Forced to sign blank paper, cops detain, "falsely implicate" video volunteer, others: Bhopal health workers' rally

Counterview Desk
Seeking urgent help from concerned citizens, Video Volunteers (VV), a well-known human rights NGO that promotes community media to enable citizen participation in marginalized and poor communities team, has said that one its workers and her friends, who had gone to a community health workers protest rally in Bhopal, were maltreated and falsely implicated by the police.
Pointing out that the "troubling case" is still unfolding, VV's programme manager, networking and advocacy, Amrita Sunita Anand has sought "legal advice and support" by contacting on info@videovolunteers.org.

Text of VV's appeal:

On October 2, 2018, more than 2500 ASHA and USHA (community health) workers from 17 districts reached the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister's doorstep in Bhopal to bring to his notice their long standing demand of their rights. The police detained hundreds of ASHA & USHA workers, drove them around Bhopal in police vans, and most were later dropped off at the railway station. However, not all have safely reached home. We have been in constant touch with Laxmi Kaurav, an ASHA Sahyogini, and a VV Community Correspondent.
Laxmi was dropped off at Hamidiya Hospital, Bhopal, by the police, to meet with Mamta Rajawat -- an ASHA worker injured during the protest. Mamta had climbed up a tower, for reasons yet not known, and in the chaotic rescue effort by, what seems like a plain-clothed policeman and uniformed women police personnel Mamta fell off the tower. See the video here:

Laxmi who came to check on her injured colleague (at Hamidiya Hospital) was unofficially detained in the hospital premise and was not allowed to leave for the next four days. She had to spent her nights sleeping in a chair in the hospital waiting room under strict vigilance of male police personnel stationed there in uniform and in plain clothes. There were also two women officers present. They identified themselves as representatives of the CID.
Braving these odds, she sent us audio and video recordings of how she was being treated. Click for videos HERE and HERE. The police did not give her any clear reason as to why she wasn't allowed to leave the premises. "I want the world to know how they treat hard-working and poor health workers who demand for their rights", says Laxmi.

Laxmi

At the police station they were all asked to sign on a blank paper by the police and threatened with violence if they didn't comply. After hours of arguing and standing up against this illegality Laxmi and her friends signed something that appears to be a bail-bond. No one is clear about the content of this paper because the women were not given a copy of it nor were they allowed to read it!
Laxmi later learnt that a case has been filed against her and five others.
Though the local media covered these incidents (click HERE and HERE), the coverage by national media is negligible. We are therefore writing this to inform you of this troubling case that is still unfolding and to appeal for your solidarity and help. Very urgently, we need legal advice and support. Do write to info@videovolunteers.org if you can help.

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132 Gujarat citizens, including IIM-A faculty, others declare solidarity with Kashmiris

Counterview Desk
A week after it was floated, 132 activists, academics, students, artists and other concerned citizens of Gujarat, backed by 118 living in different parts of India and the world, have signed a "solidarity letter" supporting the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), who, it claims, have been silenced and held captive in their own land. The signatories include faculty members and scholars of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A).

Amit Shah 'wrong': Lack of transparency characterized bank frauds, NPAs, jobs data

Counterview Desk
India's senior RTI activists Nikhil Dey, Anjali Bhardwaj, Venktesh Nayak, Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu, Dr. Shaikh Ghulam Rasool, Pankti Jog and Pradip Pradhan, who are attached with the National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI), have said that Union home minister Amit Shah's claim that the Government of India is committed to transparency stands in sharp contrast to its actual actions.

Untold story of Jammu: Business 'down', students fear lynching, teachers can't speak

By Rajiv Shah
A just-released report, seeking to debunk the view that people in Jammu, the second biggest city of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) after Srinagar, people had gone “out celebrating” abrogation of Article 370 which took away the state’s special status, has reported what it calls “abominably high levels of fear” across all sections in the town.

Success of 'political' Hinduism: Kashmiris being depicted as antagonists of rest of India

By Anand K Sahay*
There are times in history when facts call attention to themselves; they assert their independence in all its amplitude and are in no need of the crutch of interpretation. Such a moment is visible in Kashmir now. Merely by being on the table, the facts there taunt the regime’s proclamations.

Gujarat's incomplete canals: Narmada dam filled up, yet benefits 'won't reach' farmers

By Our Representative
Even as the Gujarat government is making all out efforts to fill up the Sardar Sarovar dam on Narmada river up to the full reservoir level (FRL), a senior farmer rights leader has said the huge reservoir, as of today, remains a “mirage for the farmers of Gujarat”.
In a statement, Sagar Rabari of the Khedut Ekta Manch (KEM), has said that though the dam’s reservoir is being filled up, the canal network remains complete. Quoting latest government figures, he says, meanwhile, the command area of the dam has been reduced from 18,45,000 hectares (ha) to 17,92,000 ha.
“According to the website of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd, which was last updated on Friday, while the main canal, of 458 km long, has been completed, 144 km of ranch canals out of the proposed length of 2731 km remain incomplete.
Then, as against the targeted 4,569 km distributaries, 4,347 km have been constructed, suggesting work for 222 km is still pending. And of the 15,670 km of minor canal…

Ceramic worker dies: 20,000 workers in Thangadh, Gujarat, 'risk' deadly silicosis

By Our Representative
Even as the country was busy preparing for the Janmashtami festival on Saturday, Hareshbhai, a 46-year-old ceramic worker from suffering from the fatal lung disease silicosis, passed away. He worked in a ceramic unit in Thangadh in Surendranagar district of Gujarat from 2000 to 2016.
Hareshbhai was diagnosed with the disease by the GCS Medical College, Naroda Road, Ahmedabad in 2014. He was found to be suffering from progressive massive fibrosis. He is left behind by his wife Rekha sister and two sons Deepak (18) and Umesh (12),
The death of Hareshbhai, says Jagdish Patel of the health rights group Peoples Training and Research Centre (PTRC), suggests that silicosis, an occupational disease, can be prevented but not cured, and the Factory Act has sufficient provisions to prevent this.
According to Patel, the pottery industry in the industrial town of Thangadh has evolved for a long time and locals as well as migrant workers are employed here. There are abou…

Kashmiris in a civil disobedience mode, are going against 'diktat' to open shops

Counterview Desk
A team of concerned citizens, including Ludhiana-based psychiatrist and writer Anirudh Kala, Mumbai-based activist and public health professional Brinelle Dsouza, Delhi-based journalist and writer Revati Laul, and social activist Shabnam Hashmi, travelled to Kashmir and Jammu to understand the impact of the abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent security clampdown and communication blockade on the lives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

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