Indian Railways "bulldoze" makeshift shanties in Ahmedabad as Modi decides to visit to city on Gandhi Jayanti

By A Representative
The Indian railway authorities on Saturday “bulldozed” about 50 make-shift shanties near the Sabarmati Railway Overbidge. Vipul Pandya, a civil rights activist, says that this was done “because on October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Ahmedabad for the Gandhi Jayant.”
Pointing out that these make-shift shanties belong to adivasi workers, who migrate to Ahmedabad in search of jobs in construction sites from the eastern tribal belt, Pandya said, earlier, a warning was issued by Railway authorities, Ahmedabad, which had warned these workers to vacate the site by September 15.
The letter, forwarded to CounterView, said, the area “belongs to the Indian Railways and the shanties put up there are unauthorized, hence these should be vacated, otherwise these removed to clear the land.”
Meanwhile, commenting on the development, Gujarat's well-known child rights activist Sukhdev Patel says, "There has been a criticism over the way a girl was abused at the Rajpath Club swimming pool, in Ahmedabad, and rightly so."

"However", wonders Patel, "What about the future of the education of those children studying in municipal schools, whose shanties were razed to the ground? Will anyone think about them, too?"

Comments

Gujarat Sachivalaya blacklists, denies entry to woman social activist: Will NHRC probe?

By Kantilal Parmar* I have approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into a serious incident that took place at the Gujarat Secretariat in Gandhinagar on August 18, 2026. The matter concerns social activist and women’s rights leader Chandrikaben Solanki, who, according to the information available to me, was denied an entry pass to the Secretariat when she went there to meet Gujarat’s Social Justice and Empowerment Minister, Dr. Manishaben Vakil, to raise an issue concerning social justice.

Ample evidence of child labour in South Gujarat's cash rich sugarcane belt: Study

By Rajiv Shah A recent German government-funded study , undertaken jointly by the NGO Prayas Centre for Labour Research and Action and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, which mainly deals examines the working conditions of migrant workers in the cash-rich sugarcane zone of South Gujarat, has gone a long way to suggest large scale prevalence of child labour during the harvesting season.

Right to walk, right to livelihood: Clearing footpaths 'can't mean' clearing out the urban poor

By Aseem Mishra* India’s cities are locked in a quiet but intensifying struggle over one of their most contested public spaces: the footpath. For pedestrians, a footpath is basic infrastructure—a strip of ground that should allow people to move safely, independently and with dignity. For millions of informal workers, the same stretch of pavement is a workplace, a source of daily income and often the difference between survival and destitution.

Counterview

Search This Blog