Gujarat's cultural capital sees sharp rise in "destruction" of water bodies, nature: Environmentalists complain

By Our Representative
Gujarat's well-known environmentalists and experts led by Rohit Prajapati have taken strong exception to sudden sharp rise in demolitions, tree felling and clearing of vegetation, dumping of debris, and discharge of sewage, dredging, digging, filling, levelling, construction, etc. along the Vishwamitri river in the state's cultural capital, Vadodara.
Calling these "blatant violation of environmental laws", they have said in a letter to state and Government of India officials, "preconstruction activity (like clearing of vegetation and making an access path for the widening of Kala Ghoda Bridge) have been taking place near and under Kala Ghoda Bridge inside Vishwamitri river".
Then, they says, "Dumping and levelling activities are going between Kala Ghoda bridge and Yavteshwar Mahadev Temple". Thus, there was "illegal dumping activities of debris at Kala Ghoda bridge near Yavteshwar Mahadev Temple on December 24, 2017 at around 10.20 am", they add.

There was also "discharge of illegal untreated sewage discharge near and besides Bhimnath Bridge", removal of "vegetation on both banks of the Bahucharaji Nala and other works and activities such as levelling and filling of the Nala and its environs", and "dumping of debris along the river bank on both sides of the Bhimnath Bridge and Fast Track Court", they say.

In their letter, addressed to environment and forests and urban development officials, they further say that by carrying on these activities, Vadodara authorities are violating the order of the Gujarat High Court Judgement dated August 2, 2002, as also the May 25, 2016 order National Green Tribunal (NGT).
At the same time, the letter draws the attention of the authorities about what it calls, "non-compliance" by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) of the order in August 2016 passed by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), Gujarat, following the withdrawal application for the Vadodara River Development Project before the NGT.

Asking authorities to "immediately stop" all activities, including "demolition, tree felling and clearing of vegetation, dumping of debris, discharge of sewage, etc... around the Vishwamitri River and its environs", the letter says, the NGT restrained VMC from "proceeding further with any construction or development activity within the area of Vishwamitri Riverfront Development Project" (VRDP)."
Following this, based on the order dated the SEIAA secretary, on August 8, 2016, the VMC told the NGT that it "would maintain status quo and would not carry out any further construction and development enabling activities within the area of VRDP... until and unless prior Environmental Clearance is obtained.”
At the same time, the letter says, VMC activities are in "violation of the High Court order of Gujarat", dated August 2, 2002, which stated that care should be "taken that water bodies are not converted to any other use in the town planning schemes/development plans", adding, the local authorities should "ensure that no debris of buildings is dumped by any person or institution in the existing water bodies”.

Apart from Prajapati, those who have signed the letter include Prof. SR Raval, landscape architect and ecological planner; Neha Sarwate, environmental and urban planner; Dr Ranjitsinh Devkar, zoologist; Dr Deepa Gavali, wetland ecologist; Dr Jitendra Gavali, botanist; Shakti Bhatt, water resources expert; Dr Arjun Singh Mehta, biotechnologist; Dr Jayendra Lakhmapurkar, hydrogeologist; Hitarth Pandya, educationist and writer; and Rutvik Tank, civil engineer and urban planner.

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Girl child education: 20 major states 'score' better than Gujarat, says GoI report

By Rajiv Shah
A Government of India report, released last month, has suggested that “model” Gujarat has failed to make any progress vis-à-vis other states in ensuring that girls continue to remain enrolled after they leave primary schools. The report finds that, in the age group 14-17, Gujarat’s 71% girls are enrolled at the secondary and higher secondary level, which is worse than 20 out of 22 major states for which data have been made available.

Savarkar in Ahmedabad "declared support" to two-nation theory in 1937, followed by Jinnah three years later

By Our Representative
One of the top freedom fighters whom BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi revere the most, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was also a great supporter of the two nation theory for India, one for Hindus another for Muslims, claims a new expose on the man who is also known to be the original proponent of the concept of Hindutva.

Congress 'promises' cancellation of Adani power project: Jharkhand elections

Counterview Desk
Pointing out that people's issues take a backseat in Jharkhand's 2019 assembly elections, the state's civil rights organization, the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha, a coalition of activists and people’s organisations, has said that political parties have largely ignored in their electoral manifestos the need to implement the fifth schedule of the Constitution in a predominantly tribal district.

Hindutva founders 'borrowed' Nazi, fascist idea of one flag, one leader, one ideology

By Shamsul Islam*
With the unleashing of the reign of terror by the RSS/BJP rulers against working-class, peasant organizations, women organizations, student movements, intellectuals, writers, poets and progressive social/political activists, India also witnessed a series of resistance programmes organized by the pro-people cultural organizations in different parts of the country. My address in some of these programmes is reproduced here...
*** Before sharing my views on the tasks of artists-writers-intellectuals in the times of fascism, let me briefly define fascism and how it is different from totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is political concept, a dictatorship of an individual, family or group which prohibits opposition in any form, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. It is also described as authoritarianism.
Whereas fascism, while retaining all these repressive characteristics, also believes in god-ordained superiority of race, cultur…

Ex-World Bank chief economist doubts spurt in India's ease of doing business rank

By Rajiv Shah
This is in continuation of my previous blog where I had quoted from a commentary which top economist Prof Kaushik Basu had written in the New York Times (NYT) a little less than a month ago, on November 6, to be exact. He recalled this article through a tweet on November 29, soon after it was made known that India's growth rate had slumped (officially!) to 4.5%.

With RSS around, does India need foreign enemy to undo its democratic-secular fabric?

By Shamsul Islam*
Many well-meaning liberal and secular political analysts are highly perturbed by sectarian policy decisions of RSS/BJP rulers led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially after starting his second inning. They are vocal in red-flagging lynching incidents, policies of the Modi government on Kashmir, the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the demand for 'Bharat Ratna' to Savarkar who submitted 6-7 mercy petitions to the British masters (getting remission of 40 years out of 50 years' sentence), and the murder of constitutional norms in Goa, Karnataka and now in Maharashtra.

Post-Balakot, danger that events might spiral out of control is 'greater, not less'

By Tapan Bose*
The fear of war in South Asia is increasing. Tensions are escalating between India and Pakistan after the Indian defence minister's announcement in August this year that India may revoke its current commitment to only use nuclear weapons in retaliation for a nuclear attack, known as ‘no first use’. According to some experts who are watching the situation the risk of a conflict between the two countries has never been greater since they both tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

Ships recycling Bill 'allows' India to be turned into a landfill for foreign hazardous waste

Counterview Desk
In a letter to M Venkaiah Naidu, chairman, Rajya Sabha, senior activist Gopal Krishna of the Toxics Watch Alliance has said that the Recycling of Ships Bill, 2019 should be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change to "safeguard country’s maritime environment from harmful and hazardous wastes and materials".

Worrying signs in BJP: Modi, Shah begin 'cold-shouldering' Gujarat CM, party chief

By RK Misra*
The political developments in neighbouring Maharashtra where a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government assumed office has had a trickle down effect in Gujarat with both the ruling BJP and the Congress opposition going into revamp mode.

'Favouring' tribals and ignoring Adivasis? Behind coercion of India's aborigines

By Mohan Guruswamy*
Tribal people account for 8.2% of India’s population. They are spread over all of India’s States and Union Territories. Even so they can be broadly classified into three groupings. The first grouping consists of populations who predate the Indo-Aryan migrations. These are termed by many anthropologists as the Austro-Asiatic-speaking Australoid people.

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