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Showing posts from July, 2014

Top campaign bodies accuse Modi govt of "accelerating" policies that undermine social protection

ICDS under attack? By A Representative Ahead of a national level public hearing at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on August 4, 2014, several campaign organizations have sharply criticized the Narendra Modi government for seeking to “accelerate” efforts made by the previous UPA government during its latter phase to resist “basic social entitlements” for the poor. In a concept note prepared for the hearing, they have said, “We need to address this political context emerging over the last few years, initiated during the later part of UPA-II and likely to be accelerated by the current NDA government.. Just local protests and symbolic mobilisations are not likely to have a significant impact on a deepening policy framework which is corporate friendly and increasingly ‘people resistant’.”

Ahead of July 30 World Bank board meet, world opposition to "relaxation" in safeguards for poor grows

By A Representative The National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM), the apex body of India’s top rights bodies, has released fresh details on rising opposition by civil society organizations around the world decrying  a leaked draft of the World Bank’s proposed new policies , which allegedly seek to “avoid” harmful impacts from the development projects that it finances. “As many as 97 NGOs and civil society networks and 17 distinguished individuals from Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe sent a statement to the World Bank’s Board, demanding the draft be sent back and re-written with serious safeguards to protect the land, housing and livelihood the poor" (click   HERE to read), NAPM has said.

Criminal Amendment Act leads to increase in registration of rape offences

Excerpts from “Preliminary Analysis of Statistics Relating to the Offence of Rape as Reported by the National Crime Records Bureau for 2001‐13”. Research and report by Venkatesh Nayak, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), New Delhi, and Data Analytics, SS Tech Point, New Delhi: *** According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, during the period 2001‐2013, a total of 2,72,844 cases were reported across the 28 states and 7 UTs in India. On an average, a little more than 57 rapes are reported to have occurred every day across the country during this 13 year period. That averages to more than 2 rapes across the country, every hour, every day, during the last 13 years. If the figure for 2013 – the year in which the list of offences that constitute rape was expanded – is discounted, the total for the 12‐year period between 2001‐2012 becomes 2,39,137 cases across all States and UTs. The daily and hourly averages reduce by a few decimal points only . The total figure for ...

Aussie nod to Adani coal mining project: Greenpeace thunders, "Don't assume this is end of story"

By A Representative In one of its strongest warnings to the Adani Group, which has got environmental nod to go ahead with the Carmichael coal mining project in Australia, the world’s most influential green campaigners, Greenpeace, has said, “Don’t assume this is the end of the story. The Carmichael mine cannot go ahead without the financial support of one the big four Australian banks. Greenpeace will make sure every Australian knows that any bank cutting a cheque for Carmichael is making possible a monster mine that will endanger our Reef and our climate.”

The New York Times editorial: Censorship back in India "with vengeance", reminiscent of Emergency days

By A Representative In a move without precedence, one of world’s most influential dailies, the New York Times, has editorially declared that “press censorship” is back in India “with a vengeance.” But there is a caveat, it suggest. During the Emergency, imposed on June 25, 1975, Prime Minister India Gandhi imposed “strict” censorship, but this time it is “not direct government fiat but by powerful owners and politicians.” Titled “India’s Press in Siege”, the top daily, however, compares it with the censorship imposed Indira Gandhi, recalling how, “with defiant exceptions, much of the press caved in quickly to the new rules.”

"Proof" that Narmada dam oustees' rehab is incomplete: Emergency plan amid dangers of submergence

By A Representative The National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM) has wondered as to why, ahead of heavy rains in the upstream of the Narmada dam, especially in Madhya Pradesh, the state government is gearing up with contingency plans to “save” people from being submerged. An annual affair, the NAPM, which is an apex body of several people’s organizations across the country, it has asked, “If all dam affected persons have been ‘rehabilitated’, then why crores of money is being spent on disaster management?”

Victory for industrial lobby: Govt of India lifts moratolrium on most polluted Vapi

By Rohit Prajapati* Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar’s decision to lift the moratorium of eight critically polluted clusters of the country is inexplicable. The ministry took the decision on June 10 2014 but announced it publicly on July 24 2014 on MoEF’s website. Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014 and Prakash Javadekar took charge as the Minister of Environment & Forests and Climate change on 30 May 2014. Immediately Javadekar started fulfilling Modi’s commitment given to the industrialists during the election campaign in return for their “support” to BJP during the election. Javadekar decided to lift the moratorium from some of the critically polluted industrial clusters as a first step within 11 days in the ministry. On June 10, 2014 he suspended the September 17, 2013 order extending a moratorium on 8 critically polluted industrial clusters. That order related to “Re-imposing of Moratorium in respect of critically polluted areas namely...

"Undue benefits" in Gujarat to business groups Reliance, Adani, Essar under Modi government: CAG

By A Representative In what may prove to be a major embarrassment for Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model of development, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has sharply criticized the state government for giving “undue benefits” to three of the biggest investors in Gujarat – Reliance, Adanis and Essar. The CAG report, which was tabled in the Gujarat state assembly, has particularly come down heavily on the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) failing to recover “full wharfage rate” between 2008-09 and 2012-13 from the Reliance Petroleum Ltd’s captive jetty in Sikka, Jamnagar.

Dholera SIR challenged: Gujarat High Court bench issues notice to state, central government

Farmers of Dholera SIR By A Representative Five years after it was enacted, a farmers’ body of Gujarat has challenged the constitutional validity of the state’s Special Investment Region (SIR) Act, 2009. The Gujarat Khedut Samaj (GKU), in a statement issued in Ahmedabad, said that the GKU, in association with “residents of 22 villages of Dholera SIR” -- being set up on 55,000 hectares (ha) of land towards the south of Ahmedabad along the Gulf of Khambhat as a smart city as a Central government project -- have “challenged” the Act and the notification declaring Dholera region as SIR.

World Bank begins investigation into eviction of salt-pan workers in Gujarat following NGO complaint

By A Representative In an important move, the World Bank has begun investigation into the alleged neglect of the salt-pan workers by the Gujarat government in the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK). The investigation, which is proposed as a “research study”, follows a complaint by a non-government organization (NGO) Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM), which told the World Bank in April that its multi-crore project for developing biodiversity in the Wild Ass Sanctuary in the LRK is being used by government officials to evict the agariyas from their land. AHRM has been working among the agariyas for the last several decades.

Does Govt of India intend assets disclosure public servants other than civil servants?

By Venkatesh Nayak* The media has reported about the Rules notified by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, for the filing of information and annual returns relating to assets and liabilities for all public servants covered by the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. What is good about this notification? The notification of these Rules is a step forward from the statutory requirement under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Under Section 4(1(b)(x) of this law, every public authority is required to proactively disclose details of salary paid and the compensation package offered to every civil servant who is its employee. However, there was no statutory compulsion on civil servants to publicly disclose information about their movable and immovable properties inherited or acquired. So several RTI users demanded the publication of this information under the RTI Act by filing formal requests. While some Information Commissions ordered disclosure of inform...

United Nations body recalls Gujarat riots, insists on enacting "dropped" communal violence bill

By A Representative At a time when the Narendra Modi government is all set to consider dropping it, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has asked the Government of India (GoI) to “promptly enact the draft Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill” as an important step to prevent violence against women. It notes “continued marginalization and poverty of women and girls survivors of the Gujarat riots living in the relief colonies and their precarious living conditions with limited access to education, health care, employment and security.”

Stop work for Statue of Unity, environmental clearance plea hasn’t been moved

Letter to Prakash Javdekar, minister for Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Government of India, by Rohit Prajapati, Girish Patel and Himanshu Thakkar, seeking detailed environmental scrutiny of the Statue of Unity Project planned inside Narmada River, 3.2 Kms downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam and Shoolpaneshwar Sanctuary: This is to once again remind you of our letter dated November 7, 2013 and our reminder dated February 5, 2014 sent to the Secretary of MoEF and copy to the concerned authorities of Gujarat Government. In these letters we had called your attention to glaring gaps in meeting environmental, social and safeguard norms in the ‘Statue of Unity Project’ planned inside Narmada River, 3.2 kms downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam and Shoolpaneshwar Sanctuary. Till date, we have received no response from your office on issue that concerns statutory social and environmental safeguards. We had sought your authority to stop all activities related to this project in absence of ...

Adani-POSCO agreement on sensitive coalmining project in Australia sends "shivers down global investors"

By A Representative The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a Cleveland, Ohio, US-based independent research group, has pushed the panic button by saying that top industrial house Adani ’s latest announcement of agreement with South Korea-based multinational company, POSCO, for joint investment in the Australia’s coal mining project in Queensland province is likely to “send shiver down the spine of global coal investors.” An Adani release said, the two have signed a “binding agreement” to develop a “rail line to open up the Galilee Basin coal reserves in Queensland”, which will “ lead to the opening of the Carmichael mine project.”

Moratorium on industrial clusters: Union ministry should clarify stance

By Rohit Prajapati* In May 2002, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released an extensive report saying that “there was a growing gap between the efforts to reduce the impact of business and industry on nature and the worsening state of the planet”. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) in its press release dated April 13, 2014 stated, “A new report by the IPCC shows that global emissions of greenhouse gases have risen to unprecedented levels despite a growing number of policies to reduce climate change. Emissions grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades.” The IPCC added, “There is a clear message from science: To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual… Stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere requires emissions reductions from energy production and use, transport, buildings, industry, land use, and human settlements.” Formal token capital ...

Govt of India "subsidy" to corporate houses in 2013-14 could fund rural jobs scheme for three decades

By A Representative In a new analysis, titled “Corporate karza maafi at Rs 36.5 trillion”, well-known scribe P Sainath, known for his authoritative reports on rural India, has said that in 2013-14 the former UPA government had “foregone” revenues that could fund the rural jobs scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) for three decades, or the public distribution system (PDS) for four-and-a-half years. He suggests there is no change in this, and the movement towards giving concessions to the big and the mighty continues.

Gujarat Dalits off Somnath protest forcible eviction from the land they were cultivating for decades

Dalits demonstrate in Veraval By A Representative Unrest has gripped Dalit villagers surrounding a fast-expanding town off southern Saurashtra coast in Gujarat, not far away from famous Somnath temple. Thousands of villagers, mainy of them Dalit representatives of Saurashtra, gathered outside the district headquarters of the newly-created Gir-Somnath district at Veraval early this week to protest against the state forest department’s move to forcibly occupy hundreds of acres of land being cultivated by Dalits for more than four decades. A representation to the district collectorate, Somnath-Gir, said, “The forest officials entered the fields illegally and removed standing crop. Worse, these officials, who are responsible to take care of environment, removed 30 years old mango trees the Dalits reared.”

Gujarat minister's "illegal" announcement: Invest in Vapi, Ankaleshwar, Vatva; Centre's moratorium ends

By A Representative Gujarat’s senior environmentalist and social activist Rohit Prajapati has complained to Prakash Javadekar, Union minister for environment, forests and climate change, and the ministry’s secretary Dr V Rajagopalan, that his Gujarat counterpart Ganpatbhai Vasava has “made an illegal announcement about the lifting of moratorium on industrial cluster Vapi, Ankleshwar and Vatva.” The moratorium, imposed by the former UPA government, bans any fresh investments in the three clusters along with tens of others in India, because of their high levels.

Permission denied to hold dharna on plight of real estate workers, citing ongoing Gujarat assembly session

A Majur Adhikar Manch protest in December 2013 By Jignesh Mevani* In a recent decision, the Gujarat police refused permission to hold a public meeting to highlight exploitation of construction workers in Gujarat next to one of the biggest real estate projects of the state coming up on way to Gandhinagar. The letter denying the permission to hold dharna issued by the Gandhinagar police reads, “Since the session of Gujarat Assembly is on, we cannot grant you permission, for it can disturb law and order situation in the state.'' The dharna was planned by the Majur Adhikar Manch, which is affiliated with the Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions.

Setback to raise Narmada dam? Jabalpur High Court seeks details of outees' rehabilitation from authorities

By A Representative A new development in Madhya Pradesh may knock hard as setback to the Gujarat government, which is all set to raise the Narmada dam from 121.92 metres to 139.64 metres soon after the current monsoon season. The Jabalpur High Court of Madhya Pradesh has sought explanation from the Madhya Pradesh government, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) and the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) to explain why shouldn’t the decision to raise of the dam height be stopped till action is taken on the Jha Commission Enquiry Report on large-scale corruption in the rehabilitation of Narmada oustees.

Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor in spot: Protest against move to turn land acquisition law corporate friendly

By A Representative The Government of India’s move to amend the new land acquisition law, which makes people’s consent mandatory for any effort to take away farmers’ land, has begun. On July 9, hundreds of farmers from 24 villages of Mangoan, Roha and Tala Tehsil of Raigad district in Maharashtra, under the banner of Corridor Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti and Jagatikikaran Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti marched towards sub-division office (SDO), before the land acquisition authority, against what the two people’s organizations calls “forced land acquisition of 67,500 acres for the Dighi Port industrial areas.”

Deadly occupational disease silicosis kills 15th victim in Gujarat, highest No of deaths since 2010

Shantaben, 15th silicosis victim  in 2014 By A Representative Shantaben Khushalbhai Parmar, 55, has become the 15th victim of the deadly silicosis disease, widely prevalent among workers working in the agate industry of Central Gujarat, particularly in the Khambhat area. She breathed her last on July 8 morning. With the death of Shantaben, the year 2014 has already recorded the highest number of deaths due to silicosis since 2010. She lost her husband of silicosis long back. In December 2011 she lost her eldest son Raju at the age of 35 because of silicosis.

Cases pile up as govts fail to appoint information commissioners

Excerpts from “Information Commissions and the Use of RTI Laws in India: Rapid Study 2.0”, by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) team consisting of Aneesha Johny, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary, Venkatesh Nayak and Maja Daruwala: *** On June 23, 2014, the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) stepped into its 10th year of implementation. The text of this law was published in the Official Gazette on that day in 2005 and some provisions became operational. Other provisions detailing the procedures through which people can access information or file appeals and complaints against delays in and denials of access became operational a hundred and twenty days later. The current study is based several parameters which are fundamental to such an assessment exercise. In 2013-14 a total of 138 posts of Information Commissioners (including the Chief Information Commissioners) had been created across the country. This is 20 more than the tally of 118 in 2012. Five additional posts of Informat...

Stoking religious divisions is something Modi "still needs to do" in future: Pulitzer Prize winning journo

By A Representative  A New York Times feature (July 5) has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a campaigner during the elections may have “assiduously avoided religious issues, hewing to the economic growth platform that carried him to a landslide victory”, and he may have "tried to set a conciliatory, centrist tone, and some of his decisions since taking power have disappointed his far-right backers”. But the presence of Sanjeev Balyan in his council of ministers is “a reminder that stoking (religious) divisions remains a way to win votes, something that Modi still needs to do in order to build up a team of regional allies in the coming months and years.”

Gujarat's Movement for Secular Democracy "clarifies": It is not an NGO, does not receive foreign funds

An MSD-led demonstration in 2012 By A Representative The Movement for Secular Democracy (MSD), a Gujarat-based non-profit organization, has clarified in a letter to to the President of India, Pranab Kumar Mukherjee, that it “is not an NGO and does not receive any foreign funds”. The letter comes in the wake of the recent Intelligence Bureau (IB) report, submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office, “Impact of NGOs on Development”, naming MSD as one of the many NGOs which are allegedly involved in anti-developmental activities and are receiving foreign funds.

Top corporate group "invokes" IB report to fight campaign against displacement of 50,000 villagers

Greenpeace campaign against Essar By A Representative The recently-leaked Intelligence Bureau (IB) report is already turning into a full-blown controversy, with Greenpeace International’s India chapter – which is the target of attack from the powerful corporate circles and the government for being “anti-development” -- all set to launch a strong offensive against it. In a statement on the IB report, influential the NGO has wondered whether to “speak for the 50,000 villagers who will be displaced by Essar’s proposed coal mine” in Madhya Pradesh and other such projects is “anti-development”.