To be a Theist or an Atheist

Twice now in a closed Facebook group in which I am a member we have had raging debates between theists and atheists. These debates were informed with very good facts and reasoning and served to clear up my own assumptions and reasons for choosing to be an atheist. I am putting these down here as they influence the way I work significantly.
Initially like most human beings I was conditioned into believing in the existence of God and praying to that entity to make my life enjoyable. However, after becoming an adult at the age of eighteen I began to think about the nature of this God because of reading the writings of various wise people both atheists and theists. Initially I followed more the writings of the monistic school of Indian philosophy and their postulation that there is only one supreme spirit that has manifested itself in a myriad ways in this world and it is should be the goal in life to spiritually become one with this spirit through meditation on the self. However, this came into conflict with the fact that such an individual enterprise would not allow me to work for ensuring justice for those who are suffering from livelihood problems. Spiritual practice is extremely difficult and requires full attention which does not allow one to work systematically in the material world. At least that was my experience. Therefore I took a decision at the end of my graduation from college not to pursue the path of spiritual transcendence and instead work for justice in the field. I continued to believe in the existence of a Supreme Spirit in the monistic traditon and read various monistic texts regularly.
Gradually, however, I found that this was creating a problem. Instead of the monistic belief in an aloof Supreme Spirit I began to slip into the common assumption that God is all powerful and can influence the goings on in the world in my favour if I prayed to that entity. I was praying not for any personal advancement but for success in my endeavours to get justice for those I was working with. This was a serious mistake. My failure to achieve justice for the Adivasis was due to the increasing power of Capitalism and there was no way in which this could be rectified by praying to God!!! Therefore at one go I decided to move away from monism which I was not practising anyway to a belief that there is no God or Supreme Spirit.
To buttress this new belief I began to read up on the scientific explanations for life on this planet and came upon the fact that this whole universe is governed by the play of chance. Every occurrence has a probability associated with it and in a totally scientific reasoning based on these probabilities, if they are known to us, it is possible to explain life to a great extent even if nothing is yet known about its origin. But since there is such a great play of chance it is very difficult to predict the future. Also since a cause and effect sequence dominates, it trains the mind to look for causes of one's failure and try to rectify them rather than pray to an entity for success. The concentration of the mind then is on enjoying one's activism regardless of its result over which one has limited control. 

Land Land everywhere but not for the Dalits and Adivasis!!

The National Confederation of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR) reports on a recent unique Long March conducted by Dalits and Adivasis in Madhya Pradesh demanding land -

Bhopal is the capital of India's centrally located state Madhya Pradesh, home to 15.6 percent of Dalits and 21.1 percent of Adivasis from the total population and totaling 26.6 million. Every fifth of the Adivasis and every seventh of the Dalits in the county live in Madhya Pradesh.

 On 9th June, 2013, thousands of Dalit-Adivasi men and women from all over Madhya Pradesh converged in the city's ShahJahani Park, about 1km from Bhopal Railway station. Adivasis marching under the banner of Adivasi Adhikar Andolan led by Dadulal Kole and Dalits under the banner of Rashtriya Dalit Mahasabha led by its General Secretary Sanjay Kumar Bharti joined together demanding from the Government the implementation of Land Reforms in Madhya Pradesh, enabling every land less - Dalit, Adivasi or of any caste and creed to get 5 acres of land.

Bhoomi Adhikar Yatra Converges on Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh in India!

Thousands of Landless Dalits and Advasis Demand Land for Livelihood and Dignity!!

 The Bhoomi Adhikar Yatra leaders had no media machinery, no laptop carrying middle or elite class activists supporting them. Leaders of this Yatra could neither read or write English - the main language of discourse, communication or propagation of thoughts of Indian Civil Society. But the Yatra evoked a good response and thousands of the Dalits and Adivasis and other landless people reached Bhopal demanding five acres land for all the landless people in Madhya Pradesh.

 It was interesting that most of the men and women who joined this Bhoomi Adhikar Yatra from its starting point at Hanumana in district Rewa  and reached Bhopal on 9th June fall short of speaking, reading or writing fluent Hindi, the state language of Madhya Pradesh. But this lack of command over Hindi or English was a non-issue for them. They knew only one thing, that they were land less and they declared their need and demanded land. Unlike underground movements and so called radicals, these Dalits, Adivasis and Landless and their representatives were clear about their expectation from the Government and they believed that it was the duty of the state to fulfill their demand of 5 acres of land. 

Bhoomi Adhikar Yatra, which Dalit-Adivasis launched and dared to walk by foot for the cause of land indicated their courage and determination. The Bhoomi Adhikar Yatra began on 1st January 2013 and covered more than 646 villages spread from Rewa on Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border, covering the whole Madhya Pradesh part of Bundelkhand and then to Vidisha, Raisen and finally the state capital Bhopal traversing more than 2200 kms.

Who Will Cut Indian Red Tape!!

The bureaucracy in India continually comes in for flak for being insensitive and rule bound to the point of idiocy. Well here is another example of their idiocy.
My wife Subhadra Khaperde got a notice one not so fine morning from the Income Tax Department Central Processing Centre at Bangalore that the self assessment return that she had filed for the Assessment Year 2009-10 of nil tax was wrong and that she would have to pay a tax of Rs 2790. This re-assessment was done on the basis that Subhadra was a MALE and not a FEMALE and so not eligible for the higher income deduction limit admissible for females for that year. When she filed a rectification request saying that she was a FEMALE and not a MALE she got a letter from the Assistant Income Tax Commissioner rejecting her request because her gender was written as MALE in the PAN database!!
Subhadra then filed an application to NSDL for rectifying her gender in the PAN database and this was acknowledged and a new PAN card was issued. She thought that things would now sort themselves out. However, she was mistaken because the next year for Assessment Year 2010-11 she once again got a notice from the Income Tax department in Bangalore saying that she would have to pay Rs 2230 as tax as she was a MALE according to the PAN database. No amount of letter writing would satisfy the Income Tax Commissioner that this was gross injustice on their part. So she once again applied for changing her gender in the PAN database to FEMALE and once again got an acknowledgement and a new PAN card. But lo and behold once again the next year for Assessment Year 2011-12 she got a notice to pay tax of Rs 2530 as she was still a MALE according to the PAN database!!! Now Subhadra has received another notice that the original tax demand for Assessment Year 2009-10 is still pending and so she must pay that or face penal action. This when Subhadra could easily not have filed an Income Tax Return because her income is less than the mandatory limit above which returns have to be filed. She files the returns because frequently there are allegations by the State against her that she is in possession of illegal funds with which she undertakes anti-social activities!!!
One is left wondering what kind of people are the staff in the Income Tax Department. Two of the four Assistant Income Tax Commissioners under whose signature these notices have been sent are women. Yet they cannot see that the name and photo are both of a woman and this is a farcical mistake being made by the Income Tax Department. The department makes the mistake and then expects Subhadra to pay the tax. This is bureaucratic obtuseness of the crassest kind. Subhadra has now sent the Income Tax Department a reply saying that they had better stop this black comedy or she would have no other option but to approach the National Women's Commission against this blatant gender harassment by the Income Tax Department.
This might seem like a small issue but it is symptomatic of the insensitivity and stupidity of the bureaucracy in this country where even senior bureaucrats whom you would expect to be more sensitive also act like patriarchal idiots. 

The Struggle Continues

“Narmada Jiwan Adhikar Satyagrah” of Thousands of Narmada Oustees in Bhopal from 10^th to 14 June

Five day fast of oustees in front of  the State Government

State must give alternative land and rehabilitation, or return the submerging land

Thousands of oustees of the Omkareshwar, Indira Sagar, Maheshwar, Man and Upper Beda dams who are facing repression, indifference, and large scale violation of their fundamental and constitutional rights at the hands of the State Government and the dam authorities for the last many years will sit in protest in Bhopal from the 10^th to 14^th June 2013 demanding alternative land and completion of their rehabilitation process. During this “Narmada Jeevan Adhikar Satyagraha” oustees and activists of the Narmada Bachao Andolan will keep a five day fast to invoke the conscience of the government, and compel it to act.

State government completely fails to rehabilitate and resettle the oustees

As per the Narmada Rehabilitation and resettlement policy, the oustees are required to be allotted a minimum of 2 ha. of land, and other grants and benefits. It was the finding of the Apex Court in its Order and judgment dated 11.05.2011 that the State Government did not give alternative land to any of the oustees, because of which only 11% of the oustees could purchase any land, and 89% of the oustees became landless, and that thus the State Government fully violated the R&R policy. In its judgment, the Apex Court directed that mandatorily, the oustees must be allotted a minimum of 2 ha. of land, or financially assisted to obtain the same, on their own.

However instead of complying with this judgment, last year the State Government started filling water in the Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar dams. However this was strongly resisted by the oustees, who sat on Jal Satyagraha preferring to drown but not move without proper rehabilitation and resettlement. As a consequence, in Omkareshwar, though not in Indira Sagar, the State government was forced to lower the water level and empty the lands. The State government also promised to allot lands as per the Order of the Apex Court, and constituted a Committee of three Ministers to look into the problems of the oustees.

In the last 8 months since Jal satyagraha, hundreds of oustees of Omkareshwar dam have returned the pittances that they were given by the way of compensation amounting to over Rs. 10 crores, and have asked for land. However in violation of the Orders of the Apex Court which has specifically prohibited the allotment of uncultivable and encroached lands, the State and the project authorities have shown only encroached and uncultivable waste lands. In many villages where the oustees were taken to see land, under the protection of gun toting guards, the oustees were beaten up by the encroachers and prevented from seeing the encroached lands. Similarly, no decision has been taken on the demand of the landless oustees for a grant of Rs. 2.5 lakhs for their livelihood.  Thus even 8 months after Jal Satyagraha, there has been no progress in the rehabilitation and resettlement of the oustees.

In Indira Sagar, also in 2012 the State illegally submerged hundreds of houses and hundreds of acres of land without rehabilitation and resettlement, in villages above 260 M, in disregard of the Orders of the High Court and the Supreme Court. In a case filed by the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the Supreme Court gave notice to the State Government in January 2013 to file its reply within 2 weeks. Five months have come and gone since, but the State is yet to file its reply.

In Maheshwar dam too, the private company building the dam has built the dam wall fully, but more than 85% rehabilitation is yet to be done. The State Government has admitted that this is so because only the company has persistently obstructed the release of funds for R&R, releasing only 27% till date. The Maheshwar project itself has also become unviable.

The tribals of the Maan and Upper Beda dams are also waiting for rehabilitation and resettlement for the last one decade. It is thus clear that the entire Narmada valley is in doldrums, because of the deliberate failure of the authorities to comply with their obligations. It is clear that the oustees will have to act unitedly and strongly to ensure the completion of R&R.

Profits of Rs. 3000 crores, but no money for the rehabilitation of the oustees

It is also note-worthy that while the government company – Narmada Hydro Development Corporation Limited (NHDC Ltd) building the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar dams has made Rs. 3000 crores in profits after taxes in the last few years from these two dams alone, it does not want to spend any money on the rehabilitation and resettlement of the oustees or implement the Orders of the Apex Court. It is thus clear that the rehabilitation of the oustees is deliberately not being done.

Give land and rehabilitation, or empty the dams

The thousands of oustees of the Omkareshwar, Indira Sagar, Maheshwar, Man and Upper Veda dams who are gathering in Bhopal demand that instead of perpetrating the fraud and farce of uncultivable and encroached grazing lands on them, the State Government should assist them to purchase a minimum of 2 ha. cultivable lands from other farmers, and that the landless families should also be given Rs. 2.5 lakhs each. In addition, the five villages of Dharaji belt in District Dewas which are in the submergence but are being forced to live in the death zone by the authorities, should be acquired and their residents rehabilitated and resettled. 

The oustees are demanding that if the State Government and the project authorities are not able to rehabilitate the oustees as per the R&R Policy, they should empty the dams, and return the lands to the people, and restore the Narmada to its original flow. With a strong resolve, the oustees are entering a new and decisive phase of struggle. Representatives from people’s organizations from all over the State will accompany the thousands of oustees from these five Narmada dams in their struggle for their rights.

  

Narmada  Bachao  Andolan
2, Sai Nagar, Mata Chowk,
Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh -450 001
Telefax : 0733 - 2228318
E-mail : nbakhandwa@gmail.com

And State Mendacity Continues

Over the years the Narmada Bachao Andolan has done a commendable job of exposing the depths to which the State can lie to be unjust to Adivasis. Here is another instance where the Madhya Pradesh Government has first tried to defraud Adivasis of their land to build a dam and then when faced with determined opposition has resorted to police repression to get its unjust way. The report below is by the Narmada Bachao Andolan. It is quite detailed but it fails to mention that the Government has also violated the provisions of the Panchayati Raj Act as applicable in Scheduled Tribal Areas where there has to be a consultation with the Gram Sabha before any project can be undertaken that involves involuntary displacement -

REPORT ON THE REPRESSION OF THE PEOPLE AFFECTED BY KHARAK DAM IN VILLAGE CHAUKHAND, DISTRICT KHARGONE, MADHYA PRADESH on 26^th May 2013

 TERROR IN THE VILLAGE:

At around 10.30 in the morning of the 26^th of May 2013, a cavalcade of four large police vans filled with around 150 male and female police personnel, and several cars and jeeps and a large machine for work on the dam-site headed by Shri Jitendra Singh, SDM, Bhagwanpura arrived at Village Choukhand, which is a village on the dam site of the Kharak dam proposed to be built on Kharak river in District Khargone, Madhya Pradesh. These villagers, all adivasis, Bhils and Bhilalas, as well as those of the accompanying villages had been resisting the construction of the Kharak dam, until they are rehabilitated and resettled, and their claims are justly settled. On that morning, as the cavalcade stopped at the village, many adivasi villagers went up to the administration to talk to them about the dam, and find out the reason for the police presence. The SDM was the first to emerge from his car, however he did not talk to the people or respond to their queries in any manner. The police force got down thereafter and grouped themselves in a single file. The SDM then ordered that the villagers should be arrested and put into the vans. At this, the police brutally lathi-charged the villagers. The villagers were chased all through the village. Those in their houses were not spared as the police personnel and the SDM himself went from house to house, dragging out people. Even the small children and any others who pleaded with the administration to talk to them were not spared. Women and small children, as also school going children were brutally beaten up. During the lathi charge, the police typically held the villagers close and then hit them on their heads with their lathis. As per the villagers, the skulls of a number of villagers who were then arrested, were cracked open. Women were also brutally beaten by the male policemen, lathis inserted into their clothes, and their clothes pulled, torn and dishevelled.  Many of the male police were carrying bottles of liquor, and they would alternately take swigs of the liquor, shout and beat the villagers. Many of the female police were also drunk. As per the reports of the villagers, the SDM himself donned khakhi uniform and a hat and lathi-charged the villagers along with the police.  A large number of men and women were arrested and taken to Bhagwanpura and from there onwards to Kharone where they were reportedly placed in judicial custody, after reportedly being charged under S.151 and 353 of the IPC.

Some of incidents narrated which showed the brutality of the police are as follows:

• Muliram s/o Bhadada, a youth from the village studying in Bhopal, beseeched the SDM saying Please do not beat us, please talk to our people. On hearing this, the police flung him on the ground saying how did you dare say this, and beating him mercilessly and dragging him on the ground, took him to the thana where he was arrested.
• Even visitors to the village were not spared. Nathu bhai from village Bhulwania who was visiting his daughter in Chaukhand was picked up and arrested, as was Geetabai from village Khapada who was visiting her relatives in Chaukhand, and who was dragged out of her host’s house and arrested.
• Banchabai of village Chaukhand who was inside her house with her two small children and a third suckling infant at her breast, was also hounded out of her house by the police, beaten and arrested.
• Tudpiabai Gangaram’s two young daughters Kalibai aged 9 years and Phulbai aged 13 years, who began to cry and cling to their father Gangaram who had been hit on the head in their presence and was being taken away by the police, were also brutally beaten up by the police with lathis. By the time of the night meeting, neither of the girls had spoken or eaten anything, one had not got up from her bed, and apart from the physical hurt and inflammation of their bodies, both of them were in deep trauma.

THE DAM AND THE LAND:

The Kharak dam is an irrigation project proposed to be built on the Kharak river at the border of Districts Khargone and Badwani in Madhya Pradesh. The project is slated to affect 7 villages of Districts Khargone and Badwani, namely, Juna Bilwa, Kaniapani and Choukhand in District Khargone, and villages Kamat, Kaniapani,  Julwania and Muvasia in District Badwani. The dam is yet to receive either statutory forest clearance under S.2 of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 or environment clearance under provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Yet work on the dam has been illegally started this year by the State Government. Challenged by the adivasis, it stopped two months ago, but was resumed once more after the police action on the 26^th of May 2013.

Acquisition for the project commenced in 2011 and 2012, and in July 2012, S.12 notices dated 27.07.2012 were given to some villagers, for payment of compensation under the Land Acquisition Act. However they were not given any copies of the awards which would allow them to challenge the award through references under S.18 of the LA Act in the courts. The people were told that they would be given their compensation in three installments, and if they did not take the money, they would have to forego it, and further they would be jailed and kept in jail, until the project was completed. Thus they were forced to take the compensation in an oppressive manner. These families of Choukhand and the other affected villages of District Khargone were compensated at the rate of Rs. 40,000 per acre, although reportedly, the Collector’s guideline for the village is Rs. 1,60,000 per acre for un-irrigated land and is Rs. 3,20,000 per acre for irrigated land. The actual market rates in voluntary sales are much higher. Much of this land is irrigated, which had been ignored while assessing compensation.

However around 150 families from the three Khargone villages including Village Chaukhand, who cultivated land through a common cooperative society since 1969 (through common patta dated 10.03.1969 and renewed by pavti dated 27.06.94) and whose cooperative society was disbanded in the late 90’s cultivate individual portions of these revenue lands, without title. The cultivators of the Khargone villages who are cultivating revenue lands without title have also been denied any form of compensation or rehabilitation, and were in fact told that they were not entitled for any rehabilitation. Many of the families who cultivated patta land in Village Chaukhand and the other Khargone villages also do not have their names inscribed on the pattas as Khatedars, as the land records were old, have not been updated, and does not reflect the actual cultivation status on the ground. These families were also denied any form of compensation. Persistent demands for the just settlement of their claims has not been met by the district administration.

All the four affected villages of District Badwani are under reserved forest, and the villagers there are cultivating forest land. The residents of the four villages of Badwani affected by the Kharak dam who cultivate forest lands and hold pattas for cultivation of forest land under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, and some of whose claims under the 2006 Act are also pending, were excluded from any form of compensation and rehabilitation, and have been expressly told that the Government is not required to give them any compensation.

The villagers in this area had united under the aegis of the Jagrut Adivasi Dalit Sangathan and had been agitating their issues for the last six months, and in the last two months stopped all work on the dam, until the issues related to settlement of land claims, compensation, rehabilitation, and grant of alternative land was settled. Leading activist of the organization, Ms. Madhuri Krishnaswamy  had been jailed ten 10 days ago in a case related to denial of health and birthing facilities for Adivasi women in Badwani, and is presently detained in Khargone jail. Evidently, the district administration of Khargone has found the moment and the absence of Madhuri opportune for cracking down on the Kharak dam affected adivasis.

The main findings of the team are as follows:

1.    The dam construction work is proceeding completely illegally, without the mandatory prior clearance under S.2 of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and environmental clearance under provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. The State Government must immediately stop all work on the project, and also discharge all tenders for the project.

2.    There was no provocation, or use of any form of verbal or physical violence by the villagers on the 26^th of May 2013. The villagers tried to talk to the officers about their problems but were repulsed. On the other hand, the administration and police deliberately planned a crack-down on the villagers in order to intimidate and terrorize the villagers and break their struggle for their rights. They came prepared for this purpose and executed their plan. The use of force on the villagers who were asking for the protection and grant of their legal rights is completely unjustified.

3.    The majority of the villagers have been willfully excluded from the compensation process, and their bonafide claims and legal rights on the revenue and forest land have not been considered.

4.    Thus, villagers cultivating government revenue lands without titles since 1984 have not been considered as Bhumiswamis under the provisions of Madhya Pradesh Krishi Prayojan Ke Liye Upyog Ki Rahi Dakhal Rahit Bhoomi Par Bhoomiswami Adhikaron Ka Pradan Kiya Jana (Vishesh Upabandh) Adhiniyam, 1984, under which all persons in cultivation of government land on 2^nd October 1984 were deemed Bhumiswamis under the Act. They have also not been considered for grant of Bhumiswami status for being in possession of government land, under notifications of the State Government in 1998, 2000, and 2002, for change of use of charnoi land to agricultural land.

5.    Claims under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 of many villagers cultivating forest lands are pending or are yet to be considered. No cognizance has also been taken of the families who have already received pattas under the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. Ousting of the adivasis before their claims are settled, or alienation of their forest land rights due to the project since the grant of land rights under the 2006 Act is not alienable under the Act, is in violation of Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

6.    Even those who have been compensated for their titled lands have been badly shortchanged, and compensation for their rich, black cotton soils, has been given at absurdly low rates and in a completely arbitrary manner, at rates which are only a fraction of the Government rates for the village and the market rates in the area. None of the villagers were able to file references under S.18 of the LA Act, in the district Courts to challenge the low rates of compensation, within 5 weeks time limit after receiving S.12 notices in July 2012. However, since they have not been given copies of the land awards as required as per judgment of the Supreme Court, this can still be done.

7.    There was no updating of the land records and settlement of claims even for the titled land despite demand by the villagers, resulting in numerous disputes in the village and among families.

8.    The State Government has not applied the State or National R&R Policy to the area or made any provision for the grant of alternative entitlements under any R&R scheme for the affected tribal population, despite ILO norms requiring land replacement for adivasis facing forced displacement.

9.    The State Government must immediately discharge the adivasi men and women from jail, remove the cases against them, punish the police and administration officials responsible for the unjustified use of force, apologize to the adivasis and also give them damages.  

10.     The State Government must speak to the adivasis and their organization, and meet the bonafide, lawful and just demands of the villagers for settlement of claims, compensation and R&R.

Team

A team of three persons Ms. Chittaroopa Palit, Dharamdas Lohare, social activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan and Ms. Santoshi, student visited Village Chaukhand on the night of the 26^th of May. Around 100 villagers gathered in a meeting at 10.30 at night in which they related the events of the day, and the back-ground of the issue. Police vans could be seen moving to and fro even during the meeting. The Adivasi villagers were very disturbed by the repression which had taken place, but were valiant, and said that they understood that the struggle for just settlement of their claims and for grant of alternative land was going to be a long haul, and they were prepared to fight for their rights. The names of the villagers who shared the events which forms the basis of this report are as follows:

1. Tudpiabai Gangaram, 2. Vairaiyabai Sakharam, 3. Karewtbai Jagdish, 4. Saklibai Chunnilal, 5. Nirma d/o Gampulal (student class XII), 6. Archana d/o Dinesh (student Class XI), 7. Kalibai Gangaram aged 9 years, 8. Kamlabai Masriya, 9. Gyanibai Sikram, 10. Kalibai Kalarsigh, 11. Vestabai Esram, 12. Shivram Tersingh, 13. Bhikla Ramlal, 14. Vimla Dhulsingh, 15. Ramdas Chattarsingh, 16. Champalal Mangilal.

Chittaroopa Palit                                                    

Dharamdas Lohare

Santoshi

28^th May 2013

Narmada  Bachao  Andolan
2, Sai Nagar, Mata Chowk,
Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh -450 001
Telefax : 0733 - 2228318
E-mail : nbakhandwa@gmail.com

Prison for Helping a Woman to Deliver a Baby

Madhuri, the activist of Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sanghatan has been arrested today afternoon, 16.5.2013, in a case in the Court of Shri D.P. Singh Sewach, Judicial Magistrate First Class in Barwani town of Madhya Pradesh. Madhuri, shown in the picture below and others had received a court notice to appear and was informed that the police had filed a closure report (khatma) in the case but the complainant had filed an objection to this and so the trial would have to proceed. Madhuri along with the other accused were offered bail by the magistrate but they refused saying that the case was a fabricated one and they would prefer to lodge their protest against such harassment by going to prison instead. Madhuri was then arrested from the court complex and remanded in Judicial Custody till 30th May 2013 and has been sent to Khargone women's Jail.

The details of the case are as follows: 
An Adivasi resident of village Sukhpuri, Barwani, Baniya Bai, was taken to the Menimata Primary Health Centre (PHC) for delivery by her father-in-law, Dalsingh, on the night of 11th November 2008. They made the 15 km journey on a bullock cart because no other transport was available. After admitting and taking a cursory look at her, the compounder, V.K. Chauhan, and nurse, Nirmala, left the PHC and went home. 
The next morning, Baniya was forced by the compounder and the nurse to leave the hospital. Her family was asked for Rs. 100, which they did not have and so Dalsing immediately went to get money from their village. Despite attempts to re-admit Baniya Bai to the PHC, the compounder flatly refused saying that they could not manage the delivery so she would have to go to Barwani District Hospital or Silawad Hospital. 
Baniya’s relatives tried to get the Menimata hospital compounder, nurse and staff to call for the Janani Express, which is a scheme of the government to provide transport to pregnant women to carry them to a hospital for institutional delivery, but were unsuccessful. The family was told to make its own arrangements to refer to a better hospital. When forced to leave the PHC, Baniya Bai crawled out of the labour room, on to the road outside the PHC, where she lay down in severe pain. 
Eventually, Baniya’s mother-in-law, Suvali Bai, went looking for a Dai or traditional birth attendant, in the marketplace and found Jambai Nana, who had come to the market to collect her wages. After hearing about Baniya Bai's situation, Jambai agreed to assist her, and at around 12PM, conducted a normal delivery on the road outside the hospital. The father-in-law gave his dhoti (loin cloth) to provide cover for Baniya Bai during delivery. Following this incident, a crowd gathered outside the health centre. 
Madhuri, who was passing by, inquired about what was happening. She then called up the Silawad Community Health Centre, the Silawad Police Station as well as health officials from Barwani. Upon being informed, senior officials from the health department ordered for a vehicle to be sent immediately to the Menimata PHC. After being denied emergency obstetric care and being forced to deliver in public view, Baniya Bai and her child were taken to the Silawad Hospital for admission. The compounder, Vijay Kumar was suspended after repeated demands for action against him for his negligence from the Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan, but was soon reinstated.
Not only that a case was filed against Madhuri, Baniya Bai's Husband, Basant and others on the complaint of the erring compounder and it was registered as First Information Report No 93 of 2008 under sections 353, 332, 147, 148 and 342 of the Indian Penal Code which deal with preventing a government servant from doing his duty, illegal assembly and wrongfully confining a person. The complaint was that the accused had forced a pregnant woman, that is, Baniya Bai, who was in a critical condition and was in labour, to deliver in full public view just outside the Menimata PHC instead of allowing the compounder to take her to a well equipped hospital. However, no action was taken in the case against the accused by the Police until in the course of things they filed a closure report, obviously because the case was a false one. It is pertinent here to mention that the Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan has been waging a long battle against the corruption and apathy of the bureaucracy not only in the health services but also in the education department and the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which has led to the termination of the services of many government staff who have been found to be guilty of defalcation of funds. There is tremendous local political and bureaucratic pressure on the Sangathan and especially on Madhuri and earlier too she has been served with notices for externment from the district and on one occasion a proposed mass rally of the organisation was violently opposed by the local politicians and bureaucrats. The filing of this false case against the Sangathan members has also been done due to the political pressure against it.
There are several serious issues that arise from this case:
First of all the pathetic state of health services that prevail in remote areas and the apathetic and cynical attitude of the skeleton staff who are present in these health centres despite the running of an ambitious scheme such as the Janani Suraksha Yojana to ensure institutional delivery.
Secondly this case of Baniya Bai is part of a writ petition filed in the High Court Of Madhya Pradesh, Indore Bench, in which this pathetic status of maternal health services was raised in the light of 29 maternal deaths recorded in a span of 9 months in Barwani District Hospital. Yet the magistrate in this case chose to ignore this whole issue and instead gave weight to the application filed by the complainant that the case should not be dismissed. This just goes to show how much the lower judiciary in this country is swayed by local political and bureaucratic pressure when it should be exercising an independent judicial mind to protect the rights of the oppressed.
Thirdly and most importantly what is the future of this country if activists and especially women activists like Madhuri, who are fighting for the rights of poor Adivasis are to be the victims of such brazen oppression from the corrupt and insensitive bureaucracy. 

- based on a report by Anubha Rastogi

An Amazon Rewarded

Here is a news report of an award to Dayamani Barla who has fought valiantly against the Government and Corporates in Jharkhand in the face of severe repression for the rights of her tribal community - 

Tribal rights activist Dayamani Barla who has been at the forefront of several mass movements in the past 15 years, including the campaign against Arcelor Mittal’s steel plant in Jharkhand, has been awarded the Ellen L Lutz indigenous rights award. Barla will receive the award from Cultural Survival, a Massachusetts-based non-profit organisation which supports the rights of indigenous people, at a ceremony at the Museum of the American Indian, in New York on 23 May.

“Her work makes a difference and impacts all of us by shaping hope and promise for the future — one story at a time, one protest at a time,” said the selection panel which sifted through a long list of nominees before picking the fiery Jharkhand land rights activist. Barla’s life story is one of extraordinary determination and achievement in the face of crushing poverty. Barla who belongs to the Munda tribe in Jharkhand saved on her small income as a housemaid to complete a Master’s degree. She later entered journalism, becoming the first Adivasi woman journalist from Jharkhand. For her writing, she won the Counter Media Award for rural journalism in 2000. She funds herself by running a small restaurant in Ranchi.

Dayamani Barla, a rousing voice against displacement, is also an outspoken critic against the injustices Adivasi communities face. Image credit: Cultural Survival.

Much to the vexation of corporate houses and government officials, Barla has succeeded in upending their best-laid plans through peaceful Gandhian protests which have draw masses. She has been jailed on several occasions for tenuous reasons; once for nearly two months because of leading a protest that caused a roadblock in 2006. But threats, jail time, and a slew of cases and warrants against her haven’t broken her resolve to oppose the displacement of tribals. In 2008, the BBC forecasted that for Arcelor Mittal, Barla would prove to be as much trouble as Mamata Banerjee had been for Tata Motors in West Bengal. Sure enough, Barla’s spirited campaign against ArcelorMittal’s proposed steel plant in Gumla-Khunti, in Jharkhand has now forced the company to relocate to Bokaro. Arcelor Mittal wanted to invest $8.79 billion to set up one of the world’s biggest steel plants in the largely tribal dominated forest area. The steel project required 12,000 acres of land and a new power plant which would have displaced 40 villages in Jharkhand.

Barla’s group, the Adivaasi, Moolvaasi, Astitva Raksha Manch fought the move tooth-and-nail. They successfully convinced villagers not to negotiate with the steel-maker because apart from causing massive displacement, the project would have destroyed the forests in the area, contaminated water sources and hurt the ecosystem. The same reasons propelled Barla to fight the Koel Karo dam project. Miranda Vitello, development assistant, at Cultural Survival said India’s land rights activist edged out over 50 nominees to win the Ellen L Lutz award which comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

www.firstpost.com

The Contradictions of Modern Development

On Sunday, 5th May 2013, four Bhil tribals from the village of Mathwad died when the bus they were travelling on overturned in a difficult hilly portion of the road to their village and fell 20 metres into the valley. These people were sitting on top of the bus as it was overcrowded with people returning from the weekly market in Chhaktala village. Fifty other people both men and women have been injured, some of them seriously. The bus caught fire after falling into the ditch but fortunately by that time all the passengers had been evacuated. And on this tragedy hangs a tale of the contradictory nature of modern development.
When I first came to the Mathwad region in 1985 the first joke I heard was that the road from Alirajpur to Mathwad had been blackened with a macadamised top quite a few times on paper but it still retained the mutiple colours of a mud road because the funds had been siphoned off to colour the pockets of the contractors, bureaucrats and politicians. The lack of a proper road meant that not only was there no public transport but that higher level administrators also could not visit the area frequently because it was difficult to reach by jeeps also. The mobilisation of the KMCS first put pressure on the administration and the government to visit the area and also do something to develop the roads. However, thirty years later the road to Mathwad still remains untarred and the only difference now is that it has been given a stone top in preparation for macadamisation.
Since the road still takes a heavy toll on a vehicle that travels on it regularly there is only one bus that does two trips a day from Alirajpur to Mathwad. It is a ramshackle bus that frequently breaks down. Obviously it was in no shape to take the heavier load that was there on sunday with many people sitting on the top of the bus along with the stuff they had bought from the market. In fact even in the plains part from Alirajpur to Chhaktala there are an insufficient number of buses plying compared to the people travelling and so there are many jeeps that ply illegally and are also overloaded as in the picture below.

Thus, even on plain roads there are accidents sometimes and the poor Bhil tribals who are seen clinging on in the above picture get seriously injured or even die. There are strict legal provisions to prevent this kind of overloading and the police are supposed to implement them. However, the police look the other way after taking a bribe and allow such blatant violations to continue. The problem is that if the jeep owner in the picture above or the bus owner in the case of the bus that overturned in Mathwad were to seat only the regulation number of passengers then there operation would not be profitable. Just the economic costs of running the vehicle are so high that the fare that they would have to charge from the limited number of passengers would be exorbitant. That is why throughout the world public transport has to be subsidised. If it is not then the private operators have to resort to overcrowding to stay afloat and earn a profit.
Even with roads it is the same problem. They cost the earth to build, especially in hilly areas like Mathwad. The government does not have the resources to build good roads and of course there is the ubiquitous problem of siphoning off of funds by corrupt officials. The government does not have funds because it cannot mobilise enough taxes from the people who are mostly poor. Since all economic activities require subsidies to make them profitable obviously those who are economically more powerful grab most of the government funds and the Bhils get the least whether it is in terms of roads, transport, health or education.
All this brings the whole project of modern development under a cloud. Even its economic costs are very high even if we do not count the environmental and social costs. Those engaged in economic activities within this paradigm from the lowest jeep owners to the highest corporation chief executive officers are all bribing the regulators to allow the cutting of or total neglect of costs so as to make a profit. Thus, if modern development is to be pursued then we must also be prepared to accommodate corruption and thievery and the disasters that arise from these.
Even though on  vastly different scales altogether the overturning of the bus on the road to Mathwad is a manifestation of the same cost cutting and lack of regulatory oversight that led to the Bhopal Gas and the Fukushima Nuclear disasters.

Love and Its Management

According to Gerda Lerner the feminist historian who has done extensive field as well as archival research on the origins of patriarchy in the transition between the paleolithic and neolithic era, the control of women's sexuality by men precedes the emergence of private property. The later paleolithic era was one in which the homo sapiens sapiens species had developed leaving all other varieties of homo sapiens to become extinct and it did so by living in small tribes which controlled their territory for hunting and gathering. Frequently there were clashes between tribes over territories and in such cases the winning tribes used to abduct members of the losing tribe. This was because given the low life expectancy at that time of about 25 years of age, procreative human beings were the most important resource for any tribe. However, since the level of technology at that time did not allow men to be held captive over long periods of time, it was the practice to capture women instead and then make them pregnant through continuous raping over a period of a month or two and so render them incapable of fleeing.
With the advent of the neolithic revolution and the development of farming and livestock rearing, surpluses began to be accumulated and private property emerged. This made it imperative for men to know who their children were so as to be able to pass on the accumulated private property. Thus, the relatively free sexual relations between men and women of the later paleolithic era gave way to the institution of marriage and the further chattelisation of women. Consequently, marriage institutionalised the control of female sexuality and outlawed female independence. With time the institution of marriage has become more and more claustrophobic as far as women are concerned dooming most of them to giving birth to and rearing children in large numbers to ensure the continuance of the human race.
Tribal societies in India without exception are patriarchal and there is tremendous control of female sexuality in them. Even if there are greater instances of pre and extra marital sex in such societies as compared to the caste societies in India ( Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities in India are all caste ridden and so irrespective of the religion all non-tribal communities can be deemed to be caste societies), this is strictly controlled and severely punished if it becomes known even in tribal societies.
This long preamble has been necessitated in order to critique a tendency among the media in recent times to portray the Bhil tribal society as an exception to this all round male control of female sexuality, not so much to try and eulogise the supposed freedom of its women but to give a yellow and risque colour of free love to their culture. The Bhils of Jhabua, Alirajpur, Dhar, Dewas, Khargone, Khandwa and Barwani districts celebrate many festivals. The most important is Bhagoria, which is celebrated just before the Hindu festival of Holi in spring. This festival is a celebration of the harvest and a thanksgiving to nature as also a supplication to their Gods for more such harvests in the future. Men and women and especially the adolescents and young adults visit the weekly markets on the market days and partake in communitarian dancing and singing as shown in the picture below. So for a week before Holi by turns there are huge colourful turnouts of Bhil men and women in the weekly market villages and towns enjoying themselves in a celebration of song and dance.

Now among the Bhils there is a practice among adolescent boys and girls of eloping instead of waiting for their parents to decide a match for them. Thus, throughout the year boys and girls decide to elope with each other and they do so during the festivals also, including the Bhagoria festival. However, the proportion of such elopements is miniscule as compared to the total number of marriages in Bhil society because when such elopement does take place then the boy's family has to pay an extra premium above the bride price which may at times exceed the latter. Therefore, families generally discourage their marriageable age children from eloping and instead pro-actively arrange for them to be married through kinship connections. 

But disregarding this strict patriarchal control of love among the Bhils, the media has portrayed the Bhagoria festival continually as a love festival in which the boys and girls who are dancing together as in the picture above are doing so to select their partners as a prelude to eloping with each other in large numbers at the end of the day. This despite the fact that to this day there is not a single video in the public domain of any such couple fleeing together from the Bhagoria festival. It is also said that the Bhagoria festival has got its name from the Hindi word "Bhaagna" which means to flee. This is yet another preposterous fiction as the Bhil language does not have any such word. In fact the name Bhagoria comes from the village Bhagor in Jhabua district where this festival first began to take on a regional flavour rather than being restricted to being celebrated only in the villages as in the case of other Bhil festivals.

To give an idea of how tightly love and marriage are controlled in Bhil society here are two real life stories of what actually happens. A girl from Kanthari village of Alirajpur district, whose sister was already married to a boy in Vakner village, decided to elope with another boy from Vakner village while they were both working as migrant construction workers in Gujarat. The boy and the girl came back to the boy's village and then the family of the boy sent word to the girl's family that their daughter had now become their family member. A whole group of people, all males, from Kanthari village came to Vakner to resolve the issue. Traditionally in such cases the two parties sit at a distance from each other and negotiations are conducted by go-between people called "Vatars" to arrive at a consensus. The Kanthari people said that since the boy had eloped with the girl without prior information to the girl's family or going through a negotiated marriage, so the boy's family would have to pay a premium and demanded one lakh rupees in toto. The boy's family responded by saying that they would pay only rupees twenty thousand. This angered the Kanthari males no end and in typical patriarchal fashion they said this was an insulting economic devaluation of their honour. They got up and immediately began beating up the go-between who happened to the Sarpanch or the elected Village Council head of Vakner. It was only after the Sarpanch's wife and sundry other people intervened that the Sarpanch was rescued but by that time he had been severely beaten up requiring hospitalisation. The Kanthari men in the meanwhile boarded their jeep and fled from the scene. The people of Vakner phoned the office of the Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath in Alirajpur to complain about the Kanthari people's violent behaviour. The activist in the office in Alirajpur then phoned the police outpost in Chhaktala village which is on the return route to Kanthari from Vakner and the police  apprehended the Kanthari men on their way back and put them in the lock up where they had to cool their heels as well as their tempers. So finally the Vakner men also reached the police outpost in Chhaktala the next day along with the Sarpanch of Kanthari. Eventually the dispute was resolved with the Vakner boy's family paying rupees forty thousand as bride price cum premium to the Kanthari girl's family and now everything is hunky dory.

In another incident the veteran Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath activist Khemla's daughter too eloped with a non-tribal mason while working as a construction worker in Gujarat. The mason's family said that they would not pay any bride price because in their caste it is the girl's family that pays the dowry. While Khemla was amenable to this, his brothers and larger kin group were not. They said that they would not only take the bride price but also the premium because the mason had married their niece without their prior consent. So Khemla's daughter did not return from Gujarat and preferred to stay there with her husband. This angered Khemla's brothers even further and they went in a jeep to search for their niece at Khemla's expense even though Khemla himself did not go. They returned empty handed as Khemla's daughter and her husband had fled from their residence being forewarned by Khemla. But even to this day Khemla's daughter who is now the mother of two children after more than six years has not been able to return to Alirajpur due to the intransigent patriarchal stance taken by her uncles and the larger kin group.

Control of women's sexuality through marriage is a fundamental aspect of patriarchal oppression and it is very much there among the Bhils also. To ignore this and portray  the Bhagoria festival as a love riot and the Bhils as a society of elopers smacks of the yellow trivialisation that has now become a hall mark of most journalism these days.

Mumbai's Water Needs versus the Livelihoods of Tribals

Fresh water supply to the Mumbai-Thane-Navi Mumbai mega conurbation has now come into conflict with the livelihoods of the tribals of the neighbouring regions. As many as eight dams are slated to be built on rivers in the Western Ghats and in the process valuable flora and fauna will be submerged along with the livelihoods of thousands of tribals who have been living in this area for centuries. These tribals have now gone to court but such is the power of the rich people of Mumbai that the Government of Maharashtra is preparing to bull doze its way to constructing these dams disregarding the law clearly laid down in the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forestdwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act 2006 that the Village Council of the tribal villages has to be first consulted and their rights to the land settled before they can be displaced. A report by Meenal Tatpati on the situation prevailing in the submergence zone of the dam being built on the Kalu River in Murbad Tehsil of Thane district clearly brings out the injustice -

In the latest minutes of the Forest Advisory Committee a small paragraph titled Agenda Item No. 4 highlights a dam on the river Kalu in Murbad Taluka of Thane District. It talks about the submergence of 18 villages, a “comprehensive” rehabilitation package of 68.75 crore being sanctioned and goes on to recommend the project for clearance. What the paragraph does not reveal however, is, the huge socio-economic and cultural impact that a dam diverting 999.328 ha of forest land has already had on the ecology and the people, close to 18,000, who stand to lose their land, forests and livelihood.

ANTI-DAM SLOGANS ON THE WALLS OF THE HOUSES IN MURBAD

The Forests and its people

Murbad is a part of the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats. Many threatened species of fauna and flora and a rich biodiversity have made ecologists recommend it as an Ecologically Sensitive Area. It is also home to the Thakar, Mahadeo Koli and Katkari tribal communities, known for their dependence and intricate links with the forests. The forest here provides shelter, livelihood and sustenance. Produce from Mahua, Tendu, Palas, Mango and Jamun trees is bartered and sold in weekly markets. The forests have a dense cover of Aain, Khair, Kandhol and Khevada trees. Several medicinal plants and wild edible vegetables are also sourced. The streams and rivers provide fish and crabs and water to drink throughout the year. Bibi Pandurang Wakh of Pejwadi hamlet says, “The jungle here provides everything. Even during droughts its bitter tubers sustained us. If the dam comes, our rightful land will go. How will we survive? Where will we take our children and go?”

MAHUA FLOWERS              TUBERS FROM THE FOREST                        FISHING EQUIPMENT

The tribal communities have made utmost use of the village land having planted trees like Mango, Jackfruit, Banana, and Cashew. On their small farmlands, they grow pulses and vegetables, selling them at the local markets.

BAMBOO WORKS

Besides being a rich resource base, the forests have tremendous socio-cultural significance. At Chasole, a village close to the Dam site, is an ancient temple, complete with hero stones. This temple will submerge under the dam waters. The archaeological significance will be lost. So will several sacred groves in villages that are slated to lose their forests.

THE SACRED GROVE AT KHARPATWADI AND THE HATKESHWAR TEMPLE IN CHASOLE WILL BE SUBMERGED

Illegal and unscrupulous attempts of the project proponents

The locals found about the project when JPC’s and dumpers arrived at the dam site, cut thousands of trees and excavated huge quantities of soil to begin building the dam wall. After repeated pleas to the contractors to stop the work failed, the local villagers sought the help of Shramik Mukti Sanghatna, a local organization working for tribal welfare in the region. An RTI filed by the Sanghatna revealed a tangled web of manipulation of laws and unethical tactics being used by the project proponents to further this project.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dweller’s (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006; an Act enacted to “redress historical injustice” meted out to tribals and forest dependent communities has not been implemented in the area. The Act provides that no forest dependent community can be evicted from forest land under their occupation till their rights under the Act are recognized and verified. It also provides for rights to be recognized over community forests and resources. These rights have not been recognized.

The locals had not been given prior information about the proposed dam. Being a tribal area, consultations with the gram sabha regarding the project as stated under PESA were conveniently sidelined by the project proponents. The construction of the dam began in late 2010, without forest clearance. The project proponents also engaged in direct land deals with some tribal families which is illegal under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code. This was done with total secrecy, and the soil required to build the dam was excavated from this land.

In June 2011, the Sanghatna filed a PIL in the Mumbai High Court against the project proponent on the basis of the issue of forest clearance. Meanwhile, the construction of the dam continued, amidst protests and dharnas by the project affected. The proposal was sent for FAC clearance only in August 2011. The project proponents used various tactics of coercion and threats to break the strong opposition to the dam, offering money to the landless and creating chasms within the community. However, people continued to oppose the dam, and in March 2012, the Mumbai High Court stayed the construction of the dam. By this time, 20% construction of the dam wall was already complete.

THE KALU RIVER

THE FORESTS OF SHISEWADI

Facing Displacement

These life-giving forests stand to disappear if the project is eventually completed. Also slated to disappear is the tribal whose identity is intricately linked with this forest. They will be lost, as statistics, a displaced population.

The rehabilitation plan announced by the district authorities provides about Rs 6 lakh to each affected family. The official figure of affected people is pegged at about 3000. This has been calculated without conducting either an EIA or a Social Impact Assessment (made mandatory by the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2007). Sangathan activists and locals say that about 40-42 hamlets will be affected, some whose land will submerge, some whose forests. Only 50% of the people in the affected villages own land, which means that half the population depends on the forests for sustenance. If the forests disappear, so do the people who depend on it. The actual figure of affected individuals is about 18,000! This is only the backwash effect of the actual dam. The water will be supplied to Navi Mumbai, about a 100 km away, in canals and piplelines, affecting thousands of villages downstream as well. But the proposal has no comments on this.

12 gram sabhas passed resolutions rejecting the project. They neither want the dam, nor the rehabilitation money.
Nausa Shiva Waghe of Shisewadi revealed the flaw in the way rehabilitation packages in our country are planned. When asked why they do not want to take the money offered and leave, he said, “What will we do with the money? It is never enough. Money comes, alcohol enters, vehicles enter and then the money goes!”

A rehabilitation package that only provides money completely misses the point. The displaced population is completely alienated, not just from their material source of livelihood but also from cultural and knowledge. Monetary assessment of these values is dehumanizing. The locals here will face loss of identity which money will not be able to restore.

THE KALU RIVER BED WITH THE DAM WALL IN THE BACKGROUND

The future

After rejecting the proposal in April 2012, the FAC in its latest meeting on 4th April has recommended the project for clearance with certain “conditions”. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra has repeatedly stated in his letters to the Ministry of Environment and Forests that the project is of vital importance to Mumbai’s water supply needs. As it expands in size and population, land, water and resources from surrounding areas will continue to be absorbed into this metropolis to feed and shelter its increasing population. Thousands of people along the banks of the rivers that are slated to provide water to Mumbai and other cities stand threatened to be dispossessed, stripped off their land and livelihood, their forests and their rivers. They do not figure in the decision making process making this a short-sighted and incomplete attempt at providing the need of one section of the society without taking into consideration the needs of the other. The Kalu Project is just one of 8 projects slated to come up in this area. On the Kalu itself, a hydroelectricity project is under construction upstream in Malsejh Ghat in Pune District. The geological sensitive nature of the Kalu basin being coupled with absolute disregard of the provisions of cumulative impact assessments of dams in this region will prove dangerous to the ecological and geological stability of the area. A complete socio-cultural and economic impact assessment of such projects, coupled with a biodiversity assessment done by independent agencies is a requirement that cannot be sidelined in such projects.
Meanwhile in Murbad, the people’s struggle will continue.