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Showing posts from August, 2014

Gujarat govt farm projects show bias against small, marginal, landless farmers

By Rajiv Shah  A recent study on ascertaining the impact of watershed development project (WDP) and Krishi Mahotsav, the two important programmes by the Gujarat government to improve agricultural practices, suggest that they have benefited the rich farmers more than the marginal and poor farmers. The WDP is a flagship policy initiative for development of groundwater resources, especially in drought- and desert-prone districts in the state – has suggested that benefits of WDPs were confined mainly to landed households, despite a clear emphasis to include the landless as project beneficiaries. “Among the landed households, those with medium and large landholdings had a larger proportion of beneficiaries as compared to marginal and small farmers within a village”, the study, based on a sample of 6,458 beneficiaries, said. Part of the chapter “High Growth Agriculture in Gujarat: An Enquiry into Inclusiveness and Sustainability”, by Amita Shah and Itishree Pattnaik, in the just-released boo

Batra’s books negate all that India represents: inclusiveness, pluralism

By Fr Cedric Prakash sj* The Gujarat Government has done it again! That it does so, is on expected lines; but that it is doing so by throwing all caution and Constitutional propriety to the wind should be a cause of great concern to every citizen who values the principles of democracy and pluralism, which are the heart and soul of India. The topic in question is the approval and introduction of nine books (eight of which are written and edited by Dina Nath Batra) in more than 42,000 Government-run primary and secondary schools all over Gujarat. In a circular dated June 30, 2014, the Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) states, “These books on supplementary literature are aimed at imparting quality education. They will be provided free of cost to all government primary and secondary schools, public libraries and will be also available at GSSTB, Gandhinagar, for individuals interested in these books. These are to be incorporated from this academic session.” Dina Nath Batra has ea

To insist 10% seat quota is essential for LoP blatant disregard to Parliamentary practice

By Venkatesh Nayak* A reply has been reportedly sent by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to the President of the Indian National Congress (INC) refusing to accept the latter’s claim to the chair of the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in that House for the leader of its parliamentary party. In the age of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) the text of this communication, which amounts to making an important decision, is simply not available on any official website. Nor has the INC displayed the contents of this letter on its own website despite being declared a public authority under the RTI Act, apropos of the June 2013 order of the Central Information Commission (CIC). This decision has not been set aside by any court till date. Reasons for the Speaker’s Decision Although Section 4(1)(c) of the RTI Act requires the Lok Sabha Secretariat to voluntarily place in the public domain all relevant facts about important decisions taken by the Speaker, our access to reasons behind her deci

How Narmada police curbed peaceful protests in 70 villages on October 30-31, 2013

Police picket outside Rajpipla campus In his submission to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), New Delhi, senior environmentalist Rohit Prajapati* has strongly rebutted the report sent by the Superintendent of Police (SP), district Narmada, Gujarat, to the NHRC in response to Prajapati’s complaint of October 31, 2013 regarding curb on freedom of expression and peaceful dissent on October 30-31, 2013, when the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi performed his stone-laying foundation for the Statue of Unity in Narmada river. Excerpts from the submission: Our complaint to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is not that “we were prevented from reaching the site inauguration of Statue of Unity by the Gujarat Chief Minister.” In fact none of us wanted to go to the site of inauguration function. Our complaint, as mentioned in the last line of para 3 of our complaint dated October 31, 2013 is: “…villagers were detained illegally to create atmosphere of terror among villa

Seeking info: Make Supreme Court rules RTI, not show cause, compliant

By Venkatesh Nayak* On August 19, 2014, the Supreme Court of India has begun implementing its new set of rules for regulating its practice and procedures. These rules were notified in May this year. They replace the existing rules brought into force in 1966 (to download the new SC rules click HERE ). It may be noted that the Registry of the Supreme Court is also a public authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Whether the Chief Justice of India is also a public authority under the same law, is a question that has been referred to a Constitution Bench of the Court in November 2010 in the matter of Central Public Information Officer, Supreme Court of India vs. Subhash Chandra Agrawal, (2011) 1SCC 496. This bench has not been constituted for almost four years despite important constitutional and legal questions being framed by the three-judge bench. This is the well known “judges’ assets case”, initiated by the RTI intervention of veteran RTI activist Subhash Chandra Ag

Gujarat: Low labour costs, high tax concessions, incentives to corporates

By Rajiv Shah   “Growth or Development: Which Way is Gujarat Going”, edited by Indira Hirway, Amita Shah and Ghanshyam Shah, Oxford University Press, 604 pages, Price: Rs 1,395.00 Edited by three senior Gujarat-based experts, the book is an exceptional commentary on the view taken by three well-known scholars – Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya and Bibek Debroy – who in the recent past were instrumental in creating a web around Gujarat “model”. The introduction “Growth and Development in Gujarat”, by the three editors makes its theme amply clear: “We believe that those who call the growth experience of Gujarat a great ‘success story’ have overlooked certain critical dimensions of growth. They appear to be either unaware of or wish to ignore certain ground realities in the state.” Debroy, for instance, in his book “Gujarat: Governance for Growth and Development” (2012), “discusses accelerated reduction in rural poverty, but does not mention the almost stagnant level of urban povert

Will Govt of India condone discharge of untreated effluents from Gujarat industry?

Broken FETP pipeline polluting nearby areas By Rohit Prajapati* For the past fortnight, the pipeline of the Final Effluent Treatment Plant (FETP) of the Narmada Clean Tech Ltd (NCTL) of Ankleshwar is again leaking with its breakage at the Ankleshwar-Amboli road next to Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) camp. The consistent violation of the prescribed norms of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) by the FETP operated by NCTL since its inception is publicly well known. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) should clarify which law of the land sanctions the discharge of effluents that do not meet the prescribed norms of the GPCB. Alternatively, it would appear, by allowing the FETP to operate despite inability to perform within legal norms, the NCTL’s continued violation of the environment laws of the nation is being condoned. The violation of environmental laws is supported by the investigation results of CPCB from 2007 to 2014, and even of NCTL results from 2013 to