Gujarat High Court sets aside police decision to prohibit farmers' padyatra to protest Smart City in Dholera SIR

Dholera SIR farmers

By A Representative
In a setback to the Gujarat government, the Gujarat High Court has set aside the state police decision to bar farmers of the prestigious Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR) from taking out a six-day long padyatra or footmarch to oppose the proposal of smart city in the largely rural area. The foot march was to begin on Thursday.
Smart city in Dholera is one of the proposals floated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister. It is one of the most important projects envisaged by him.
Upcoming farmers' organization Khedut Samaj - Gujarat (KSG) leader Sagar Rabari said, the High Court has "directed" the farmers' organization to reschedule its programme, as pending High Court hearing, the padyatra could not start.
The foot march was to begin in Bavaliyari village of Dholera SIR with the participation of 100 persons and end on November 3 in front of the Ahmedabad district collector's office, where the farmers' leaders were to submit an application seeking beginning of hearing for regularizing farmers' landownership rights.
A large number of poor farmers of Dholera SIR, who were allocated land during the land reforms days in the 1960s, have still not become the rightful owners of the land they have been tilling for decades. Meanwhile, the Gujarat government declared about 28,503 hectares (ha) of land, mainly belongng to these farmers, as government-owned.
The poor farmers, meanwhile, are now being orally told that the lands they were tilling did not belong to them but had been transferred to the Dholera SIR Authority in order to implement the smart city project.
Ironically, the district collector, Ahmedabad, had promised to begin land kacheris (hearings) in each of the 22 villages of Dholera SIR at the Environmental Public Hearing (EPH), held on January 3, 2014, in order to regularize the landownership. The land kacheris have still not been held.
Rabari said, following the High Court order, the KSG, in consultation with the local farmers' organization, Bhal Bachao Samiti, would "meet soon and declare new dates."
Well-known High court advocate Anand Yagnik, who argued for the farmers, referring to several court judgements, and said that the state goverment or the police had "no right to prevent the farmers from expressing their grievances against the government's decision."
Yagnik wondered how could the Gujarat police allow half-a-million Patels to march in Ahmedabad on August 25, while it was denying permission to about 100 farmers taking out padyatra from one village to another.
The Gujarat police, while refusing permission, cited reasons like forthcoming Diwali festivals and dangers to law and order due to lack of police force.
Rabari said, the obstacle in starting padyatra had been "created by the Gujarat government" in order to "restrain the farmers of the state from voicing their grievances", which reflected its "anti-rural and anti-farmer mindset".
Calling the state government move "greatly disappointing" to the farmers of Dholera SIR, he added, "The people of the area are extremely angry with the deployment of a huge police force, police jeeps and trucks, and water cannons all over."
Terming this "the government’s strong resolve to crush the farmers", Rabari said, "They are more enraged and disillusioned by the government’s discrimination against them." While there is "over-enthusiasm to welcome the corporates", the government is "turning a deaf ear" to the farmers' issues.

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

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

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Sardar Patel was on Nathuram Godse's hit list: Noted Marathi writer Sadanand More

Sadanand More (right) By A Representative In a surprise revelation, well-known Gujarati journalist Hari Desai has claimed that Nathuram Godse did not just kill Mahatma Gandhi, but also intended to kill Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Citing a voluminous book authored by Sadanand More, “Lokmanya to Mahatma”, Volume II, translated from Marathi into English last year, Desai says, nowadays, there is a lot of talk about conspiracy to kill Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, but little is known about how the Sardar was also targeted.

Bihar’s land at ₹1 per acre for Adani sparks outrage, NAPM calls it crony capitalism

By A Representative The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) has strongly condemned the Bihar government’s decision to lease 1,050 acres of land in Pirpainti, Bhagalpur district, to Adani Power for a 2,400 MW coal-based thermal power project.

Counterview

Search This Blog