Rally to highlight poor infrastructure in government schools By Our Representation A survey by Navsarjan Trust, Ahmedabad's Dalit rights organization, has revealed that despite Gujarat government claims of one of the best infrastructure facilities compared to rest of India’s schools, things have failed to improve in remote and backward villages. In a representation handed over to the district education officer, the Baal Adhikar Suraksha Samiti, a local NGO working for child rights, has revealed, quoting the survey, how in several of the primary schools there are no separate toilets for girls, there is lack of basic seating facilities for children from classes 1 to 4, and computers, though installed, are not in use.

By Our Representative In a representation to KG Balakrishnan, chairperson, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Delhi, top civil rights activist Gopal Krishna of the Toxics Watch Alliance (TWA) has submitted that the death of "some 10 migrant workers"  on Alang beach, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, on June 28 suggests that the authorities continue to treat such accidents as a routine affair and have become “part of a pattern.” The deaths occurred due to a blast triggered by a suspected gas leak that took place in a ship being dismantled at the Alang ship-breaking yard in plot No 140.

By Our Representative Around 30 mass organizations, attached with the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), have strongly protested against the Government of India (GoI) move to bring about changes in the new land acquisition Act, saying any move in that direction will be met with “stiff resistance.” Asking the GoI to ensure its “strict implementation”, the NAPM, which is led by Narmada Bachao Andolan’s (NBA’s) Medha Patkar, said, “The news that two of the key provisions of the Act, consent and social impact assessment (SIA), are to be amended is completely unacceptable.”

By Rajiv Shah Well-known University of Chicago scholar, Martha C Nussbaum, a “distinguished service professor of law and ethics”, writing in the context of India’s recent Lok Sabha elections, “fought” on the plank of “development”, has said that human development should be treated more than gross domestic product of a country. The scholar says, the question as to what is development becomes relevant is Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, is being “touted as a hero of development policy because of his record in promoting economic growth in Gujarat.” She insists, “it’s time to rehearse again the arguments that have led leading development thinkers all over the world, from the United Nations Development Programme to the World Bank, to reject growth as an adequate measure of development and to prefer, in its place, what is now known as the ‘Human Development’ paradigm.” Nussbaum quotes well known economist Mahbub Ul Haq, who wrote in 1990, in the first of the “Human Development Report...

Exclusive well for Dalits in Panva By Our Representative While the officialdom seems worried about failure of rains in Gujarat, fresh information from the state’s rural areas suggest it is starting to affect the marginalized communities the most. A case in point is the plea to the Surendranagar district collector by a local women’s organization of Panva village, Patdi taluka of the district, seeking the top officialdom’s direct intervention to ensure that the Dalits get equal share of water supply. The Panva Mahila Adhikar Panch in its plea has alleged prevalence of untouchability practice against Dalit women in accessing water from the public well of the village.

By Our Representative In an important submission before the Law Commission of India, the Amnesty International India has insisted on the need to undertake critical legal reforms to better defend the right to free speech. Saying that this is important against the backdrop of a “growing trend of intolerance towards dissent and criticism” in the recent weeks, elucidating the submission, Amnesty's senior policy adviser Shailesh Rai said, “Authorities have shown a worrying eagerness to arrest and detain people for the lawful exercise of their constitutional rights to free speech, especially when it concerns the new Prime Minister.”

By Our Representative Hundreds of safai karmacharis, mainly belonging to the Dalit Valmiki community, have protested against the failure of the Gujarat government to allocate them land for building houses in Viramgam, a town situated in the neighbourhood of Ahmedabad, whose vicinity is likely to see major industrial activity in the near future. The local municipality gave a nod for two plots of land – Survey Nos 377 and 178-- measuring 21,954 square metres way back in 2010, so that they could build their own houses. But so far nothing has been done to allocate the land to the "neglected" families, many of whom are permanent members of municipality, while others are daily wagers.

By Our Representative Top social activist, Narmada Bachao Andolan’s Medha Patkar, fighting against the Narmada dam for decades, has alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “influenced” the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) “politically” to raise the Narmada dam’s height. She said, she was “shocked” that the decision of the NCA, the multi-state body authorized for all the decisions on the Narmada project, was taken “bypassing the three concerned Union ministers -- Uma Bharti (water resources), Thavaar Chand Gehlot (social justice and empowerment) and Prakash Javdekar (environment), all from Madhya Pradesh.”

Khambhat's Fatesinh, a silicosis victim By Our Representative Will the Gujarat government implement its word to pay compensation of paltry Rs 1 lakh against those who died because of the deadly occupational disease silicosis starting with 2007? While the amount itself is very small, in a recent decision, it decided to pay up the relatives of those who died while working in agate stone-cutting factories, mainly in Khambhat, with effect from January 2014. “We have been assured that the matter will be sorted out”, said Jagdish Patel of the People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), which works among silicosis workers. “However, it must await ministerial nod”, he added.

By Our Representative The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), India’s most well-known anti-Narmada dam body, has said that the recent decision of the Government of India to raise the dam height from 121.92 metres to 139.68 metres has been reached with an eye on helping Gujarat-based “corporates and industries”, who have been “eyeing the Narmada waters and command area land” for quite some time. With this aim in mind, NBA added, “the Gujarat government plans to denotify 4 lakh hecatres (ha) of land from the command area and reserve it for corporates.”

By Our Representative In a significant move, the Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has declared that the “higher price” being offered by the Government of India to it for oil and gas exploration off Andhra Pradesh coast is “not market linked”, and it should get an even more, in keeping with market realities. The "revision", which the Government of India has still not formally announced, is from $4.2 per MMBtu (million British thermal units) to $8.4 MMBtu, which was challenged by several politicians, including Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, who claimed it would mean a “windfall” of Rs 54,500 crore to the RIL.

Villagers protest against weir By Our Representative The Gujarat government has claimed that villagers, whose land has been acquired for constructing the Garudeshwar weir across Narmada river, and 12 km from the Narmada dam site, were “fully satisfied” with the package offered to them decades ago. In said this in an affidavit filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in response to a petition filed by Gujarat-based environmental body Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS), seeking stoppage of work at the weir, alleging the weir’s environmental and rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) clearances have not been taken, as required by law.

By Rajiv Shah  Much against the huge claims of cent per cent enrollment, made year after year following Shala Praveshotsav and Kenya Kelavani programmes, usually carried out in early June, a new report, prepared under the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government of India, has suggested Gujarat’s poor showing in enrolling children in both primary and upper primary schools. Titled “Primary Education in India: Towards Universal Elementary Education (UEE)”, the report presents a plethora of “flash statistics” showing how different states have performed in ensuring implementation of the right to education (RTE) in the recent past. The report does not just suggest Gujarat’s poor showing in enrolling children it schools; it shows neglect of the girl child — school dropout among girls at the upper primary level is one of the highest in the country, it has found. The report shows that in 2013-14, the net enrollment rate at the primary level was 83 per cent, which means th...

By Our Representative Gujarat High Court hearing in the anticipatory bail applications of top human rights activist Teesta Setalvad, her husband Javed Anand and three survivors of the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre of Gujarat, Tanvir Jafri, Salim Sandhi and Firoz Gulzar Pathan has been postponed till July 9, 2014. This happened, according to a statement issued by Setalvad’s NGO Centre for Justice and Peace (CJP), following a 96 page counter affidavit “complete with detailed records from audited accounts and bank statements disproving baseless allegations made by the Crime Branch, Ahmedabad.”

Villagers protest against Garudeshwar Dam By Rohit Prajapati, Lakhan Musafir* In our case against Garudeshwar Weir (being set up about 12 km downstream of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Narmada river) in the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), has said, “… no project proposal regarding Garudeshwar Weir at Garudeshwar village, District Narmada of Gujarat, has been received in this Ministry.” The Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) has said, its affidavit is only for “the limited purpose”, it is “not dealing with the application parawise”, nor it is “giving elaborate details which would show that construction of Garudeshwar Weir is strictly in conformity with law.” It is now clear: the SSNNL has no documents to show and prove that the construction of Garudeshwar Weir is going on as per the law. In their replies the MoEF, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) and the SSNNL do not deny our contention that:There has never been an environment and soci...

Irani in Kudasan studying Gujarat model By Rajiv Shah Just a week after Union human resources minister Smriti Irani came to Gujarat to “study” and “replicate” the Gujarat model of education, a high-level report, prepared by the Union ministry of human resources, operating directly under her, has come up with a big shocker: The report has found that girls’ dropout ratio in Gujarat at the upper primary level (classes 6 to 8) to be one of the highest in India, suggesting that Gujarat government’s kanya kelavni drive for ensuring girl child participation in education has failed to succeed.

By Gagan Sethi and Rajiv Shah Review* of the book by Felix Padel, Ajay Dandekar and Jeemol Unni, Ecology Economy: Quest for a Socially Informed Connection (Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad, 2013, pp 340, Rs795) The book under review has gone a long way towards questioning the manner in which some of the key concepts such as development and under-development have been widely used, ever since the days of Herbert Spencer, Marx, Engels and others, right up to modern-day theorists from both the Left and the Right. Questioning the “uniform model” of set stages of development, from primitive communism to feudalism and capitalism used by these theorists, the authors point out that the rapid growth envisaged by these intellectuals has seen the culmination of a ‘New World Order’, leading to extreme forms of exploitation and inequality, and resulting in major issues related to environmental degradation and a steep rise in ‘ecological refugees’. Arguing against the type of neoliberal capitalism that is...

Navi Pillay in Geneva with Dalit rights activist Manjula Pradeep By Our Representative Addressing the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva, Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has sought to link the recent rape and murder of two teenage girls in Katra village of Uttar Pradesh with what she called sigma of “double assault of caste-based and gender-based discrimination”. Pillay told the conference, cosponsored by Human Rights Watch, that this stigma is further compounded by “discrimination based on their occupation and other socio-economic factors, including whether or not they are migrants.”

Teesta Setalvad By Our Representative In an important move, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), India’s top rights body, has sought “independent review and intervention” by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) “to stop the continuing persecution and prosecution of human rights defenders, Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand of the Citizens for Peace and Justice (CPJ), as also others. In a petition filed with the NHRC, the PUCL said, the intervention was needed as the Gujarat government was seeking institute “false” misappropriation cases. The cases were in retaliation of the fight they had put up for victims of communal riots in Gujarat.

By Our Representative A top source, known to have worked in close proximity with former Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi before Modi took over as India’s Prime Minister, has raised an alarm: The appointment of RN Choubey, a 1981 batch IAS officer, in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was “cancelled” overnight “under pressure" from industrial houses, including Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). While official reason being cited for this is, the Modi government doesn’t want the PMO to become “heavy top”, actually a similar situation prevailed in October 2013, when Choubey was eased out as director-general hydrocarbons (DGH) by the UPA government for "differing" with RIL.

By Our Representative Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah flagged off Right to Information (RTI) Bharat Yatra on June 16 in Jammu, organized by Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP) amidst clear signals emerging that the powerful tool promoting transparency may come under Government of India scanner, with efforts being made to point towards how RTI has become a "hindrance" to growth. Supported in J&K by Sangharsh J&K RTI Movement, the multi-media van, RTI on Wheels, will become the vehicle of MAGP’s RTI Bharat Yatra across India over the next few months. In Jammu, Balvinder Singh, convenor, Sangarsh RTI Movement J&K stated, “RTI has proved to be a powerful tool in the hands of common citizens. It has helped efforts to make government transparent and accountable. It is necessary that the powerful tool reaches to common citizen.”

Suhas Paranjape By Our Representative In the years to come, will the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) on the Narmada river no more remain an inter-state project, as has been widely claimed? If so far Gujarat government officials have been saying this (read HERE ), of course of the record, now a senior water resources expert has suggested that this may well happen once the two states – Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh – fully utilize their share of water. Suhas Paranjape , who has long been associated with people’s movements on sustainable development, has told Counterview that the benefits of power – the factor which makes SSP inter-state – will not last forever, and the neghbouring states should better realize this.

By Rajiv Shah A just-released Planning Commission study , “Evaluation Study of Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF)”, prepared by the top Government of India body’s Programme Evaluation Organization, has found that Gujarat has ranked poorly in the utilization of grants made available under the BRGF programme from the Government of India between 2006-07 and 2010-11. The study has found that, during the period under study, Gujarat ranked No 22nd in utilization of allocation made towards BRGF, and No 17th in utilization of the released grants among 27 states which receive the grants. Explaining BRGF, the study says, it is “an area development intervention that is aimed at promoting decentralized planning and development through a yearly untied development and capacity building grants to 250 backward districts across 27 states.” Gujarat’s districts covered for availing BRGF from the Government of India are – Dang, Dahod, Panchmahal, Banaskantha, Narmada and Sabarkantha. As many as 2,907 vil...

By Our Representative Is there a direct relationship between the latest Intelligence Bureau (IB) report calling powerful environmental international NGO Greenpeace “ as threat to national economic security ” and the recent campaign by Greenpeace against Adani Group? It would seem so, if has a closer look at a new report titled “Research Briefing: Adani’s Record of Environmental Destruction and Non-compliance with Regulations”, which has been released alongside a fact sheet. Adanis are known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and there is already a view that the the IB’s effort was just move closer to the new masters (read HERE ).

By Rajiv Shah Culling out gist from a plethora of sources available to you is indeed quite tricky. While I cannot speak for others (frankly, I lack competence to do it), journalists are made to do it almost on a daily basis. In doing so, at initial stages, they often falter, as they lack conceptual clarity as to what should be considered news. Of course, there are textbook definitions, but they cannot in any way help one to identify news from the huge flow of information available around. Journalists, especially of my generation, have never been trained into a formal school of communication, hence to them to answer this question academically is even more difficult. They have just “picked up” the skill. I asked a senior editor, “How do you identify what should be headline today?”, and his answer was simple, “Well, Rajiv, it comes from within, frankly, it just comes…” Often, whatever new you find from the available information is identified as news. It’s especially very easy when a big e...

By Our Representative In a major admission, the Gujarat government in a recent document has gone to suggest that, far from being an urban model, Gujarat’s urban areas are extremely poorly managed. Giving figures, the document admits, malnutrition levels in the state’s urban areas are higher than rural areas, even as adding, 50 per cent of urban areas lack basic infrastructure like water and sanitation. The document says, in the urban areas, two per cent children are “severely malnourished” and 33 per cent are “moderately malnourished”, in the rural areas, 1.5 per cent are “severely malnourished” and 25.86 per cent are “moderately malnourished”.

By Our Representative The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has asked the Government of India not to criminalize dissent in the guise of Intelligence Bureau (IB) report on non-government organizations (NGOs), who it has claimed are seeking to “retard” the country’s growth because they raise people’s issues. Submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the IB report, according to the PUCL, India’s premier human rights organization, has done nothing but to “intimidate, slander, throttle and terrorize the voice of various citizens' groups, NGOs and individuals.”

Tapi adivasis meet to raise major issues  By Our Representative In a development that may create some flutter in the establishment, the Akhil Bharaiya Adivasi Ekta Andolan, Tapi, Gujarat, in what may appear to be an unprecedented representation to the district collector, has demanded that tribal farmers should be allowed to use tractors to till their lands they have lately come to own. Coming from an organization operating in a district whose majority of the population is tribal, the representation wonders, at a time when tribals are being recognized as farmers and given land to till under the forest rights Act, 2006, there is little reason why they should be deprived of the use of modern equipment till their land.

By Rajiv Shah With the Narmada Control Authority (NCA), the powerful inter-state body working under the Government of India, having unanimously decided to raise the Narmada dam to the full reservoir level (FRL), 138.68 metres from 121.92 metres, a new apprehension is starting to grip the top Gujarat officialdom. Expressing the new fear, a senior official wondered, once the dam reaches its FRL, will the two neighbouring states, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, allow Gujarat to draw as much water as it wants for irrigation – at the expense of power being produced at the dam? Of would they raise objections, as they are more interested in power than irrigating Gujarat’s parched fields?

By Himanshu Thakkar, Rohit Prajapati* In a shocking decision on June 12, 2014, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA), headed by the secretary, Union ministry of water resources (MoWR), and which includes secretary of Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and senior officials of four states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, have sanctioned installation of 17 metre high gates on the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada river in Gujarat, taking the effective current height of the dam from 121.92 m to 138.68 m. This has been done after the rehabilitation sub-group (RSG) of the NCA, chaired by secretary, Union ministry of social justice and empowerment (MoSJE) has also cleared this decision. This decision implies submergence of thousands of hectares (ha) of land and displacement of lakhs of tribals and farmers in three states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, when their rehabilitation, as legally required, has not been done. More importantly, Gujarat and Raj...