Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from November, 2018

26/11 attack reports accessed from M’shtra legislature: MHA denied access

By Venkatesh Nayak* Next Monday (November 26, 2018), marks the completion of a decade since a group of armed militants launched attacks at multiple places in Mumbai in 2008. On this occasion, I am placing in the public domain, two reports obtained through RTI — one from an inquiry held by Government-appointed Committee and the other the action taken by the Government on the Committee’s findings and recommendations. According to available estimates, at least 164 people including police personnel and NSG commandos died and more than 300 were injured in the attacks, engineered to strike terror in the hearts of the citizenry. The attacks began on the night of 26/11 and ended on 28/11. Ajmal Kasab, the only perpetrator who was captured alive, was executed in November 2012, at the end of a multi-stage judicial process. A plethora of facts and evidence emerged during this process showing their linkages with a neighbouring country. Within a month of the attacks, the Government of Maharashtra s

VECL pipeline pollution: Average COD 2500 plus instead of accepted level, 250

Letter by Rohit Prajapati and Krishnakant of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, Vadodara, addressed to senior Government of India and Gujarat government officials, asking them to (1) declare ‘Chemical Emergency’ for ‘ECP Industrial Cluster’ of Vadodara District, (2) cancel the ‘Consolidated Consent and Authorization’ (CC&A) of ‘Vadodara Envior Channel Limited’, cancel ‘Environment Clearance’ (EC) of all the defaulting polluting industries, and (3) file criminal case against VECL and defaulting polluting industries as per Order, dated 22.02.2017, of the Supreme Court in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 375 of 2012 (Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti & Anrs V/s Union of India & Ors): You all should agree with us that the Governments and State are expected to take all possible actions to implement the Environment Laws of the Land. Similarly, it is expected that the Governments and State also are expected to implement, in letter and spirit the Supreme Court Order, dated 22.02.2017, of Writ Petit

RTI activist’s murder: M’shtra govt must make public, publicise info sought by Junawane

On November 1, 2018, yet another RTI user was killed in Maharashtra for seeking information to expose corruption and wrongdoing. According to media reports, Rohit Ashok Junawane was brutally attacked by nine armed assailants near his residence in Aundh, Pune and died of the injuries. The National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI) has written to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, demanding immediate action in the matter. The letter calls upon the government to ensure that all the information sought by Junawane is put in the public domain and widely publicized, which would act as a deterrent against such attacks in the future. The letter is also copied to the State Chief Information Commissioner of Maharashtra for necessary action. Junawane’s killing marks the 78th murder of an RTI user who has been silenced for seeking to show truth to power. The government has failed to implement the Whistle Blowers Protection Act passed by Parliament in 2014 despite the increasing nu

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf