell the world of her magnanimous gesture... A rally had been organised by SOUL (Save Our Land) at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai to protest the Church land acquisitions. I was one of the speakers invited to address the people gathered. The crowds were much more than the organisers had expected.

London School of Economics meet alleges "fascistic project" is at work to target minority women in India

By A Representative A recent meeting at the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) is learnt to have reached the conclusion that India, facing general elections, is “on the brink of a dangerous crossroads”, because, it felt, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, as representative of the “rightwing BJP” and allegedly “implicated” in the “massacres of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002”, has fair chances of winning.” The meeting was organised by UK’s Freedom without Fear Platform in collaboration with the LSE Gender Institute and South Asia Solidarity Group.

Gujarat police allegation against Teesta Setalvad about embezzlement of funds is "malicious": CJP

By A Representative Trustees of the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), fighting a crucial battle against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s alleged complicity in 2002 riots, have condemned what they call “malicious lies" being spread by the Gujarat government in "misleading" courts of law about the CJP ‘cheating’ victims of the riots. The statement is in response to the Gujarat police, which told the Bombay high court, opposing the petition filed by social activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband seeking quashing of an FIR against them for alleged misappropriation of funds, that the duo had indeed cheated victims of 2002 Godhra riots and "embezzled funds" in their name. Prosecution probing "embezzlement" Ajay Choksi simultaneously told the sessions court in Ahmedabad that Setalvad should be "quizzed" in custody to set an example (click HERE ).

Return land "illegally" allocated to Maruti, or face protests outside Gujarat: Hansalpur residents

By A Representative In a signed letter to the district collector, Ahmdabad, several villagers have said that land allotment to Maruti India Ltd in village Hansalpur has been carried out "in violation of their land rights." Wanting the district collector to order stoppage of the construction of a boundary wall around the land allocated to Maruti at a time when the matter is yet sub judice, the letter says, “We feel that a grave injustice is being done to us.” Originally given to to Maruti India Ltd, the land is being transferred to Suzuki Co Ltd for reasons which have still not been made public.

Kejriwal's four days in Gujarat to get a whiff of Big B's multi-crore commercial Khushboo Gujarat Ki

By Nachiketa Desai* Big B of Bollywood beckons one and all to spend at least two days in Gujarat to feel the fragrance of Modiland. A 56-inch chest-thumping Narendra Modi woos the voters of Banaras saying, "Give me 60 months as Prime Minister, I will end all the woes of the weavers by setting up artificial silk making powerlooms just as in Surat," Arvind Kejriwal decides to spend not just two but four days in Gujarat to get a whiff of the fragrance AB is talking about in his multi-crore-rupee TV commercial, 'Khushboo Gujarat Ki'. He comes to Gujarat as a common man. There is no frill of flags, banners and loudspeaker. He travels in a car to North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch, meeting village folks, men and women. He listens to them patiently, taking notes painstakingly. A posse of policemen, in uniform and without, trailed him, walkie-talkie in hand, reporting his minute-to-minute movement to the 'Saheb' in Gandhinagar. Kejriwal stops at a village, so...

NIOH, Ahmedabad, "not competent" to judge if workers suffering from occupational disease be compensated

By A Representative Strongly responding to Gujarat government’s decision not to accede to its demand for including two important occupational diseases in the list of those that can invite compensation under the employees’ compensation Act, Vadodara-based NGO People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC) has protested against the manner in which the decision was taken. 

Modi's Chai Pe Charch on women: Answer crucial issues, accept demands to end violence, says Sahiyar

0-6 sex ratio By A Representative A top Varodara-based women’s group, Sahiyar Stree Sangathan, has alleged that the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who is doing Chai Pe Charcha on International Women’s Day, March 8, from Delhi, is “nothing but yet another match-fixing gimmick by his spin masters, where he will answer few ‘pre-selected’ questions from ‘pre-selected women’ to show that he is addressing the actual concerns of Indian women." In its statement, Sahiyar said, Modi should "stop comparing" Gujarat women's safety with UP and Delhi, as women in Gujarat moved around freely before he came to power.

Gujarat govt refuses compensation for serious occupational diseases causing permanent disability, death

By A Representative The labour and employment department, Government of Gujarat, in a letter to Vadodara-based NGO People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), has refused to give in the demand that musculoskeletal diseases (MSD) and the diseases caused due to exposure to polyacrylate should be considered occupational diseases. Gujarat’s premier occupation health NGO, PTRC had demanded that the schedule III of the Employees’ Compensation Act, should be amended to include these diseases in the list for which workers can demand compensation.

Greenpeace's new salvo against industry group Adanis' Aussie coalmining project: Save endangered bird

By A Representative  In a fresh attack on Gujarat’s powerful Adani group, which in one of its world’s most high-profile operations is contracted to mine a top coalfield in Australia, the international environment body Greenpeace has asked the Aussie government’s federal environment minister Greg Hunt to use his powers “to immediately order an investigation into the potential impacts of exploration activities by the Indian coal giant”.