Mahatma Mandir under construction By Our Representative A Right to Information (RTI) application, filed by senior activist Kirit Rathod, has revealed that the Gujarat government has refused to form a State-level Environmental Appraisal Committee (SEAC), which is supposed to provide environmental clearance to Category B projects not requiring Government of India nod, for the last six months. The result is, if the reply to the application is any guide, exactly 1,739 projects, most of them of the small entrepreneurs, have remained without being cleared since July 2013, when the former SEAC’s three-year term expired. The SEAC mainly consists of ex-bureaucrats and experts, who look into environmental issues, and examine whether a particular project would require to undergo public hearing or not.

Modi in Kerala in Sept 2013 By Our Representative A senior Kerala researcher, Meera Velayudhan, currently working as fellow, Council for Social Development (CSD), Hyderabad, has argued that the recent invitation forwarded to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to address a mass rally in Alwaye in February 2014 to commemorate 100 years of the founding of the Pulaya Mahjana Sabha, Kochi, is “shocking” and “a travesty of history”, because in 1993, the Kerala Pulayar Mahajana Sabha, which was founded in the early part of the 20th century in its fight against casteism, had protested the demotion of the Babri Masjid as “an attack on India’s secular fabric” and called for “protection of religious rights and harmony”.

A previous protest against weir By Our Representative The Sitter Gaam Adivasi Sanghathan (SGAS), an organization of 70 villages formed to oppose the proposed Garudeshwar weir being constructed 12 km downstream of the Narmada dam for promoting tourism, has decided to hold a protest rally on the Republic Day at Indravarna, one of the villages to be affected, saying, the rally will start immediately after flag-hoisting ceremony. In a statement, SGAS has said, the weir is being constructed in violation of the state environmental laws, and construction of the weir be immediately stopped.

By Our Representative A senior human rights campaigner has alleged that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is misusing Gujarat government’s NRI funds to “export” ministers, police officers, IAS bureaucrats and senior government functionaries to other Indian states in order to “propagate” Gujarat’s progress. Well-known anti-Modi crusader Shabman Hashmi, in association with several Gujarat-based activists Mahesh Pandya, Hemant Shah, Manan Trivedi and Gautam Thakker, said this while releasing documents which state that the government's NRI funds, meant to establish cultural ties with non-resident Gujaratis living abroad, are being illegitimately used for Modi poll propaganda.

By Our Representative The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) virus appears to have taken over, among others, non-resident Indian lobbyists for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the US. California-based Mahesh Patel, who introduced himself as chairman of the Indo-American Farmers’ Coalition (IAFC), who met Modi a few days back at a farmers’ event in Gujarat, wore a cap similar to the one put up by AAP all over India while addressing Gujarat mediapersons at Hotel Harriet in Ahmedabad, even as expressing the hope that his efforts to reestablish linkages with Gujarat farmers would begin after meeting Modi in the next couple of days.

By Our Representative The cattle rearing population of Hansalpur village and surnding areas of North Gujarat region, where the state government has handed over 699 acres of land to the Maruti-Suzuki Ltd to set up a new auto manufacturing unit, was restrained from taking out a protest rally from Hansalpur to state capital Gandhinagar. A statement issued by Jamin Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG) said, when at around 10.00 am, with 500 cows, the maldharis were about to begin their march, “the police resorted to unprovoked and sudden lathicharge”.

By Our Representative The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), apex body of several to civil rights groups across India, has decided in favour of “allying” with the Aam Admi Party (AAP). The decision came at a high-level dialogue between NAPM leaders, led by Narmada Bachao Andolan’s Medha Patkar, with several AAP leader-intellectuals, including Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Ajit Jha. In a statement issued at the end of the deliberations held in Delhi on January 16-17, NAPM said, its individual organizations and members will be free to “intervene into electoral arena” through AAP.

By Our Representative Fresh trouble is starting to brew for the Mandal-Bechraji special investment region (SIR) of North Gujarat, which was scaled down by the Gujarat government recently under pressure of a powerful agitation launched by the farmers under the leadership of Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG). The Gujarat government’s refusal to provide alternative land to the farmers who lost their land against the area acquired by it for the Maruti-Suzuki plant in the SIR is all set to blow into a major point of contention between it and JAAG.

A new study*, based on a survey of 250 areas and 5,827 households across five states of India, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, has found that, despite the legislations seeking to eradicate manual scavenging (the Construction of Dry Latrines and Employment of Manual Scavengers (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and the recently-enacted Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013), the system of manual scavenging still exists in India and with increasing urbanization across the country. Worse, it has the potential to spread far and wide. A report based on the survey carried out by Ahmedabad civil rights group Janvikas with the help of a dozen community based organizations (CBOs): *** Inadequate infrastructure, casteist mindset of government officials and society at large, poor implementation of legislations banning manual scavenging, internalization of caste hierarchy and complete acceptance of caste based occupations in the mi...

Dholera region today By Our Representative The Jameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat (JAAG), which is seeking to emerge as the apex body of people’s groups wanting to fight against the “anti-farmer” land acquisition policies in dozen-odd special investment regions (SIRs) of Gujarat, has decided to replicate the “successful”, “tried” and “time-tested” actions used against Mandal-Bechraji SIR in North Gujarat elsewhere, too. In a statement issued in Ahmedabad, JAAG said, which forced down the state government to scale down the Mandal-Bechraji SIR’s area from 44 to 36 villages, said, it will agitate against the Dholera SIR, being planned on 900 sq km area in Ahmedabad district off Gulf of Khambhat, in the same intensive way as it did in the North Gujarat SIR.

Sanjiv Bhatt By Our Representative Gujarat’s topcop Sanjiv Bhatt, who was suspended for taking up cudgels against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, may not join the Aam Admi Party (AAP), which has begun to attract influential sections of civil society in India and Gujarat. Taking part in an internal discussion in Ahmedabad, Bhatt told a senior AAP activist that there is still “no clarity” in AAP’s ideological leanings, especially on issues of secularism and communal riots. “I have yet to hear AAP taking a stance on the communal riots in Muzaffarnagar, though they took place after the party was formed. It uttered no word about it during the Delhi elections”, he said.

By Our Representative In a major boost to the Aam Admi Party (AAP), the National Alliance for People's Movements (NAPM), which is the apex body of tens of civil rights organizations of India, has decided to extend support to AAP. In a statement issued in Mumbai, NAPM, which is led by top social activist Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NAPM), said, “A number of attempts by small and large parties and fora to create an alternative to the mainstream politics, creating space for those at margins by the power holders, have played a role in the past. Once again and with a difference, the concern of the masses has led to the formation of AAP, reflecting a need for changing the political cultures and system.”

A recent study by Janvikas highlights lack of basic infrastructure facilities in 63 areas of Muslim-dominated areas of Gujarat. Excerpts: *** The Sachar Committee, constituted by the Prime Minister, had found glaring underdevelopment in infrastructure (water, sanitation facilities, banks, educational institutions, approach roads) in Muslim concentrated areas, under-representation of Muslims in employment sector, under-representation of Muslims in governance and common spaces, negligible access to credit from nationalized banks and other allied sectors, inequity, and unequal opportunities. To overcome these problems, the Prime Minister launched a 15-point programme for the welfare of minorities in 2006. Janvikas, an NGO based in Ahmedabad, undertook a study to assess the status of implementation of the point programme in Muslim concentrated areas in Gujarat. The study looked at the physical infrastructure available in Muslim dominated areas and the institutional mechanism for implementa...

By Our Representative In a major breakthrough for the Narmada oustees of Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur district, the state government has agreed to hand over land to them instead of paying compensation in cash to those who lose land because of the Narmada dam, currently stationary at 121.92 metres in Gujarat. The Gujarat government wants the resettlement issue of the Narmada oustees to be solved urgently in order to take the dam's height to the full reservoir level (FRL), 138.64 metres, at the earliest.

A report on the Joint Citizens’ Initiative hearing of the Muzaffarnagar riots victims close on the heels of the UP government’s efforts to close down the relief camps: *** Participating in an event organized by Joint Citizens’ Initiative (JCI), a collective of NGOs and individuals for relief, rehabilitation and justice in Muzaffarnagar, representatives of victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots, which rocked the state in August-end 2013, said the Uttar Pradesh’s government machinery has refused to acknowledge displacement of families from villages where violence broke out. The victims visited Lucknow to represent before to the JCI’s NGO jury for hearing on January 7. Accusing the state government of playing “partisan” in offering relief and rehabilitation to Muzaffarnagar survivors, they added, the survivors were being forced to sign affidavits saying “they would not return to their villages, not live on government land, and not live in a relief camp” in exchange for relief money. One of th...

Gulberg society after the attack By Our Representative The Human Rights Defenders Alert – India (HRDAI) has sounded an urgent appeal for action against the Gujarat police registering an FIR against well-known social worker Teesta Setalvad and four other human rights defenders, who are fighting for justice to Gujarat riots victims. Expressing “grave concern” regarding the latest round of “vindictive” actions against human rights defender Teesta Setalvad, secretary, Citizen's for Justice and Peace (CJP) and others, against whom the Gujarat Police Crime Branch has registered a “false FIR” on “malicious grounds of cheating”, the HRDAI has said, action is particularly needed as they face “the threat of arrest.”

By Our Representative Fresh indications have emerged that the cash-again-land scheme, “worked out” for the Narmada dam oustees of Mahdya Pradesh (MP) as rehabilitation package by Gujarat government a decade ago allegedly to get over the “scarcity of land” problem in MP, has boomeranged. The National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM), an apex body of tens of civil rights groups across India, has informed that “hundreds of adivasis and farmers, representing the oustees affected by the Sardar Sarovar and Jobat dam projects in the Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh stormed the office of collector NP Deheria and engaged in a day-long protest, demanding the immediate of 40 adivasis, including six women.”

By Our Representative Close on the heels of the Ahmedabad crime branch registering FIR against well-known human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and her colleagues for “breach of trust, cheating and conspiracy” by refusing to convert the Gulbarg society into a riots museum, Setalvad has accused the FIR “a deliberate campaign to vilify the efforts to procure justice for the victims of the carnage of 2002 that has been sustained and supported by vested powerful interests in Gujarat.” The Gulberg society massacre saw murder of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and tens of others who lived in the colony on February 28. In a statement, Setalvad said, the FIR has been filed with “mala fide attempts to embroil us in false cases before the Gujarat police.”

By Our Representative The Gujarat government, sensing a sharp rise in tribal opposition to the Garudeshwar weir being built across the Narmada river to create a new reservoir 12 kilometres downstream of the Narmada dam, appears all set to clamp down on the protesters. As an early indication, the state administration tried to deploy state reserve police (SRP) jawans, who were brought to village Indravarna, which has become epicentre of protests against the weir. The cops had complete with tents, rifles and other equipment. Brought in contractors’ trucks, the villagers, especially women, protested, forcing the jawans to leave.

By Our Representative In a letter to the Union secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEoF), two senior environmental activists, Rohit Prajapati and Krishnakant of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, Vadodara, have said that the environmental public hearing (EPH), on January 3, for the proposed special investment region (SIR) in Dholera region, situated south of Ahmedabad, “is illegal” and “anti-constitutional”, as it has failed to take into account issues of climate change, which will take place two to three decades from now, when the SIR will develop.