Counterview

Thakor Fatesinh Rathod By A Representative Two more workers, who were suffering from silicosis and were working in the agate industry, have died in Khambhat in Central Gujarat. A People's Training and Research Centre (PTRC), the Vadodara-based NGO which has been taking up silicosis workers' problems for the last several years, has said that who who have "succumbed to their disease in this week" are Thakor Fatesinh Rathod, who died on March 30, 2014, and Jivan Kalidas Baraiya, who died on March 23, 2014. With this, the total number of those who have died as a result of the deadly disease has reached six.

Percent factories operational By Rajiv Shah The latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) report, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, in March 2014, has revealed that out of a total of 22,220 factories in Gujarat, 17,529 are operational, suggesting that 21.11 per cent of the factories are either “closed” or are “not in operation”. This is higher than the all-India average of 19.33 per cent factories, “closed” or “not in operation”, but is lower than two major states out of 20 -- Haryana (21.42 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (37.95 per cent).

By A Representative In an order, the Gujarat government has declared that the tribals and Dalits, who become victims of atrocities perpetrated by a group consisting of tribals or Dalits, on one hand, and other communities, on the other, would also be compensated under the prevention of scheduled tribe and caste (ST/SC) atrocities Act. Issued ahead of the declaration of the Lok Sabha elections, on February 24, 2014, the order has come in the wake of incidents like Patan gang rape case, in which two of the five convicted for life -- Manish Parmar and Ashwin Parmar -- were Dalits. Non-Dalits convicts are Kiran Patel, Mahendra Prajapati and Suresh Patel.

By A Representative In a major boost to Gujarat, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India, has given environmental and coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) clearance for the development of all-weather port at Chhara village, Junagarh District, to its developers, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. While giving the clearance, provided a week before Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi made the controversial statement , accusing former Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan of charging what he called "Jayanthi tax" and derailing many a project, the MoEF agreed with the developers' view that the location of the site “is not an eco-sensitive area”, and the “nearest wetland is about three km away”.

Dholera farmers' meet By A Representative Ahead of the proposed agitation against the Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR) on March 29, the Gujarat police in the wee hours of March 26 arrested one of the senior farmer leaders of the area, Rajbha Chudasma. A statement issued by Jamin Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), which organized the agitation, called arrest as smacking of “political pressure to suppress a non-political movement”. To be implemented in the south of Ahmedabad in 22 villages encompassing 900 sq km, DSIR has been envisaged as a modern industrial township in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), but has invited farmers’ ire over Gujarat government decision to take away 50 per cent of the farmers’ land in the name of developing infrastructure.

Gulberg Society, March 2002 By A Representative Nearly 150 prominent citizens -- mainly activists, academics and professionals -- have expressed their “deep shock” at the rejection of the anticipatory bail application of top human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and four others in the so-called Gulberg embezzlement case by the city sessions court of Ahmedabad. The statement said, “From its beginning, the so-called embezzlement has been the concoction of elements instigated by the Government of Gujarat, including the Gujarat crime branch.” It culminated in January 2014, when an FIR was registered against the five for “defrauding the members of the Gulberg Society of funds meant for the building of the Gulberg Memorial commemorating the state-sponsored carnage.”

By Rajiv Shah  Gujarat government may be happy that Government of India reports have been saying that Gujarat has fewer unemployed than other states. However, latest reports, including the Academic Foundation’s “India Labour and Employment Report 2014” and the National Sample Survey Organisation’s “Employment and Unemployment Situation in India, 2011-12” report point towards the need to look at the problem of underemployment, which is higher in Gujarat than several Indian states. The Gujarat government has for long been claiming that its unemployment rate is one of the lowest. Quoting the Labour Bureau data, released by the Government of India, it said recently (click HERE to read) that Gujarat’s unemployment rate in the year 2011-12 “has the least unemployment rate among all states across the country”. Celebrating it as Gujarat government success, it officially declared, “According to the report, while India’s jobless rate stood at 3.8 per cent during the last fiscal, Gujarat sho...

By Rajiv Shah  Raising a controversy, two well-known economists, Prof Jadgish Bhagwati and Prof Arvind Panagariya, known for what have been called “neo-liberal” views, have sought to justify Gujarat riots, saying that they were not a “pogrom” and were not targeted against any particular religious group. Professors at the Columbia University, so far both of them have refrained any comment on Gujarat riots, even as praising Gujarat’s economic growth model, and how, in their view, Gujarat development has led to improvement in the social sector, especially health and education.

By A Representative  A fresh report on labour and employment situation in India, prepared by a high-profile organisation, believes that low labour force participation rate in India is largely because the female labour force’s participation rate is dismally low.  “India Labour and Employment Report 2014”, published by Academic Foundation, New Delhi, which created a ripple recently for coming up with a report in association with several other institutes of learning which said Gujarat is No 1 state in economic freedom index, has ranked the state as No 12th out of a total of 21 states it has chosen for analysis for working out an Employment Situation Index. The report finds that Himachal Pradesh is the best state in employment state, ranking it No 1, followed by Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, and Rajasthan. Despite relatively low ranking of Gujarat in Employment Situation Index (ESI), the report says, “Gener...

By Rajiv Shah  Facts have come to light suggesting that there is something extremely suspicious with the data in the new report prepared by the Government of India-appointed committee headed by Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU’s) Prof Amitabh Kundu on the condition of Muslims in India. The report is a follow-up of the famous Sachar Committee report of 2006, which had pointed towards negligence of the minorities, especially Muslims, in different social sectors, particularly education and health, and seeks to suggest that poverty in rural and urban Gujarat went down drastically between 2004-05 and 2011-12.