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Showing posts from January, 2015

Leaders "ignoring" tribal, Dalit, other marginal farmers' cause in fight against land acquisition ordinance

Ashok Shrimali with Achyut Yagnik A senior activist of Gujarat, Ashok Shrimali, has created a stir in a closed-door Gujarat farmer leaders' consultation in Ahmedabad at Khet Bhawan, next to Gandhi Ashram, saying that tribal, Dalit and other marginalised community farmers' plight was being "summarily ignored" by those seeking to fight against the "retrograde" land acquisition ordinance. Shrimali said, this is happening despite the fact that they know it is these farmers who will suffer the most because of the recent Government of India ordinance, which has done away with social impact assessment and consent clauses.

Farmer leaders detained in "combing operation" ahead of Maruti-Suzuki stone laying ceremony in Gujarat

  Ahead of Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel’s stone-laying ceremony of the Maruti-Suzuki plant at Hansalpur in North Gujarat on Wednesday, the state police swooped on a dozen-odd farmer leaders apprehending that they would stage a protest. While one of them, Laljibhai Desai, was put under house arrest, others were detained. According to sources of the Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), which for a year ago spearheaded an agitation against land acquisition at Hansalpur, the police told farmer activists that the arrests were “precautionary.”

'Govt indifference? Gujarat's Sikh farmers 'attacked' in Kutch, political turn in Punjab

Sikh farmers from Loria village A small town in Kutch district, Loria, is once again in news more than a year after the local Sikhs settlers were attacked by powerful persons in the region in October 2013. Sikh farmers from the village have complained to their brethren in Bhatinda district in Punjab that political activists associated the ruling BJP of district Bhuj have “attacked” them. Punjab media, quoting Loria farmers, said, farmer Jagjeet Singh was “injured” though “others managed to save their lives with difficulty”. The attackers destroyed the two cars.

Washington Post focuses on Modi's estranged wife, calls her India's First Lady, wonders why she's abandoned

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s estranged wife Jashodaben has finally got international attention. Premier US daily, “The Washington Post” (January 25), has taken note of her state on the day American President Barack Obama arrived in India, commenting, “She’s waiting for him, as she has been all her life. But when Prime Minister Narendra Modi dines with Barack and Michelle Obama at a glittering banquet Sunday night, his wife won’t be by his side.” It adds, “Modi, 64, kept his teenage marriage a secret for decades during his political ascent and only last year admitted that his wife exists.”

Letter to Modi, Obama: Gujarat locals seek consultation, say "no" to nuclear power plant at Mithi Virdi

Seeking “fair and open discussion” on the proposed 6,000 MW Mithi Virdi nuclear power plant in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat, the sarpanches of four affected villages – Mithi Virdi, Jaspara, Mandva and Khadarpar – have said that before taking any decision on the project, they should be consulted. Led by Shaktisinh Gohil, sarpanch, Jasapara village, and addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, visiting India as guest of the Republic Day parade, their letter said, they wished to “put on record” their viewpoint regarding the proposed project”. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), a Government of India company, seeks to install six 1000 MW (AP 1000) nuclear reactors with the joint support of the American company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, to implement the project. The letter has been forwarded by influential Vadodara-based environmental body, Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti leaders Rohit Prajapati and Trupti Shah.

No green clearance to Dholera SIR?: Gujarat govt says it doesn't have intimation of environmental nod

Proposed Dholera airport for the smart city Latest information provided by a top Gujarat government agency suggests that the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR), being planned on around 920 sq km area south of Ahmedabad at one of the 100 modern smart cities the Narendra Modi government wants to develop all over the country, may not have received the crucial green nod for its development. In reply to a right to information (RTI) plea to provide a letter of the copy of environmental clearance to the top state-sponsored project, the DSIR Authority, a special purpose vehicle formed to trigger the project, has said it is “not available and hence cannot be provide”.

Assocham says Gujarat investment declined 54.5% amid Vibrant claims of Rs 25 lakh crore worth proposals

An analysis put out by one of India’s top corporate bodies, the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), has revealed that Gujarat’s industrial investment proposals on year-on-year basis have declined by a whopping 54.5%. The analysis is considered significant, as it seeks to indirectly contrast what happened at the Vibrant Gujarat business summit, where a claim was made that the state had attracted a whopping Rs 25 lakh crore worth of investment proposals, highest ever.

World Bank arm should have addressed concerns of fisherfolk while funding Gujarat coal project: Ombudsman

  A top monitoring report on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Gujarat has said that the IFC should have properly studied livelihood and environmental concerns before forwarding $450 million loan to the 4,000 MW project. The report has been prepared by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), which directly reports to the World Bank Group president. The IFC has funded the prestigious Tatas’ Ultra Mega Power Plant (UMPP) in Kutch, at Mundra.

Koodankulam N-plant: "Discredited" Russian technology, "shoddy, substandard" equipment behind snag

NMANE-sponsored boat rally against  N-plant The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), a voluntary organization campaigning against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu, has blamed the “discredited Russian companies such as the Zio-Podolsk, InformTech and Ishorsky Zavody” for supplying “shoddy and substandard equipment and parts in a non-sequential manner”, which, it suggested, was the main reason behind a recent  snag  leading to tripping of one of the generators on January 14.

Gujarat fails to promote English five years after it launched programme to teach the language via satellite

  Latest data collected by the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), prepared by elite NGO Pratham, has suggested that Gujarat’s five-year efforts to push English among schools has miserably failed. Released on January 13, 2015, the top study has found that just about 9.8 per cent of the children in rural Gujarat, studying in class V, could read English sentences, which is the lowest scorecard compared to the rural areas of all other major Indian states, but Madhya Pradesh (9.6 per cent). The all-India average on this score is 24 per cent, and Kerala tops with a whopping 68.5 per cent.

Whither Gujarat girl child enrollment fete Kanya Kelavni? ASER data show state one of the worst performers

  In yet another evidence that the Gujarat government has miserably failed in making any impact in its massively-propagated Kanya Kelavni girl child enrollment drive, the latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) by the elite non-profit organization Pratham suggests suggests Gujarat does not just lag behind other states but has also failed to register an improvement. While in the age-group 7-10 Gujarat's 1.7 per cent of girls were found to be not attending school as against the all-India average of 2.2 per cent, things clearly turned to worse for higher age-group girls.

Should India follow this Gujarat model?

The Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) report, released by well-known non-profit organisation Pratham on January 13, 2015, has once again revealed extremely poor educational standards in rural Gujarat. Instead of showing any improvement, Pratham surveyors found them to be progressively declining, despite the annual Gunotsav festival for alleviating the poor quality of education. Gunotsav has been going on in Gujarat for the last five years.

Three dead in attack reported on Muslim-dominated South Gujarat village, likely to witness major industrial activity

  Reports from Bharach district of South Gujarat say, three persons were killed and a a dozen others others injured following clashes between two communities in and around Hansot village. While the police claimed the "the situation is now under control" with extra force having  been summoned, the clashes took place because of a scuffle between two groups over catching the kites in nearby Ambeta village during Makarsankranti celebrations on January 14.

Despite Kanya Kelavni, Gunotsav even Bimaru states perform better than Gujarat

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) report, released by well-known non-profit organisation Pratham on January 13, 2015, has once again revealed extremely poor educational standards of Gujarat. Instead of showing any improvement, Pratham surveyors found them to be progressively declining, despite the annual Gunotsav festival for improving the quality of education in the state, going on for the last several years. ASER further found that things are no better with regard to girl child education in rural Gujarat, sought to be promoted through the Kanya Kelavni enrollment drive every year. Based on an analysis of the data it collected across all the 26 districts (increased to 33 last year), the data suggest that, while Gujarat may be doing quite well in providing basic school infrastructure – water, sanitation, school buildings etc. – when it comes to infusing human resources in the schools, the state’s lag is quite evident vis-a-vis even poor states like Bihar, Chhattigarh and Jha...

Gujarat education model a flopshow: State's primary children one of the worst performers in India

  The latest Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014, brought out by high-profile NGO Pratham, should come as a shocker for India’s powerful policy makers, including Union education minister Smriti Irani, who had wished to “replicate” Gujarat’s so-called educational model in other states. The report suggests that rural Gujarat’s quality of education at the primary level is one of the worst in India. Gujarat’s just about 46.6 per cent of class 5 children could read standard 2 text, which, ASER found, is worse than as many as 14 out of 20 major states. Even so-called Bimaru states such as Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha and Rajasthan perform better than Gujarat on this score.

Senior Gandhian, two others detained in Gujarat as Modi began summit with tycoons at Mahatma Mandir

Indukumar Jani In shocking incident, three veteran civil rights activists – Gandhian and editor of the periodical “Naya Marg" Indukumar Jani, senior economist Rohit Shukla, and Gautam Thakar, general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) -- were detained for the whole day on January 11, when the high profile Vibrant Gujarat Investors' summit took off in Gujarat capital, Gandhinagar. The trio were mysteriously picked up from near the Passport Office, around the time when they had just begun to drive to Adalaj circle, on way to Gandhinagar, about 25 kilometres away.

Vibrant Gujarat "jamboree": Farmers detained as corporate honchos "offered red carpet"

  At a time when farmers across Gujarat were being detained for demanding a fair price for their produce, red carpet was being spread for national and international corporate honchos, the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) has said in a stongly worded statement condemning the arrest of farmers in Gujarat. Qualifying the Vibrant Gujarat business summit, which opened on Sunday in Gandhinagar, as “jamboree”, NAPM said, wondered if it "is a crime to raise the issue of farmers' suicides and low cotton prices".

Greenpeace campaigner barred from going abroad, her passport "offloaded" on orders from India govt

Priya Pillai campaigning in Delhi  Priya Pillai, senior campaigner with top international environmental body Greenpeace's India branch, was stopped at New Delhi airport this morning by the immigration office and denied to get onboard her flight to London. Pillai was stopped at immigration and her passport was stamped with ‘offloaded’. Calling it “yet another attempt to muzzle Greenpeace India”, the top NGO said, “This is a clear and blatant violation of her rights, especially because she has a valid business visa to visit London.”

Gujarat farmers' leaders arrested ahead of rally to mark high-profile business summit in Gandhinagar

One day ahead of the high-profile Vibrant Gujarat investors’ summit, the Gujarat government has cracked down on the farmers’ leaders attached a non-political organization, planning to stage a symbolic protest rally in the outskirts of Gandhinagar. Their main demands a sharp increase in the minimum support price for cotton. Cotton prices have become a major cause of contention between the Gujarat government and the farmers, who, according to these leaders, are being forced to sell their price which is Rs 500 less than the input cost per 20 kg.

Top Gandhian questions UN chief's forthcoming visit to Vibrant Gujarat "mela" for corporate honchos

Dr Sudarshan Iyengar Senior Gandhian thinker Sudarshan Iyengar has taken strong exception to United Nations (UN) secretary-general Ban Ki- moon’s decision to deliver keynote address at the Vibrant Gujarat world business meet on January 11 at Gandhinagar, saying, the topmost UN dignitary’s participation in the “mela” of business honchos does not augur well with the overall UN ideology. In an article he has penned for Gujarati journal “Nireekshak”, Dr Iyengar said, among the main directions the UN is supposed to take include sustainable development, guarding against manmade and natural disasters, working against violent conflicts and for peace, and defending human rights.

Maharashtra "strongly opposed" surplus water diversion to Gujarat: Par-Tapi-Narmada river interlinking project

Maharashtra chief minister The proposed Par-Tapi-Narmada river interlinking project, aimed at diverting “surplus” waters from parts of west flowing rivers like Par, Nar, Ambika and Auranga basins in Maharashtra, is all set to become a major cause of conflict between Gujarat and Maharashtra. Maharashtra has made it clear to Gujarat it does not have “any water to spare”. Quoting official documents, a senior researcher, Parineeta Dandekar, has said that Maharashtra has told Gujarat that waters from these west-flowing basins will need to be utilized by the drought-affected areas." This part of the plans divert "surplus waters" from different sources to  Girna sub-basin of the Tapi basin in Maharashtra, and also transferred into the drought-affected parts of upper Godavari basin in Aurangabad.

Canada launches child sex abuse project in Gujarat, says it will not tolerate shrinking space for civil society

Deepak Obhrai with Utthan's Nafisa Barot A top Canadian representative, in Gujarat to attend the high-profile Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas and the Vibrant Gujarat business summit (January 7-12), has said that the Canadian government will not sit quiet if the space for civil society in India shrinks. “In case this happens, we will not hesitate to tell about this to the government”, said Canadian MP Deepak Obhrai, a Government of India invitee for the two top events. Also Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and for International Human Rights, Canada, Obhrai added, “Human rights is a Canadian priority. We have pointed towards weak areas in India the spots at the UN Commission Human Rights.”

Gujarat farmers' suicide: Reasons include failure to offer mimimum support price for cotton, financial crisis

A fact-finding team, consisting of representatives of three Gujarat-based farmers’ organizations, has reached the conclusion, on the basis of a spot query, that farmers are in deep financial crisis, one reason why a new tendency are cropped up among them to commit suicide. A report prepared by Persis Ginwalla , Balendra Vaghela and Sagar Rabari of Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat, Saurashtra-Kutch Lok Hit Sangharsh Samiti and the Khedut Samaj Gujarat, respectively, said, as against Rs 800 offered to them as minimum support price (MSP) for per 20 kg of cotton, the minimum input cost comes to at least Rs 1,042.

Top rights activist objects to Gujarat PUCL organising celebration of Prophet Mohammad's birthday

Shabnam Hashmi There is no end to controversy surrounding well-known human rights organization, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat. If earlier it drew attention from top Gujarat activists for praising RSS mouthpiece in Gujarat, “Sadhana” for its “fearless” journalism (click  HERE  to read), now it has invited disapproval over a recent plea it made to NGOs, individuals and mediapersons to be present in a programme to "celebrate" Prophet Mohammad’s birthday on January 4 in Ahmedabad in the name of communal harmony.

Gujarat chief secretaryship: Doubts surface over Pandian's extension; Aloria front-runner

GR Aloria           DJ Pandian While it is still five months to go for incumbent chief secretary of Gujarat, D Jagatheesa Pandian, a 1981 batch IAS bureaucrat, to retire from services, doubts have strangely crept in among top Sachivalaya babus that the top state bureaucrat, known for his closeness to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, may not be allowed an extension. While officials say nothing can be said about this at this stage with complete finality, already, the name of Ganga Ram Aloria of his batch is being widely quoted as the front-runner as next chief secretary.

Narmada dam oustees "marginalised, pauperised"; gram sabhas "not consulted" before acquiring their land

A high level panel of the Government of India, set up to take a stock of the socio-economic status of the tribals in the country, has strongly taken exception to “pauperisation” of oustees affected by the Narmada dam. Pointing out that there was complete failure to provide oustees “alternative land and sustainable livelihood”, leading to their “pauperisation”, the panel, which submitted its report in mid-2014, talks of “examples of tardy implementation, unfulfilled promises and violation of laws and rules by the very machinery expected to protect the interest of marginalised displaced tribals.”

Plight of Gujarat saltpan women: Govt admits all-round failure; Kanya Kelavni drive for girl education flops

  The Gujarat government has acknowledged its complete failure in ameliorating the plight of the women involved in cultivating salt in hundreds of agariyas (saltpans) in the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. A still unreleased “research” study, running into 40-odd pages, the Gender Resource Centre, operating directly under the department of women and child, Gujarat government, has said that, despite existence of large number of government schemes, “there is no change in the economic, social and health related problems of the women working in agariyas.”

Return unutilized land acquired for "public purpose" to tribals: High Level panel to Government of India

Prof Virginius Xaxa The Government of India (GoI), in a Cabinet decision, may have moved to come up with an ordinance to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, in order to clear “hurdles” on way to land acquisition for industrial and infrastructural projects. However, a still unreleased report by the High Level Committee, set up under the chairmanship of Prof Virginius Xaxa, submitted to it in May 2014 had required the GoI to further strengthen the Act by giving the right to tribal communities to say ‘no’ to acquisition of their land and to access and manage forests.