Sand mafia led by BJP corporator attacks Narmada Bachao Andolan activists in Badwani, cops refuse to act

By Our Representative
Stone pelting greeted activists associated with the well-known anti-dam civil rights organization, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), on the state highway from Badwani to Nisarpur, near Rajghat, Madhya Pradesh, when they tried stopping three tractors filled with sand, allegedly being smuggled from the river. The incident happened soon after two of the activists, Rohit and Raja, tried calling the Badwani police station to visit the spot.
Finding themselves caught in a difficult situation, one of the three tractors emptied the sand on the road, a second one ran away in the opposite direction, while the third one, chased by NBA activists, was given protection by around 30 to 40 persons of the sand mafia, said NBA eye-witnesses.
Soon, stone-pelting began, damaging the glass of the jeep in which the NBA activists had come. Rohit and Raja suffered minor injuries, but they saved their life by escaping in their jeep in the other direction. The tractor escaped. Local sources say, those involved in the incident were led by a BJP corporator from Badwani. The attackers included 30 people, mostly belonging to village Bhilkheda or Badwani town.
Alleged NBA activists, the police, even as registering an FIR with "mild" clauses, refused to act, even though they had submitted all photographs and videos of the incident to police officers, and also identified many of those involved in stone pelting.

Thereafter, activists visited the local mineral department on advise from the police. "There was a long discussion with mineral superintendent Sachin Verma. He said that all the rights of sand excavation have been given by the state government to the zilla panchayat, so they cannot take any action on any case of illegal sand mining", said an NBA communique.
It added, "This way the administration continued moving activists from one place to another, but refused to take any action. The police has registered case against illegal sand mining and attack on NBA workers under Sections 341, 294, 323, 506, 427 and 34, but has not imposed Section 307 (attempt to kill)."
According to NBA, "During the Narmada Seva Yatra, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan announced that illegal sand mining along Narmada would be totally prohibited, putting all the responsibility for this on the police administration, mineral department, Narmada Valley Development Authority, and politicians."
"Yet", it said, "The alliance of sand mafia, politicians and administration remains intact. The quantity of quarries and of sand mining has increased considerably. As police, mineral departmrnt and district panchayat are not working together against sand mafias, the Narmada Valley is being pushed to the brink of death."
Contending that sand mafia has the blessings of the rulers of Madhya Pradesh and their nominees, NBA said, "Despite the High Court and National Green Tribunal orders, illegal mining continues on the banks of Narmada, including in the submergence area, causing environmental damage. NBA has reported about this to the revenue and police department, yet things have not changed."

Comments

Uma said…

Police? Act? against those in power???????????? You may as well ask for the moon

June 14, 2018

Vaccine nationalism? Covaxin isn't safe either, perhaps it's worse: Experts

By Rajiv Shah I was a little awestruck: The news had already spread that Astrazeneca – whose Indian variant Covishield was delivered to nearly 80% of Indian vaccine recipients during the Covid-19 era – has been withdrawn by the manufacturers following the admission by its UK pharma giant that its Covid-19 vector-based vaccine in “rare” instances cause TTS, or “thrombocytopenia thrombosis syndrome”, which lead to the blood to clump and form clots. The vaccine reportedly led to at least 81 deaths in the UK.

'Scientifically flawed': 22 examples of the failure of vaccine passports

By Vratesh Srivastava* Vaccine passports were introduced in late 2021 in a number of places across the world, with the primary objective of curtailing community spread and inducing "vaccine hesitant" people to get vaccinated, ostensibly to ensure herd immunity. The case for vaccine passports was scientifically flawed and ethically questionable.

'Misleading' ads: Are our celebrities and public figures acting responsibly?

By Deepika* It is imperative for celebrities and public figures to act responsibly while endorsing a consumer product, the Supreme Court said as it recently clamped down on misleading advertisements.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah* The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.

Magnetic, stunning, Protima Bedi 'exposed' malice of sexual repression in society

By Harsh Thakor* Protima Bedi was born to a baniya businessman and a Bengali mother as Protima Gupta in Delhi in 1949. Her father was a small-time trader, who was thrown out of his family for marrying a dark Bengali women. The theme of her early life was to rebel against traditional bondage. It was extraordinary how Protima underwent a metamorphosis from a conventional convent-educated girl into a freak. On October 12th was her 75th birthday; earlier this year, on August 18th it was her 25th death anniversary.

Palm oil industry deceptively using geenwashing to market products

By Athena* Corporate hypocrisy is a masterclass in manipulation that mostly remains undetected by consumers and citizens. Companies often boast about their environmental and social responsibilities. Yet their actions betray these promises, creating a chasm between their public image and the grim on-the-ground reality. This duplicity and severely erodes public trust and undermines the strong foundations of our society.

'Fake encounter': 12 Adivasis killed being dubbed Maoists, says FACAM

Counterview Desk The civil rights network* Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization (FACAM), even as condemn what it has called "fake encounter" of 12 Adivasi villagers in Gangaloor, has taken strong exception to they being presented by the authorities as Maoists.

No compensation to family, reluctance to file FIR: Manual scavengers' death

By Arun Khote, Sanjeev Kumar* Recently, there have been four instances of horrifying deaths of sewer/septic tank workers in Uttar Pradesh. On 2 May, 2024, Shobran Yadav, 56, and his son Sushil Yadav, 28, died from suffocation while cleaning a sewer line in Lucknow’s Wazirganj area. In another incident on 3 May 2024, two workers Nooni Mandal, 36 and Kokan Mandal aka Tapan Mandal, 40 were killed while cleaning the septic tank in a house in Noida, Sector 26. The two workers were residents of Malda district of West Bengal and lived in the slum area of Noida Sector 9.

India 'not keen' on legally binding global treaty to reduce plastic production

By Rajiv Shah Even as offering lip-service to the United Nations Environment Agency (UNEA) for the need to curb plastic production, the Government of India appears reluctant in reducing the production of plastic. A senior participant at the UNEP’s fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4), which took place in Ottawa in April last week, told a plastics pollution seminar that India, along with China and Russia, did not want any legally binding agreement for curbing plastic pollution.

Mired in controversy, India's polio jab programme 'led to suffering, misery'

By Vratesh Srivastava* Following the 1988 World Health Assembly declaration to eradicate polio by the year 2000, to which India was a signatory, India ran intensive pulse polio immunization campaigns since 1995. After 19 years, in 2014, polio was declared officially eradicated in India. India was formally acknowledged by WHO as being free of polio.

Counterview

Search This Blog