Senior activists wonder how can Kalpasar start without environmental or CRZ nod

By A Representative

Senior activists of Gujarat have alleged that the Narendra Modi government wants to begin work on the controversial Kalpasar project, which seeks to dam the Gulf of Khambhat, despite the fact that it has not yet complied with the Government of India's Environmental Impact Assessment Notification on September 14, 2006. The project falls under Category ‘A’, 1 (c), i.e. a river and valley project which requires prior environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on the recommendations of Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) constituted by the GoI.
In a statement, the activists Indukumar Jani, Mahesh Pandya and Gautam Thaker said, “Summary record of discussions of the 38th and 39th meeting of expert appraisal committee (AEC) held on June 30, 2010 and July 17, 2010 in New Delhi constituted under the provision of the EIA notification of 2006 shows that the proponents of the project did not attend any of its meetings." Also, the "summary record of discussion of the 41st meeting of EAC held on September 24-25, 2010 in New Delhi also showed that the committee considered the documentation provided for allowing scoping highly inadequate wand wanting it to be more holistic.”
The statement says, while the ninth meeting of the Expert Advisory Group (EAG), Kalpasar, held at Ahmedabad on July 17-19, 2012 concluded that the EAG had accepted the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute’s (NEERI’s) report on Environmental Impact and Risk Assessment (EIRA),which is an environment clearance requirement, so far there has been no progress thereafter. In fact, the report has not been submitted to the MoEF, which should give additional terms of reference, if required.
"The whole process of environmental clearance may require 270 days if all formalities / procedures are followed correctly as per EIA notification, 2006. In addition to this the project has to obtain Consent to Operate from State Pollution Control Board only after which tenders can be floated”, the statement underlines.
“Even then, while speaking at the Krishi Mahostav on May 18, 2013, Modi spoke of Rs.3,400 crore project for building Narmada water reservoir between Kevadiya colony to Bhadbhut barrage, linking it with Kalpsar project, while on May 5, 2013, he said that a tender for Rs 4,000 crore works on Bhadbhut barrage would be floated soon”, the statement says, wondering, “How can he give such irresponsible statement to misguide public by giving two different figures with a difference of Rs 600 crore for the same project?”
The statement further accuses the government of misleading the public. “At the Gujarat legislative assembly, on March 13, 2013, answering a starred question, MLA from Mansinh Chauhan asked questions regarding Kalpasar project to the CM, to which he was told that 80 per cent of EIA had been completed and environmental and CRZ clearances are in their last phase and statutory clearances required for the project will be obtained at the earliest”, the statement says.
“At the same time, in the same assembly session, the government stated that land acquisition has already been started whereas in the Kalpasar website it is written that creation of this fresh water reservoir does not involve any land acquisition or rehabilitation of people. Both of these statements are contradictory”, it adds. “Again in the same session, it was stated that construction of Bhadbhut barrage would start in 2013-2014. The question is: How constructed can be started without environmental or CRZ clearances?”
---
For more details, click HERE

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Search This Blog