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Showing posts from October, 2023

Gujarat epicentre of targeted violence against minorities, says compilation of 55 'attacks'

 Last year as many as 55 “attacks” on minority communities in Gujarat took place, a compilation of each of these incidents by a state civil rights group has said. Compiled by the Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), a report enumerating these incidents was released in Ahmedabad at a meeting of around 70 minority community leaders from different districts of Gujarat.

India No 1 in world coal mining boom, thanks to Coal India, Adani Group: German NGO

Urgewald, a German environment and human rights NGO, which claims to be working for establishing strong environmental and social standards for the international finance industry, has called India "the number one hotspot of the coal mining boom" in the world. It states this in a report "The 2023 Global Coal Exit List (GCEL): Failing the Phase-Out", prepared by Urgewald and more than 40 NGO partners, seeking to offer in-depth information on over 1,433 companies operating worldwide along the thermal coal value chain. Stating that India's coal production "already reached a historic high of 893 million tons last year", the report, released a few weeks after the UN’s Climate Ambition Summit in New York, quotes the goal set by India’s Ministry of Coal and Mines, according to which, the country’s annual coal production would rise to 1.5 billion tons by 2030. "To fulfill this plan, the government has auctioned off 92 new coal mining concessions since 2020;...

India's anti-terror law used to silence top activist: US religious freedom commissioner

At a Congressional briefing in Washington DC, while condemning the "wrongful incarceration" of well-known activist Umar Khalid, US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Commissioner Eric Ueland called Khalid a “staunch defender of religious minorities” who “peacefully protested… discriminatory legislation.”

Rice fortification: Why no health warning for thalassemia, sickle cell patients?, asks SC

In response to a Public Interest Litigation filed by citizens challenging the government's iron fortified rice program, the Supreme Court has directed the Union government to respond to concerns raised which focus on the government’s noncompliance with their own warnings that caution patients of Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Disease to not to consume iron or to use it only under strict medical supervision. Although citizens had written to several government departments as well as some state food commissioners, they received no response.

Sikkim floods: Teesta was dammed beyond limit 'ignoring' Himalayas' fragile ecosystem

Participating in a webinar on ‘Dams, Development and the Teesta Floods’, organised by the advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) in Delhi, experts and activists have asserted that the recent Sikkim floods were actually a “disaster foretold.”

Casteist? Gujarat official supported social boycott of Dalit fair price shop owner: RtFC

The civil rights group Right to Food Campaign (RtFC) has taken strong exception to the order given by the district collector of Patan, Gujarat, to transfer all the ration cards from the Dalit Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealer to another village based on the social boycott that has been continuing against a Dalit dealer by the Thakor Community (upper caste) in Kanosan village.