Institute special task force to investigate rising Dalit atrocities: Uttarakhand CM told

Trivendra Rawat

By Our Representative
Several senior activists under the banner of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) in an open letter to Trivendra Rawat, chief minister, Uttarakhand, and Vijay Bardhwal, president, State Women's Commission, have regretted that incidents of rape of Dalits girls is constantly on the rise in the state.
Referring to the May 30 incident, in which 24-year-old Vipin Panwar raped a mine-year-old minor Dalit girl his village in Nainbagh Tehsil, Jaunpur, Tehri Garhwal, the letter said, efforts by the family to get justice failed, but things came to light only after the girl's mother reached Dehradun with her unconscious daughter for treatment.
Pointing out that the accused is absconding, NAPM said, four years ago, a young woman of the Dalit family was gangraped by young men of the village. She was later murdered. The matter was suppressed under the pretext that it would bring bad name to the village.
NAPM said, the incident took place in the village where a Dalit, Jitendra Das, was murdered because he dared sit on chair to take his meal. While the incident took place last month, so far no steps have been taken against the culprits.
Pointing out that these incidents suggest police inaction, NAPM has demanded formation of a special task force on Dalit atrocities in the region, arrest of the accused and registration of case under the anti-atrocities and sexual harassment laws, time-bound legal proceedings, and adequate compensation to the victims.
Those who have signed the letter include Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Dr Binayak Sen, Prafulla Samantara, Lingraj Azad, and others.

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Mystery around Gujarat PSU 'transfer' of Rs 250 crore to Canadian firm Karnalyte

By AK Luke, IAS (Retd)*
While returning from a Board meeting of the Oil India Limited (OIL) in Ahmedabad some time in 2012, two officers of the Gujarat State Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFC), Nanavaty and Patel, saw me off at the airport. They said they were proceeding to Canada in connection with a project GSFC had entered into with a company there. As we were running late, I hastily wished them the best.

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By Our Representative
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By Rajendran Narayanan*, Sandeep Pandey**
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Counterview Desk
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By Bharat Patel*
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Counterview Desk
Shireen Jejeebhoy, director at Aksha Centre for Equity and Wellbeing, previously senior associate at the Population Council, India, argues that the debate on the country's population was fuelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address to the nation, where he drew attention to “concern” about the challenges posed by this ‘exploding’ population growth, needs to centre around the promotion of rights and education, instead of the language of explosion and the threat of coercion that this term implies.

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By Rajiv Shah
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By Rajiv Shah
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Counterview Desk
In a signed statement, office bearers of the Aligarh Society of History and Archaeology (ASHA), Prof Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi (president), Prof Jabir Raza (vice-president), Prof Manvendra Kumar Pundhir (secretary) and Prof Farhat Hasan (joint secretary), have said that Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan had sought to insult veteran historian Prof Irfan Habib, 88, at the 80th session of the Indian History Congress, even as turning it into his “political arena”.

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