Counterview

Annastacia Palazczuk By A Representative In major relief, the Adani Group, seeking to go in for one of the world’s biggest mining projects in Australia’s Queensland province, has reached an agreement with its new Labour government which has just taken over, allowing it to dump the dredge spoil on land on the site known as T2, adjacent to the existing coal terminal, and not on ecologically sensitive Caley Valley wetlands or within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

By A Representative A whopping Rs 10,000 crore is likely to remain unspent out of the total allocation for Rs 71,500 crore, set aside for annual plan by the Gujarat government for the year 2014-15. Annual plan consists of developmental expenditure for the social and economic upliftment of the population in such sectors like health and education. It differs from non-plan expenditure, which the government must spend for paying debts, interest on loans, salaries to government employees, and other such expenditure, which does not directly benefit people.

Vyara rally in support of Gamit By A Representative The Gujarat High Court’s Prevention of Anti-Social Activities (PASA) Board on Monday ordered the release of Jayram Gamit, a young tribal activist of South Gujarat’s Tapi and Chhotaudepur districts. Gamit was arrested under PASA Act on January 31, allegedly in order to preempt a tribal rally, which was planned in Chhotaudepur on February 2. The district was simultaneously declared “terrorist prone”. Section 144 orders were imposed and the rally was banned.

By A Representative A People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) fact-finding team has found that the communal clashes in and around Hansot taluka of Bharuch District in Gujarat, which led to the death of three innocent persons on January 14, 2015, the day of Uttarayan Festival, was “not a sporadic incident” but “a gradual build-up that started on December 9, 2014, which the local administration failed to anticipate.”

Counterview Desk A recent survey report, prepared by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, for the a high-profile NGO, Lokniti, has found that, given an employment opportunity, 61 per cent of India’s farmers would like to shift to cities, and 50 per cent of farmers said they are “ready to quit farming” if such a possibility arises.

Arvind Panagariya By A Representative Why should the controversial Land Acquisition Ordinance, seeking to replace the 2013 Act, be turned into a full-fledged Act? Explanation put forward by Arvind Panagariya, vice-chairman of the Niti Aayog -- set up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi replacing Planning Commission -- is: Because large majority of farmers, 90 per cent to be exact, allegedly do not having any special liking for farming as their occupation which could earn them income.

Kavita Krishnan By Our Representative In a fresh controversy surrounding Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, women activists have taken strong exception to his latest statement on the International Women’s Day (IWD), where he asked men to follow his wife and mother who had supported him during the Aam Admi Party (AAP) campaign in Delhi by continuing their household work. “During my fight against corruption, my wife ran the house while my mother supported me,” he had said.

By Gagan Sethi* I received a mail from Shabnam Virmani, about whom I have written earlier, introducing me to Sushma Iyanger, another young pass out from Cornell in development communications. Shabman told me in the mail that Sushma was frantically exploring to do work on issues of women and development. This is where our journey of the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), now a well-known women’s organization in Kutch, began. The year was 1989. Sushma, lean and thin, yet energetic, quietly walked into my office one afternoon, saying she was interested in exploring to work in remote rural areas of Gujarat. My first thought was: Was this yet another example of a person who has romanticized development work at the grassroots? Yet, I threw a challenge to her. I had a request from the Gujarat State Handicrafts Development Corporation (GSHDC) to look at women and development, as women were the largest beneficiaries of the drought relief scheme in Kutch, where different types of handicraft wo...

By Rajiv Shah    A fresh analysis of the Gender Budget Statement (GBS) for 2015-16 has revealed that the total allocation under it as proportion of the Union budget has been progressively going down, with 2015-16 being the lowest of the last five years.

By Joe Athialy* Is the internal churning within the Aaam Aadmi Party (AAP) inadvertently opening up an opportunity for a more egalitarian nationwide political process? The nearly two year process of AAP played a very important role in the recent history of Indian politics. It challenged and succeeded to a great extend both Congress and BJP in their own turf; from a dirty word, politics has become common people's concern and they were made to feel a part of it; it challenged the cynical perception that nothing can change in this country.