Tribal body threatens economic blockage of Rourkela, housing one of the largest steel plants of India

By Our Representative
In a strongly worded letter to the President of India, a tribal organization operating off Rourkela, well-known township on the northern border of Odisha and popular for India’s one of India's largest steel plants, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), has threatened to trigger an indefinite economic blockade starting with January 20, 2015. Operating in Sundargarh district, in which Rourkela falls, the tribal body, Zilla Adivasi Mulbasi Bachao Manch, has said that the “blockade” would continue till the demand for cancellation of the Odisha government move to merge several tribal areas in the Rourkela Municipal Corporation is not cancelled.
The tribal body has argued that the state government decision has deprived the tribal and other forest dwellers of the rights of gram sabhas, pointing out Sundargarh being a scheduled area, the government needs consent of gram sabhas for any project in the area. Under the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA), gram sabhas self-govern their natural resources in scheduled areas, it insisted. A copy of the letter has also been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Insisting that he should use his position, as direct guardian of Sundargarh, the letter said, President’s rule should be “proclaimed in the scheduled district of Sundargarh in exercise the powers made under article 356 of the Constitution of India to protect the interest of scheduled tribe as well as scheduled areas.” The tribal body’s move comes at a time when Union tribal affairs minister Juan Aron declared in Bhubaneswar on January 11 that moves were afoot to “relax” the gram sabha’s consent in diversion of forest land for the developmental activities.
Saying that the agitation would continue till the cancellation of the “unconstitutional notification for Rourkela” dated November 14, 2014, the letter added, “In the name of national development large areas of lands were illegally alienated and lakhs of aboriginal people were displaced from their ancestral land and livelihood, without proper rehabilitation. Thereafter most of the aboriginal tribes’ lands were alienated and illegally given over to non-tribals.”
The letter reminds the president that Sundargarh was a princely state known as Gangpur and Bonai State, which merged with the Indian Union on January 1, 1948 and was declared as scheduled district in 1950. “Since then its administrative setup should be as per fifth schedule and administrative control through Union Commission vide Article 339 of the Constitution of India.”
Referring to the November 15, 2014 notification, the letter said, it was issued following call for objections and suggestions from the people of affected areas for the formation of larger urban areas in the district. Pointing out that a month’s time was given, the letter said, “The people of the affected areas of Sundargarh objected to it by writing and submitted memorandums, took our rallies and demonstrations against the move, as gram sabhas were not consulted.”
Even then, the letter said, the “larger urban area” for Rourkela was declared, adding, even after the notification “several peaceful demonstration were organized by the aggrieved people of Sundargarh, but no action or step has been initiated by the state government.” On December 20, 2014 “thousands of aggrieved affected aboriginal people peacefully demonstrated and gave memorandum addressing to the chief minister through the additional district magistrate, Rourkela, demanding clarity regarding formation of the Rourkela Municipal Corporation or cancellation of said notification on or before December 31, 2014.”
Asking the President to intervene in the matter and direct the state government to cancel the notification, the letter said, this alone would help establish “peace and good governance in the scheduled areas, as also in both rural and urban areas, in accordance with the provisions of the Fifth Schedule and Article 339 of the Constitution of India.”

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World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

"Misleading" satellite images being shared on Balakot surgical strike on Jaish camp

By Dr Vinay Kate*
With every passing day more questions are being raised about the surgical strike India did in Balakot as a response to Pulwama attacks. So far the Indian media has claimed mass casulaty of 300+ terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammad in this surgical strike, but there is hardly any report from foreign media about the same.

Extreme repression, corporate loot, cultural genocide "characterise" India's tribal belt

Counterview Desk
As Lok Sabha polls approach, there is considerable ferment in one section of the population -- India's Adivasis, forming about 8.6 per cent of India's population. Things became particularly critical following the February 14, 2019 Supreme Court order, allegedly seeking to evict lakhs of tribals from their forest lands.

Industry in India "barely growing", export growth 0%, whither moral anchors?

Counterview Desk
In a sharp critique of the Modi government, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), one of world renowned economist Prof Kaushik Basu, who is Professor of Economics and Carl Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, has told students at the IIM-A’s 54th Annual Convocation on March 16, 2019 that they have a “special responsibility” on their shoulders, “the responsibility to reject narrow sectarianism, uphold scientific thinking, openness to new ideas, and freedom of speech.”

Gujarat model? Industrial effluents "invade" borewells, discharge coloured water in farms

By Rajiv Shah
In a major embarrassment for Gujarat model, of the 21 samples taken by officials of the state government's environmental watchdog Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in two villages of Vadodara district and analyzed by its laboratory in Gandhinagar, the state capital, to find out pollution level in groundwater, 16 were assessed as highly contaminated – these were, in fact, found to be discharging reddish, brownish, reddish, or yellowish water.

Congress would win just 9 of 26 Lok Sabha seats: Gujarat Assembly segment-wise analysis

By Rajiv Shah
Even as the Congress plans its first working committee meet in Gujarat on February 28 after an almost 58 year gap, there is reason to wonder what is in store for India’s grand old party in a state which has been long been a BJP bastion – in fact ever since mid-1990s. Ahead of the then assembly polls in late 2012, talking with me, a senior Gujarat Congress leader, currently Rajya Sabha MP, frankly said he saw no reason why Congress would win.

Refugees as criminals? US govt report blames Amit Shah for calling Bangladeshis termites

Counterview Desk
The chapter “Freedom of Movement” of the US State Department’s “India 2018 Human Rights Report”, released recently, has criticized BJP chief Amit Shah for terming alleged Bangladeshis who may be in Assam as “termites”, because their names were struck down from the list of National Register of Citizens, under preparation in the state.
Pointing out that four million residents were excluded from Assam’s final draft list, leading to “uncertainty over the status of these individuals, many of whose families had lived in the state for several generations”, the report regrets, the Indian law does not even contain the term “refugee,” treating refugees like Rohingiyas as “any other foreigners.”
“Undocumented physical presence in the country is a criminal offense. Persons without documentation were vulnerable to forced returns and abuse”, the report says.
Text of the Freedom of Movement chapter: The law provides for freedom of internal movement, foreign travel, emigration, a…

"Pro-corporate" Supreme Court order on FRA would further marginalize Adivasis

By VS Roy David, JP Raju*
For millions of Adivasis and other traditional forest dwellers February 13, 2019 will go down in history as the day of apocalypse. This is like the proverbial Black Friday where millions of most marginalized people of India were ordered by malicious anti-people draconian Supreme Court order depriving them the life and livelihood by evicting them from their habitats.

Financial inclusion? Not micro-loans; India's poor "need" investment in health, education

By Moin Qazi*
India has grown into a global powerhouse. Its economy is soaring but the picture on the ground is still quite arid. The green shoots that you see are only a patch of its landscape. Most Indians are hapless victims of inequity. India is one country where intense poverty abounds in the shadow of immense wealth.

India, Pakistan told to eliminate nuclear weapons: N-war "would kill" 2 billion

Counterview Desk
The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a non-partisan federation of national medical organizations in 64 countries, representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health workers, and concerned citizens, claiming to share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation, has warned that “an unprecedented global catastrophe” awaits the globe against the backdrop of warmongering in India and Pakistan.

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