Just 8.2% projects stalled due to land acquisition, 4.2% for environmental reasons: Union finance ministry

By Our Representative
A Union finance ministry reply to a right to information (RTI) plea has revealed that, as of February 2015, as many as 804 projects were stalled due to variety of reasons, but just about eight per cent of the projects (66) were stalled because of land acquisition problems. Based on the reply, Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative says, this suggests, "the argument that the slowdown in the economy is due to land acquisition projects is a myth."
The data, from 25 states and two union territories, suggest that Maharashtra tops the list with 125 stalled projects, followed by Gujarat (63 projects), West Bengal (55 projects), Karnataka (52 projects) and Telangana (52). The private sector projects account for 78 per cent of projects, outnumbering the public sector projects planned by the Central or state governments, or public sector enterprises or local municipal boards and autonomous authorities.
"Of the 66 projects stalled due to land acquisition issues, only 11 (1.36 per cent of 804 projects) directly relate to the well being of the disadvantaged or less affluent segments of society such as slum rehabilitation projects or construction of budget housing projects or a bus stand (which few affluent people use)", Nayak says in his analysis. forwarded to Counterview.
He comments, "So the proposal to amend the Land Acquisition Act to waive the requirement for taking consent of the village assembly in the areas where land is to be acquired for providing affordable housing for the poor will affect a minuscule number of projects." Therefore, he adds, the justification tom-tommed for the amendment becomes "untenable."
On the other hand, 145 of the stalled projects (18 per cent) are for the "affluent and the rich as they are projects involving the construction of shopping malls or elite hotels and resorts (4 and 5 star), multiplexes, elite residences and villas, golf courses and a racing track", says Nayak, adding, "Another 25 stalled projects are about setting up townships", yet "nothing in the list provided by Finance Ministry indicates which segment of society they are intended to benefit."
Further, Nayak says, "Lack of environmental clearances account for a mere 4.2 per cent of the stalled projects, whereas lack of clearance from the state governments amount to 11.8 per cent of the total." He comments, "It looks like the regulatory regimes have contributed to only 16 per cent of the stalled projects. So the license inspector raj also does not appear to be a major contributor to the stalling of the 804 projects, if the latest data are accurate."
"The largest proportion of projects that have stalled (38.8 per cent) are due to unfavourable market conditions or lack of funds or promoter interest or raw material or fuel supply problems", Nayak says, adding, "Several of these projects are owned or promoted by some of the biggest industrial houses in India and a handful of foreign ownership."
Then there are projects listed as "Others" as the reason for the stalling of 19 per cent of the projects (153). "Reasons for stalling are simply not available for 15 per cent of the projects (121). Taken together the projects for which reasons for stalling are either unspecified or simply not available amount to more than a third of the total number of projects (34 per cent).
While projects like those related with power generation, airport construction or expansion, road and railway expansion, pharmaceutical, textile, software and SEZ projects, mining projects for coal and uranium, are part of the stalled projects list, there is no answer to "What is the total value of all 804 projects?" In fact, the RTI reply refuses to divulge the detail despite the fact that a recent Finance Department meet revealed that 300 projects valuing Rs 18.13 lakh crore had remained stalled.

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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.

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…

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.

"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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