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.”

The 'Dr' debate masks a larger crisis in allied-health education

By Dr P K Gupta* India’s allied-health professions have long operated in a fragmented landscape of universities, hospitals, State authorities and private institutions, each with its own nomenclature, curriculum and standards. The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 was meant to correct this by creating a unified national framework for education, professional regulation and institutional recognition. Few dispute the need for such oversight. The real question is whether standardisation is quietly becoming synonymous with longer courses, additional internships and new professional titles—changes that risk masking deeper gaps in clinical training, institutional capacity and affordability.

Arrival of USS Lincoln: A ‘leisure trip’ to Thailand or a neo-colonial move to commodify women?

By Benyasiri Eimviriyapong The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) for a ‘leisure trip’ in Thailand before returning to its campaign of destruction against the people of West Asia demands immediate interrogation and opposition. For us Thai people, and those in sites of American plunder across the globe, this a rattling of the US’ cold war colonial chains on its most loyal lap dog, while conducting a war of aggression in Iran and the ongoing genocide in Palestine. In allowing the USS Lincoln to dock, the Thai ruling elites are once again facilitating a system of imperial violence that extends far beyond Southeast Asian borders, a system which in our case, is predicated on sexual violence and femicide.

Pilgrimage or pollution? The waste crisis of Indian faith

By Raj Kumar Sinha* In today's times, there are certain issues that are constantly talked about and discussed, yet no visible impact seems to be made. Beyond water, soil, and pollution, one crisis that continues to be overlooked is waste. Like other life-threatening problems, waste too is gradually moving toward burying and obliterating us. After the Kanwar Yatra in Haridwar, approximately 8,000 tonnes of waste were left behind on the riverbanks, including bottles filled with urine.

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