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Showing posts from July, 2015

Campaigners step up pressure on raising Narmada dam: Announce padyatra against "development terrorism"

Pillars on Narmada dam By A Representative Stepping up the campaign against the ongoing construction of the Narmada dam height from 121.92 metres to 138.64 metres, which is the full reservoir level (FRL), the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has announced the decision to launch a week-long padyatra from Khalghat on Mumbai-Agra Highway in Madhya Pradesh to Badwani, next to the Madhya Pradesh-Gujarat border.

Ministries acquire land under their own laws as GoI amends acquisition law

By Venkatesh Nayak* Parliament enacted the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (RFCTLARR Act) in September 2013. The Government of India (GoI) enforced this Act fully on January 1, 2014. This law repealed the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 under which the Central and State Governments acquired land for public purpose. By an Ordinance issued on December 31, 2014, GoI made several amendments to the RFCTLARR Act. One major aspect of these amendments was the inclusion of all 13 laws listed in the 4th Schedule within the RFCTLARR Act for the twin purposes of calculating and paying compensating persons whose lands are acquired for “public purpose” as defined in the Act, and also for ensuring their rehabilitation and resettlement (if they are displaced as a result of the land acquisition). The earlier chapters such as conducting Social Impact Assessment (SIA) and preparing a mitigation plan required under RFCTLARR Act do not apply...

A South Gujarat tribal youth uses RTI, ensures his remote village gets good road, power, education, transport

A tribal village in Dediyapada By Pankti Jog* Bharsingh Vasava, a tribal youth from the backward Narmada district, is proving to be a tough fighter against bureaucratic inertia. And, the tool he has been using is the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, amidst heavy odds. Belonging to South Gujarat's tribal village Samor, 40 km from Dediyapada town of South Gujarat, the place where he lives was devoid of regular transport. Even today it is devoid of mobile or telephone connectivity.

Abolish death sentence! It is a barbaric act and not in sync with civilised society

By Fr. Cedric Prakash sj* So Yakub Memon was finally hanged to death early this morning (July 30th) in the Nagpur Central Jail! The 54-year old Chartered Accountant was convicted for the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts which took the lives of 267 people and injured many more. The team of lawyers defending him tried every possible option to stay the death penalty but to no avail. President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Memon’s final plea for clemency despite a petition from several eminent citizens.  The petition which was signed by over 300 persons (former Supreme Court judges, academia, human rights activists, film makers, politicians and others from civil society) requested the President to stay Memon’s execution citing procedural lapses and “disturbing aspects of this case which make the award of death sentence of Yakub Memon as grossly unfair, arbitrary and excessive”. Apart from the fact that Yakub Memon had already served more than the stipulated time for life imprisonment and tha...

Narmada dam proving to be "watery grave" for oustees of 245 villages as dam height speeds up to reach full reservoir level

Pillars at Narmada dam By A Representative In a crucial hearing to take place on August 1, 2015, the two-judge Social Justice Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Madan Lokur and UU Lalit is likely to decide on a plea by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) seeking a stay on the Gujarat government on raising the Narmada dam height from the present 121.92 metres to the full reservoir level, 138.64 metres. The special bench began the hearing matter in December 2014.

Forked Tongue and Flexible Factsheet: Was over 12 year Modi rule in Gujarat a byword for probity in public life?

By RK Misra* In fishing -- as in politics -- nothing is more ungainly than a fisherman pulled into the water by his own catch. Hurling muck from the safety of the shore and making it stick may have brought Narendra Modi to the helm of India in 2014 but the Teflon-coated frying pan is itself on fire today. His government faces the filth of the Lalit Modi revelations, the bloodied Vyapam scam, and now the Madhya Pradesh Dental and Medical Admission Test taint.  Oscillating between maladministrative misdemeanour and crass corruption charges are veteran minister Sushma Swaraj, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhararaje Scindia, MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, and Maharashtra minister Pankaja Munde. After ’pehle’ AAP law minister Jitender Singh Tomar landed in the ‘cooler’ over his qualifications,union HRD minister Smriti Irani is next in line for a judicial scrutiny of her venerable CV. Meanwhile, Modi’s anti-corruption plank is in tatters and the school boyish line, one for joy ...

Forcible of displacement of tribals in Madhya Pradesh from tiger reserve: Activists protest move

Tribals let by Yousuf Beg submitting the letter in collector's office By Ashok Shrimali The Panna National Park, one of the top tiger reserves in India, is the eye of storm among tribal rights activists of Madhya Pradesh. Situated just 25 kilometres from the world famous Khajuraho temples, tribals living in the national park and the tiger reserve have been accused of “wrongfully made to give consent to accept monetary compensation and hand over their lands” in the conservation of the forest area.

Vandana Shiva accuses MNC Monsanto of "genocide" of Indian farmers

By A Representative Close on the heels of a top Netherlands report giving a clean chit to the controversial American multinational corporation (MNC) Monsanto, saying the Bt cotton farms using its genetically modified (GM) seeds have negligible child labour compared to those using seeds from Indian companies, one of India's topmost environmentalists Vandana Shiva has sung a totally different tone.

Abrogate "widely misused" armed forces special powers Act: New York Times editorial to Narendra Modi

By A Representative In a scathing critique of India’s Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which came in for sharp criticism recently from Amnesty International in its detailed report on how it is being widely misused in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), the New York Times (NYT) has editorially asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to abrogate it immediately.

Open official bullying of courageous human rights defenders Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand

Romila Thapar, Admiral Ramdas, Naseeruddin Shah, Mahesh Bhatt, Nandita Das, Githa Hariharan, Aruna Roy, Jayati Ghosh, Rajmohan Gandhi, Tushar Gandhi, Vivan Sundaram, Nilima and GM Shaikh, Henri Tiphange , Sanjiv Bhatt and hundreds of other prominent artists, intellectuals and activists on recent "investigations" into misappropriation by Gujarat government and Government of India authorities Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand: We express our profound dismay and disquiet at the continued official harassment by the central government of leading human rights defenders Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand. Since the installation of the BJP led government in Delhi in May 2014, the country has witnessed open strenuous official efforts to foist a large variety of charges of financial irregularity on them, to harass them, to tarnish their reputations, and to secure their arrests. Fortunately the interventions of the higher judiciary have protected them so far. However the latest raids by the ...

Congress, Left, NGOs again return to one platform to "fight" land acquisition bill, hold public hearing in Delhi

Jairam Ramesh (Congress) By A Representative A people's hearing, organized by the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), the apex body of tens of rights based organizations of India, and several NGOs, has "unanimously" rejected the Land Acquisition Bill 2015, and favoured the Joint Forum formed to campaign against it to "intensify" struggle against it. The hearing saw NGOs, Congress and Left return on one platform to fight against the Bill.

Smart Cities?: No proposal with Govt of India; Dholera would be just SIR, Gift City "back office of Mumbai"

B Gift City under construction y Our Representative The Government of India has said that it has received “no recommendations” for smart cities from any part of the country. In reply to a right to information (RTI) query, the Ministry of Urban Development’s Smart City division has said, on June 25, 2015, guidelines were released for the selection process of smart cities, and “based on the idea of competitive and cooperative federalism” there would be “a challenge process to select cities”.

RTI acivist's murder: Gujarat Information Commission asks cops to furnish info on bootlegger to deceased's brother

Shaileshbhai Patel By Pankti Jog* Acting against police "indifference" towards bootleggers in Surendranagar, a district town situated about 130 kilometres west of Ahmedabad, the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has passed an order for furnishing information regarding number of cases registered and action taken by the cops against a bootlegger, who allegedly murdered a right to information (RTI) activist on June 15.

Stop harassing human rights defender Teesta Setalvad: Prominent Gujarat citizens to Govt of India, CBI

By A Representative Even as the news came in from Delhi that the Gujarat police has “opposed” anticipatory bail application in Supreme Court by top  activists Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand, about two dozen prominent citizens of Gujarat have expressed their “profound dismay and disquiet” at the “continued official harassment” of human rights defender.

Police officials must be trained to identify attacks on activists, whistleblowers

By Venkatesh Nayak* While in one Central Indian State the art of getting rid of whistleblowers is dangerously progressing towards becoming a science, the Government of India has initiated the exercise of collecting data on attacks on Whistleblowers, mediapersons, social activists and RTI activists from across the country. Parliamentarians have frequently sought information from the Government about the number of attacks on RTI activists and the Government has often replied that it does not maintain such a database centrally. Meanwhile, RTI users, activists, organisations and people’s movements for transparency and accountability have frequently highlighted how unsafe it is to seek information in the public interest under the RTI Act. Thanks to a sensitive mass media, instances of attacks- often murderous- on RTI activists and social activists and whistleblowers have received wide coverage. News stories of such attacks are publicised prominently and followed up on in terms of the progre...

Planning 25,000-strong rally in Delhi on July 27, leaders step up pressure on Modi govt to "recognize" Rajasthani

Dharna in Delhi in support of the demand   By A Representative In a sharp effort to step pressure on the Narendra Modi government, protagonists of those seeking to insert Rajasthani language in the eighth schedule of the Constitution have decided to hold a 25,000-strong rally on July 27 in Delhi in favour of their 12-year-old demand. To gather support from the Rajasthani community all over India for the proposed rally, the organizers of the rally began a yatra in Mumbai, reaching Ahmedabad on July 20.

Impact of increase in Narmada dam height: 6,000 families await watery grave in valley, alleges Medha Parkar

By A Representative Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar has alleged that more than 6,000 families are awaiting “watery grave”, as their houses, livestock and fertile agricultural land “will face submergence because of the Government of India going ahead with raising the Narmada dam from the present 121.92 metres to 138.64 metres.” The height of the dam is being raised even though “the Supreme Court is still to give its verdict on legality of the ongoing construction on the dam”, she has added.

Another wait for alternetive housing for Mumbai slumdwellers, as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna "replaces" UPA scheme

Dharna by slumdwellers on July 16 By A Representative Around 55 per cent of the population of Mumbai -- India's financial and business capital -- which lives in slums has been asked to make another  wait: Living in  slums, they will have to wait for a Government of India decision seeking a new "policy change" on how to rehabilitate them for alternative housing. This was revealed at a meeting well-known social activist Medha Patkar and her colleagues Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan with Maharashtra chief secretary Swadheen S Kshatriya.

Demonstrators protest CBI raid against Teesta, others, say it suggests "frustration" over the fight for 2002 riot victims

By A Representative Demonstrations were held in different cities in solidarity with Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand and their colleagues, with intellectuals, academicians, students, artists, activists, teachers and ordinary people coming out against the “blatant misuse” of state machinery to hound and persecute a group of courageous human rights defenders.

Blow Hot Blow Cold: How Modi promoted tourism to Gir's Asiatic lions in a recklessly peacemeal manner

By RK Misra* This June, the heat in Gujarat was such, that sweat soaked clothes faster than you could take them off. And when there was nothing left to shed, you still wanted to take off the flesh to sit in bare bones. A respite seemed in order. And I took off like a hare being chased by a dozen hounds. So, from smouldering Gujarat to the cooler climes of Himalaya ringed Uttarakhand was a journey from the frying pan into an ice-pit. It was nature’s air conditioner, complete with climate control at work and the aroma and atmospherics of the mountains thrown in for good measure. The world of news is an eternal, dizzying merry-go-round, more addictive than marijuana and as dangerously exciting as riding a tiger. Frying news and baking analyses gives the kicks but you can end up as supper yourself trying to get off, as so many of my ilk will testify. Forty plus years in the news pit, sick of political muckraking and suffering from acute print paranoia, one was game, nevertheless. With Saby...

Good news for Gujarat NGOs: Government issues GR waiving 2% administrative charge on foreign contributions

By Pankti Jog* At a time when the Government of India is showing signs of uneasiness to foreign contributions (FCs) to non-government organizations (NGOs), in an interesting development, the Gujarat government has moved in just the opposite direction. 

How Gujarat babudom dictates terms to village heads to "convert" agricultural land into non-agricultural (NA) use

By Pankti Jog* The 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution of India may have given powers to the panchayati raj system, but a glaring instance suggests that Gujarat bureaucracy still wants to dictate terms to elected representatives of Gram Sabhas.  The sarpanch of Mota Samdhiyala village off Gir forests in Junagadh district, was shocked when he received a notice demanding a no-objection certificate (NOC) to transform 4,857 sq metres of agricultural land to non-agricultural (NA) without reference number, the district development office’s (DDO's) letterhead, date or even the seal.

Govt must abandon its hostile and vindictive stance towards human rights defenders Teesta Setalvad, others

By Dipak Dholakia* CBI raids on July 14, 2015 at the premises of social activist Teesta Setalvad, her husband Javed Anand, Gulam Mohammed Peshimam and office of Sabrang Communications and Publishing in Mumbai were undertaken for purely vindictive reasons, given the assurances of complete cooperation and submission of thousands of pages of documents to the CBI. It is by now an open secret that activists working for justice and truth with regard to the pogrom called Gujarat riots have earned the hatred and animosity of the Modi government; which does not hesitate to employ official state power to indulge in a witch-hunt. Setalvad and Anand set up Sabrang Communications and began publishing "Communalism Combat" in 1993, and not after 2002. It was this company that published the Justice Srikrishna Commission Report on the Mumbai communal riots of 1992-93 at a time when the state government would not make it available to the public. The state has not only failed in its constituti...

Landgrabbing by private sector: A possible outcome of UN's "finance for development agenda" at Addis Ababa meet

By A Representative World’s top civil society organizations (CSOs), in a joint submission to the UN-sponsored International Conference on Financing for Development, taking place at Addis Ababa from July 13 to 16, has taken strong exception to the effort of governments to provide “central role” to private finance in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). They drafted their submission at Addis Ababa on July 11-12.

In Gujarat capital, when adivasi girls complained of poor hostel facilities, they got abuses, threat, insufficient food

Chart's condition displaying what all girl students are entitled to tells it all By Nachiketa Desai A systematic racket of swindling funds by unscrupulous officials has been brought to light by a group of students residing in the state government-run hostel for Adivasi girls in Gujarat capital, Gandhinagar. The modus operandi for siphoning off funds meant for the Adivasi girl students is simple – deny them food and facilities sanctioned in the state budget.

Those who say Jana Gana Mana was composed in veneration of King George V are parroting bogus allegations

Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh recently created a huge flutter by demanding that the national anthem's wordings "Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka Jaya He" be replaced by "Jana Gana Mana Mangala Jaya He", because Adhinayaka stands for King George V. Well-known commentator Kanchan Gupta traces the origin of Jana Gana Mana to refute the argument*: What is now the National Anthem of the Republic of India is the first stanza of a five-stanza Brahmo Sangeet or psalm. It was composed by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore on December 11, 1911, in adulation of Param Brahma -- He who is the True, the Good, the Infinite; the Eternal Lord of the Universe; the Omniscient, the Omnipresent, the Omnipotent; the Formless, Changeless, Selfcontained and Perfect Almighty. For the Brahmo Samaj, whose members adhere to Adhi Dharma, anchored in the dazzling enlightenment of the Upanishads, Param Brahma is the only Ishwar, the One Supreme Spirit, the Author and Preserver of our existence, the Eter...

No spurt in death sentences in states with history of conflict with militant groups

A new report , “Award of Death Sentences and Commutations to Life Imprisonment: Analysis of Statistical Trends in India Based on Prison Statistics Published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for the years 1998-2013”, studies trends relating to the award of death sentence and commutation of such sentences to life imprisonment across India during the period 1998-2013. Data was also sought for the period 2013 and 2014 by filing right to information (RTI) application. However, the data could not be obtained because they are still being compiled. Prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Programme Coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Delhi, the report has been prepared on the eve of the Round Table on Death Penalty, organized by the Law Commission of India in New Delhi on Saturday, July 11, 2015. Excerpts: *** India is in a minority group of countries on the planet that retain capital punishment on their statute books. According to a compil...

Despite SC ruling, govts prefer retired babus to head information commissions

Excerpts from the report “State of Information Commissions and the Use of RTI Laws in India: Rapid Study 3.0 Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2012-14)”, prepared by research team headed by Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Delhi: *** On June 20, 2015, the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) completed a decade of existence. The text of this law was published in the Official Gazette June 21, 2005 and several provisions such as the appointment of Public Information Officers, First Appellate Authorities and Information Commissions and the requirement of improving records management, preparing for the proactive disclosure of a deal of information [Section 4(1)(b)] and the exemption for 18 security and intelligence organisations became operational immediately. 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 125 days l...