Want to write to Gujarat chief minister online? Govt site takes you to Anandiben Patel's personal, copyrighted site!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rhSzb9qtD8&app=desktop

gujaratindia.com, which takes one to CM's copyrighted site

By A Representative
In an interesting expose, an upcoming political activist in Ahmedabad has brought to light that Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel wants people to write to her online on any issues they may have not on a Gujarat government website but her personal website, anandibenpatel.com.
Anyone visiting the Gujarat government’s official state portal, http://gujaratindia.com/, and clicking on Chief Minister in the section “Important Functionaries” is taken to her complete profile page, which includes her contact details, her past and present activities, and her lifestyle.
However, as one clicks on “Write to Smt. Anandiben Patel”, one is immediately shifted away from the Gujarat government’s official site to the chief minister’s personal site, whose address is http://anandibenpatel.com/write-to-cm-smt-anandiben-patel/.
Curious though it may sound, the Gujarat government does not seem to “own” its chief minister, Anandiben Patel’s website, either: On the right hand side corner of the site prominently displays “© 2015 Smt Anandiben Patel. All Rights Reserved.”
This stands in sharp contrast to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal website, www.narendramodi.in, which does not carry any copyright tag. Modi’s website was created when Gujarat chief minister. It is not known if Patel is aware of the nuance involved.
It is noteworthy that the “copyrighted” website carries the official information about the official functions of the chief minister, and her activities under the banner of “Gateesheel Gujarat”, which she envisaged after Patel became Gujarat chief minister, and this includes the Gruh Yojna for the urban poor, the metro rail project, open defecation free Gujarat, implementation of revenue reforms, and so on.

http://anandibenpatel.com/write-to-cm-smt-anandiben-patel/

Want to write to chief minister? Visit her personal site

While it is not known if someone who seeks to use this copyrighted material will invite legal action, the activist, Roshan Shah, who is also a software engineer, in a written complaint to senior Gujarat government officials – both administrative and police – has questioned as to why “write to chief minister” data and information “is captured on a personal site.”
“Any citizen who is writing to the chief minister is writing to the chief minister under the pretext and assumption that the representation made and so the record is part of official government representation, but it is clearly evident that any representation done on this form is not going to be part of government record and it will have no relevance when Patel will not be the chief minister”, Shah says in his plea.
Shah further states, “Content on anandibenpatel.com site is state subject and it has featured events and programmes promoted by state government and much of the content is exclusively found on this site.” He wonders as to who owns this site, who is paying for it, and whether its control will be “retained by state government” once she is not the chief minister.
Shah also asks, as to who is “paying for content creation (text, videos, audio) etc.” of the site, and how much has been “paid till date to whom and by what means”, adding, “Who is in charge of uploading the content and how much had been paid till date to whom and by what means?”
He has also wished to know if there is a government resolution (GR) under which the copyrighted site of the chief minister exists. Displaying the contents of how gujaratindia.com takes one to the chief minister’s personal site, anandibenpatel.com on Youtube (October 15), Shah alleges, asking people to write to her on her personal site “violates citizens’ privacy and does breach of trust.”

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