Open Forum

Rajesh Sondharva By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers may remember recent news reports of the alleged murder of 19-year old Rajesh @ Raju Sondharva a resident of Manekwada village in Rajkot district of Gujarat. Rajesh who belongs to the Dalit community was fighting for justice in a criminal case involving the murder of his father, the Late Nanjibhai Meghabhai Sondharva. In March 2018, Nanjibhai was allegedly murdered for exposing corruption in the construction of a road in his village through his RTI interventions. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recently registered my complaint pressing for a thorough inquiry into the murder of Rajesh Sondharva. Last year, based on my complaint, the NHRC had sought reports of action taken by the Rajkot Police to investigate the circumstances leading to Nanjibhai’s murder. However the NHRC closed its inquiry into my complaint after the murder case was committed for trial. According to media reports, Rajesh was attacked because he was trying to d

Several concerned citizens of Vadodara, led by Rohit Prajapati, environment activist, researcher, and writer, in an open letter to the Municipal Commissioner, Vadodara Municipal Corporation; secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Union of India; Chief Secretary, Government of Gujarat; and several senior environment and forest department officials of India and Gujarat have sought “immediate” their intervention to prevent anticipated disasters, flooding, and water logging due to authorities’ “deliberate negligence”. Text of the letter: *** We, and some project affected local citizens from all walks of life, in Vadodara have raised the issues, with the concerned authorities, related to prevention anticipated disasters, flooding and water logging due to deliberate negligence, superficial show of work undertaken, and lip services paid regarding the cleaning up and technically and ecologically sound reclamation of ravines filled with construction debris and all kinds