By Our Representative The tenth biennial conference of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), an apex body of several grassroots organisations and NGOs spread all over the country, has called for “united action” in the face of “neoliberal onslaughts”. Held against the backdrop of continued political advance of the Narendra Modi-led BJP, which is seeking to amend “positive features” of the new land acquisition Act, water down environmental and forest rights laws and the rural jobs scheme, participants at the NAPM meeting said it is the “need of the hour” to come “together to challenge the neoliberal communal onslaught.”

By Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah We activists of Gujarat oppose and condemn the construction of ‘Statue of Unity’; because it will be a statue that will divide and remove the tribal people form their land, forest and livelihood. It is a structure that will be 182 meters (392 feet) tall of Sardar Patel planned near the Sardar Sarovar Dam by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The statue will be placed directly facing the Sardar Sarovar dam at a distance of 3.2 km at the Sadhu Bet. Surprisingly and shockingly, the Government of Gujarat has allocated Rs 500 crore in the 2014-15 budget and the Government of India also has allocated Rs 200 crore in the 2014-2015 budget for the Statue of Unity project by presuming that project does not requires environment clearance from the concerned authorities. More recently, the Government of Gujarat issued a work order of Rs. 2,979 crore to Larsen and Toubro for the construction of the Statue of Unity. The Government of Gujarat website states, “A monument, tha

By Our Representative D Jagatheesa Pandian, additional chief secretary, industries, has been chosen by Gujarat government to take over as new state chief secretary, setting aside the claim of No 2 in the bureaucracy, Sudip Kumar Nanda. Belonging to the 1981 IAS batch, Pandian will take over as chief secretary on November 1, 2014. Officials said, Nanda’s Congress past played a major role for dropping him. Currently additional chief secretary, home, Nanda has been sent to head the Gujarat State Fertilizers Corporation (GSFC), a state public sector undertaking (PSU) in Vadodara. More recently, during Navratri, Nanda overturned Vishwa Hindu Parishad move not to allow Muslims to enter garba venues. He barred use of identity cards to take part in garbas.

By Our Representative Two senior Gujarat-based environmental activists, Rohit Prajapati and Trupti Shah, have asked the Government of Gujarat to submit an application for environment clearance to the concerned authorities before kickstarting the construction of 182 metres high -- tallest in the world -- statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, planned about 3.2 km downstream of the Narmada dam. Asking the state government to immediately stop the construction, and suspend all activities related to it, they said, the proposed decision to go ahead with the project is “illegal”, and against the spirit of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of September 2006, as also and the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

By Our Representative Top Right to Information (RTI) activist Venkatesh Nayak has alleged that Government of India’s Double Tax Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with foreign countries “curb” independence of judiciary, undermine laws made by Parliament, and curtail the scope of the people’s right to know under the pretext of protecting the privacy of high net worth individuals (HNIs), firms and corporations who may be tax evaders. Objecting to the secrecy clause signed with over 100 countries since 1965, involving governments of all dispensations, Nayak said, the fact is, none of the DTAAs were ever ratified in Parliament.

By Our Representative Thirty-eight prominent citizens have asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withhold the decision to raise the height of the Narmada dam further by erecting 17 metres high gates, to the full reservoir level, i.e. 138.68 meters, saying this will affect “44 additional village communities and one whole township”, and stretching up to “214 km long area in the Narmada basin.” Asking him to do this in the name of “a new democratic initiative, respect law, democracy, human values and human rights”, the letter warned, in case the height is raised, “45,000 families will be displaced.”

By Rajiv Shah  A new National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO’s) report, “Participation of Women in Specified Activities along with Domestic Duties”, finalized in September 2014, has revealed that a higher percentage of Gujarat women are driven by the conservative socio-religious framework of their families and society compared to most Indian states. Based on the survey it carried out between July 2011 and June 2012, the NSSO report has found that, in the 15+ age, 91.9 per cent of Gujarat’s rural and 94.4 per cent of urban women spend most of the time in domestic duties, which is around the same as the national average of 91.7 and 92.2 per cent, respectively. However, this does not tell the full story. Of these women identified as being involved domestic duty full time in Gujarat, 54.8 per cent in rural areas and 62.5 per cent in urban areas said they were doing it because there is no other member to carry out the domestic duties. And – and this is worrisome – 18.7 per cent of rural

By Our Representative Sharply criticizing “successive Indian governments” for failing to prosecute those most responsible for killings and other abuses during the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, influential human rights body, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has asked the Narendra Modi government should “enact a law against communal violence that would hold public officials accountable for complicity and dereliction of duty.” Saying that independent civil society inquiries have found “complicity” by both police and leaders of the Congress, HRW underlined, “Three decades later, only 30 people, mostly low-ranking Congress supporters, have been convicted for the attacks that resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries.”

NSSO figures: rural+urban By Rajiv Shah Amidst the big talk around Gujarat women being more secure than most Indian states, what is perhaps forgotten is that many of them are unable to come out of the socio-religious constraints, which ties them to their domestic work full time, even as forcing them not to do any full-time job. A just-released National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report, “Participation of Women in Specified Activities along with Domestic Duties”, has found that a much higher percentage of Gujarat women are driven by the conservative socio-religious framework compared to most Indian states in doing domestic work.

By Rajiv Shah  The latest National Sample Survey (NSS) report, “Informal Sector and Conditions of Employment in India”, finalized in July 2014, and based on survey between July 2011 and June 2012, has gone a long way to suggest extremely sorry state of affairs of workers in Gujarat, especially in what has been called the non-agricultural sector, as also in the sector identified AGEGC ([ag]riculture sector [e]xcluding [g]rowing of [c]rops). Seeking to analyze the status of affairs of workers with a special focus on the informal sector — in which 72.4 per cent of the total workers employed in the non-agricultural and AGEGC units are employed in India – the data show that the situation is particularly appalling in Gujarat, where 75.1 per cent belong to the informal sector out of the total workforce employed in the non-agricultural and AGEGC units. The NSS report finds that not only average wages (casual and salaries combined) being paid in Gujarat – Rs 268 per day, as against the all-Indi

By Rajiv Shah Fresh data released by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), India’s premier data collection centre between decadal censuses, have revealed that, far from being a model for the country to follow, Gujarat under the years under Narendra Modi as chief minister (2001-14) failed to take care of the workers’ plight in the huge informal sector which is shaping up following the state’s fast-growing industrialization. According to the NSSO, the informal sector workers make up nearly 75 per cent of the state’s workforce employed in the non-agricultural sector (both rural and urban), and the workers in this sector particularly have massively failed to get any social security benefits, including paid leave. With wages one of the lowest in India, the workers in this sector suffer even more.

Click on the image to watch full interview on YouTube  By Our Representative India’s main Left party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), may have noted that in the new dispensation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi the neglect of India’s poor has intensified, as seen in the “targeted attack” on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), implemented by the previous Congress-led government. This is being "effected" by putting "a cut on the budgetary outlays", it says. However, the party does not think this is reason enough to drop its earlier stance of maintaining equi-distance between the Congress and Modi-led BJP, which snatched power by decimating the Congress in the May 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Nivedita Menon By Our Representative Noted feminist and political scientist Nivedita Menon has said that far-right Hindutva groups, caught on the back foot by the humiliating backfire in their fantastical Meerut claims of ‘gangrape and forcible conversion’, have arrived at a new formula: That the anxiety over ‘Love Jihad’ has also been expressed by the Church in Kerala and the Akal Takht, hence “there must be some fire generating all the smoke.” Menon adds, the votaries of the new formula – who include feminist-turned-pro-Narendra Modi campaigner Madhu Kishwar -- claim that as the dangers from Love Jihad are real, quoting investigations by police and court directions.

Gujarat CM at public reception on Oct 24 By Our Representative Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel is learnt to have instructed her office not to entertain any requests for special favour from her family members, including her son, daughter and son-in-law. The instructions are learnt to have come following wild -- some would say unsubstantiated -- accusations by a young activist, Roshan Shah, seeking to find out whether the non-government organisation (NGO) run by her son-in-law Jayesh Patel and daughter Anar Patel, Manav Sadhna Trust, played any role in “selling off” some land assets once owned by the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad.

By Our Representative It is now official. A recent survey, quoting Gujarat government sources, has found that, despite loud claims, Gujarat would be suffering from a shortage of a whopping 65 per cent of the common village land, meant for grazing of cattle. Carried out by a team of activists working under the Maldhari Rural Action Group (MARAG), an Ahmedabad-based non-profit organisation, the survey was carried in 90 villages in three districts – Kutch, Patan and Surendranagar. The survey uniquely juxtaposed the spot analysis in each of the villages and the government data on gauchar – as the grazing land is identified – and found that there is not much difference between the two.

A recent Morcha rally in state capital Gandhinagar By Our Representative An eerie quiet prevails among tribal farmers of South Gujarat. Information emanating from activists working in three districts, Surat, Tapi and the Dangs, suggests that thousands of tribal farmers have “not been paid” their dues on purchase of sugarcane they produce in their fields. Expressing concern over their plight, the Adivasi Kisan Sangharsh Morcha, which claims to represent tribal farmers in the three districts, has said, the Ukai Pradesh Khand Udyog Sahkari Mandali, the cooperative with the rights to buy up sugarcane in order to pass on the crop to the local sugar producing units, has “not paid its dues between 2006 and 2014.”

By Our Representative Controversy has broken out among India's right to information (RTI) activists over the latest order of the Government of India's Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), released on October 20, 2014, which allows all ministries and departments to "facilitate uploading of RTI applications and appeals" on their respective websites, even as providing links of replies through a URL. Suggesting that it was being implemented by the DoPT on a pilot basis, and has proved successful, the order says, however, that the "RTI applications and appeals received and their responses relating to the personal information of an individual may not be disclosed if they do not serve any public purpose."

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran By Our Representative In an usual message titled “Feast of Deepavali 2014“ from Vatican City, which is the seat of power of the Roman Catholic Church, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has expressed dismay over “the negative effects of globalization” which are starting to “impact on religious communities throughout the world.” In its greetings message to the “Hindu friends”, the message says, “Globalization has contributed to the fragmentation of society and to an increase in relativism and syncretism in religious matters, as well as bringing about a privatization of religion.”

Counterview Desk Strongly defending the Reliance Power Ltd’s Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP), under attack by a group of American NGOs for “neglecting” people’s livelihood and environment, a pro-UMPP blogger, Prof Satish Rai, has said this seems to be “part of the efforts by foreign NGOs/ foreign funded NGOs to stall development work in countries like India.” Citing the latest study (read HERE ) by NGOs led by Sierra Club, top US environmental group, Prof Rai calls it just an “extension of the malafide intentions by foreign NGOs to malign the image of Indian companies and large scale infrastructure projects.”

By Our Representative In a move that would create flutter in India’s corporate sector, several influential independent organizations based in the US -- Sierra Club, 350.org , Carbon Market Watch, Pacific Environment, and Friends of the Earth US -- have released a new report detailing what they call “catastrophic human rights, labour, and environmental violations at Reliance Power’s Sasan coal-fired power plant and mine in Singrauli, India.” Available details suggest, the main reason behind releasing the report is that the US Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) financed over $900 million for the project, “using" American taxpayer dollars to support the "dirty, dangerous coal project.”

By Our Representative A public gathering at Dumka, Jharkhand, saw senior activists campaigning against indiscriminate permissions to coalminers without taking into account people’s livelihood needs demanding withdrawal of all cases against protesters in all coalmining projects, especially those coal blocks whose licenses were cancelled by the Supreme Court on August 25, 2014. “Cases should be immediately withdrawn and all the injured and killed by police repression and firing should be appropriately compensated”, a statement issued at the end of the meet demanded.

By Our Representative In a move that may raise eyebrows of senior Indian activists and experts who contributed heavily in drafting the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013, the Gujarat government has told Government of India that LARR in its present form will “delay” and “create hurdles” in land acquisition for industrial projects, with “massive potential for misuse” by agriculturists. The pro-industry suggestions – in all about two dozen – are learnt to have been mooted under the direct guidance of additional chief secretary, industries, D Jagatheesa Pandian, a top aspirant of Gujarat chief secretary’s post.

By Our Representative In an unusual statement, a top ship cycling industry representative has sought to justify large number of deaths due to accidents occurring at the Alang shipbreaking yard, on south Saurashtra coast in Gujarat, saying, “Every industry has accidents”. Talking to a news portal , KB Tayal, vice president of the Ship Recycling Industries Association (India), Alang, said, “Some (industries) might have more (accidents) than others. Even though it happens, it might be due to negligence of workers, or of the machinery. When it happens, no problem. We pay compensation to workers and a penalty to the government.”

Ahmed Patel with Sonia Gandhi By Our Representative In less than a year of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel announced that he would create a a "cyber army" to take on the BJP's 'onslaught' on the social media, the exercise has starting to collapse in his home turf, Gujarat. Things have come to such a pass that those claim to be running the cyber show for Congress are using the social media to blame the party high command for “lack of interest”. What is worse is that, of all persons, a senior Congress Umakant Mankad has said that the “herculean task” of running the IT cell of the Congress has become the victim of “authoritarian decisions” of a few leaders.

Mariam Namazie, Iranian campaigner, addressing the conference By Our Representative A two-day International Conference on the Religious Right, Secularism and Civil Rights held in London on October 11-12, 2014, has bracketed Hindutva, with particular reference to “Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) in India”, as one of the many important far-right groups across the globe who are “using religion for political supremacy”. Likely to raise many an eyebrow, especially in India, where the RSS has direct support from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the conference said, “This rise (or far-right) is a direct consequence of neo-conservatism and neo-liberalism and the social policies of communalism and cultural relativism.”

NBA-led rally in Bhopal By Our Representative The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which led a well-attended rally of Narmada dam oustees of Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal, has triggered a hornet’s nest: In a letter submitted to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan demanding justice to outees of the Narmada dam, the NBA has sought his intervention to implement the crucial section 24 of the new land acquisition Act – Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 – which says that any acquired land, if lying idle for five years, will be returned to the original owner.

Sanjay Sudhir By Our Representative In what may be interpreted as a clear indication that diplomatic missions in abroad are starting to bow to the saffron heat, the Australian high commission in Canberra is all set to allow the Hindu Council Australia to hold public receptions for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, visiting the country for the two-day G-20 summit starting on November 15. Already, an Indian diaspora-run site has reported that unhappiness has gripped diaspora over the Indian high commission in Canberra and Sydney consul-general Sanjay Sudhir’s “decision” to get Hindu Council Australia to organize community reception for Modi.

By Our Representative Well-known British weekly “The Economist” has qualified India’s decision to cancel the biggest-ever India-Africa summit, which was to take place in December in Delhi, as “clumsy”. It said, this will now be a “thorny task” for India’s foreign policymakers to recoup the lost ground. While the cancellation of the summit was because of the fears of the deadly disease, Ebola, prevalent in three small West African countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the weekly insisted, “Trying to isolate Africa will not help prevent a pandemic.”

Counterview Desk In a fresh concession to corporate sector developers across India, a new office memorandum, one the many in a series issues by the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change, has told Indian and state environmental authorities not to seek any additional information before providing environmental clearance. The memorandum states, “it has been brought to its notice” that Expert Appraisal Committees (EACs, Central authorities, giving environmental clearance to bigger projects) and State Expert Appraisal Committees (SEACs, giving environmental nod to smaller projects) have been seeking “additional studies which do not form a part of terms of reference”, adding, the authorities should stop the practice.

Prakash being conferred French award for contribution in human rights By Our Representative In an unusual development, senior Gujarat-based human rights activist Father Cedric Prakash’s office was burgled on the night between October 7 and 8, 2014, and those who broke in took with them only his desktop personal computer, a hard disk, the keyboard with all connections meticulously cut. In a statement, Prakash said, “The intruders seemed to have moved around in several places of the office (some footprints evidence this) but were careful not to have disturbed /upset anything else.”

The report By Jitendra Rathod*  “A Road Map for Zero Waste Ahmedabad City – A Visionary Document to Guide Ahmedabad towards Becoming a Resource Efficient and Zero Waste City by 2031”, a recently released official document , is an evidence of the casteist mindset of the Ahmedabad Municipal Commission (AMC) administration. The document has been financed and commissioned jointly by the AMC and the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD). The document addresses several concerns of waste and waste management – except the safety and better health of the sweepers! The title page of the document is sufficient to prove the casteist mindset of the AMC administration. The document claims to be “visionary”, but the sweepers will continue to collect the garbage, dust, filth of the city by unclean way. The title page itself has photographs of sweepers without any safety devices – and no eyebrow has been raised on this. Landfill sites and handling of garbage have been shown to be ca

By Rajiv Shah It is not just in investments completed that Gujarat is lagging behind several states (click HERE to read). The situation has turned worse for new investments in the state, regarded as “growth engine of India”. Analysis carried out by a researcher with India’s premier independent research body Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) suggests that while Tamil Nadu tops the list of states with new investments in the quarter ended September 2014, Gujarat ranks eighth, with six other states performing better – Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.

By Our Representative Latest analysis of the data collected by the Centre for Monitoring Economy (CMIE), India’s premier independent economic research body, has busted the myth that Gujarat is the "growth engine" of India, as claimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Even as releasing facts suggesting that there has been a “steep decline in commissioning of projects” in India, lowest since December 2006, CMIE researcher Pradnya Deo has said, Gujarat is "in the fifth spot with investment completion at Rs 18.1 billion", which is “the lowest amount of investments completed in Gujarat in the past four years.” The researcher added, “Of these investments, Rs. 14.1 billion “belonged to the manufacturing sector.”

Aiyar By Our Representative This has come from one of the most influential scribes on economic affairs of India. Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, who is consulting editor of the Economic Times and has been a consultant to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, has revealed that the Government of India is all set to come up with a “ridiculous proposal” — of supplying Pakistan five million units of imported gas per day, enough for two large power plants, at a time when India is “desperately short of gas”. He advises Government of India not to “bribe Pakistan with gas” when we need it more.

India's Medha Patkar and other activists protest World Bank move By Our Representative The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that the World Bank Group's proposed policy on environmental safeguards, currently being discussed in Washington DC, is "a setback" from its previous rights-based approach, insisting, "Development cannot succeed if it harms communities." In a statement, HRW has said, "Indigenous peoples’ recommendations to strengthen World Bank standards and bring them into line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have fallen on deaf ears", adding, instead the World Bank has pledged on a ‘no-dilution’ of existing policies."

Ashiyanabano: Hit by cops By Our Representative A report submitted to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Vadodara-based senior activists of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has squarely blamed the cops for acting in a high-handed manner during the communal violence, which took place when the Navratri celebrations were on in Gujarat in September. Basing themselves on interaction with people of several localities, the fact-finding team said the attacks were by the “police and not by any community”. Quoting individuals, the PUCL said, “There was no trouble in the Yakutpura area", yet the "police entered in Minar Masjid falia, Patel falia-1 and Patel falia-2 and suddenly started breaking vehicles.”

By Our Representative The Campaign for Electoral Reforms in India (CERI), a network of NGOs working on electoral reforms and related issues, has put forward the demand which has been in air for quite for decades now. It wants proportionate electoral system (PES) to be implemented as the main cornerstone of electoral reforms in India. In Delhi, the event was organised at Mandi House, where activists formed a human chain. A CERI statement claimed, it had been “campaigning with this demand for the last seven years”, adding, “A similar human chain putting forward the demand was also formed in six other cities of India.”

By Our Representative Bowing to the pressure from voluntary agencies fighting for the cause of the deadly occupational disease, silicosis, mainly found among agate workers of Khambhat in Central Gujarat, the Gujarat government has finally agreed to pay up compensation to the family members of those who died because of it with effect from January 1, 2006. The decision sets aside the earlier announcement, made through a government resolution (GR) of January 2014, which said the compensation would be paid to the fatal victims of silicosis death with effect from January 1, 2014. However, the GR issued does not change the amount – Rs 1 lakh – despite representations.

By Our Representative The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has strongly condemned “arbitrary and illegal” detention of civil liberties activists and human rights defenders in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, on October 9, 2014 when they were trying to hold a press conference at the Civil Library, Vishakhapatnam, to announce a meeting on October 12 to protest against Operation Green Hunt. “The hostile and intimidatory action of the police was supported at the highest level in the state government”, said PUCL, adding, this was clear “when the Vizag police arrested five other human rights activists who had gone to the Camp Office of DIG, Vishakhapatnam Range, to bring to his notice the illegal arrests of their colleagues.”

By Our Representative Agreeing that it was impossible to work out a common strategy for farmers and pastoralists to fight for land rights, participants at a meeting of the International Land Coalition (ILC), a global alliance of civil society organizations, stressed on seeking “viable local solutions” to “rampant” privatization of land taking place in different countries of Asia in the name of setting up developmental projects. The meeting was held in a North Gujarat village in Bechraji taluka, Gopnaad, where land prices have zoomed by three to four times following the top car manufacturers, Maruti-Suzuki’s decision to set up shop about 25 kilometres away.

One of the Ahmedabad malls which closed down By Our Representative Are Ahmedabad’s malls, tom-tommed as an “example” of the city’s urban model, set to further lose their charm? It would seem so, if one goes by top industries body Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) report, which says that Ahmedabad’s malls has seen one of the highest declines in “footfalls” in India, next only to Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). As per an ASSOCHAM survey, Delhi-NCR recorded the highest decline in footfalls at city malls (49.5%) , followed very closely by Ahmedabad (48.2%).

By Our Representative In an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several top intellectuals and activists have strongly objected to the efforts to dilute the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), saying he should immediate intervene in the matter and the stop the move. Pointing towards several disturbing “impending moves” towards diluting MGNRGS, they said, any such effort would undermine the “support” being extended to the rural poor. In fact, according to them, any such dilution would mean setback “to crores of vulnerable rural families”.

% of municipal solid waste treated per day By Our Representative At a time Gujarat government expectedly went in massively into Swachh Bharat campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Gandhi Jayanti day, facts have come to light which show that the state is the worst performer when it comes to treating municipal solid waste (MSW). A Planning Commission report, prepared in May 2014, has said that while Gujarat’s urban development authorities may be collecting most of the MSW – 7,378 out of 8,336 tonnes per day (TPD) – they are able to treat just 118 TPD, which comes to a mere 1.57 per cent of the total collection.

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Ministry of Home Affairs has stubbornly refused to disclose the criteria for marking official records ‘Top Secret’, ‘Secret’ and ‘Confidential’. I demanded publication of the secretive Manual of Departmental Security Instructions (MoDSI) which contain the classification criteria and procedures under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) a few years ago and failed in my efforts. That rankles, as the Central Information Commission refused to order its disclosure, despite hearing strong arguments based on legal concepts and international practices in support of disclosure. However, the Department of Defence Production (DDP) of the Ministry of Defence has laid down the criteria for and procedure for classifying records as ‘Top Secret’, ‘Secret’ and ‘Confidential’ in a manual publicised in June this year for – believe it or not – private sector companies and firms that obtain licenses for producing defence-related commodities. One can access the Security Manua

A farmer who will lose his farmland, which includes mango orchard By Rajiv Shah In an important breather to farmers of Bhavnagar district of Gujarat protesting against the proposed nuclear power plant near Mithi Virdi on South Saurashtra coast, the Expert Appraisal Committee (Nuclear) of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has asked the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) to “revise” and “resubmit” its Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the project, as it lacks clarify on a large number of issues. The panel, simultaneously, criticized the NPCIL for an important delay – for taking three long years to submit proposal for environmental clearance following “site clearance” of the project by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB).

Villagers protest against proposed N-power plant By Krishnakant, Rohit Prajapati, Swati Desai* The summary record of the 17th Meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee (Nuclear), held to examine nuclear projects attracting Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, held on May 6, 2014 is now available. Our perusal suggests that it ignores some major points about the violation of the basic procedural norms while conducting the Environmental Public Hearing (EPH) on March 5, 2013 for the proposed 6,000 MW Mithi Virdi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) to be built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). We have earlier also stated that the EPH was illegal as it was held on the basis of an incomplete EIA report and had also serious anomalies; further, serious anomalies happened even during and after the EPH was held. The minutes of the EPH are not in the standard format as they are usually prepared. Instead, they read like a news report, with the proceedings summarized