Highway Authority report for Vadodara-Mumbai expressway wants clearances for Ganga Expressway, UP!

By A Representative
A recent letter by Gujarat’s environmental organization, Paryavaran Mitra, to Dr V Rajagopal, secretary, ministry of environment and forests, Government of India, has revealed roughshod manner in which Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports for different developmental projects are prepared in India. Referring to the EIA report proposed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for the Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway Project, the top environmental group has said, “The consultants for the NHAI have done a simple copy paste job", and “taken shortcut by copying and pasting the project descriptions from similar project of Ganga Expressway.”
Calling this as “the violation of the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) office memorandum No J-11013/41/2006-IA.II (I) dated October 5, 2011, regarding ownership of EIA report and other documents”, the letter gives two different instances of how the copy paste job has been done in a very haphazard manner. Enclosing printouts of the pages where this copy paste has been done, the letter says: “On page 1-6 of the draft EIA report, point 1.1 Environmental Regulatory Frame Work, it is mentioned ‘Table 1.2 Clearances and Permissions required for Ganga Expressway Project’.”
Then, on “page 7-3 of the draft EIA report under Development of Agriculture, it says “Expressway will also help in import of new techniques of agriculture to most backward areas of Uttar Pradesh”. The letter adds, “As Ganga Expressway was a project of Uttar Pradesh, so mention of Ganga Expressway and Uttar Pradesh in the report shows that that the consultants have forgotten to replace it while doing copy paste”!
The letter quotes the MoEF office memorandum, No. J-11013/41/2006-IA.II (I) dated October 5, 2011, regarding ownership of EIA report and other documents by project proponent, which says, “If at any stage, it is observed or brought to the notice of this ministry that the contents of the EIA report pertaining to a project have been copied from other EIA reports, such projects shall be summarily rejected and the proponent will have to initiate the process afresh including conduct of public hearing.”
The letter also quotes the notification to say that, besides these actions, “separate action will be initiated to delist such consultants from the list of accredited consultants.” The letter, signed by Paryavaran Mitra director Mahesh Pandya, insists that “in view of the above, it is our strong demand that this entire project must be shelved for the time being and all the procedures be started afresh. Also, we request you to take strict action against the consultant to set an example for other consultants.”
Working in Gujarat as voluntary organization in the field of environment and industrial pollution issues since 1997, Paryavaran Mitra has been involved in reviewing of EIA report and participation in environmental public hearing (EPH), which is based on EIA, across the state. The NHAI has proposed to construct a new 6/8 lane Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway passing through Vadodra, Bharuch, Surat, Navsari and Valsad districts of Gujarat. The EPH of all districts of which was held in last week of February. EIA report of this project has been prepared by Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.
Paryavaran Mitra has claimed, it has “written various letters to the NHAI regarding various violations of EIA notification by this project.” Despite the fact that EPH was held, it adds, their minutes have “not yet uploaded even after two weeks of the public hearing…” Now, with the new proof, it is clear that the “consultants have copied the EIA report from some other document.” The letter has been forwarded to the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET), New Delhi, which gives accreditation to consultants to prepare EIA.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

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.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog