Setback to Gujarat? Supreme Court forms committee to examine Narmada dam oustees' land allocation

By Our Representative
In a move that is likely to impact on the future course of the prestigious Narmada project in Gujarat, the Supreme Court has decided to form a high-level committee consisting of senior lawyers and experts under its guidance to ensure allocation of land to the dam oustees in Madhya Pradesh.
To come up with recommendations on how to allocate land to about 1,589 oustee families, who have been identified by the Justice Jha Commission as having been fleeced by a nexus of government officials and agents, the committee is expected to “rise above individual interests” and come up with a “common list” of beneficiaries, who would be given 5 acres of land each.
Under what is called fake registry scam, the oustee families, majority of them tribals, are received first installment of cash to buy up land. The anti-dam Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) claims, the 1,500-odd oustees, identified by the Jha Commission, not been buy up any land because it is not available for the amount land they have been offered.
NBA has been insisting, instead of cash, the oustees should have been given land. The result is, these oustees’ rehabilitation has still not complete, despite claims to the contrary by the Madhya Pradehs government.
NBA says, the amount offered to each oustee family is half of Rs 5 lakh for five acres in first installment, which is “extremely small”, considering that the price of per acre fertile land acre in the state is Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore per acre.
After hearing the NBA plea, the Supreme Court, announcing the need for the committee, said, it would “look into the market value of land which the oustees would need to buy, and would see whether the oustees’ rehabilitation is complete”, a source said.
The decision to form the committee was declared on January 31, 2017, by the Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice Chandrachud and Justice Ramanna.
The decision to form the committee came following the intervention of the NBA, which is fighting for the oustees’ land rights. The NBA petition in the Supreme Court was represented in the court by senior advocate Sanjay Parikh and joined by Medha Patkar, the NBA leader, who appeared in the court “in person.”
The state government pleader argued that the project has to “move on”, even as claiming that rehabilitation of the oustees is almost complete. However, Parikh, representing the oustees, questioned the government, saying the rehabilitation of the project affected families (PAFs), who are entitled to land, is “not complete” and what actually has happened is a major scam.
While the dam’s work is complete, the Gujarat government cannot close its 31 radial gates to fill up the full reservoir level (FRL) o f138.64 metres, because of “failure” of the Madhya Pradesh government to complete the oustees’ rehabilitation process. Filling up the dam at FRL would lead to submergence of major areas in the upstream, adversely affecting the oustees.

Comments

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.

Counterview

Search This Blog