By Our Representative The National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM), which is the apex body of more than a dozen mass organisations operating in different parts of India, has said that the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011, passed in the Lok Sabha, seeks to provide legitimacy to land acquisition for 'private profit' in the name of public purpose. By introducing the Bill, “the UPA is hiding behind the poor and this brazen push for the land acquisition for the private companies will threaten food security and livelihood of millions”, NAPM has said in a statement.

By Our Representative In a sharply worded letter, a group of Vadodara-based NGOs has asked state urban development secretary GR Aloriya, Vadodara district collector Vinod Rao and Vadodara police commissioner Satish Sharma, to take “immediate steps” against the builders responsible for constructing the collapsed buildings at Ataladara, leading to 11 deaths, as also officials who granted permission for its construction. “Immediate step must be taken to file an FIR instead of wasting time on inquiry commission set up on the collapse”, the NGOs have said.

By Our Representative In a representation, the Gujarat Social Watch, a network of civil society organizations and citizens to monitor the institutions of governance, has asked the Gujarat governor to urgently take steps to ensure that the number of days for which the state assembly meets in Gujarat should not be just for the sake of formality. Providing a table which demonstrates a decline in working days of the state assembly, the representation said, as a result of the refusal to discuss vital issues, “The table itself suggests that democracy in the state is being adversely affected.”

Navsarjan's Dalit campaign in Ahmedabad  By Our Representative Top Gujarat human rights organization, Navsarjan Trust, has protested against the Gujarat government’s failure to pay compensation to the nearest kin of Premjibhai Palabhai Dafda, a Dalit farmer of Bhachau in Kutch district, aged 46, who was murdered in broad daylight on August 11. Senior activist Kantibhai Parmar, who rushed to Bhachau on hearing the gruesome murder, told www.counterview.net that under the prevention of the atrocities Act, Dafda’s family should have been paid 75 per cent of the compensation they are entitled to – which is Rs 5 lakh in case of the murder is of an earning family member.

Mundra Port and Special Economic zone (MPSEZ) and Industries Affected Citizens Rehabilitation Action Committee, and Kheti Vikas Trust, in their written representation to the environmental public hearing on the proposed ship-breaking yard, held on July 30, 2013 in Mundra insisted that the project should not be granted environmental clearance, as the group which is promoting has been a habitual violator of environment in the area. If a ship-breaking yard is built within the complex of the MPSEZ, the whole area will be ruined completely. Even before the project was proposed, the written representations argue, employment opportunity of the people of the area was snatched away by the MPSEZ. Excerpts: *** Representation by MPSEZ & Industries Affected Citizens Rehabilitation Action Committee: Destruction of mangroves: Mundra taluka was rich in its unique environment and biodiversity. Fishermen, farmers and cattle herders would run their business and occupation here. But the Adani company ...

Lalji Desai By Our Representative In a late night development, two Jamin Adhikar Andolan -- Gujarat (JAAG) leaders, who have launched an agitation against the special investment region (SIR) to be put up on the Mandal-Bhechraji area, were arrested on August 17 allegedly for violating prohibitory orders by holding a rally on the Independence Day to say that their victory was "limited" and the agitation would continue. The agitation made it clear that the farmers' protest against Maruti-Suzuki project would continue, as all of the JAAG demands were not met.

By Anupama Vijayakumar* In a recent mapping of issues in coastal areas, the Centre for Social Justice has found that in four districts in South Gujarat and four districts in Saurashtra the communities living in coastal areas in Gujarat remain largely neglected, making them highly vulnerable. The main issues that these communities are faced with include, developmental issues, pollution, lack of basic amenities and governmental neglect on a larger level. Even though schemes are in place under the Sagar Khedu Yojana, the benefits that they derive from them are almost nil. The vulnerable communities living in coastal areas include, fishermen, saltpan workers, farmers and tribals.

Remove Maruti-Suzuki, demands JAAG By Our Representative Lalji Desai and Sagar Rabari of the Jameen Adhikar Aandolan – Gujarat (JAAG) have in a statement said that Gujarat government announcement of removal of 36 villages from the Mandal-Bhechraji special investment region (SIR) is an "incomplete victory" for the farmers agitating against the SIR for the last four months. In a press conference, state finance minister Nitin Patel declared that the state government had decided to remove 36 villages from the SIR, but would retain eight villages.

By Venkatesh Nayak * A preliminary analysis of the RTI amendment Bill tabled in Parliament on Monday suggests several things. At first glance the amendment Bill only seeks to exclude political parties from the purview of the RTI Act and will have retrospective effect if enacted in this form. So it effectively nullifies the CIC's order of June 2013 declaring six political parties as public authorities. Clearly, the amendment Bill violates the right to equality and equal treatment to all persons guaranteed by the Constitution under Article 14.

By Ashok Shrimali* The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 (FRA 2006 in short) was passed by the Indian Parliament in December 2006. This is the first time in the history of the post independent India that a Government (the UPA Government) brought in a forest related legislation to recognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such forests for generations but whose rights were not recorded.

By Our Representative In a letter to the Gujarat chief minister, representatives of 1,400 "displaced employees" of Sai InfoSystem (India) Ltd (SIS), which was a Vibrant Gujarat 2013 sponsor, have sought the CM's intervention in Gujarat's largest IT company's move to ease out more than 400 employees and their respective families in Gujarat, alongside 1,000 plus employees and their families across the country. "This ill-fated organization was incidentally the diamond sponsors of Vibrant Gujarat Summit held in the month of February 2013", the letter reminds the CM.

By Kanchi Kohli* The battlelines have been drawn like never before. While the Odisha state government and Posco India Ltd have made categorical statements that they have acquired 2,700 acres for an eight million tonnes steel project, the agitations in Gobindpur and Dhinkia continue. Each day there are incidents of a tussle when efforts are made to forcibly cut betel vines and dig trenches to construct a boundary wall for the Posco project. There are emphatic statements that land acquisition has been completed, all permissions are in place and construction work will begin soon.

By Lokesh Malti Prakash* The people of Chutka and adjoining villages in Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh won victory against the Chutka (Madhya Pradesh) Nuclear Power Plant, being imposed on them by Congress-led Central government in active collusion with BJP-led state government. The government was forced for the second time to postpone its public-hearing on the project that was scheduled on July 31. After a sustained protest by people of the region that was actively supported by almost every section of left-democratic forces in the state and beyond, the district administration called off the public-hearing on July 29.

By Our Representative In a sharp about-turn, the United Nations Children's Fund, or Unicef, has changed its Gujarat profile of Gujarat following a www.counterview.net report, which had highlighted how the top UN body had criticised the state's social sector indicators, providing detailed figures on health, education and malnutrition (click HERE to read the report). The new profile on Gujarat , which it has put on the web, does underline that Gujarat has "miles to cover in ensuring that the economic growth trasnlates into improved human development", but removes all the negative figures which had shown Gujarat social sector in poor light.