Counterview

By A Representative Replying to a right to information (RTI) plea, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has revealed it received 470 complaints up to in 2014 till June-end under the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection for Informants (PIDPI) order of the 2004 Government of India (GoI). The GoI’s PIDPI order was meant to encourage whistleblowers in government departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) to file complaints about corruption and mismanagement of public funds and facilitate investigation. The resolution was passed after two young professionals employed in PSUs were murdered because they tried to expose corruption.

By A Representative The Madhya Pradesh High Court has said that it may have to “proceed against” those state officials who have failed to comply by the Justice Jha Commission of Inquiry into large-scale corruption in the payment of cash in lieu of land acquired from thousands of Narmada dam oustees. It simultaneously dismissed the petition filed by the Gujarat government to not to allow the outees’ corruption case come in the way of raising the Narmada dam from 121.92 metres, where it is stationary today, to the full reservoir level (FRL) of 138.64 metres, saying it would not hear it, as the matter is pending with the Supreme Court.

By A Representative The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), taking serious view of safai kamdars of Dudhrej municipality of Surendranagar district of Gujarat being forced to work as manual scavengers, has sent notice to the district magistrate to explain why is the despicable practice, called by Mahatma Gandhi “national shame”, continues unabated in the township. It has sought report from the senior Gujarat official within four weeks. The NHRC response comes in the wake of top Dalit rights organization Navsarjan Trust’s complaint taking strong objection to continuation of the practice in the township. 

Adani with Modi By A Representative Following India’s sharp differences over the World Trade Organisation’s plea to sign an international trade deal, found reflected in US secretary of state John Kerry telling Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India’s stance has sent “wrong signal”, Modi has found a new friend – Australia. Aussie news portal http://www.southasiatimes.com.au/ has reported that Modi is will be on an official visit of Australia on November 15-16. He will be attending the G-20 summit, which is to take place in Brisbane. It adds, “Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Australia, after Rajiv Gandhi came here in 1986, i.e. 28 years ago”. Modi last visited Australia as Gujarat chief minister in December 2004 to campaign for the Vibrant Gujarat investment summit of January 2005.

Broken FETP pipeline polluting nearby areas By Rohit Prajapati* For the past fortnight, the pipeline of the Final Effluent Treatment Plant (FETP) of the Narmada Clean Tech Ltd (NCTL) of Ankleshwar is again leaking with its breakage at the Ankleshwar-Amboli road next to Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) camp. The consistent violation of the prescribed norms of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) by the FETP operated by NCTL since its inception is publicly well known. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) should clarify which law of the land sanctions the discharge of effluents that do not meet the prescribed norms of the GPCB. Alternatively, it would appear, by allowing the FETP to operate despite inability to perform within legal norms, the NCTL’s continued violation of the environment laws of the nation is being condoned. The violation of environmental laws is supported by the investigation results of CPCB from 2007 to 2014, and even of NCTL results from 2013 to...

Vasundhara Raje By A Representative Prominent Gandhians and civil society activists have taken strong exception to the Government of Rajasthan’s recent “forcible acquisition” of the land belonging to the Rajasthan Samagra Sewa Sangh (RSSS), a well-known Gandhian institution in Jaipur, terming it “atrocious” and “fraudulent”. Saying it signifies how the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government is involved in a major land scam, larger than Mumbai’s Adarsh scam, a statement issued in Delhi said, “This is, no doubt, an attempt to towards land grabbing. It is an assault on the Gandhian ideology, for which active cadres for which the BJP and the RSS, are known for”.

Aliyabet island: Proposed as entertainment zone By Rajiv Shah In a major relief to 101 families residing at Aliyabet village, situated in the vicinity of the industrially-hyperactive Dahej region of South Gujarat, the state High Court has stayed the state forest department’s 14-year-old order to evict them from their land, calling them “illegal encroachers.” Claiming to be using the land for cattle breeding, their only occupation, for the last 60 years, the villagers received a major relief following Justice CL Soni order granting “interim protection” to the affected persons, asking the authorities “not to evict petitioners from the land till the final disposal of the civil suit pending in the civil court, Bharuch.”

By A Representative Amid widespread objections from civil society activists across the world, including India, a World Bank board has cleared its policy draft to “modernize” policies seeking to “safeguard people and the environment in the investment projects Bank finances.” Taking strong objection to the clearance, the Bank Information Centre (BIC), an independent apex body of NGOs advocating with the World Bank, said, the board has cleared “a weak new set of rules to replace its existing environmental and social safeguard policies.” The policies, it adds, “Reverse a generation of gains by weakening protections from harm for the poor and the environment in Bank-funded projects.”

By A Representative Amnesty International, one of world’s prestigious human rights organizations, has asked the Dow Chemical Company to “stop dodging its responsibility towards the survivors of the Bhopal disaster” and take full responsibility for “the catastrophic 1984 gas leak which left thousands dead and many more with chronic and debilitating illnesses”. In a statement issue from its London headquarters, Amnesty said, “The time has come for Dow to appear in an Indian court and account for the failure of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Union Carbide, to respond to the criminal charges against it.”

By A Representative In a glaring instance of negligence of Gujarat’s rural areas, a local social worker from Surendranagar district of Gujarat has sought top state officials’ intervention regarding the entire approach road to village Dholi of Limdi taluka having been water-logged due to monsoon rains, with no way to drain it out for days together. In a letter he wrote to Limdi taluka mamlatdar, the revenue official responsible for the state of affairs, Natubhai Lakhabhai Parmar, also points towards how the school building of the village is unfit to study and the midday meal offered to children is of hopeless quality.