NHRC chairman KG Balakrishnan By Our Representative The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), taking cognisance of the social boycott of Dalits of Dagavadia village in Mehsana district of North Gujarat, has sought a complete action taken report (ATR) by the state authorities of the Gujarat government on what has been done to assuage feelings of caste discrimination in the village. The report, the NHRC has insisted, should reach its office “within four weeks” on receipt its notice. The NHRC, which sent its notice to the district magistrate, Mehsana, on December 20, said action taken by the state authorities should be “appropriate.”

By Our Representative In a clear case of “indifference”, the Gujarat government has ignored a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) advice, sent in the form of a “recommendation”, to pay up Rs 5 lakh each to five workers who had died of the deadly silicosis disease about three years ago. The state-based NGO People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), Vadodara, in a statement, said the NHRC had acted on its complaint in 2011 and arrived at the conclusion that the Gujarat government had failed to ensure safety standards in stone cutting units, operating in Godhra, Gujarat, where these workers were employed, but as it has refused to act within six weeks, given by the NHRC, making PTRC to write a letter to Gujarat chief secretary Varesh Sinha to enforce NHRC recommendation.

By Our Representative The tribal body opposing the construction of Garudeshwar weir, about 12 kilometres downstream of Narmada dam, the Sitter Gaam Adivasi Sangathan (SGAS -- Tribal Organisation of Seventy Villages), has taken strong exception to the Gujarat government’s offer of a “rehabilitation package” to seven villages – Gora, Vasantpura, Nana Pilariya, Indravarna, Garudeshwar, Gabhana and Kevadia – which it has alleged will face unprecedented adverse impact of the Rs 400 crore project.

By Our Representative The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sharply criticized the Gujarat government for failing to ensure that stone cutting units operating in the state complied by the “standards of safety” and were taking “steps for diagnosis and treatment” of those who suffered from the deadly silicosis disease. Referring to a complaint filed by Jagdish Patel of the People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), Vadodara, seeking the NHRC’s intervention in payment of compensation to five workers employed in stone crushing factories in Godhra town, who had died because of silicosis, the NHRC said, “The state cannot escape the liability to compensate the families of the deceased labourers.”

CRY's new campaign banner By Our Representative The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which created a flutter by grabbing 28 of the 70 assembly seats in Delhi recently, has come down heavily on Gujarat’s struggling civil society for being “too soft” towards government authorities. Speaking at a workshop organized by high-profile non-profit advocacy group Child Rights and You (CRY), meant to ask political parties to include child rights issues in their election manifestos ahead of the 2014 polls, AAP’s Gujarat convener Sukhdev Patel said, “The 10 demands you have identified are very weak. You do not aggressively insist that child rights be included in manifestos. Your tone seems suggest you are, as if, begging from them.”

By Our Representative Movement against “indiscriminate” acquisition of land for industrial use has come to Ahmedabad’s footsteps. Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), the state body which led a campaign against Mandal-Becharaji special investment region (SIR) in North Gujarat, forcing the Gujarat government to remove 36 of the 44 villages from the SIR area, held its first meeting to give vent to “people’s anger” against the formation of Gujarat’s biggest SIR – in Dholera region in Ahmedabad district.

By Our Representative The RTI on Wheels, a state-wide campaign launched by Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP) for making right to information (RTI) Act as an important took to gather information from government circles on issues of public concern, has claimed huge popular support in the two districts of Gujarat it has visited so far – Bahaskantha and Sabarkantha. Already, the RTI awareness campaign has gone around 110 villages, where over one lakh pamphlets are said to have been distributed, with people coming forward to get help from activists on RTI on Wheel on drafting RTI applications.

By Our Representative Participating at the national consultation in New Delhi, organized by India's civil society network National Alliance of People's Networks (NAPM), experts and politicians “expressed extreme” concern over World Bank president Dr Jim Yong Kim’s “evasive” attitude towards the environmental and livelihood concerns over the Tatas’ decision to expand the ultra mega power plant at Mundra in Kutch district, Gujarat. Organized jointly with the Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangthan (MASS), which has been protesting against the UMPP's alleged environmental damage and adverse impact on people's livelihood, the consultation criticized the World Bank for ignoring its ombudsman’s views on the subject.

By Our Representative The Gujarat government, especially the chief minister’s office (CMO) appears  to be feeling shy of coming up with details on environmental clearance, if any, provided to the Statue of Unity, planned as the highest statue in the world in the memory of Sardar Patel. Instead of giving a written reply on the crucial issue to senior environmentalist Rohit Prajapati and other experts and activists who had sought in writing details of environmental clearance, a letter sent by the CMO to him evasively wants him to “contact” an additional secretary in the water resources department to “clarify” the state government’s position on the matter.

By Our Representative Asad Shekh, age 35, has become the ninth victim of the deadly silicosis this year in Gujarat. Sheikh, who died of the disease on December 12, 2013, at his home in Pirajpur village in Khambhat taluka, was under treatment for the last two years and was bed-ridden for the last four months. Last he was having treatment at the clinic of People's Training and Research Centre (PTRC), Vadadara. Sheikh worked as agate worker forthe last 15 years, said Jagdish Patel, who runs PTRC, an NGO fighting for the cause of silicosis victims in Gujarat as also neighbouring states.

Dead mangroves at Hazira port By Our Representative In what is being described by the Conservation Action Trust (CAT), a non-government organisation, as a "landmark judgment", the National Green Tribunal (West Zone) has, in an order dated December 9, 2013, barred the Gujarat government to allow destruction of mangroves in any part of the state without the prior approval of the tribunal. The tribunal order came in response to the CAT’s application No 35 before it to prevent unprecedented mangroves destruction it found was being carried out in Gujarat in name of industrial development.

Women protesters at Narmada bank By Our Representative Giving a fresh twist to its opposition to the Narmada project, the Sitter Gaam Adivasi Sangathan, representing 70 villages around the Narmada dam, has taken strong exception to the Gujarat government going ahead with the Garudeshwar weir, being constructed about 12 kilometres downstream of the dam, without any approval from their gram sabhas. It has invoked Schedule V of the Constitution of India, under which approval from the gram sabhas is a must before going ahead with any major project that may affect their livelihood.

By Our Representative Close on the heels of massive setback to the Congress in four states’ assembly elections, top human rights organization, Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), which claims to “preserve the democratic values”, has made a controversial observation: That the electronic voting machine (EVM) is “not foolproof for free and fair polling process” and there is no sense in “rigidly sticking to it in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections”. Opining in favour of returning to the old ballot box voting system, the PUCL said, if this is not possible then it is not necessary to organize the forthcoming elections with the dual system of polling – voting through the EVM and the ballot box.

By Our Representative Will Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi seek to drop the current provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act – under which Central forces are stationed in several states like Manipur, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir etc. for maintaining public order – in case he comes to power in Delhi? Senior Gujarat High Court advocate Mukul Sinha has obliquely suggested that this should happen logically if one agrees with the legal objections Modi has raised to the prevention of the communal violence Bill, which is proposed to be placed in the upcoming winter session of Parliament.

Bank president Jim Yong Kim My Our Representative One of India's biggest civil society networks, National Alliance of People's Networks (NAPM) has decided to hold a national level consultation at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on December 16 in order to raise its voice against World Bank support to the Tatas' ultra mega power plant (UMPP), whose expansion is now on cards at Mundra, Kutch district in Gujarat. To be held jointly with the Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangthan (MASS), which has long been protesting against the UMPP's alleged environmental damage and adverse impact on people's livelihood, the discussion is likely to focus on how the top international bankers have ignored the plight of the local people while funding projects in India.

By Our Representative In what seemed to be their first-ever show of strength, representatives of Ahmedabad’s construction workers, over 1,000 of them, came together to demand a sharp rise in their wage from around Rs 200 to Rs 250, which they get now, to Rs 500. Organized by the Majur Adhikar Manch, which claims to represent them, the demands included provision of basic amenities, including livable shelter for eight to nine months of the year they work in Ahmedabad, proper sanitation and drinking water facilities, apart from better working conditions, health facilities, school and anganwadi (creche) for their children near their workplace.

An anti-asbestos meet in Delhi By Ashok Shrimali* In a letter to three Union ministers – Ghulam Nabi Azad (health), Sis Ram Ola (labour and employment) and Jayanthi Natarajan (forests and environment) – over 200 scientists and 100 labour and health organizations from 36 countries have expressed their “deep concerns” regarding efforts currently underway to promote the use of chrysotile asbestos in India, despite its known adverse impact on health. The letter has been written ahead of a pro-asbestos meet organised in Delhi on December 3-4.

By Our Representative Eni Faleomavaega, 70-year-old non-voting delegate to the United States House of Representatives from American Samoa's At-large congressional distric -- among the first top US dignitaries to meet Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar way back in 2010 -- has advised Modi not to accept any invitation to visit US in case he becomes Prime Minister. Faleomavaega said, In case Modi becomes Prime Minister of India, he should decline a visit to the US “unless the State Department takes a stand now and informs him in advance of whether or not a visa would be granted should he apply”.