Australian NGO: Adani mining site 'may turn' into COVID-19 breeding ground

By A Representative
In a surprise move, an Australian environmental group, Frontline Action on Coal, has claimed that Adani Mining Carmichael mine site, being operated by the powerful Indian industrial house known to close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is operating in “full swing" during a time Australian states are closing their borders because of the COVID-19 crisis, with many states advocating for only supermarkets and pharmacies to be open.”
“Employees of the mine who reach the mine site traveling long distances for work risk themselves and the local communities facing the COVID19 crisis”, the NGO, which is based in the Queensland state of the country, alleged in a fresh move to create an atmosphere against the Adani Group.
The Melbourne-based South Asia Times quoted the NGO as saying, “Members of the public stated that they found the decision of Adani Australia to continue their operations amidst a global pandemic to be risking the health and safety of employees as well as the local community”.

It quoted an NGO media release as stating, Adani Australia employees and contractors travel hundreds of kilometers from around the country to get to the Carmichael site. Adani’s decision to continue operations has the potential to put remote and vulnerable communities as well as fellow workers in Central QLD at risk, with the spreading of COVID-19 a likely outcome, it added.

Anti-Adani "demonstration" by Australian NGO

Quoting “concerned citizens, who witnessed these operations”, the media release said, they have found that Adani “was not following appropriate protocol”, adding, “Adani employees were coming within two metres of them on a public road, even after they asked them to keep their distance.”
Frontline Action on Coal spokesperson Amy Booth, supporting the need for “encourage” physical distancing, which includes not traveling, regretted, “For Adani to continue encouraging its employees and contractors to travel great distances, in a region where COVID-19 is not yet prevalent, is dangerous, unsafe and is far from the necessary physical distancing which health officials are urging people to do.”

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

When Sardar Patel opposed reservation, asked Scheduled Castes to give up their “inferiority” complex

Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel By Dr Hari Desai* It is ironical indeed. Though Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was opposed to any kind of reservation in the government jobs and education as well as in the legislatures (like Mahatma Gandhi), even today his name is being drawn in controversies in the present-day agitations demanding reservation in India.

India’s heatwave crisis: How concrete cities are fueling climate emergency

By Rajkumar Sinha* According to recent studies, urban areas are witnessing a much sharper rise in temperatures than rural regions. The planet is currently heading toward an additional 1.9°C of warming — far beyond the target envisioned under the Paris Agreement . A team of climate scientists associated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has noted that India’s average temperature increased by nearly 0.9°C during the decade between 2015 and 2024 compared to the early twentieth century (1901–1930). In western and northeastern India, the hottest day of the year has already become 1.5°C to 2°C warmer since the 1950s.

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