Counterview

By A Representative Three of the 71 manual scavenger women from Wadhwan township of Surendranagar district in Gujarat, sitting on dharna outside the collector's office for the last one week to protest against refusal of the Wadhwan municipal authorities to ensure payment of minimum wages, were rushed to the hospital after they fell ill. A statement by the Mahila Adhikar Panch, which is leading the protest, said that this happened because "they were on indefinite protest fast". The women, who protested outside the district collector's office also, have already sent a letter to Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel, which said that they were paid Rs 150 per day despite working for eight hours, which id Rs 82 less than the minimum wages. The photographs show women shouting slogans a little after three of them were taken on treatment in Surendranagar Civil Hospital, where they were rushed in an emergency van. For earlier story, click HERE .

Vodafone's Marten Pieters By A Representative In a commentary, "Modi allure dims for multinationals awaiting ‘big bang’ in India", the world's one of most influential business papers, the Financial Times (FT), has warned Narendra Modi that "honeymoon is nearing its end for the growing ranks of investors disappointed by the dearth of radical economic reforms." Authored by Victor Mallet and James Crabtree, in a strong critique of Modi's economic policies, FT has said , the Indian Prime Minister's "first four months in office" suggest that he is "squandering his strong mandate".

Narmada oustees By A  Representative In move without precedence, the Gujarat government has begun to evict Narmada dam oustees, settled in resettlement colonies in the state. One such oustee, Bijalbhai, originally from village Shurpan of Dediapada taluka in Bharuch district, was resettled about 15 years ago at a resettlement site called Dabhoinada in district Vadodara. On September 2, officials of Dabhoi municipality told him to vacate from his plot, survey No 1,434 area, an agricultural land measuring 1.37 acres, allocated to him as part of resettlement entitlement.

By Rajiv Shah  There is flutter among top human rights activists of Gujarat. A new book by the Gujarat chapter of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), India’s premier rights body, has not only undermined the role of Gujarat’s senior human rights activists, it has failed to recall some of the basic human rights issues nagging the state. Brought out in Gujarati, and titled “Four Decades of Human Rights in Gujarat and Civil Liberties Movement (1974-2014)", it carries, for instance, just two passing references to top human rights activist Teesta Setalvad, currently the target of powerful state establishment for fighting 2002 Gujarat riots cases.

By A Representative Following successes achieved by the protesting manual scavengers of Dudhrej municipality of Surendranagar district in Gujarat, women workers of another neighbouring town, Wadhwan, have gone on strike against the despicable practice. Sitting on dharna in front of the Surendranagar district collector’s office with placards such as “manual scavenging continues in Modi’s Gujarat” and “real face of Vibrant Gujarat” in their hand, the women workers, employed through contractor, have demanded that they should be paid minimum wages and provided protective equipment for their work. Earlier, they took out a protest rally.

By A Representative Senior Narendra Modi minister Narendra Singh Tomar has told the G-20 labour ministers’ conference in Melbourne that the Government of India is all set to amend the “labour laws in order to encourage investment, ease of doing business and entrepreneurship”. Suggesting that hire and fire would be the touchstone of the new amendment, the Union labour minister however did not utter a single word on going for social safety net, as it exists in western countries, in case a worker is hired from the workplace.

By A Representative Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar has strongly objected to the Gujarat government move to provide whopping 30 lakh litres per day of Narmada water to the proposed Coca Cola plant to come up in Sanand region in Ahmedabad district. In a statement, Patkar has said, the Rs 500 crore Coca Cola plant in Sanand, being set up in an area next to the Tatas’ Nano plant, will be provided with Narmada water over and above 90 lakh litres per day of water which has already been “committed” to be provided to industrialists in Sanand, an upcoming industrial area.

By A Representative South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), a premier Indian non-profit organization focused on the impact of dams and river water projects on people, has asked a pointed question to the Government of India as to why the body controlled by it, Central Water Commission (CWC), does not have any flood forecasting mechanism for Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), which suffered from one of the worst-ever floods. In a recent article it has posted on its site , it has said, “Shockingly, India’s premier water resources body, CWC, responsible for flood forecasting and providing advisory to the states for tackling floods, has no flood forecast for any place in J&K.”

By Rajiv Shah  There is an increasing view among civil society groups that the established media is “not responsive” to the needs and aspirations of civil society -- especially on such tangled social issues like the annihilation of caste. I would like to be audacious: I think the complaint is totally misplaced. Working with the Times of India for nearly two decades, and looking after Gandhinagar beat for 15 years, last as political editor, I knew the constraints under which one had to work.  There were some very specific “holy cows”, and this wasn’t just true of the Times of India, but of all media houses with presence in Gujarat: One can report whatever was true, but “business interests” of the paper should be taken care of. I always believed – it was wrong to complain: It was business interests alone that drove news. If business interests of the newspaper were hit, the news wouldn’t go through, you could be in trouble. I remember, once I got terribly disturbed when my paper ...

By A Representative After its decision to water down the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, passed in Parliament last year, the Government of India is said to be considering removal of the “consent” clause from the forest rights Act, 2006 as well. Popularly known as land acquisition Act 2013, which replaced more than a century old law wgucg allowed forcible land acquisition, two of its main provisions which the Centre seeks to remove from 2013 Act are social impact assessment and consent from 70 to 80 per cent of those sought to be displaced by a project.