The Ground Report India - 2009 December Edition PDF

Ground Report India (GRI) December 2009
GRI - December 2009 3
Cover Reports 3
The future of journalism. Or: why journalism is not “media” 3
Copenhagen climate summit Strong mood against capitalism - and its police force 4
Obama Announces Troop Surge - Bellingham Residents Hit the Streets! 6
International 8
International PEN calls Liu Xiaobo’s sentence a grievous betrayal of inalienable human rights 8
European Court: Landmark Ruling on Racial and Religious Exclusion 8
Rebooting journalism -- study, report experiments in Seattle, Jan. 7-10 9
Reports 11
Mystery: Which public authority has CIC Selection papers -- PMO, DOPT or Parliament Secretariat? 11
Water, Yes, but at 10 times the cost 13
CIC Selection: Govt of India gives evasive answer to Legal Notice 15
An article on Conflict between Naxals and the State 16
A protester - farmer (SC) was brutally killed by Bangladeshi intruders in Indian land in connivance with BSF 17
Minors were tortured inhumanly by the protectors of the land 18
Addressing Governance Issues through an Adivasi lens 19
Surojit Mondal, a minor, Scheduled Caste boy tortured & killed 20
Joint Force in West Midnapur engaged with WAR against the civilian 21
HUMAN RIGHTS DAY OBSERVED TO CARRY FORWARD THE PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT IN GUJARAT 23
The legacy of CTA in the present context 24
A new Initiative about 26/11 - Self Defense, Community Protection & Attitude Building 27
DANTEWADA PADYATRA, SATYAGRAH AND JAN SUNWAI 27
TALK ON MATERIALISM SPIRITUALISM AND SHRAMA DHARMA (MSMT) 29
IMPACT OF “DINAKARAN” ON JUDICIARY’S IMAGE 30
Two SUSANTA BISWAS Documentaries got International Festival selection in 2009 31
MID-DAY: Manmohan gets a legal notice on CIC Selection 31
Community Rallies Against Coca-Cola, Demands Climate Justice 32
RETIRED FROM RED TAPE, BABUS NOW SEEK TO RULE INFO WORLD 33
PURPOSE OF THE BRIEFING ON ARMED FORCES SPECIAL POWERS ACT 35
Can common people be helped facing predicaments to take on the might of the Mighty BMC to get justice 35
www.groundreportindia.com 1
Repeal the anti-constitutional SEZ Act, 2005 36
WORLD DISABLED DAY :: AWARD FOR SELF EMPLOYED DISABLED PERSONS 37
‘CONSPIRACY AGAINST INDIAN MILITARY’ 38
Columns 40
HAS THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN INDIA NOW REACHED DEAD END ? WHY NOT GO FOR PASSIVE
RESISTANCE? 40
SECOND INNINGS – REBIRTH OF ELDERLY PEOPLE 41
PERMISSIVE LIFE STYLE RAPIDLY FALLING VALUE SYSTEMS IN SOCIETY 42
Open letter on Natural & Renewable Energy and Nuclear Energy 43
LISTEN TO THE MUSLIM WOMAN’S VOICE: by Zakia Soman 44
Nehru’s birth anniversary Matter of integrity: When Nehru & Patel competed over sacrifice 46
The bora community in kumaon himalayas 47
About Ground Report India 49
Publication Policies: 49
Email Policies: 50
Disclaimer: 50
GRI - December 2009
Cover Reports
The future of journalism. Or: why journalism is not “media”
We have to accept that industries fail. It happens everywhere, and all the time. Detroit is kaput: we saw it coming, and we all know
now.
And it made good copy.
Manufacturing went to China and India. There were blue collar casualties. We saw it coming, and it made good copy.
Did we cry? Did we bother? Did we care?
Then the banks failed. We didn’t see it coming. But it made good copy still.
Did we cry? Did we care? Oh yes we did! In no time, billions of taxpayers’ dollars were thrown at the problem.
To try and make it go away. Unlike everything else, the banking sector was considered “too important to fail.” If what you did was
“systemic” enough, abundant funding was made available. Overnight if necessary.
Now our own industry is failing, and we feel it is failing us.
Pulp press products are going kaput, and selling our audiences’ attention to advertisers is a failing proposition. We saw it coming, we
all know now, and it does make good copy.
Did we cry? Did we bother? Did we care?
Oh yes we did. Studies, task forces, committees, conferences, serious navel gazing, books and grave op-ed articles galore: we saw it
coming, and we did care.
But why care? Why care indeed?
We confounded journalism with “media.” “Media” is going the way of Detroit; journalism isn’t.
Incumbent media structures turned out to be too big, too slow, and too much one-way. Too much focused on “bottom lines,”
ownership, walled gardens, and proprietary infrastructures.
Old media was too much focused on shareholder value, and on incessantly selling eyeballs to third parties.
Did we really think this was sustainable?
“Media“ knew how to speak. And speak it did. But it didn’t learn to listen.
Now, on the internet, the people formerly known as the audience are learning to speak for themselves. And they listen to each other.
They tag, they twitter and share what they feel is important. They create their own channels, tools and platforms. It is a civic debate, it
is not media selling attention to products.
Media’s worth has been predicated on extrinsic values:

“Quarterly profits,” or, more recently: “quarterly losses,” are categories we use to measure media. Journalism must be measured
differently. We confound media with journalism.
The umbilical cord once connecting media and journalism is becoming toxic. Media is trying to abort journalism, and journalists
should seize the opportunity and leave the hostile womb.
Let media look at its shareholder value, and let it perish in the process. Maybe, meanwhile, it will spawn new Paris Hiltons.
(Then again, Paris Hilton might just single-handedly save the whole eyeball industry once she marries Brad Pitt.)
Media may be a dinosaur. But journalism will be alive and kicking as long as it addresses issues of real relevance. Ideally, it enables,
moderates, and curates our civic dialogue.
Journalists will survive if they are conducive to the public good.
That they can, and should, make a difference to society is why they joined the profession in the first place. (It’s also why journalism
schools keep on attracting a large number of students.)
So journalism got all tangled up with media?
It is not a historic necessity anymore. Publishing tools, and platforms to publish on, no longer need ownership, or copyrights. There is
an ever-increasing wealth of content out there. But all that new content is in dire need of “moderation,“ of perspective, and criticism.
It needs professional and dedicated journalistic work, a meta-commentary, if you like, for it to cohere and make sense. Journalists will
have to enable their audiences to find and articulate their own voices, they will have to share their “media literacy,” and even their
writing and producing skills, with their readership.
So what if journalism were “systemic” to modern societies, what if it is “too important to fail”?
Let’s forget the “media” business model. Let’s find new ways to make journalistic work sustainable. A one-time levy on all internet
enabled devices would do the trick. So would a special rate the Google keyword algorithm allots to all “systemic” content on the web.
So would new ways of distributing the public broadcast service fees. Or what if, due to its systemic value, journalism is able to receive,
let’s say, one hundredth of a percent of all that bail out money going to the banks. You go and figure out how much that is, what with
the current estimate of the cost of the crisis amounting to 25 trillion dollars.
The future is the decisions we take today.
So let’s talk, listen, network and share. We have some convincing to do. And a long way to go. Nobody said this was easy.
Source:
Wilfried Ruetten
European Journalism Centre
--------------------------
Copenhagen climate summit Strong mood against capitalism - and its police force
Copenhagen Summit
The climate demonstration in Copenhagen on 12 December, with over 100,000 participants, was the biggest climate protest ever. It
had a strong anti-capitalist character. "We chanted ‘Climate Justice’ and ‘Save the planet - smash the system - whet we need is
socialism’. People along the demo applauded us and we sold many papers and other material," reported CWI members.
The demo also showed extreme police brutality against almost 1,000 demonstrators.
We thought the demonstration would be big. Many people we met the week before said that all their friends would be going. Over
100,000 took part, a breakthrough for the climate movement. Simultaneously, there were 3,000 demonstrations around the globe.
While the so-called world leaders at the UN summit can only fail, this rank and file movement has huge potential to grow.
Demonstrators from Friends of the Earth, dressed in blue, conducted a "flood" with thousands of people. There was also a giant
snowman from Greenpeace, lifebuoys from Oxfam, kangaroos, sumo wrestlers and polar bears. Parties with contingents included,
apart from RS/CWI, the Danish Red-Green Alliance (Unity List), Socialist People´s Party and the French NPA, plus some communist
parties. The demo was dominated by yellow and black placards from the organisers, saying ”Save the planet not the profit”, ”There is
no Planet B”, ”Blah Blah Blah – Action Now” and ”Nature doesn't compromise”.
The mood, both of activists at the People's Climate Summit and ordinary citizens was remarkably anti-capitalist. The slogan of the
People's Climate Summit was: ”System change not climate change”. Members of CWI Sweden were there for a week beforehand and
CWI stalls around the city attracted many new people.
Our petition, saying that big business are the climate criminals, arguing for socialist democratic planning globally and for
nationalisation of the top 500 multinationals, quickly filled with names. At the demo, we just said "sign against capitalism". Even BBC
world news reported the "disbelief" against capitalism in the massive demonstration on Saturday. That mood is strengthened by the
fact that politicians at the UN summit are also responsible for cuts and unemployment.
One speaker at the demo was Ian Terry from the Vestas workers on the Isle of Wight in Britain where 400 green jobs have been cut.
The notice of closure of this factory, producing wind power carbines, was met by an 18-day long workers’ occupation this summer.
At the People's Climate Summit, activists from around the world met. Author Naomi Klein said, in front of a television camera,
that”capitalism can't solve what capitalism has created”. She also criticised those who treat Obama with kid gloves on this issue.
While capitalism was criticised, however, few people put forward a real alternative to replace capitalism. The CWI did. One of our
banners said”Socialist Planning Needed”. We stress that capitalism and its 'market failures' are products of an economic and political
system that is run in the multinationals’ interests. Socialism would mean a new economic and social system, owned and run collectively
by workers and the poor, with a new political democracy, checked and controlled from below. The interests of the climate, nature and
all human beings would be to the forefront.
The police arrested close to 1,000 demonstrators. Peaceful demonstrators were handcuffed on their backs for six hours (read the
witness reports below). Of those 1,000, only three have been charged with anything.
Karin Wallmark, one of 40 CWI members arrested at the demo, reports: "Everything in the demonstration changed when a crowd of
policemen ran out of an alley and blocked the road in front of us. We stopped and stayed calm, wanting to avoid provoking them. We
understood that the police as well as some media would see any further violence as a confirmation of the correctness of the massive
police presence in Copenhagen and the new antidemocratic "hooligan laws" introduced before the summit. But our being completely
peaceful and innocent did not stop the police from carrying out their attacks."
RS and the CWI started an immediate defence campaign, including phone calls from Joe Higgins, Socialist Party (CWI Ireland) MEP
to the Copenhagen police. Most CWI members were released around midnight, with their fighting spirit intact despite back pain,
hunger and tiredness. We contacted the media and the demo organisers, checked with legal experts and organised a protest press
conference.
We will now press charges against the police, alongside a political campaign on both the climate issue and the police attack. Those in
power in governments and the state apparatus are siding with big business, supporting their right to continue destroying the planet at
the expense of fundamental democratic rights.
CWI members in Copenhagen have sold over 700 copies of our climate resolution in Swedish and English and have a lot of interested
people to follow up. The need for a socialist climate movement is urgent, underlined by the events in Copenhagen.
Press conference in Copenhagen
On Sunday, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI Sweden) organised a well-visited press conference about the Danish police's assault on
peaceful demonstrators. Arne Johansson of RS spoke alongside Tord Björk, from Friends of the Earth Sweden, and Johanna Paulsson
leader of another Swedish environmental organisation. Both those organisations also had members arrested at the demo.
Tord Björk sharply criticised the Danish police and the new 'hooligan law'. He also criticised the organisers for ignoring the risk of
such a police attack.
"We will take the Danish police to justice. For no reason, they sabotaged the rights of 968 demonstrators to have their say in this issue,
which is decisive for the future of the entire planet. We have seen an unacceptable use of an unacceptable law", said Arne Johansson.
Newspapers from around the world were at the press conference, for example Al Ahram of Egypt, several German and Italian papers
and Swedish TV channel four. Mattias Bernhardsson, RS councillor and one of the arrested, was interviewed on Swedish public
service radio news.
Karin Wallmark, also an RS member, read the list of possible complaints the Danish police themselves had compiled in a brochure
and concluded that they had broken their own rules on every single point.
Two witness reports
Karin Wallmark: "We were blocked by the police for about an hour, chanting slogans such as 'This is what democracy looks like' and
'Arrest the polluters, but let us go'. We also spoke on megaphone to the police, trying to make them think whether it was correct to
block people from demonstrating to stop the climate crisis. We proposed they should go on strike!
"After about an hour, the police started to arrest us, one by one, and sat us in lines on the cold ground. We had our hands cuffed on
our backs and our legs spread, sitting really tight. For four hours we could not lie down or sit properly. No police answered our
questions why we were arrested. We were not allowed to move even slightly and not allowed to go to the toilet.
"I shouted for an hour that I needed to go to the toilet. Eventually I stood up, although I'd seen others being beaten by the police for
standing up. They did not hit me, but forced me down on to the ground several times. It was only when the media came and I shouted
that they let me go to the toilet. Others were not so lucky and wet themselves.
"Several got sick, got seizures or fainted. The worst was the humiliation and not knowing why we were arrested and what would
happen with us. We got moral support from other demonstrators, standing behind the police lines, and from people living in houses
nearby.
"After four hours, they started to take us away in buses, still handcuffed, for a couple of hours. Eventually, we were let go, just giving
our ID facts. As far as I know, none of the 400 arrested with me have been charged with anything.
"The police aimed to block us from demonstrating. It's a violation of our right to demonstrate as well as a physical and psychological
violation.”
Amer Mohammed Ali: "None of us understood what triggered the police attack. But probably, the police had been waiting for a long
time to grab part of the demo. It must have been planned in order to execute it in the way they did. A few people with special needs
were let through, such as one visually impaired person and one mother with a pram.
"Our slogans reached out to demonstrators on the other side of the police wall, with us looking like prisoners of war in a movie. The
ground was incredibly cold and the strangle wires used to hold our hands were hurting. Many shouted they had lost sensibility in their
hands.
"In the bus, the police were very rude and on one occasion one policeman slapped one of the arrested. We were handcuffed for six
hours and in total it took eight hours until it ended with us telling them our names.”
Report by:
Elin Gauffin,
Karin Wallmark and
Amer Mohammed Ali,
Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI Sweden)
----------------------------------
Obama Announces Troop Surge - Bellingham Residents Hit the Streets!
United States of America
BELLINGHAM, WA - Hours before Obama would announce his plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, approximately 160
students, veterans, and community members hit the streets of Bellingham to protest the troop surge.
Many protestors were especially outraged because voters elected the Democrats to have full control over the White House and
Congress, hoping they would end the disastrous occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, Obama is escalating the war in
Afghanistan. And he is escalating it only one week before he receives the Nobel Peace Prize!
The protest was organized by Socialist Alternative, which established a branch in Bellingham only two months before the protest.
Everyone was inspired to see the decent turnout given how new Socialist Alternative is to Bellingham and because the protest was
planned in only one month.
The protest was reported in The Bellingham Herald, the Western Front, the Cascadia Weekly, and possibly more media outlets.
Socialist Alternative members Brett Hoven and Ramy Khalil also got a guest opinion column published in the Western Front. Scroll
down to see the photos and all the media coverage!
The appearance of antiwar protests organized by Socialist Alternative and other groups across the country also suggests that a
majority of Americans are growing weary with the Afghanistan War and are increasingly willing to publicly challenge President
Obama on this issue.
For many students, this was their first protest, and everyone seemed to really enjoy the rally and especially the march, which was very
energetic and spirited. As one student, Zach Snover, put it: “As my first experience protesting and marching, I could really feel the
power students could achieve through united action. And I really loved the chant: ‘Show me what democracy looks like! THIS is what
democracy looks like!’”
The protest was co-sponsored by the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, Veterans for Peace Chapter 111, Coffee Strong, World Can’t
Wait, Youth Against War and Racism, Young Dems of Skagit County, Food Not Bombs, and the Whatcom Community College Bike
Club. Socialist Alternative would like to thank all of these groups for their support, their speakers, and their efforts to get the word out
about the protest, especially the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center.
Proponents of war often criticize the antiwar movement for not “supporting the troops.” Yet this rally featured numerous veterans
speaking out against imperialist wars. Among them were Gene Marx, the head coordinator of Veterans for Peace Chapter 111, whose
son has done two tours of duty in Iraq. James Gillies, a Vietnam veteran, also shared his personal experiences with U.S. imperialism in
Southeast Asia 35 years ago and the little good that it had accomplished, drawing parallels with Afghanistan. Evan Knappenberger, an
Iraq war vet, also shared his personal experiences and questioned how the U.S. military could possibly help the people of Afghanistan
and Iraq when it doesn’t even take care of its own soldiers and veterans.
The speakers from Socialist Alternative, Lindsay Worley and Jake Silberman, questioned the benefits of the costly occupation of
Afghanistan for ordinary Americans and Afghans, especially women, when funds for jobs and education are being slashed every day.
Aditi Kaushik, a social justice activist from India and a member of Socialist Alternative, talked about the occupation’s failure to
improve women's rights in Afghanistan.
A small counter-protest was also held. Four conservative student activists came out to heckle the crowd, chanting slogans such as “Let
the surge work!” But they were met with a cold reception by the antiwar crowd. All in all their presence only served to strengthen the
resolve of the crowd which, at one point, drowned out the counter-protesters with a sea of voices chanting “troops home now!” The
counter-demonstrators’ overall effect on the protest was minimal, especially given that they offered no clear solutions for ending the
war in Afghanistan, which has been dragging on for eight years and getting worse.
The rally was followed by a march that that began in Red Square and traveled throughout campus before heading downtown to U.S.
Congressman Rick Larsen's office. Many community members and people who had to work who could not join us honked and
clapped in support as we marched by.
Rep. Larsen’s staff had been invited to come downstairs and talk with the crowd that arrived at his building. Unfortunately, though,
they refused to come out and talk with all 160 protesters as a group. Instead only a few activists were able to talk with Larsen's staff in
his office, and they delivered a letter to him protesting his support for the troop surge, especially because he is a Democrat.
In the end, it was highly encouraging to see so many students and community members come out and challenge Obama to end the
occupation of Afghanistan. It was also highly encouraging to see so many new young members of Socialist Alternative getting
involved in planning and participating in the rally and march.
Report by-
Ramy Khalil and Logan Steele

-------------------------
International
International PEN calls Liu Xiaobo’s sentence a grievous betrayal of inalienable human rights
LONDON, UK/TORONTO, CANADA, December 25, 2009
International PEN, the world's leading freedom of expression organization with 145 member centres in 104 countries, calls today's
sentencing of prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo a grievous betrayal of his inalienable rights as a Chinese citizen.
In what amounts to a show trial, after weeks of courageous solidarity shown by hundreds of Chinese writers, intellectuals, and citizens,
Dr. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison and two years deprivation of political rights on charges of "incitement to subversion of
state power," for his role in writing and publishing Charter 08, a document calling for political reform and human rights.
"Liu Xiaobo's case is about agreed international human rights standards, not merely the internal affairs of China," said John
Ralston Saul, President of International PEN. "China is signatory to international treaties and conventions, and cannot be given a
free pass when it acts against its own and international standards."
On December 23, 2009, Liu Xiaobo was tried by the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court. Lawyers for the defence attended the
two-hour trial but were prohibited from disclosing details. Liu's wife and foreign diplomats were barred from the trial, probably held to
coincide with an international holiday to diminish press coverage.
That morning, writer Liu Di (aka Stainless Steel Mouse on the Internet) declared her intention to give herself up as one of the
"signatories and organizing plotters" of Charter 08. Liu wrote, "For the dignity of Constitution and laws, and for no more
imprisonment of the people for their independent opinions, I would prefer to share with Mr. Liu Xiaobo the same case with the same
penalty." She was taken away outside the courthouse before the trial began and has reportedly been held by police, to be released later
today.
On 10 December 2009 (International Human Rights Day), more than 300 other signatories of the Charter released an open letter
supporting Liu entitled ‘We Are Willing to Share Responsibility with Liu Xiaobo'. Liu Xiaobo was formally indicted the following day.
"International PEN applauds the courage of all those in the Peoples' Republic of China who risk their freedom for speaking and
writing their minds," said Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN. "We join our
Chinese colleagues in their steadfast conviction that Charter 08 will be judged by history as the just act of citizens fighting for human
rights, freedom and democracy."
Charter 08 was initially signed by over 300 scholars, journalists, freelance writers and activists and now has over 10,000 signatories from
throughout China. For more information about Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08.
International PEN
www.internationalpen.org.uk
-----------------------------------------
European Court: Landmark Ruling on Racial and Religious Exclusion
London (22/12/2009)
The ruling today by the European Court of Human Rights, that the exclusion of Jews and Roma from Bosnia's highest state offices is
unlawful discrimination, is a major step toward ending racial and religious exclusion in Europe, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of
Law and Human Rights Watch said today. Bosnia, along with the US and European states that continue to play a critical role in the
country, should move swiftly to remove all discriminatory provisions from the country's constitution.
"The court's ruling is a major step forward in Europe's struggle against discrimination and ethnic conflict," said Sheri P. Rosenberg,
co-counsel for the successful applicant Jakob Finci and a professor and director of the Human Rights Clinic at the Benjamin N.
Cardozo School of Law. "This decision affirms that ethnic domination should have no role in a democracy."
The court found, by 14 votes to 3 (16 votes to 1 with respect to the presidency), that the exclusion of Jews and Roma could not be
justified. It stated that the "authorities must use all available means to combat racism, thereby reinforcing democracy's vision of a
society in which diversity is not perceived as a threat but as a source of enrichment."
"The European Court has made it clear that race-based exclusion from political office, such as that suffered by Jews and Roma in
Bosnia, has no place in Europe," said Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor at Human Rights Watch, who was co-counsel for Finci from
his previous employment with Minority Rights Group International. "The US, EU and the other states who still play a major role in
Bosnia, should ensure the ruling is put into immediate effect by backing a change in the constitution."
The ruling today was issued by the Grand Chamber of the Court in the case of Sejdic & Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, and concerned
the exclusion from the Bosnian presidency and the upper house of parliament of a Bosnian Jew and a Bosnian Roma. The Bosnian
Constitution, drafted by negotiators during peace talks in Dayton, Ohio in 1995, restricts the highest offices of state - the upper house
of parliament and the presidency - to members of Bosnia's three main ethnic and religious groups - the Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks
(Bosnian Muslims).
Members of smaller groups (such as the Jewish and Roma communities), those from ethnically mixed backgrounds and those who do
not wish to declare themselves members of the three main groups are banned from running for office. Despite the extensive
involvement of the international community, in particular the US and the European Union, in the governing of Bosnia since 1995,
these discriminatory provisions in the constitution have never been amended.
This ruling is the first under the recent Protocol 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits discrimination in
all rights "set forth by law," a much wider scope than previously existed under the convention.
Jakob Finci, the successful applicant, was born in a transit camp during World War II after his parents, Bosnian Jews, had been
deported from the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. Returning to Bosnia after the war, he has had a distinguished career in public life and is
now Bosnian ambassador to Switzerland. But his ethnicity and religion prevented him from the possibility of seeking election to the
highest offices of state.
"I am delighted that the European Court has recognized the wrong that was done in the Constitution 14 years ago," Finci said. "The
Bosnian politicians need to right the wrongs in the Constitution quickly."
Bosnia's next presidential and parliamentary elections are due in October 2010.Constitutional reform has been under discussion in
Bosnia since 2005 but so far has not produced any change.
"This landmark ruling clearly establishes that there is no scope for second-class citizenship in Europe," said Cynthia Morel, who also
served as legal counsel in the case. "The court's finding will play an important role in strengthening Bosnia's young democracy." The
case was supported throughout by Minority Rights Group International and the Human Rights and Genocide Clinic at the Benjamin
N. Cardozo School of Law.
Source:
Human Rights Watch
--------------------------
Rebooting journalism -- study, report experiments in Seattle, Jan. 7-10
Seattle, USA
Across the United States, the media ecosystem is quickly evolving. Some main-stream news organizations are shrinking, as advertising
decouples from journalism. Remarkable new technologies and the work of committed citizens are making it easier for us to build
unique communities that share civic passion and purpose.
In the Pacific Northwest, this evolution is proceeding rapidly. What's starting to work? How are the information needs of communities
being met? What ongoing role should legacy media be playing? How can the public and journalists collaborate?
To find out, the Journalism That Matters collaborative is convening our first event focused on a region. And we'd like to invite you to
look in on this experimental petri dish -- and learn how you can replicate the experiments in your home region's laboratories.
So please book your travel for some or all of Jan. 7-10. Join some 150 editors, writers, broadcasters, bloggers, producers,
entrepreneurs, philanthropists, educators, students, digital entrepreneurs, media activists, community journalists, public advocates and
public-policy experts for, "Reimagining News and Community in the Pacific Northwest."
WHEN: Jan. 7-10, 2010

WHERE: Univ. of Washington, Seattle
For general information follow this link: http://journalismthatmatters.org/JTM-PNW
WHY NOW?
The impetus for JTM-Pacific Northwest is this call to action:
Journalism is at a crossroads. What will support its basic values, while adapting its practice to new economic, social and technological
realities? The northwest is alive with media innovations that can help us understand what is happening in the nation's traditional and
emerging news organizations to ensure the vitality of "journalism that matters" that serves the public.
ANSWERING THE CALL
In partnership with the UW Department of Communication and its Masters of Communication in Digital Media program, we shall
convene some of the best minds in the region to:
* Understand the promise - and pitfalls - of the emerging news ecology - the information exchange among the public, government,
and institutions that informs, inspires, engages, and activates
* Foster lasting connections among regional journalists and the communities they serve
* Surface new partnerships and innovations for a healthy northwest and national ecosystem
WHAT WE'LL ACHIEVE
* Greater clarity and commitment to the many projects and ideas participants bring with them
* New and unexpected partnerships between participants
* Journalism innovations seeded throughout the northwest
* Deeper understanding of emerging relationships among journalism, communities, and democracy
* Beginnings of a community of practice among people in the northwest who care about journalism and civic engagement
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
The opening day includes a "News and Information Commons", with tables hosted by people from the wide range of Northwest
media organizations. Following dinner, we'll have 3 "conversation catalysts" talk briefly:
For the people: Norman Rice, former Seattle mayor and current president and CEO of the Seattle Foundation
For the press: Tracy Record, co-publisher and editor, www.WestSeattleBlog.com
And a "shape-shifter", putting a twist on what's possible: Chris Jordan, artist, currently showing at the Pacific Science Center - http://
www.pacsci.org/runningthenumbers
We'll follow the talks with a "World Café" conversation among participants.
The rest of the confab uses JTM's signature process mode - Open Space Technology. They key goal of this process -- blur the lines
between participants and presenters. We acknowledge that every participant brings know that will can make them a presenter.
By-
Bill Densmore,
Peggy Holman,
Stephen Silha,
Mike Fancher,
Chris Peck and the entire JTM community
-----------------------------
www.groundreportindia.com
10
Reports
Mystery: Which public authority has CIC Selection papers -- PMO, DOPT or Parliament Secretariat?
Delhi, India
In DoPT’s reply to our legal notice, there is an offer to make available the “minutes of the decision taken by the committee.”
Presumably, it means that DoPT is willing to provide minutes of each and every meeting of the PM’s committee that selects Central
Information Commissioners. So we should quote this reply and file RTI applications asking for the minutes of each and every
meeting, including the one where Omita Paul was selected, and the most recent inconclusive meeting where L K Advani walked out in
a huff. Getting the minutes of all the meetings would mean substantial progress in following the paper-trail and solving some
mysteries.
With strange contradictions and half-logical reasoning for denial of information, PMO, DOPT and CCIC Wajahat Habibullah have
set up a fine paper trail.
They have given us four mysteries to solve, namely:
1) Which public authority holds documents generated while selecting Central Information Commissioners? Our choices are:
(a) Prime Minister’s Office
(b) DOPT
(c) Some little-known secretariat in the Parliament
(d) None of the above
(e) All of the above
(f) Some of the above
(g) Other
Based on your reply to the above riddle, you must guess the proper authority to address an RTI application – because, rest assured,
they will not direct your application to the proper authority.
2) Weeks or months before any selection or appointment of CIC actually happens, some events start happening. For example,
meetings are called, agenda papers are circulated, inter-department or intra-department letters are written about the need to appoint
new CICs in the light of mounting pendency or in response to Chief CIC’s requisitions. At some point, decisions are made for
soliciting applications, nominations etc. These decisions are recorded and formalized in minutes of meetings or exchange of
correspondence. DoPT is asked to submit a short-list of candidates before a certain date for the consideration of Prime Minister’s
selecting committee. Some selection criteria – written or unwritten -- are used for short-listing them. Recommendations and file-
notings are made in this decision-making process. With reference to all this, two questions arise:
(a) Is it legal and justified to classify such documents as “Confidential”?
(b) If so classified, can they be denied under Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1923, notwithstanding Section 22 of RTI Act? (By the way,
OSA – a remnant of the British era – probably isn’t even an accepted law in Independent India, as it hasn’t been notified in the
Gazette of India after Independence.)
3) Assuming that the answers to Question 2(a) and 2(b) are both “Yes”, have the above-mentioned documents ACTUALLY BEEN
CLASSIFIED as ‘confidential’ by PMO? Or are they hanging in limbo, given this government’s policy of ‘Decide Nothing, Deny
Nothing, and Say Nothing’?
4) If they have been classified as ‘confidential’, can we at least ask for reasoning under Section 4(1)(d) of RTI Act? Or will they even
deny us an explanation for why confidentiality is necessary?
These mysteries arise from the two Second Appeals cited below:
A. 22nd Sept 2006: Second appeal of Ms Vishaish Uppal’s RTI Application to PMO, which was later transferred to DOPT.
In her RTI application on 22nd Nov 2005, Ms Uppal sought to inspect files, papers etc. relating to the appointment of the CICs and
Chief CIC. This application was transferred to DOPT. However, on 13th Jan 2006, Ms Uppal reverted to PMO stating that she had
been shown only one file and informed by PIO that files pertaining to the entire selection process are with PMO and not with DoPT.
Appellate Authority Sh. Jawed Usmani, Jt. Secy. in the PM’s Office, refused to disclose the information on the ground that the papers
in the files relating to the selection of the Chief Information Commissioner and the Information Commissioners have been given the
security classification “Confidential” under the Manual of Departmental Security Instructions, 1994 read with the relevant provisions
of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 and according to the said Manual, such documents should be addressed to and seen only by those
persons who have a direct concern with the subject matter contained therein. The Appellate Authority therefore stated that the
Appellant cannot be allowed to inspect said file/document, as these documents are classified “Confidential”. The Appellate Authority
had held that as no case having been made out for making any exception under sec. 8(2) of the Act, Ms. Vishaish Uppal could not be
allowed to inspect the documents.
11
CCIC WAJAHAT’S CIRCUITOUS REASONING:

“The appellate Authority has held that the matter has been classified “confidential” under the Official Secrets Act, 1923. However, in
view of the provisions of the Section 22 of the Act “The provision of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent
therewith contained in the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect
by virtue of any law other than this Act”, the provisions of Official Secrets Act stands over-ridden. Section 8(2) enables the public
authority to disclose information notwithstanding anything in the Official Secrets Act, 1923 or any of the exemptions permissible
under Section 8(1), if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. Sec. 8(2) is, therefore, not a
ground distinct and separate from what has been specified explicitly under Section 8(1) of the Act for withholding information by the
public authority.
The Appellate Authority, therefore, cannot withhold this information either on the ground that the information is classified as
“confidential” under the Official Secrets Act or under Section 8(2) alone. However, Sec 22 as described above only overrides anything
inconsistent with the Right to Information Act, 2005. The Official Secrets Act, 1923 stands neither rescinded nor abrogated. While a
public authority may only withhold such information as could be brought within any of the clauses of Section 8(1), it is open to that
authority to classify any of these items of information as “Confidential”, thus limiting the discretion of any other authority in respect
to these.”
Wajahat then concluded: “In this particular case denial of information is under the orders of the Public Authority and it is open to the
Public Authority to deny the information provided such denial can be justified under Section 8(1) of the Act. The Prime Minister’s
Office will, therefore, re-examine the matter in view of the observations made above within fifteen days of the date of issue of the
Decision Notice and it may disclose the information to the appellant, unless of course, the disclosure of the information can be denied
or withheld under any of the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005. The Public Authority shall take an appropriate reasoned decision.”
[Somebody help me understand the three self-contradictory paragraphs highlighted in blue. To me, it looks like Wajahat sounding
judicious while suggesting an escape route to PMO and DOPT for denying the information.
But suppose we give Wajahat the benefit of doubt. After all, he ordered PMO to decide one way or another in 15 days. Question is:
Did they? Answer is: No. Look at Wajahat’s order seven months later on 16th April 2007, in the case of Milap Choraria’s Complaint.
It quotes his earlier order and says, “In light of the above CPIO DoPT may process the present application.” I think Milap did not get
the information, and I think Wajahat did not do anything further to help anybody get the information.]
B. 22nd December 2008: Second appeal hearing of J S Bhattacharjee’s RTI Application to DoPT.
In his RTI application on 21st July 2007, Bhattacharjee asked commonsense questions such as:
· Government’s policy/ principle guidelines etc for the collection of names of expected CIC to be sent to the Recommendation
Committee for selection
· Whether names of CIC are collected on ‘pick & choose’ basis or on the basis of the recommendations of Ministers
· Whether there was a system of “Search Committee” for collecting probable names and how the five names for CIC
· How the five names for CIC have been finally selected by the Government leaving hundreds of qualified officials
· Whether the post of CIC is meant only for retired officials
· Whether the present CIC had applied for the post and if so, the source of his information of vacancy
· Whether government advertised for the post of CIC and when?
DOPT’s standard stonewalling reply was:

“Clause (5) and (6) of Section 12 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, prescribe the conditions for appointment to the posts of Chief
Information Commissioner (CIC) and Central Information Commissioners (IC). There is no other laid down policy/principle/
guidelines on the subject. Persons for the post of CIC are considered on the basis of conditions contained in above referred provisions
of the Act. No other information in the matter is available.”
CCIC WAJAHAT’s REASONING FOR UPHOLDING DOPT’S STONEWALLING:

“The Committee set up u/s 12 (3) of the RTI Act cannot be deemed to be a Departmental Committee or Departmental Selection
Committee. This is a Committee set up through the RTI Act 2005 not by Government but, through the very enactment of this law, by
Parliament in order to make recommendations to the President of India on appointment of Chief Information Commissioner and
Information Commissioners of the Central Information Commission. The response of the DoPT in this regard is correct in that the
Department is only a servicing instrument for this Committee. The reference to the Committee as a Selection Committee by Shri K G
Verma, Director in disposing of the first appeal is not to place this Committee in the category of a Departmental Selection Committee
but only with reference to its purpose, which is indeed the selection of individuals it considers to be of eminence, which it recommends
to the President of India for appointment as Chief Information Commissioner /Information Commissioner. Seen in this context it is
quite conceivable that the DoPT, which is the only the servicing organisation, maintains no records of deliberations of this
Committee, which the group is not required to maintain if they do in fact exist, other than its recommendations, which CPIO Ms.
Zoya agreed before us is a document held by the DoPT.”
12
[Please note that in this second appeal, nobody mentions Official Secrets Act for justifying the denial. Why? My guess is: (a) PMO
DID NOT CLASSIFY THE CIC SELECTION PAPERS AS ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ (b) PMO THOUGHT THAT IT WAS
LEGALLY & POLITICALLY INADVISABLE TO RESORT TO THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT. Therefore, they now denied
the same information on a new ground, namely the plea that DoPT is not supposed to be having the records.
CCIC Wajahat’s reasoning is like a bikini: What it reveals is very interesting, but what it conceals is vital. He deliberately refrains from
asking the key question: IF NOT DOPT, WHICH DEPARTMENT OR SECRETARIAT IS SUPPOSED TO MAINTAIN
RECORDS OF DELIBERATIONS?]
The fact that DoPT has replied to our legal notice, and also our other correspondence in the matter of CIC selection, while other
departments have forwarded the correspondence to DoPT for replies, suggests that DoPT is the only logical place for the documents,
and that the officials are lying when they state that there is no information with them.
Many activists are trying to solve the ‘Mystery of the Missing CIC Selection Papers’. Please apply your mind to cracking this puzzle
through RTI applications, public pressure or other methods at your command.
By:
Krishnaraj Rao
--------------------------------------------
Water, Yes, but at 10 times the cost
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
If you ask the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for a tanker of potable water, it is very likely that you have to wait for at
least one week. However, if you have some ‘contacts’ in the civic body or are ready to shell out a few thousands over the Rs 601 that
the BMC charges for every tanker (11,000 litres), you can get as much water as you want, and some more. For which, you can thank
the water mafia, which operates around 10,000 tankers across the city.
And, they have a large clientele to cater to. As for the exorbitant charges, water is too precious a commodity for the 1.8 crore citizens
of Mumbai to bother about a few thousand rupees. The metropolis needs tonnes of water, but never gets enough. If we have not
witnessed any water war so far, it is because the BMC ensures supply for at least a few hours every day in every part of the the city.
Ask BMC for more water and they will say: ‘shehar mein shortage hai’. But, why doesn’t the mafia encounter this problem? Ever.
Mumbai Mirror carried out an exhaustive investigation to get to the source of the mafia’s inexhaustible supply of water. And, the
answer was startling. (November 12, Page 2 and 3)
If you have bought the BMC’s version that water cuts have been imposed as reservoirs are not filled to the brim, consider this - BMC
gives away millions of litres of water every day to the tanker mafia, which sells it at 10 times the price you would have paid to the civic
body.
‘WE DO NOT SELL WATER’

Our quest began at the BMC’s A-ward office near Old Custom House at Fort. We sought a tanker of potable water for a film shoot,
which comes under ‘commercial purpose’. The officials flatly refused.
“We do not sell water. We provide water tankers only for public meetings and to residential buildings that face a shortage. For the
latter, we need a letter from the society and proper permission because there is shortage of water across the city,” said R B Sayyed,
assistant engineer in the hydraulic department.
Then, we went to the D-ward office at Nana Chowk and made a similar request to P G Khadge of the hydraulic department. He too
refused to supply potable water for ‘commercial purpose’ saying the city faces a shortage. Besides, he said, ‘the shoot is happening in
A-ward, which is not in my jurisdiction’.
‘BUT YOU CAN ASK GUPTAJI’
However, he asked us to call a private tanker operator - Gupta Tanker Water Suppliers - and even gave the owner’s cell phone
number. Khadge assured us that Gupta will ‘manage’ a tanker of water.
13
We went to Gupta’s office, which is a fiveminute walk from the D-ward office, with our request. Gupta replied, “Rs 6,500 per tanker,
regardless of the purpose.”
We insisted on water from the BMC and not a tube-well, which gives hard water. Gupta promised that the water would indeed be
from the BMC.
We handed over Rs 1,000 as advance and assured that the rest would be paid on the day the water would be required. This was sealed
over three recorded conversations with Gupta.
Two days later, we met Gupta again and paid him the balance Rs 5,500. Gupta sent one of his employees with this reporter to the
nearest BMC water pump at Nana Chowk. The rule is that only BMC employees can operate its pumps across the city. But, in this
case, no civic employee was present at the pump. Gupta’s employee used the pump to fill a tanker, which he handed over to us.
Wandering around the city with a tankerful of water that we did not really need we decided to give the ten thousand litre to the
Bennett Coleman and Company guest house at Walkeshwar.
So, citizens may be told that there is a shortage, but if you have deep pockets, you can have any amount of water, whatever the
purpose.
MAFIA HAS NO POACHING PACT

To be certain that this was not a one-off incident, we tried another locality - this time at Lokhandwala complex at Andheri (west).
We learnt that tanker water is supplied by a man who everyone calls Yadav. His full name is Vijay Pratap Yadav. We asked for 10
tankers of BMC water for a rain scene to be shot at Film City in Goregaon. We told Yadav that the scene involved A-grade Bollywood
actors who would not perform a dance sequence in hard water from a bore-well; they would do it only if fresh BMC water is showered
on them.
Yadav agreed to supply the water to us at Film City for our ‘shoot’ and demanded Rs 3,000 for each tanker that he gets from the
BMC’s pump at Goregaon or Andheri. We paid him Rs 1,000 as advance. But, the meeting yielded more than just a tanker of water.
Yadav, who was more garrulous than Gupta, let in on some details of how the water mafia operates - territories are clearly earmarked;
poaching is dangerous to one’s wellbeing.
A water tanker supplier operates in a BMC ward of his choice and will not encroach into another ward whatever be the temptation or
amount of money offered.
One water tanker supplier, who did not want to be named, said, “We don’t want to supply water in an area where some other supplier
is already operating. We don’t want to fight with each other. We stick to our jurisdiction like the police department.”
‘MIL BAAT KE KHAATE HAI JI’
Sounds like a sophisticated and organised racket. And, it involves local ward officials, hydraulic department officials, police and
corporators. Is it any surprise that no one raises a hue and cry about this obscene loot?
“Ham sab mil baat ke khaate hai, to kisiko aitraz nahi hota [we share the booty to ensure no one has a reason to complain],” said one
of the water tanker suppliers who did not wish to be named.
And, what is the amount that these khaate peete log are talking about?
The private supplier will not accept less than Rs 3,000 for a tanker. There are around 10,000 private water tankers across the city. If
each one makes just one trip a day, it works out to a turnover of Rs 3 crore.
So, what does the BMC have to say about this racket?
When we spoke to outgoing BMC commissioner Jairaj Phatak about this, he insisted that the BMC’s water department took great care
to ensure that the water tanker mafia did not use BMC sources. “Tanker mafias would only exist if there was any water scarcity, what
we are experiencing is a little water shortage. There are only a few water filling points for the tankers provided by the BMC, the rest is
drawn from private wells.”
As if tanker mafia is not enough... WATER MAFIA IN SLUMS
14
While water tanker suppliers cater to housing societies in multi-storey buildings, another mafia operates in slums. It is led by slum
lords. According to a water tanker supplier, these are local goons who steal water from BMC pipe lines and sell it to slum-dwellers.
“Whenever a BMC official pumps drinking water to a particular area, he calls the slum lords in that locality. These men get ready with
electric motors to draw water from the pipe line and fill their drums. They give haftas to local corporators, hydraulic department
officials and the police to ensure smooth operations,” the water tanker supplier alleged.
Up to 60 per cent Mumbaikars stay in slums. Hence, the magnitude of the pilferage is massive.
A senior civic official said that the BMC supplies 3200 million litres per day (MLD) against the demand of 3600 MLD. Of this, the
BMC says that 20% is lost to leakages. But, sources said, the figure is closer to 30 per cent.
“However, the BMC has no concrete plan to plug leakages,” says a civic official on condition of anonymity.
“On the contrary,” a water tanker operator says, “politicians are busy trying to regularise more illegal slums.”
That’s because these 60 per cent Mumbaikars constitute a huge vote bank.
Civic officials who tried to stop the racket were no match for the mafia.
“Whenever we try to cut unauthorized connections, a mob gathers. Instead of protecting us, cops ask us not to take action saying it
will create a law and order problem in the area. What should the BMC do?” an official fumes.
Due to this pilfering, localities at the far end of BMC’s pipe line do not get enough water or the pressure is low. Eventually, people in
these localities have to purchase water from the BMC. But, the civic body owns only 24 water tankers, one for each ward. They would
not be able to meet the demand. So, citizens have no choice, but to approach private water tanker suppliers.
NO COMPLAINTS DURING 26/7

In the aftermath of the deluge of July 26, 2005, there was no electricity in eastern suburbs for a couple of days. On those days, all
localities received sufficient drinking water. “We did not receive a single complaint on these days because the slum lords could not
operate their pumps,” a civic official said.
Report by:
Kashyap Vyas
----------------------
CIC Selection: Govt of India gives evasive answer to Legal Notice
Delhi, India
Replying to our legal notice served on November 26 ’09 about mandatory disclosures required under Section 4 about CIC Selections,
Mr R K Girdhar, Under Secretary (RTI), DoPT, sent a copy-paste of Section 12(3) of RTI Act 2005, and added that minutes of
meeting of Prime Minister’s selection committee could be provided upon request.
To this, our advocate Rasheed Qureshi sent a rejoinder – another legal notice -- stating: “You have not addressed the legal
requirements called for in the legal notice. You have merely quoted Section 12(3) of the RTI Act, 2005 which is a matter of record
and does not need reiteration. Moreover, your offer to provide the minutes of the meeting of the Committee would not absolve you to
make mandatory disclosures as per Section 4 of the said Act… I call upon you to make the said disclosures expeditiously, failing which
my client(s) shall be constrained to take legal redress through court.”
Read the full legal notice, DoPT’s reply and our rejoinder here: http://www.box.net/shared/iv7tcs8iz2
Report by:
Krishnaraj Rao
-------------------------
15
An article on Conflict between Naxals and the State
Chhattisgarh, India
The severe conflict between the Naxalites and the state, which is represented by the police, seems to be a continuous and never ending
struggle. The big losers are the innocent civilians and the powerless tribal people. Many questions arise regarding to this intriguing
topic. What is the philosophy of the Naxalites behind their terrorist attacks? How do the police forces try to combat Naxalism? Does
the Salwa Judum play a major role in this conflict? Which side do the media support? And what is the opinion of the NGO’s on this
issue? Nange Paon Satyagrah and a Dutch peace-builder conducted field research in Southern Chattisgarh in an attempt to find an
answer to these relevant and lasting questions.
The Naxalite movement arose in 1967 in Naxalbari, a village at the Northern edge of West Bengal, due to a peasant uprising that
inspired similar movements across India. With the slogan “Land to the tiller!”, the Naxalite movement attracted many urban youth
inspired by the call for social justice. Kanu Sanyal and Charu Majumdar, leaders of the Naxalbari movement, split from the
Communist Party of India (CPI) and founded the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in 1969.
Initially the Marxist-Leninist movement was created to fight against moral failures such as feudalism, capitalism and imperialism. The
Naxalbari theory of the movement had two components. First, mobilizing and organizing the local people. And second, the
annihilation of class enemies. However, by killing individuals they were destroying the people in stead of the supposedly wrong
political and economical system. The movement failed to seize land and distribute it to landless peasants and faced some leftist
adventurism, which saw the launch of an armed struggle and the indiscriminate killing of individuals. This alienated many ordinary
people and reduced popular support for the movement.
Nowadays the Naxalites are often related to the ideology of Mao Zedong, the revolutionary founder of the Communist Party in China
in 1949. Mao was able to mobilize the common Chinese people in order to shape a communist society led by his Communist Party.
However, the contemporary Naxalites do not seem trying to mobilize the people, and hence it is not a mass movement. Instead they
are killing individuals, landlords, policemen and ordinary people. Vishwa Ranjan, Director General of Police of Chattisgarh says:
“The Naxalites do not have a proper ideology anymore. They are just irritating the police continuously with random purposes. The
police try as hard as possible to ensure the security of the civilians by combating the Naxalites. However, we face severe challenges due
to their hidden attacks and a lack of infrastructure.”
Nange Paon Satyagrah thus avoids using the terminology of “Maoist rebels” as the rebels have lost their strong ideology and therefore
states that the use of the term Naxalites would be more appropriate. The police are not the only forces, who are intending to combat
the Naxalites. Mahendra Karma, a former Congress leader of opposition in the State Legislative Assembly, gave rise to the Salwa
Judum movement in 2005, a civilian tribal movement against Naxalism.
Some NGO’s and other people have accused the police of making use of Salwa Judum as a counter-insurgency strategy by turning it
in a state-funded militia. However, this allegation is definitely wrong and creates misperceptions, which need to be clarified. Vishwa
Ranjan states: “Salwa Judum is a spontaneous movement and the police do not contribute financially or physically to Salwa Judum.
The only thing the police do is respecting this movement as it respects all peaceful and democratic people movements”.
Mahendra Karma responds: “The people will have to fight against the tyranny of the Naxalites, because there is no other way left.
Therefore we started the Salwa Judum and this movement is organized by and for the people and does not get any support of the
police. It is the duty of the police to combat Naxalism. However, the police lack a fighting spirit and do not do enough to combat
terrorism. Besides this, the police are bounded by stringent laws and therefore actions taken by them are very slow and have little
impact”.
There exists a controversy about the effectiveness of the police. Mahendra Karma states that the police do not work hard enough to
combat the problems of Naxalism. Madhu Parvez, director of NGO Triwe, tells that she is doing her job with the tribal people and
does not like to cruse paths with either the Naxalites or the police. In her opinion everyone has their own duty and people should not
criticize each other about that. Everyone should work as much as possible in their own respective field.
Vinod Tiwari, senior journalist from Jagdalpur, thinks: “The police are doing very good work and the Naxalites are disturbing the
area” Nange Paon Satyagrah agrees with Vinod Tiwari, taking into account that the problems of Naxalism have been diminished over
the last two years. Society still faces several difficulties with the cruel attacks of the Naxalites, but the situation is definitely improving.
Therefore it is surprising that NGO’s such as Banwasi Shetna ashram are using false propaganda to create misperceptions among the
people. Banwasi Shetna ashram state that Salwa Judum is related to Special Police Officers and the relief efforts of the government.
As India is proud of being a democratic country it is of vital importance to maintain the debate among civilians, politicians and
NGO’s alive. However, one should always be honest and speak the truth. Therefore, this article would take the opportunity to clarify
that the police forces work independently from any organization such as the Salwa Judum.
16
This leads us to the conclusion that every stakeholder has a role to play in society, whether it be the Naxalites (a wrong role, but still a
role), the police, the Salwa Judum, the media or the NGO’s. However, everyone should focus on their respective field of work and
should do everything in their ability to contribute to the solution of the conflict between the Naxalites and the police. One should not
degrade themselves to the spread of false allegations, childish lies and the creation of misconceptions among the common people.
Article by:
Rajesh Sisodia
-------------------------------
A protester - farmer (SC) was brutally killed by Bangladeshi intruders in Indian land in connivance with
BSF
West Bengal, India
Name of the victim: Sukhen Mondal (deceased), son of Mr. Biswanath Mondal, aged about-39 years, by faith-Hindu, by caste-
Schedule Caste, address- Char Rajapur, Paschim Colony, Police Station-Raninagar, District-Murshidabad, West Bengal, India.
Name of the perpetrators: (1) The Border Security Force jawans of Char Mourasi Border Security Force Camp, Company-G,
Battalion-191, Police Station-Raninagar; (2) The Officer-in-Charge of Raninagar Police Station.
Place of incident: In the farming land of Mr. Kanai Mondal at Char Katlamari, Police Station-Raninagar, District-Murshidabad.
Date & time of incident: On 31.10.2009 at about 4pm
Case Details:
It is revealed during fact finding effort that the victim Sukhen Mondal with his uncle Mr. Kanai Mondal went to their farming land on
31.10.2009. Their farming land was located at Char Katlamari which is about 400 meters inside from Indo-Bangladesh Border under
police station-Jalangi. They also took with them one tractor and its driver Mr. Alok Sarkar. Before entering into the farming land, they
duly took permission of Border Security Force at Char Mourasi Border Security Force Camp which is about few hundred meters away
from their farming land.
Then at about 4 pm suddenly seven miscreants armed with deadly weapons such as sword and hasua (a sharp cutting weapon) crossed
the border line coming from village Khidirpur, Bangladesh and trespassed into the victim’s farming land. Those miscreants encircled
the victim and started committing murderous assault upon him by their sword and hasua with definite intention to kill him on the
spot. The eyewitnesses Mr. Kanai Mondal and Mr. Alok Sarkar saw that the victim fell down on the ground receiving deep cutting
injuries on several parts of his body. The attackers even hacked his body to pieces.
They immediately run towards the nearest Char Mourasi Border Security Force Camp in order to seek help of the BSF jawans. Those
miscreants even tried to chase after them. But the on duty BSF jawans of the said BSF Camp did not take any action to apprehend
those miscreants. They only said that it makes no difference to them either the body was taken by them or left at the place. They even
did not bother to go at the place of incident. The miscreants swaggered into Bangladesh at their ease after the murder.
Then the villagers gathered at the place of incident and Mr. Pritom Mondal, member of Katlamari II Gram Panchayat arrived at the
spot and telephoned at local Raninagar Police Station informing about the incident. Then at about 8 pm the Officer-in-Charge of
Raninagar Police Station arrived at the spot along with other police men.
Mr. Kanai Mondal lodged one complaint at Jalangi Police Station against those miscreants. The police registered one criminal case
vide Raninagar Police Station Case no. 704/2009 dated 31.10.2009 under sections 302/341 of Indian Penal Code. The police also
registered a case of unnatural death being Raninagar Police Station U.D. Case no. 29/2009 dated 31.10.2009. The post mortem
examination of the victim was done at Lalbagh Sub-Divisional Hospital, Murshidabad vide P.M. no. 249.
The police washed their hands by only registering one criminal case and there is no development in the matter of investigation.
During our fact finding effort, our team talked with the family members of the victim and several villagers who in single voice stated
that the murder of the victim was an outcome of a criminal conspiracy hatched by cross border smugglers with the aid and
connivance of a section of Border Security Force.
17
Mr. Pritom Mondal, member of Katlamari-II Gram Panchayat (Village Council) stated before our fact findings team that during the
month of August, 2009 Mr. Bijoy Kumar Chowdhury, the Company Commandant of Char Rajanagar BSF and Mr. Tinkey from
DIB, BSF used a trolley owned by a notorious smuggler in the area Mr. Swapan Mondal, son of Mr. Tarapada Mondal for patrolling
in the river. When Mr. P. Pramanik, Commandant of 191 Battalion visited Char Rajanagar BSF, the victim and another villager Mr.
Pritom Mondal informed him the aforesaid matter. Since then Mr. Bijoy Kumar Chowdhury, the Company Commandant of Char
Rajanagar BSF and Mr. Tinkey from DIB, BSF threatened them to teach a good lesson. Since then the victim became an eyesore of
the smugglers and Border Security Force.
The villagers residing in the nearby villages of Indo-Bangladesh Border lodged several complaints before the police, administration
including the higher authorities of BSF bringing to their notice of the apathy of the farmers owing their farming lands near the Indo-
Bangladesh Border. The villagers handed over copies of numerous complaints to our fact finding team. The villagers further alleged
that the farmers have no protection against the intruders from Bangladesh as BSF posted their camps few kilometers inside from the
actual border line in the bordering villages leaving a vast area of farming land well inside the Indian Territory an open play ground of
crime for the cross border smugglers and intruders from Bangladesh. The villagers stated that the smugglers and intruders of
Bangladesh take away their farming equipments, growing crops, sometimes beat them and even forcibly abduct them. The villagers
stated that Border Security Force failed completely to provide any protection to the farmers. The villagers alleged that local BSF only
serves the All the efforts of the villagers to move the administration to minimize the apathy of the farmers went in deaf ears of the
administration. Therefore the villagers prompted to build a local committee for protecting their farming lands. The victim and other
villagers were members of the said committee. On 14.10.2009 the victim along with other villagers met with the Camp-in-Charge of
Char Mourasi Border Security Force Camp and informed him about the committee but the Camp-in-Charge was not happy with
such initiative and said that the villagers would carry out smuggling under the guise of such committee. The victim and other villagers
tried to convince him saying that the committee would not carry out any illegal activities rather it would help BSF in apprehending the
smugglers. Then they visited Rajanagar BSF BOP Head Quarter in order to meet with the Company Commandant Mr. Bijoy Pathak,
but he was annoyed on the building of such committee by the villagers.
Again on 19.10.2009 the victim along with one villager Mr. Pritom Mondal went to meet with the Company Commandant of
Rajanagar BSF BOP Head Quarter. But there Mr. Pritom Mondal was severely assaulted by Mr. Tinkey from DIB, BSF with his
wooden button. He had to be hospitalized at Berhampore New General Hospital, Murshidabad for treatment.
On 24.10.2009 the villagers under Raninagar Police Station organized a rally and road block protesting against the ongoing atrocities
of BSF, inaction of police and unholy nexus between the smugglers and some section of Border Security Force.
Report by:
Kirity Roy
---------------------------
Minors were tortured inhumanly by the protectors of the land
West Bengal, India
Name of the Victim: - 1. Master Indrajit Mondal son of Mr. Krishna Chandra Mondal, aged about 14 years 2. Master Sanjit
Mondal son of Mr. Krishna Chandra Mondal, aged about 16 years 3. Mr. Surajit Mondal son of Mr. Krishna Chandra Mondal, aged
about 18 years all are residing at Village – Char Durgapur, Sub Division- Domkal, Police Station – Raninagar, District- Murshidabad,
West Bengal.
Caste of the Victim(s):- All are under Schedule caste.
Name of perpetrators: 9 Border Security Force (BSF) personnel attached with Border outpost no. 102 of Harudanga BSF camp of
Battalion no 191, District- Murshidabad, West Bengal.
Place of incident: Farming land of the victims at Harudanga area, (Revised Settlement Dag no. 1083, Record no. 385 & 385),
District – Murshidabad, West Bengal.
Date and time of incident: 24/09/2009 around 8 am
Details of the incident:

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On 24th NSeptember 2009 around 8 am Mr. Surajit Mondal, Master Sanjit Mondal and Master Indrajit Mondal all are sons of Mr.
Krishna Chandra Mondal were busy in agricultural work at the above mentioned land near Indo-Bangladesh border. Some other
farmers were also working in the same field. Suddenly they saw few people were running away through that area from Bangladesh side
and 9 (Nine) BSF jawans attached with Harudanga BSF camp of battalion no 191 were chasing them. They also saw that those BSF
personnel failed to catch those people. It made them very angry. As a consequence they came to the place where Surajit, Sanjit and
Indrajit were working and started beating them indiscriminately without any reason. One of the eye witnesses of the incident
informed our fact finding team that there was one Mr. Baljindar Singh among the BSF personnel. Those BSF personnel were beating
them ruthlessly by their shoes and by the butts of their service rifles. As a result Surajit became senseless. Mr. Nimai Chandra Mondal
son of Mr Shukchand Mondal; who was also working at that field then, told our fact finding team that those BSF personnel tied
Indrajit’s both of the hands with a rope and then they hanged him from a tree there. The BSF personnel left the place thereafter. The
people were present there could not protest against the nasty activity of BSF in fear of them. But the barbaric activity made them
gravely concerned and when they observed that the physical condition of the victims were deteriorating, soon some of them namely
Mr. Madan Mohan Mondal, Mr. Siten Mondal both are son of Mr. Ram Chandra Mondal, Mr. Rajkumar Mondal son of Mr. Rai
charan Mondal took the victims to Godhanpara primary health centre. Getting the news Mr. Krishna Chandra Mondal rushed at the
health centre. The victims were referred to Behrampore New General Hospital by Godhanpara primary health centre thereafter. So
they were taken to the said hospital and got medical treatment there. Mr. Krishna Chandra Mondal father of the victims told our fact
finding team that already he had to spend around Rs.15000 for their treatment.
On 24/09/2009 Mr. Krishna Chandra Mondal lodged a written complaint at Raninagar police station against the BSF personnel.
The said police station initiated a case against the BSF personnel; vide case no 615/09 dated 24/09/2009 under section 323/325
under Indian Penal Code. But no perpetrators have been arrested till date.
The above incident is only another addition of series of atrocities perpetrated by BSF personnel at a regular basis. They are
habituated to throw filthy words to the common people passing through the Indo-Bangladesh bordering road. They also use sexually
intimidating words to the women including the girl students. Common people are so scared of BSF that most of the time they do not
lodge any complaint against the BSF personnel.
Report by:
Kirity Roy
----------------------------------
Addressing Governance Issues through an Adivasi lens
New Delhi, 16 December 2009.
Adivasis are amongst the most marginalized groups in India, in spite of constitutional laws devised to protect their interests. In order
to discuss ways to improve the political position of adivasis in modern society, the Adivasi Resource Centre, part of the National
Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), held a ‘National Consultation on Adivasis of India: Emerging Themes, Issues and Challenges’
at the India Islamic Cultural Centre, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi on 15th and 16th December 2009.
The key note address was delivered by Padma Shri Tulasi Munda. She expressed her disappointment that even after so many years of
independence we are still unable to meet the basic requirement of poor people including adivasis of our country. Shri Tsering
Samphel, Member of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, said that it is sad that even after 62 years of independence we don’t
have a vision for adivasi development. However, he thanked the constitution for giving the tribes, opportunities for higher education
through reservation. Activists from various states of the country during the consultation raised issues affecting the tribal people of the
country like dispossession of land, violence, poverty, loss of identity. Draft National Tribal Policy which was supposed to provide vision
for Adivasi development, was being questioned by the panelists. Ganesh Devy, Director of BHASHA commented whether it is a Policy
for the Development of the Tribals or a Tribal policy for National Development?
PV Rajgopal from Ekta Parishad said that “British had colonized us and we have colonized the adivasis. We are destroying their
supermarket (forest) to build our supermarket”. He said that there lies a huge challenge in front of us how we are going to help the
tribals from dying due to State violence. It is also a challenge not only for Adivasis but for all sections of the society to save ourselves
from the ill effects of globalization and liberalization”.
Other eminent speakers in this Consultation included Shri B.D.Sharma, Bharat Jan Andolan, also Former Commissioner of the
Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Commission, Pradip Prabhu form NIRD, Shri Bhakta Charan Das, Hon’ble Member of Lok
Sabha, Professor Virginius Xaxa from the Department of Sociology at Delhi University, Madhu Sarin, Activist, Dr.Mardi from All
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India Santhal Welfare and Cultural Society, Walter Fernandes, Director of the North Easten Social Research Centre, , Prof. Joseph
Bara from JNU , C.R.Bijoy , Goldy George, Roma, Sanjoy Bosu Mullick, Bhanwar Singh Chandana and Mamata Dash from the
activist groups , Dr.Archana Prasad from Jamia Millia, Gladson Dungdung an Adivasi activist and writer from Jharkhand, Fr.Vincent
Ekka from Indian Social Instititute and Vijayan from Delhi Forum.
Report by:
Swati Swetlana
NCAS, New Delhi
------------------------
Surojit Mondal, a minor, Scheduled Caste boy tortured & killed
West Bengal, India
Another case of extra judicial killing by the personnel of Border Security Force (BSF) in the Indo- Bangladesh bordering area. This is
not an isolated one. BSF are organizing fake encounter at the borders and killing citizens of the country in illegal ways at a regular
basis. Illegal actions by the nexus between police, BSF and other Government bodies are breaking the rule of law in stead of keeping
it in tact.
It revealed during our fact finding that on 28/09/2009 a minor schedule caste boy of 16 years old named Surajit Mondal was shot
dead by the BSF personnel while he was busy in smuggling (illegal cross border activities) of buffaloes. At the time of inquest 2
“Hensos” (one very common tool for farming land) was kept beside his dead body to fabricate the case. One false encounter case was
also registered at Raninagar police station. The post mortem examination was done at Labag morgue. His age was recorded as 22 at
Lalbag Sub Divisional Hospital, while his family members told our team that his age was only 16 then.
He was fired on 28/09/2009 at around 7 pm, but no medical treatment was arranged either by the BSF personnel or police and the
person died. Thus the BSF personnel not only killed a person they also destroyed evidences of a barbaric incident as well as they
deprived one Indian citizen from fair trial. So one can easily understand that the intention was BSF was only killing; not to stop
smuggling. Here one thing should be mentioned that our Indian constitution does not allow anyone to kill someone, while Indo-
Bangladesh bordering areas of Murshidabad districts turn out to be a killing field for posted Border Security Force personnel.
Enclosed fact finding report proves clearly that the right to life of the victim has been grossly violated by the BSF as guaranteed under
Art.21 of the Constitution of India. The guidelines of National Human Rights Commission in encounter killings have been shown
scant respect and regard by the law enforcing agencies.
Name of the Victim: Master Surajit Mondal son of Mr. Sudhir Mondal, Schedule Caste, aged about 16 years was residing at
Village – Rajapur Paschim Colony, Sub Division- Domkal, Police Station – Raninagar, District- Murshidabad, West Bengal.
Name of perpetrators: 1. personnel on duty of Border Security Force (BSF), ‘G’ Company attached with outpost no 3 of
Mohanganj BSF camp District– Murshidabad, 191 Battalion. 2. The Officer in Charge of Raninagar police Station, District-
Murshidabad. 3. Commanding Officer of 191 Battalion
Place of incident: Near Outpost no 3 of Mohanganj BSF camp, Police Station- Raninagar, District- Murshidabad, West Bengal
Date and time of incident: On 28/09/2009 around 7 pm
Details of the incident:
MASUM conducted fact finding over a case of extra judicial killing of a minor schedule caste boy named Surajit Mondal by the
Border Security Force personnel. Surajit’s family was victimized by the erosion of river Padma in few years back. So the family
members are spending their days in extreme poverty; which took Surajit into smuggling (illegal cross border business) activities through
Indo- Bangladesh border for livelihood.
On 28/09/2009 in the evening it was raining cats and dogs. Surajit along with some of his companions of Digri Ghoshpara and Char
Rajanagar area of District Murshidabad were busy in smuggling of buffalos. Some of his companions could able to cross the border
20
outpost and reached at the territory of Bangladesh. But about 7 pm Surajit caught red handed by some BSF personnel and then he
was gun shot by one of them from very short distance. The bullet hit at his right bucket and the BSF personnel started beating him
indiscriminately by the butts of their rifles thereafter. He became almost senseless. Then again the BSF personnel fired two bullets at
his left hand and one bullet at his back which exited through his chest. The BSF personnel left the place thereafter and the body of
Surajit was lying down on the ground. Around 12 o’clock at night some BSF personnel took the body to Kaharpara Company Head
Quarter of BSF. The whole night the body was lying at the camp. No medical treatment was arranged by BSF. Next day around 8 am
the body was taken to Raninagar police Station by BSF van (vehicle number PB-08-BA-9454). Though the body of Surajit was not
examined by any doctor and declared as dead, one unnatural death case was registered at the police station; vide U/D case no. 27/09
dated 29/09/2009. Around 10 am on 29/09/2009 Mr. Arunava Das, Block Development Officer of Raninagar II examined the body
and prepared the inquest report in presence of Mr. Maskur Rahaman, The Officer in Charge of Raninagar police station while the
body was lying in the BSF vehicle vehicle number PB-08-BA-9454, standing in front of Raninagar Police Station . At the time of
inquest 2 blunt Hensos (a common tool to cut the grass) was kept beside the body by the police personnel. Here one thing we would
like to mention, that in most of the extra judicial killing cases BSF or police try to fabricate the cases in such way that apparently it
seems as encounter death cases to save the life of BSF personnel on duty, though there is no injury on the body of the personnel. BSF
& Police try to represent the Hensos as weapons.
After conducting inquest the body was sent at Lalbag morgue for post mortem examination (PME) by police. On 29/09/2009 the
PME was done at Lalbag morgue; vide PM no 228/09 dated 29/09/2009.
On 11/11/2009 Mr. Maskur Rahaman, the Officer in Charge of Raninagar police station, only informed our fact finding team that
here also police initiated an encounter case lodged by BSF, but he did not provide any further information.
Mr. Sudhir Mondal father of Late Surajit Mondal sent written complaints to different administrative and police authorities like The
Officer in Charge of Raninagar police station, The Sub-divisional Police Officer, Domkal, The Superintendent of Police,
Murshidabad, The District Magistrate, Murshidabad, The Block Development Officer, Raninagar II, The Sub-Divisional Officer,
Domkal, The Circle Inspector, Domkal.
On 18/11/2009 our fact finding team asked Mr. Shankar, the duty officer of Raninagar police station that whether any case was
initiated against any BSF personnel. The officer refused to provide any information.
Report by:
Kirity Roy
---------------------
Joint Force in West Midnapur engaged with WAR against the civilian
West Bengal, India
Satpati is a small hamlet under Salboni Police Station of West Midnapur district. As the joint forces are posted all along the region;
there is a joint force camp, occupying a school building, just opposite the Satpati market in Midnapur- Lalgarh road.
On 10th of December 2009, the International Human Rights Day came down heavily on the populace destroying all their rights to
life and liberty. In this course the joint force camping in the area not only killed an innocent person but injured five others, including a
minor.
After receiving the information, a fact finding team of MASUM rushed to the area on 13.12.2009, as team has prior information that
injured were in Midnapur District Hospital, the team first visited the hospital, the locales had an idea that the injured were in surgical
medical ward as the injured first shifted in male surgical ward on the fateful day, but after searching, the team found the persons were
inside the prison ward just attached with the male surgical ward and behind the bar, two police persons in uniform and one in
plainclothes (identified himself as a jail warden) were guarding the ward which was locked. The arrestees informed that they were
admitted in male surgical ward on 10.12.2009 at night, though failed to recollect the time as they were grievously injured but on
11.12.2009 they transferred to the custody of police/ judicial inside the hospital premises at around 6.30 p.m. on the day.
The injured; Amiya Ranjan Sahu, son of Mr. Bhajahari Sahu, aged about 38 years of Satpati village by profession a grocery owner
got received bullet injury on lower half of his left leg, Bikash Nandy, son of Mr. Asit Nandy, aged about 16 years, appeared for
secondary examination of Satpati, Bholananda Gantatit, son of Mr. Dulal Gantatit, aged about 19 years, appeared for higher
secondary examination and Tapas Mondal, son of Mr. Nepal Mondal, aged about 18 years and appeared for secondary examination
were all cramped in floor over the rotten linens and all having bullet injuries in different parts of their body while four others M/S
21
Bhagabat Garai, Amiya Santra, Alok Bera and Dilip Ghosh were provided cots after brought from Midnapur Central Correctional
Home in various dates for medical attention. Bikash, Bholananda and Tapas all are student of Goutam Smiriti Satpati Binapani
Bidyamandir of Satpati.
From them the fact finding team came to know that along them, Dr. Tamal Sahu, a registered medical practicenor of Satpati got
bullet injury and brought along with others to Midnapur Government Hospital and later sent to Seth Sukhlal Karnani Hospital,
Kolkata on same date; 10.12.2009 along with Bholanath and Tapas, but Bholanath and Tapas brought back to Midnapur
Government Hospital with same ambulance in which they were transported to the said hospitals. The detainees also informed that Dr.
Sahu is a heart patient and surgery on his heart valves had been done. They also informed that during the firing Biplab Sahu, son of
Mr. Ajit Sahu, aged about 38 years of Satpati got bullet injury and later came to know that he died in Midnapur Government
Hospital, though they have not seen the body or brought in same vehicle.
Most awfully the detainees were not informed about their arrest and having no knowledge that state has initiated criminal cases
against them. The information also not imparted to the families also which we later came to know. The fact finding team tried it level
best to get the case number with sections but refused the same by the guarding party, they said their superior can impart that but he
was not present there, after several argument a person in civil dress came at the place and introduced himself as Falguni Mukherjee,
Assistant Sub Inspector, attached with Police lines of Midnapur is guard in charge, but he also refused to divulge anything about the
police case, but as he was holding a piece of paper, the fact finding team clandestinely manage to look after it and find the police
started a criminal case against all the mentioned persons including the deceased as Salboni PS Case number 104/09 dated 10.12.2009
under sections 147/148/149/120 (B)/ 122/121(B)/124/126/307/323 of IPC & 9(B) of Indian Explosives Act (again this is only FF
team managed by peep over the paper). Till date nobody has been produced before any court or magistrate, no magistrate bodily
appeared before the persons and even the minor is still inside the regular custody, though he is a minor.
After that the fact finding team visited the place of incident; Satpati village and met with Mr. Tapan Kumar Mahish, aged about 44
years and elected member of 7 number Satpati Gram Panchayet with others. During his narration he vividly described the
happenings of the day. On the fateful day; 10.12.2009 a bus bounded towards Goaltor from Medinipur was make a halt at Satpati at
that very time the personnel of Pirakata police camp was returning after some skirmishes with the so called ‘ Maoists’ at Parulia village
under Salboni police station. The Pirkata police camp was nearly 4 kilometers away from the Satpati IRB- joint camp. But reasons
known best to the posted joint force personnel started indiscriminate lathicharge upon the persons inside the bus and people who were
in the street. During the lathicharge which was uncalled for, the posted joint force used filthiest abusive languages to all the persons
present at the time around the place.
The persons present at the place during the indiscriminate lathicharge and verbal abuses rushed to the Satpati police camp (joint force
camp) to know about the reason, why the personnel from another camp resorted to lathicharge (Pirakata joint force camp) without any
provocation, the number of protesting people were more than 100 and nobody inside the camp came out to hear the grievances of the
people, here it should be mentioned that never any contention between the Satpati villagers and posted armed constabulary has been
taken before. Majority of the persons belonging with agrarian occupations and few of them have auxiliary occupation of running
shops of different natures. But while they were demanding for the actual reasons, the posted joint force became berserk and asked
their sentries to leave the gate and come inside the camp and from there they started firing from their sophisticated firearms to
unarmed commoners who gathered over there as regular practice to gossiping and have their teas.
It was amply clear that the personnel of joint force resorted firing without any provocation and guidelines set for doing the so, no
magistrate was present at the place and nobody attacked them with any intention to cause harm to their life or properties.
But it was clear that armed personnel used sophisticated firearms without any reasons as the team found wholes on tin roofs nearly
500- 600 meters away from the camp and came to know that persons injured during the firing almost a receiving end of more than
500 meters.
The said Panchayet member even contacted the Officer in Charge of Salboni PS over mobile telephone and made him audible about
the bullet firings and asked him to stop the gruesome attack on common people. Mr. Tapan Kumar Mahish, the member of
Panchayet even alleged that to corroborate false evidences the joint force personnel even fired upon the walls of the camp to falsify
that someone fired upon the camp with firearms.
In a most gruesome act the joint forces even restricted the persons wanted to rescue the bullet ridden injured bodies and in that course
even threatened them from inside the camp. They challenged the persons wanted to bring the injured to hospital for medical
assistances with firings. Although the villagers somehow arranged a vehicle of Mr. Soumitra Sahu of the same village and paid for the
transportation while one Mr. Samir Manna, son of Bhramar Manna working with Satpati post office and a distant relative of the
deceased Biplab Sahu accompanied him during his last journey. According to him he was alive till Bhadutala but before reaching the
Midnapur hospital he breathed his last.
In this total incident the so called joint force not even tried to save the lives of the injured but recklessly abandoned the injured to die.
This was again not only against the Constitutional guarantee under Article 21 but most heinous indifference toward a dying person by
state actors.
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On 12th of December 2009 inside the agrarian lands under Parulia village, the personnel of Pirkata camp went to pick up the body of
one Tilak Tudu, but restricted by the villagers as according to the villagers, the body was of a CPI (M) harmed ( local vocabulary used
for an armed protagonist of ruling party) who came to kill innocents or political opponents and subsequently resisted by them, but
after failed to recover the body, while the joint force personnel were returning they fired upon the common people and used filthiest
vocabularies against the persons and tried to leveled with subversive activities by their statements against the peasants; that again
against the Constitutional and legal guarantees of this country. Nobody has the right to question the integrity of a person within any
legal parameters prior to any judicial dictate. During the incident Mr. Kartik Nandi, son of Mr. Gopal Chandra Nandi, aged about 42
years, having agricultural land inside Dhangori Mouza and Mr. Dipankar Betal, son of Mr. Mantu Charan Betal working in Jashpur
mouza as an agrarian labour experienced that the joint frce while returning fired upon the people engaged with their agrarian
activities and in most of the time bullets were fired upon their heads with huge firing noise, which forced them to leave their fields and
take run for helter- skelter.
While the fact finding team met with Mr. Kushal Biswas, the Officer in Charge of Salbobni police station while he was monitoring the
construction of new camp, as the High Court of Calcutta directed to vacate all the school buildings where the joint force has made
their camps by 20th December, he audaciously tried to make rationale and justified misdeeds of joint force. He even said before the
team that as the people’ brought the crocodile by digging canals, so the commoners (you have) have to face wrath of the police in
morning and ‘Maoist’ during the night’. But most rowdily he used the term ‘harmad’ for the hooligans of ruling party while he said
the new camp will divide between the ‘Harmads’ (CPI (M) with ‘ Maoists’.
He later stated that police has to make more threats and coercion than ‘Maoist’ so villagers will force to succumb before the police
rather than Maoists.
At last the fact finding team confronted with the family of the deceased; Mr. Biplab Sahu, it was heartrending occasion, as Biplab left
two minor boys and hapless wife. His parents were fainted and wife was speechless during the meeting, but the two minor sons have no
knowledge about the death of their father and consequences of the same. Biplab Sahu has 1 and half bigha of land by his own,
though his joint family of two uncles and his father posses 15 bighas of land, till date land has not been partitioned. While Biplab
Sahu got bullet injury and died during his journey to Midnapur Government Hospital, he was wearing a Lungi and vest and having a
torch with him, which is a necessary item for rural folk.
Till date nobody from police, administration or state party came to aggrieved family. No police personnel came for any sort of inquiry.
Report by:
Kirity Roy
----------------------------
HUMAN RIGHTS DAY OBSERVED TO CARRY FORWARD THE PEOPLE'S MOVEMENT IN GUJARAT
Gujarat, India
10th December, International Human Rights' Day was observed spiritedly in Ahmedabad. This year , this programme is observed by
Lok Andolan Gujarat ; a people's forum emerged on 9th August this year on Quit India Movement Day in a convention held at
Gujarat Vidhyapeeth to carry forward the people's movement through out the state and co – ordinate and unite all the minor and
major peoples movements for a consorted action and to lead the people's movement to its logical end taking the spirit of NavNirman
Movement of Gujarat and the JP movement in the country. The main motive for its formation is to co-ordinate sporadic movements
going on in different corners of the state on various people's issues, be it on SEZ, or of Government Employees' pay scale, or on
Hooch Tragedy victims' compensation and punishment to culprits or issues of atrocities on Women and Dalit, education movements,
movements of diamond and power loom workers, movement against electricity tariff hike or on questions of drinking water, sewerage,
road etc. or on plights of migrant workers, manhole workers, etc. It was felt intensely the inevitability of a joint platform for action to
ensure graceful life to all citizens irrespective of language, caste, creed, religion, race etc. There was an appeal to all citizens to
participate in 10th December, people's convention at Sardarbag to advance a step further in this direction. The main slogan of this
Convention was WE DEMAND PEOPLE'S POWER. LAND, WATER AND FORESTS BELONG TO PEOPLE.
It is important to recall that for last ten years Movement for Secular Democracy (M.S.D.), took initiative with Peoples' Union for Civil
Liberties (P.U.C.L.), AWAG and other voluntary organizations and the citizens to spread the message of Human Rights on 10th.
December and observed the day very spiritedly. As a result the human rights day has been celebrated widely and the voices for the
Human Rights are becoming strong .
23
The Human Rights Day was celebrated at Sardarbag, Lal darwaja, Ahmedabad this time, under the auspices of Lok Andolan
Gujarat. A people's conference was organized, where the fighting people and the concerned citizens and the voluntary organization all
over the state joined the conference to express solidarity and to take pledge for a prolonged(suggestion: sustained) peoples movement.
A presidium was formed with Shri Prakashbhai Shah, Ms. Ilaben Pathak, Shri. Chunibhai Vaidya, Shri. Natubhai , Prof. Babubhai
Desai, Prof. Kishorebhai Desai, , Mr. Dhiru Mistry, Prof. Ashwin Karia, Mr. Manishi Jani, Mr. Gautam Thaker, Ms. Damyantiben
Parekh .
The Conference was addressed by leading citizens and activists. plays, songs, speeches were placed. Among the speakers, some
important names were Shri Prakash N. Shah, Shri Ilaben Pathak, Shri Chunibhai Vaidya, Mr. Manishi Jani, Shri. Mansoor Ali Saleri
& others.
Other activists coming from different parts of the states who spoke were Ms. Zoharaben Cyclewala , Shri. Ratibhai Desai, Shri.
Vinubhai Amin & others.
To summerise all the speeches , the focal point of care & concern was that,
When more than half of the population is starving, 47% of infants live miserably under malnutrition, the real figure of farmers'
suicide exceed horrifically the official figure, farmers and farm labourers-daily labourers are thrown out of their land to hand it over to
private corporates, daily one rape and unnatural death of 15 women take place, salt labourers' children remain void of education and
still over 80,000 people in this modern era are engaged in most heinous job of carrying human excreta on their head, how can we call
our Gujarat a Swarnim(Golden) Gujarat?
The whole Conference was conducted by activist Ms. Meenakshi Joshi .
It was decided in the conference to make people to people contact throughout the state by month of March, to make it to converge on
1st of May - 50th foundation year of Gujarat in alternate and true sense. It is to be observed on large scale basis to take vow for the
people's cause which is just ignored or given a cosmetic look with a 'human face' in the name of 'Swarnim Gujarat ' by the Chief
minister Narendra Modi.
The Human Rights Day Celebration marked by the songs, plays by the youths and the students.
Plays on reality of Swarnim Gujarat, on female foeticide and on marketisation of education were done by students of different
colleges and universities of the state. Songs like Danko Vagyo…, the song of 1942 movement, Jaago jag Na kshudharth… (Gujarati
translation of international working class song by National poet Jhaverchand Meghani), keva keva bandhan… a song on enslavement
of women, etc. were sang. The slogans of the conference were, "jal jamin jungle kona? Junta Na bhai junta Na"(land, water and forest
belong to people), "amari chhe ek j vaat, junta nu raj divas raat"(we demand people's rule, day and night), "navi duniya, nyayi
duniya" (new world, just world)
The conference was concluded with the Mass Song Ham Honge Kamyab (We shall overcome)
The highlights of the Human Rights Day were the big Human Chain over the Nehru Bridge followed by the Candle light.
Report by:
D. N. Rath
-------------------------------
The legacy of CTA in the present context
Chhattisgarh, India
I. Historical Positioning of Communities under CTA

In 1871 the British Government passed an act commonly known as the Criminal Tribes Act. It was first enforced in the northern part
of India, and later was extended to Bengal (1876) and other areas, with the Madras Presidency being the last to enact it in 1911.
Under the Act 150 notified castes of ‘hereditary criminals’ within the Hindu system were to be kept under police surveillance. More
castes were added to the list. The branding of these communities, as ‘criminal’, was not based on the notion of heredity but rather as a
community profession passed on from one generation to the next. The Act, therefore, provided for establishing reformatory schools
and settlements for the reclamation of these people. Movements of members of the communities were restricted to specific areas and
the Act provided for their arrest without warrant if there was any violation. The crimes covered included counterfeiting of coins and
currency, murder, theft, robbery, dacoity and housebreaking. Children in the age group of 6 to 18 were separated from their parents
24
and put in reformatory schools. In due course the Indian society mutely witnessed the emergence of a new class of people who were
branded as born criminals.
These Criminal Tribes of yesteryears is today a new social category generally known as the Denotified and Nomadic tribes of India,
covering a population approximately of 60 million. Some of them are included in the list of Scheduled Castes, some in Scheduled
Tribes, and quite a few in the different formats of Backward Classes. Many of these tribes, do not find place in any of the aforesaid
ones. What is common to all these Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNTs) is the fate of being branded as ‘born’ criminals.
The story of the DNTs goes back to the early years of the colonial rule. In those times, whoever opposed the British colonial
expansion was perceived as a potential criminal. Particularly, if any attempts were made to oppose the government by the use of the
arms, the charge of criminality was a certainty. Many of the wandering minstrels, fakirs, petty traders, rustic transporters and
disbanded groups of soldiers were included in the list of criminal groups. It was also the context under which the Brahminical caste
hegemony manipulated the British power to stamp many of the lower caste communities who opposed the caste and Brahiminical
suppression. Thus the British imperialism and Brahimincal Casteist Fascism came together to disband the sons and daughter of the
soil.
II. The Central Indian Context

Much before the enactment of the CTA, during the first half of the nineteenth century, the tribes in the North West frontier had been
declared ‘criminal tribes’. This category became increasingly open ended and by 1871 the British had prepared an official list of
Criminal Tribes. For instance, Bhils who had fought the British rule in Kandesh and on the banks of Narmada and were convicted
under section 110 of the IPC were to be recognized as criminal tribes. Similarly Satnamis of Chhattisgarh who formed the new sect of
Satnam pant were also listed within the category due to their anti-Brahiminical movement. In many of the north Indian states the
Chamars of different clan and family were categories in this list. The Konds and Sabors of Orissa, who fought several armed battles
in Kondhomal also found place in this list. The Gonds, Marias and Murias of Bastar had the same fate as they too fought militant
revolts using clandestine and guerilla warfare tactics. Tribes of Chottanagpur areas like the Mundas, Oraons, Ho and the Santhals of
Santhal Pargana also found their names in this list as they fought a series of battles against British invasion into their land, and also
due to the fact that British lost many of these battles so badly. Unfortunately many of these brave struggles have not found space in the
history books.
Due to these specific character as discovered by the British the Act made provisions for establishing reformatory settlements where the
criminal tribes could be kept in confinement and subjected to low paid work. They were required to report to the guardrooms several
times every day, so that they did not escape the oppressive settlements.
III. And in the Independent India…

Soon after Independence, the communities notified as criminal tribes were denotified by the Government of India. This notification
was followed by substitution of a series of Acts, of which the ‘Habitual Offenders Act’ was the prime one. As a matter of fact the
HOA preserved most of the provisions of the former CTA, except the premise implicit in it that an entire community can be ‘born’
criminal. Apparently, the denotification and the passing of the HOA should have ended the misery of the CTA communities, but it
never happened. The police, as well as the people in general, advanced with the continued attitude of look upon the ‘Criminal Tribes’
as born criminals. The result is that every time there is a petty theft in a locality, the erstwhile CTs are the first suspects. Thus they are
victimized.
The ratio between the arrests and the convictions of the DNTs needs detailed analyzed and research to see the extent of physical
harassment and mental torture caused by the police to these most vulnerable and the weakest sections of the society. The land
possessed by these tribes was already alienated during the colonial rule through unfamiliar legal promulgations of land and forest acts.
After independence, various state governments have done little to restore their land to them. Schemes for economic uplift do not seem
to have benefited them. The illiteracy rate among the DNTs is high, malnutrition's more frequent and provisions for education and
health care is almost negligible. Above all, there is no end to the atrocities that the DNTs have to face.
Being illiterate and ignorant of the law, the DNTs know very little about the police procedures, and so often get into difficult situations.
The onus of proving innocence rests with them. Many of these people are scared to wear new clothes for the fear of being arrested
and therefore spoil them before using them. Mob-lynched, hounded from village to village, starved of all civic amenities, deprived of
the means of livelihood and gripped by the fear of police persecution, the DNTs are on the run. Freedom has still not reached them.
IV. Uprooting the Subalterns: the Legacy Continuities…

The stated purpose of the Act was ‘to ensure peace, law and order’ by bringing under ‘effective control the anti-social elements
chronically addicted to criminal activities’. The District Magistrate notified the tribes. The Superintendent of Police maintained a
register, secured fingerprints of members of the tribes and issued identification passes to them and required them to report to the
police at regular intervals. In the settlements, work was extracted from them for nominal wages.
According to critics, various landed communities were behind the branding of the children of the soil or the subalterns as ‘criminals’
with a view to using them for land reclamation and agricultural operations. The compulsion behind the Act, they said, was more to
25
provide cheap labour than to maintain law and order. There were several amendments to the Act from time to time and the Criminal
Tribes (Consolidation) Act of 1924 incorporated all of them.
In the post-independent India, things initially felt to be changing with the scrapping of the CTA and denotification exercise, thus
giving an illusion of wiping off the scars of notification. It is not only that this status never changed in reality, but also new formats of
exploitation and suppression emerged in the present context. With the emergence of globalization as a global market theory, there is a
wholesome change in the dynamics of relationship as well as outlook on the different aspects. Globalization is nothing but the spread
of capitalistic regimes all over the world through economic control, forced political capitulation, creating the culture of consumption,
and a social system dominated by market values. Even the little breathing space one could attain through the reservation policy is also
shrinking day after day.
As globalization continues with its devil-dance, with supportive structures of privatization and liberalization, it further attains social
and cultural potency with a conservative religious fascism. Hence in India it is to be noted that the communal forces easily aligned
with the corporate capital in its anti-reservation movement under the pretext of ‘merit’. In the last couple of decades there is a strong
anti-reservation policy propped up by this combine. Today all efforts are there to wipe-off the reservation policy from the surface,
which to certain extent has helped the CTs to gain some amount of social and economic dignity.
Several studies − both communitywise and statewise − had come out with ample data to stratify the fact that the living standards of
the DNTs are far below the national average. It is also a fact that the last precipitate of land holding was also taken off by the British,
which the independent India never tried to restore. Even the remnants of their property are also being taken off under the guise of
various development projects. For example Bhils are the first ones to be uprooted by the Narmada dam in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly
the Mundas and Oroans are the first casualty of the Koelkaro dam in Jharkhand. This also raises the question of the right to property
and resources; ownership and possession.
Violence against DNTs has its distinctiveness of being embedded in the social structure of domination by upper caste. In many cases
they also manipulate the local authorities to nab the DNTs. It is the caste-based hierarchical structure that lays down the norm of
conduct for human relationship between its more privileged groups and the subdued and subordinate ones. The ground has thus been
made more fertile for tension and unrest to grow. The situation has also turned ripe for communal and casteist forces to sow the seeds
of division and discord and indulge in violence. Dalits, being the most vulnerable of the poor are the worst hit, with atrocities against
them continuing in a number of states. The violence takes brutal forms and turns into acts of atrocities against the whole group of
people, such as massacre, rape, burning of houses and through more subtle methods like social boycott, which intended to block their
access to basic necessities and services.
How long the CTs or DNTs are supposed to face the brute inhuman demeanour of the state and society? Do they have any rights of
claiming to be citizens of this free nation? It is time to find answers to these persisting questions; or one has to turn to be a fatalist and
keep dreaming of the day when everything would be fine automatically…
Reference:
Dandekar, Ajay “Forgotten by present, Denotified Tribes awaits Justice”, The Economic Times, 16th October 2007.
Devi, N. G. “The Branded Tribes of India”, in PUCL Bulletin, September 1998.
Dube, Saurabh “Untouchable Pasts: Religion, Identity and Power among the Central Indian Community”, Vistaar Publications, New
Delhi, 2001.
Krishnakumar, Asha “A Primitive Perspective”, in Frontline, Volume 21, Issue 22, Oct. 23-Nov. 05, 2004
Radhakrishan, Meena “Dishonoured by History: Criminal Tribes & British Colonial History” Orient Longman, Hyderabad, India,
2001.
The Official Website of the National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes.
Vishwanathan, N. “Suspects Forever”, in Frontline, Volume 19, Issue 12, June 8-21 2002
Article by-
Goldy M. George
Raipur, Chhattisgarh
--------------------------
26
A new Initiative about 26/11 - Self Defense, Community Protection & Attitude Building
Maharashtra, India
Mumbai based "Vighnaharta Pratishthan" carried out distinctive programmes in form of workshops regarding the Self & Community
Protection, on 26/11 to change the focus of the society from anger to Self Defense & Community Protection & building up positive
Attitude while carrying out help & rescue. Police Trainer Shri. Anil Deshmukh guided the audience at various colleges on 26 /11
about the above said subject. He also demonstrated some weaponless self defense methods.
The response of the students at various places like at VK college at Panvel, Zunzunwala college at Ghatkopar, Chikitsak Highschool
Jr. college at Girgaon was overwhelming. Over 4000 students attended these workshops. Principal Mhatre of V K college at Panvel,
Principal Dr.mrs.Mukundan of Zunzunwala college at Ghatkopar (Mumbai) & Principal Mrs.Prabhu of Chikitsak Highschool,
Girgaon & their respective staff members, were all full of appreciation of what "Vighnaharta Pratishthan" is doing. Dr.Mukundan
traced the exact need of the society as she said,"There is no need to create panic & light up candles everywhere. Instead, the society
has to be trained in Self & Community Defense. There should be volunteers with right & positive attitude who will carry out Help &
rescue missions." Mrs.Prabhu of Chikitsak Highschool also had expressed similar views.
Also, Vighnaharta Pratishthan had called for mass Blood Donation drives on 26/11. Citizens & various govt. & social organisations
had held Blood Donation Camps at various places in Mumbai on 26/11 2009. Along with these progrrame, Vighnaharta Pratishthan
had organised a mass Vande Mataram singing at Girgaon at 9.30 pm that night, which also had overwhelming participation by
common Citizens. There were no speaches. The gathered crowd payed Homage to the 26/11 martyrs. Kirti College Vice Principal
Dr.Hemant Pednekar, RSS State Jt. Secretary Ravindra Pawar, Industrialist Vasantrao Bedekar were present along with local
Municipal Members at this occasion. The five of the local heroes who were first to respond to the attack by organising quick help &
rescue teams at various concerned hospitals that night, were falicitated with a Rose at the hands of Dr.Pedanekar at this occasion, to
bring there heroics before the society. Nilesh Ahirekar, Vinayak Mulye, Parag Veerkar, Raju Pushilkar, Ramkrishna & Gaurav
Tendulkar were among them.
Vighnaharta Pratishthan recongnises & appreciates the Help & Rescue Efforts by hundreds of youngsters who sponteniously took the
responsibility to defend the society in a unique way on that horrible night of 26/11 2008, while various governmental machineries
other than Medical Dept. were slow in their response.
Report by-
Rajesh Prabhu Salgaonkar

Editorial Co-ordinator,
"Charitrakosh" Project,
Saptahik Vivek, Mumbai
----------------------
DANTEWADA PADYATRA, SATYAGRAH AND JAN SUNWAI
Chhattisgarh, India
For the People's Right

to say NO to displacement and Tribal Genocide And to demand
the right to live with justice and peace
Dear Friends,
You are aware that the Tribals of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh State are continuously facing large-scale displacement from their
homes, fields and forests. Activists, journalists and scholars working in this area have also provided evidence of tribal genocide in the
last five years by State and its various agencies, including the police.
The recent past of gross human rights violations has consisted of the aggressive onslaught by the State sponsored vigilante group
called the Salwa Judum. Simultaneously, an anti-democratic draconian law called the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005
was brought in to silence all dissent. In the last four years it has been systematically used against human rights defenders, journalists,
film-makers, lawyers, intellectuals and ordinary citizens whenever they have the State has felt the need to silence people. The latest
27
move regarding elimination of the tribal people has been an escalation of the offensive by the State, in the name of Operation Green
Hunt in the heartland of Dantewada. Paramilitary troops along with the state armed police deployed in very large numbers by the
Central and the state governments have been carrying out military operations against the tribals in the name of curbing Maoists and
retrieve territories from them.
In order to build public opinion and to support the tribal people in their demand to stop this displacement and genocide and to
reclaim their right to life with justice and peace, several community based and people's organisations, trade unions and human rights
groups from Chhattisgarh and outside are planning a series of activities in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh.
This letter is being sent to you so as to ensure your presence and participation between 14 December 2009 and 7 January 2010 at
Dantewada and express your solidarity and raise your voice in support of the tribals. The list of events and dates are as follows:
1. Padyatra: 14 December to 26 December 2009
The first phase of this three week campaign consists of a padyatra from Nendra village to Dantewada town via Lingagiri. This
padyatra will be led by Himanshu Kumar of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram and other tribal leaders of this region and will pass through
more than 17 villages.. A group of approximately 40 students, journalists, academics and activists from different parts of the country
will also join the padyatra. The main objective of the padyatra is to restore a sense of confidence amongst the tribals who are living in
acute fear due to the continuous onslaught of the security forces. The padyatris will also document the atrocities that the tribals have
been subjected to including the situation of hunger, food insecurity, lack of health and educational facilities and other forms of
deprivation faced due to the ongoing displacement and war in the region.
2. Dantewada Satyagrah: 25 December 2009 to 5 January 2010
Tribal people from all over Dantewada and other regions of Chhattisgarh will launch a Satyagrah on 25 December 2009 which will
have the support of tribals from Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh among other states.
We are hoping that large groups of people from these states and from all networks, unions and organisations working on diverse
people's issues will respond to this call and join in the Satyagrah for atleast a few days. The objective of the satyagrah is to bring
together concerned people from all over the country to demand in one voice an end to displacement of people and to the war that is
underway in this region, apart from demanding the implementation of the SC orders on rehabilitation in the context of displacement
due to the violence of salwa judum.
A Raipur Support Group coordinated by Chhattisgarh Unit of PUCL has been set up for the Satyagrah. This group will provide
assistance to the people coming from the Northern, Eastern and Western regions India as well as from other parts of Chhattisgarh.
Raipur is situated on the Mumbai-Kolkata route and is well connected by train from most parts of the country. Dantewada is situated
400 kms from Raipur and direct buses are available between the two towns through the day and night that take about 12 hours each
way
People coming from the South can take trains or buses from Vishakhapatnam or bus it down from Hyderabad. The distance between
Hyderabad to Dantewada via Bhadrachalam is 500 kms and takes about 16 hours.
3. Jan Sunwai: 6-7 January 2010 (the date may be advanced or postponed by a day)
The Satyagrah will culminate with a Jan Sunwai where tribal residents of this region will share their experiences of the Salwa Judum,
Operation Green Hunt and their struggle for justice. This Jan Sunwai will be witnessed by a panel of ex-justices, senior activists from
various people's movements, ex-bureaucrats and policemen, journalists and intellectuals including those from among the tribals.
This letter is a request to you and your group/organisation to begin preparing for your participation in the series of events given
above. A more detailed invitation shall be sent to you soon. For more details please contact at the phone numbers provided below.
We are:
Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, People's Union for Civil Liberties (Chhattisgarh), Chhattisgarh Visthapan Virodhi Manch, Chhattisgarh
Mukti Morcha – Mazdoor Karyakarta Samiti, Nadi Ghati Morcha, Human Rights Law Network (Chhattisgarh), National Alliance of
People's Movements, Chhattisgarh Mahila Jagriti Sangathan, Chhattisgarh Bal Shramik Sangathan, Indian Social Action Forum
(INSAF)-Chhattisgarh, Gram Sabha Parishad, Tribal Welfare Society, People's Union for Democratic Rights, Committee for the
Release of Binayk Sen-Mumbai and others (endorsments by other organisations are awaited)
-------------------------
28
TALK ON MATERIALISM SPIRITUALISM AND SHRAMA DHARMA (MSMT)
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
There is a clear failure of the world order today. The gunpoint Capitalism and Communism evolved out of the Industrial Revolution
are a clear failure at this stage unable to solve today’s problems. The conclusive orthodox religious order of various hues based on
absoluteness, immutability, omnipotency, permanancy and perfection are not capable of answering today’s world awareness,often
pulling the world backward towards intolerance and violence. The oft spoken love, brotherhood, concern for the fellow human being
and co-operative social collaboration are missing today.From morning until going to bed, everybody seems to be running madly
without holistic meaning to life.
It is the failure of the Teacher today than that of the student/ public. The need of the hour is Innovation in every sphere more so in
the social systems,social order and Spirituality. For a possible approach and answer,please visit www.materialistspiritualist.org
In these days of MP’s Corruption, Corruption in highest places, Corruption all around us, Favouratism, Nepotism, Discrimination
and Embezzlement every where, Violence, Mistrust, Social indifference and Social disorder, we have to look for alternatives. This
prompted, the Creation of this Public Charitable Trust on 11-06-2003. There is a need for Paradigm shift in our thinking, faiths,
beliefs, attitudes and behavior for achieving Synergy, Peace, Harmony, Justice and Development. There is a need for striking a balance
between materialism and spiritualism for ensuring human survival and life survival in general. The attitude of imposing/prescribing
everything i.e. do’s and don’ts for progeny must go and a system of freshness, creativity and a relook at the entire past is the need of
the hour.
The world today faces extreme violence, be it extremism or terrorism or fundamentalism of various origins. The root cause has to be
analyzed in a dispassionate and objective manner. The technological knowledge gained by mankind should not become source of its
own destruction. Wisdom should prevail over knowledge. There is a need for balance every where, be it personal life, materialist and
spiritual thoughts, social order, justice, equality of opportunity or development.
There is a need to understand materialism and spiritualism and philosophy of Shrama (Labour). Materialism gives that all life
originated from matter and the methods used are Scientific postulations, verification and that is the path ( i.e. induction or deduction).
Whereas spiritualism originates itself from the realizations of Rishis/ Mahapurushas / Prophets / Imams / Teachers / Rabbies. To
understand realization is to go through that process and that is not in your hands. There is no verifiable proof as required by the
scientific method. With individuals who have gained scientific knowledge and methodology and spiritual realization, fusion between
them is possible which will lead to synergy between materialism and spiritualism for human wellbeing. In order to create knowledge
and skills in this historically evolved situation, new ways and new postulations based on the above are required at least for the present
time. These two aspects namely Materialism and Spiritualism are the only known aspects/methods of enquiry about Truth and there
could be infinite possible methods if mankind has evolved to that state. This being a possibility.
To understand synergy, peace, harmony, justice and development in society ( global / national), one has to understand meaning of
labour (Shrama), its origin, its philosophy and its ideals.
In order to bring forth a direction and knowledge and skills on these above lines i.e. Materialism Spiritualism and Shrama Dharma,
this Public Charitable Trust is created on 11-06-2003, with other objectives as given in this website. Perhaps there will be more
synergy, peace, harmony, justice and development with minimum Laws and least policing with the right kind of social systems. It is the
failure of the teacher today, than that of the student/public. The right systems and processes have to come in place and hence creative
research is required to create this. This is the major objective of this Trust.
Brief points for the TALK

• Spiritualism – a brief
• Materialism –a brief
• History of Eastern and Western Philosophies --- a brief
• Materialism Spiritualism - a new paradigm in philosophy
• Tools used – Truth and reality and five states of existence
• Under research and realization
• Shrama (Labour) - origin, development and philosophy
• Shrama Dharma - a new paradigm in social existence evolved from Eastern and Western life/ Cultural processes
• Materialism Spiritualism and Sharma Dharma – two tools for Synergy, Peace, Harmony, Justice and Development
• Conclusion- assimilation, Integration and Innovation and direction for future.
Report by-
29
C.Venkataramanaiah
BE(Gold Medallist),MBA(IIM-B,74-76)
Founder&Managing Trustee,
Materialist Spiritualist Mission Trust
Hyderabad,INDIA
---------------------
IMPACT OF “DINAKARAN” ON JUDICIARY’S IMAGE
Karnataka, India
Large segment of well meaning citizens of India feel frustrated about the prevalence of widespread corruption and nepotism amongst
politicians and government machinery at various levels in the country. They often console themselves that things would not further
deteriorate and media and judiciary would ensure this.
The recent controversies about Justice Dinakaran of Karnataka High Court has certainly sent shock waves amongst those who
thought that the judiciary would be the ultimate conscience keeper of the country. Supreme Court has allowed this issue to drag on
too long , making people wonder as to whether Supreme court itself lack the will to act decisively on such matters. The judges are
responsible for judging various issues and they have to do it quickly, particularly when a judge is involved in the issue. Due to the delay
in decision making, tremendous harm is being done to the public perception about the judiciary in the country, which will have very
serious long term adverse impact.
Obviously, the Supreme Court think that Justice Dinakaran should not be punished in the absence of adequate proof of his alleged
misdeeds, particularly when Justice Dinakaran has denied the allegations. The rule of justice traditionally say that the benefit of doubt
should be given to the accused and Supreme Court is banking on this view point.
Even while granting that the Supreme Court has justification for its stand, it has to realize that large number of senior advocates have
appealed not to elevate Justice Dinakaran to Supreme Court and such an appeal is unprecedented and cannot be ignored by the
Supreme Court. Further, the District Collector has given a report on the issue about his land holdings, apart from the protest by the
local people.Several advocates in Karnataka have asked as to how can one whose proposed elevation to Supreme court has to be
delayed and have raised so much of controversies can continue as Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court. If one’s elevation to
Supreme Court has to be delayed due to controversies , the same logic should be applicable for holding position as Chief Justice of
Karnataka High Court also. The standards of judiciary should be the same everywhere whatever may be the level of courts.
If Supreme Court were to think that one should not be punished due to suspicions, it should also think that one cannot be a judge
under suspicious circumstances.
More than Justice Dinakaran, Supreme Court appear to be causing greater anxiety for the well meaning citizens of India who think
that the standards of judiciary must be kept high. It is extremely difficult to understand the silence of Supreme Court about allowing
Justice Dinakaran to continue to sit as Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court in the present circumstances.
Justice Dinakaran would be doing great service to the country and to the image of judiciary and to his own image and to build the
confidence of the public about the standards of judges, by voluntarily going on leave until his name would be cleared.
Column by-
N.S.Venkataraman
----------------------
30
Two SUSANTA BISWAS Documentaries got International Festival selection in 2009
West Bengal, India
Two documentary films directed by SUSANTA BISWAS have participated in two International Festivals in the same year organized
by the Government of West Bengal.
The preview committee has recommended the documentary on sustainable effort of tribal women in social forestry titled "Tribal
women, afforestation and sustainability" for the screening in the Short & Documentary films Section of 15th Kolkata Film Festival.
The film was screened on 17.11.2009 at Bangla Akademi Main Auditorium.
Earlier, the documentary on establishing the first Small & Medium Forest Enterprise in India titled "Artistic approach" was selected for
8th International Social Communication Cinema Conference 2009. The film was screened on 19.02.2009 at NANDAN.
By-
Susanta Biswas
----------------------------------
MID-DAY: Manmohan gets a legal notice on CIC Selection
Delhi, India
Right To Information (RTI) activists spare no one. Not even the Prime Minister. A group of RTI activists has sent a legal notice to the
Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Government of India regarding the appointment of the new chief information commissioner
to head the Central Information Commission (CIC), the nodal agency for implementation of the RTI Act. Activists from across the
country have been demanding the appointment of a non-bureaucrat to the post.
http://www.mid-day.com/news/2009/dec/031209-krishna-rao-rti-manmohan-singh.htm
In the legal notice, the activists have demanded the provisions and procedures for selecting the CIC chief should be made public.
They want records of previous selections too and have also urged the government to put the appointment of the new chief on hold till
the guidelines are revealed.
The notice, sent on November 26, by Abdul Rasheed Quereshi, a Supreme Court advocate, says the Section 4 of RTI Act, 2005, casts
an obligation upon the public authority to disclose all norms, procedures and records that may facilitate the right to information under
this act. "Section 4(1)(b)(iii) mandates that the public authority shall publish within 120 days from the enactment of this Act,- the
procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability. Section 4(1)(b)(iv) further
mandates that the public authority shall publish the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions," the letter states.
The RTI activists say as the PMO, the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
(DoPT) appoint the CIC commissioner, they are duty bound to publish all relevant facts and details of the procedure pertaining to
previous selections of CIC heads and the ongoing selection process of the next chief.
Krishna Rao, one of the petitioners from Mumbai, said, "It is the lack of transparency on the part of the government. The RTI Act is
an important instrument empowering citizens of India to make public authorities accountable. The office of the CIC is at the helm of
this act. It is therefore expedient and of vital importance that the procedure followed in the decision making process, including
channels of supervision and accountability for selecting CICs is put up on the website of the organisation."
The activists allege the government is biased in selecting the CIC heads.
"A close look at the career details and appointment dates of CIC commissioners reveals the truth: the post is yours if you are an IAS
officer aged around 60, and have worked with the PMO, DoPT or Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Officer from other
cadres like IPS may also be considered. Civil society members, eminent or otherwise are least preferred," said Rao.
The Supreme Court lawyer, who has sent the letter, says he will move the Delhi High Court too if the PMO doesn't reply.
"We have sought a response within one week from the receipt of this notice. We have not yet received any response from any of the
31
officials. We want dates and details of various rounds of selection and appointment held between October 2005 and the current date.
By next week, we are hoping to file a petition in the Delhi High Court regarding this," Qureshi said.
Choosing the right head

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has met Opposition leader LK Advani and Law Minister Veerappa Moily to finalise the name of
the new Chief Information Commissioner.
While there is no official confirmation about the candidates shortlisted for the post, several names, including those of Civil Aviation
Secretary Madhavan Nambiar, environmentalist Shekhar Singh and Information Commissioner A N Tiwari are doing rounds.
Several RTI activists are trying to make the process more transparent.
High Court said this...

On November 18, while hearing a PIL seeking a direction to the government to appoint a non-bureaucrat to the post of CIC
commissioner, the Delhi High Court had declined to give directions to the government to change the procedure for appointment,
saying it was not in its jurisdiction to lay down criteria in this regard.
The bench also expressed inability to pass such an order, saying, "Such changes cannot be initiated by the judiciary. The law was
framed after a mass movement was initiated for it. The same movement should be initiated to bring an amendment. RTI activists
should mobilise the larger civil society to build an opinion on the issue."
The Other Side

When MiD DAY contacted PMO media advisor Harish Khare, he refused to comment on the subject.
By-
Amit Singh
Mid Day
--------------------------
Community Rallies Against Coca-Cola, Demands Climate Justice
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
November 30, 2009 - Armed with banners demanding "Climate Justice Now!" and "Shut Down Coca-Cola", over 2,000 villagers
marched to the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehdiganj in India today demanding its closure.
Villagers have accused the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehdiganj of worsening the water conditions in the area by over-extraction of
groundwater as well as pollution.
The community was also angered by Coca-Cola's decision to continue production and extraction of groundwater as the area faced
severe drought this year and thousands of farmers experienced failed crops and water sources dried up.
2009 was the worst drought year for India in the last 40 years and June was the driest June in India in the last 80 years, a testament to
a changing climate.
"Coca-Cola cannot continue to mine for millions of liters in Mehdiganj when our communities do not have enough water to sustain
their lives and livelihoods. Coca-Cola must shut down," said Nandlal Master of Lok Samiti, the primary community organization
organizing the protest.
The groundwater levels at Coca-Cola's bottling plant were at 23.75 meters below ground level in 2008, one of the most depleted
groundwater tables in the entire area - confirming Coca-Cola's major impact on the groundwater at the point of extraction.
Interestingly, Coca-Cola points to a groundwater metering station located 5 kilometers away from its plant, where the groundwater
levels is at 5.9 meters below ground level, to suggest that it is not a significant contributor to groundwater depletion in the area. The
groundwater levels are expected to drop sharply again in 2009 as a result of the failed monsoons (the Central Ground Water Board
has not released the 2009 levels yet).
Government officials have also confirmed that groundwater conditions in the Araziline block, where the Coca-Cola company is
located, is the worst hit in the entire region. The Uttar Pradesh irrigation department has noted that the majority of the tubewells that
32
went dry in the region were in the Araziline block and only 18 of the 156 ponds in the area could be filled this year as a result of failed
monsoons.
"Operating water guzzling bottling plants in drought hit areas where the communities and farmers do not have access to water is
highly unethical and criminal. Coca-Cola should never have located its plants in drought prone areas, and as droughts become more
frequent in India as a result of climate change, we will increase our efforts to shut down Coca-Cola in these areas," said Amit
Srivastava of the India Resource Center.
Coca-Cola has been the target of numerous protests by farmers all across India accusing the company of depleting groundwater, the
primary source of water for Coca-Cola's production. Two Coca-Cola bottling plants in India have been shut down and a proposed
plant was stopped from completion as a result of community opposition. Protests against Coca-Cola are expected to intensify as
communities in India and across the world realize the impacts of climate change, including sporadic rainfall, drought and increased
stress on groundwater.
The march and rally was preceded by a conference on Climate Justice and Water Rights in Mehdiganj on November 29, attended by
key leadership from the region including village heads and government officials. Mr. Rajendra Singh, a prominent expert on water
internationally, addressed the conference and called Coca-Cola's rainwater harvesting initiatives a "sham", noting that the company
should not be operating in drought areas in the first place.
Coca-Cola has suggested that it has become "water neutral" in Mehdiganj - that its operations have no impact on water resources
whatsoever. It is absurd for a company like Coca-Cola (which extracted 38 million liters of water in 2008 alone in Mehdiganj) to claim
that it has no impact on the groundwater resource. Coca-Cola's water neutrality goals, which its own study termed as "misleading"
and "impossible", have been labeled as outlandish and impossible by water experts in India, and as a public relations gimmick by
activists.
Report by-
Nandlal Patel
-----------------------
RETIRED FROM RED TAPE, BABUS NOW SEEK TO RULE INFO WORLD
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Guess who’s leading the list of applicants for information commissioners in the state? Bureaucrats, virtually synonymous with the very
red tape that the Right To Information Act seeks to surmount, are showing interest after retirement in dispelling information of all
things. Data provided by the state’s General Administration Department shows that out of the 40 applications the government
received for information commissioner, 24 were from retired bureaucrats who served within and outside the state.
h t t p : / / l i t e . e p a p e r . t i m e s o fi n d i a . c o m / g e t p a g e . a s p x ?
pageid=2&pagesize=&edid=&edlabel=TOIM&mydateHid=02-12-2009&pubname=&edname=&publabel=TOI
“Around 60% of the applications came from babus. At least three applicants were above 65 and are hence not eligible. Many see the
post of information commissioner as just another means of employment after retirement,” said RTI activist Vihar Dhurve who filed
an RTI query on this issue.
More interestingly, some of these applications come with ‘recommendations’ from ministers and opposition leaders, raising questions
over their impartiality even before they have been selected. For instance, the data revealed that one of the applicants Rajendra
Chaturvedi, who served as the DGP in Madhya Pradesh, was recommended by former human resources minister Arjun Singh. Then
there is Bhagwat R Patil, who has declared himself as a farmer and developer, who has been recommended by former state minister
Swarup Singh Naik who was convicted in a forest scam case in 2006. Patil was also recommended by former MLA Chandrakant
Reghuvanshi. Similarly in another application J S Kharat who said that he was a founder one district cooperative bank was
recommended by former state minister Balasaheb Thorat and former central minister Oscar Fernandes. And Rama Das, who was
with the Central Administrative Tribunal, was recommended by former opposition leader Ramdas Kadam. The data also show that
are a couple of recommendations made by the deputy chief minister. Some applicants did not even bother to mention their
educational qualifications and age.
33
Activist S K Nangia said any kind of lobbying by politicians is considered as a disqualification according to government procedures.
“We will take up this matter with the state government. It is unfortunate that only
one out of the six information commissioners is a non- bureaucrat. This is a dangerous trend as we have seen that Public Information
Officers are not very comfortable providing information and higher officers protect them, ’’ Nangia said.
Rajen Dharod, convener Tarun Mitra Mandal, said, “Under the RTI Act people from all walks of life are eligible for the post of
information commissioner. Then why is the state not encouraging professionals working in other fields to join the state information
commissio? Bureaucrats, be it the public information officer (PIO) or appellate authority usually deny information.”
Some applicants like Shivaji Raut, a secondary teacher from Satara, had taken pains to give a detailed resume, explaining the role he
played in spreading RTI awareness across the state by conducting various RTI training workshops in the last four years. “I do not
know whether the state will finally will recommend me but Iam sure I can do a good job and help ordinary citizens who file a second
appeal with the commission,” Raut said from Hyderabad where he was at a national RTI convention.
Civic activist Chandrashekhar Prabhu who exposed several lacunae in SRA schemes said he had not applied, but many people
recommended his name.
THE PROCESS
· Eminent citizens from all walks of life with a wide knowledge and experience in science, technology, social service, management,
journalism, mass media, administration and governance are eligible for the post of state information commissioner.
· The applicant should send the forms to the General Administrative Department mentioning educational qualifications, age and
experience in his field of activity.
· The GAD will make the first scrutiny and remarks and then send the final list to the state committee in charge of selecting the
commissioners.
· The selection committee comprising chief minister, opposition leader and a cabinet minister will finally select the information
commissioner.
· The post has an upper age limit of 65 years and a tenure of five years.
· The cost to the public exchequer is Rs 20- 25 lakh per commissioner per year.
SOUNDBITES
· Selection process should be made public, names announced so people may nominate information commissioners. The selection
committee should then shortlist the final applicants. -- Shailesh Gandhi | CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSIONER
· Often bureaucrats selected by politicians tend to toe the line of the establishment. There should be a proper framework for selecting
infomation commissioners. -- Krishnaraj Rao | RTI ACTIVIST
· The commissioner should be made more accountable as he cannot be transferred or removed in case he performs abysmally. The
applicant’s role in helping use of RTI Act should be considered. -- Chetan Kothari | RTI ACTIVIST
· We need someone who is not from the government to counter the process of denial when the case comes for final appeal, which is
the last option for the RTI applicant. -- Rajen Dharod | RTI ACTIVIST
By-
Krishnaraj Rao
----------------------------
34
PURPOSE OF THE BRIEFING ON ARMED FORCES SPECIAL POWERS ACT
North-East, India
The Government of India has been actively considering amendments to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In this
regard, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Amendment Bill 2009 has been listed for discussion during the ongoing winter session of
the Parliament. Pertinently the proposed amendments have not been placed in the public domain for a discussion on the same. The
Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR) would like to urge that AFSPA should be repealed in totality and no
part of it should be inserted in any other legislation of the country.
The AFSPA grants special powers to the armed forces of the union to operate in the States of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh since 1958, and in Jammu Kashmir since 1990. Once an area is declared
'disturbed' under this Act, the armed forces of the union can arrest and detain citizens without warrant, search and destroy properties
without warrant, and even use force to the extent of killing citizens on mere suspicion.
Civil society groups in these regions as well as human rights groups outside the regions have documented gross violations of human
rights under this Act and have been demanding its repeal. Ms. Irom Sharmila, a Manipuri poet, has created history as she enters the
tenth year of her indefinite hunger strike against the Act, despite several attempts by the state to forcibly feed her. She has been
uncompromisingly demanding the repeal of this draconian law.
In 1997, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that in imposing AFSPA the Government of India is in fact using emergency
powers without resorting to the procedures laid down in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. Other UN
committees including the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Committee for the Rights of the Child,
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, have raised concerns against the Act. In 2007, the UN Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination categorically urged the Government of India to repeal the Act within one year. The High
Commissioner for Human Rights also urged the Government of India to repeal this Act during her recent visit to India. (March
2009).
The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee appointed by the government to review the law, the Administrative Reforms Commission
headed by present law minister Mr. Veerappa Moily and the Working Groups on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and
Kashmir led by the present Vice President, Hamid Ansarai, have all recommended repeal of the AFSPA.
The Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR) – a platform of human rights organizations in India – would
like to take this opportunity to apprise the honourable Members of Parliament on how AFSPA has become a symbol of abuse,
oppression and impunity and inflamed passions for militancy in various parts of the country. WGHR sincerely hopes that the briefing
will assist the honourable members to ensure that the quality of debate in Parliament will be enhanced, thus deepening democracy in
the country and leading to a serious discussion regarding the widespread demand to repeal this draconian law.
By-
WGHR
------------------
Can common people be helped facing predicaments to take on the might of the Mighty BMC to get
justice
Maharashtra, India
At least the General public Should know what the state of affairs will be if they try to get Justice from the BMC in similar
circumstances like mine...
In April 2009,The Occupier of Flat no three, Mr Upendra K Kudva, 1st flr in above Soares Bldg, reconstructs a wall having height of
18-20 inches, weighing about 500-700kgs and spread across the entire length and breadth of the chhaja projection outside his
Bedroom. This Wall was earlier demolished by the BMC in Jan 2007. I have complained To Bldg and fact dept about this
Reconstruction Immediately.
2. After a lot of running about & complaining for about Three months, the Bldg and fact dept finally Issued to Mr Upendra K kudva
a Demolition Notice in July 09
35
3. Again after a few days the Asst Engg Bldg and Fact dept made a complete U- TURN for reasons best know to him and Started
giving lame excuses For not demolishing this Illegal/ Unauthorised wall of Mr Upendra K kudva.
4. He is asking to see the BLDg plan which is not needed in this case as it is clearly visible that all other Flats in Soares Bldg have
similar type of chhajas except for the Chhaja of Flat no Three which has this Illegal wall built on it. So the Asst Engineer Bldg and
Fact dept should actually ask Mr upendra Kudva if only he has got special permission to build this wall on the chajja and to show
them the Bldg Plan and special permissions if that is so.
5. Also The Bldg plan is not needed in this case simply because the Bldg Plans never show walls constructed on chhajjas and further
building of walls on Chajjas is not permissible under the BMC rules as is already stated by The asst Enginner in his Demolition notice
issued in July 09 to Mr upendra kudva.
6. If all other Flats were to follow Mr Upendra kudva;s Example then the additional weight that would be added to JUST THE
CHAJAS and balconies in Soares Bldg would be around 10,000to 12,000 Kgs which will be dangerous to the Bldg sooner or later and
another Laxmi chaaya or Yusuf manzil type tragedy can take place.Tomorrow Thousands of other Bldgs will also follow this Example.
7. I don’t know if the Asst Engineer Bldg and Fact is avoiding to demolish this illegal construction just because Mr Upendra k Kudva
happens to be a SUB-Enginner with the BMC. Sir from all the above it appears/Seems that the Asst Engineer Bldg And fact is
resorting to Dereliction of Duty and abusing/Misusing his Powers.
I have already written to the DMC zone Three-Mr Pawar, the Vigilance dept Byculla and also written to the BMC commissioner but
to no avail. All these officials have simply sent the complaint back to the ward Officer Shri Dhakne who has not even replied back to
me inspite of writting to him twice .
I believe that the complaint will now be forwarded back to the Errant Asst Enginner Bldg and fact dept whom I have complained
about by the ward officer ..and if that happens where is the question of any Justice.
I dont know if the Asst Enginner Bldg and Fact dept and others will not demolish or take any action against the person who has
constructed this illegal / unauthorised constrction probably because that person himself is a SUB Engineer in the BMC k-west cc
Road Dept.
Self Report by-
Johnny Soares
-------------------------
Repeal the anti-constitutional SEZ Act, 2005
Maharashtra, India
“SEZ hatao, desh bachao!”
GORAI, MAHARASHTRA, People’s movements from across India came together in Gorai – Mumbai, Maharashtra, to demand a
repeal of the unconstitutional SEZ Act (2005) and to resist the anti-people model of development that SEZs represent. Farmers,
fishermen, labourers, activists, artists, journalists and academics from thirteen states gathered at the National Convention Against
SEZs to share the experiences of their anti-SEZ struggles and to strategise for a nation-wide movement.
In the name of these zones, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land are being forcibly acquired for the benefit of large corporates
at the cost of millions of people’s lives and livelihoods. To date, 1,046 SEZs have been approved by the central government, including
206 in Maharashtra that will require over 1.5 lakh acres. The track record of these zones shows that rather than increasing
employment and generating infrastructure for the public good, they are private land grabs for corporates to profit through speculative
means.
Addressing the conference, S.P. Shukla, former Finance Secretary for the GOI said “SEZs are not a means of industrialization, but are
rather a way of monopolizing natural resources for corporate purposes. We must defend our natural resources for future generations”.
36
Dr Anand Teltumbde said “SEZs are merely a form of accumulation by dispossession, violating the fundamental rights of the
people”. Medha Patkar added that, “These nations within nations are a threat to the sovereignty of the country. Therefore, the SEZ
Act must be scrapped.” Various other speakers pointed out that these zones will enclave development for the elite while marginalizing
the vast majority of the Indian people.
Peoples movements from Nandigram, West Bengal; Raigarh, Gorai and Pune, Maharashtra; Chandigarh, Punjab; Haryana; Delhi;
Orissa; Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat shared their experiences of
their struggles and victories and vowed to work together to scrap the SEZ Act (2005). The movements chanted slogans such as “SEZ
dhokha hai, dhakka maro moka hai” and “jameen aamchaya hakkachi, naahi kunachaya bapachi”.
The movements proposed various strategies for resisting SEZ development in the country. Among these were a national highway
blockage, people’s audits and mock parliaments, dialogue with MP’s , creating a people’s commission on SEZ’s and raising awareness
among youth, media and the general public. The peoples audits, being held in locations throughout the country will culminate in
national level action in Delhi in January. It was pointed out that not only those losing their land and natural resources, but tax payers
in general will suffer through revenue loss caused by the tax concessions granted to SEZ’s.
The National Convention on SEZs was jointly organized by the Socialist Front, National Alliance of Peoples’ Movements, Jagatikaran
Virodhi Kriti Samiti, Dharavi Bet Bachao Sanghash Samiti, Bombay Catholic Sabha, Aazadi Bachao Andolan and National Centre
for Advocacy Studies. Among those present at the event were Subhash Ware, Ulka Mahajan, Surekha Dalvi, Samsunder, Peter
Gudino, Neville, Rattan Singh, Manav Kamble, Maruti Bhapkar, Gajanan Khatu, Dhairyashil Patil and Sampat Kale. The
convention was hosted by the Gorai Bet Bachao Sangharsh Samiti.
Report by-
Sampat Kale
Programme Officer-NCAS
Saswati Swetlena
Programme Officer,
Governance and Advocacy Unit,
National Centre for Advocacy Studies,
New Delhi
-----------------
WORLD DISABLED DAY :: AWARD FOR SELF EMPLOYED DISABLED PERSONS
Tamilnadu, India
Nandini Voice for The Deprived, a Chennai based NGO, organized an extraordinary meeting at Chennai on 29th November,2009 in
connection with the World Disabled Day, to honour the self employed disabled persons belonging to lower income group.
The objective was to honour the self employed disabled persons who have the courage, determination and capability to self employ
themselves inspite of the extremely difficult conditions faced by them in life.
22 disabled persons consisting of orthopaedically disabled, visually impaired, speech impaired, hearing impaired and mentally ill
persons were honoured with cash award, a gift and certificate. These disabled persons hail from different parts of Tamil Nadu
including Coimbatore, Nagercoil, Madurai, Dindigul, Tiruchi, Villupuram, Perambalur, Chennai. They are involved in variety of self
employment activity such as making agarbathi, candles, batik paintings, decorative wooden pieces, plastic garlands, metal polishing,
plastic basket making, marketing of products.
In addition, five disabled persons from Dindigul, Madurai, Perambalur, Villupuram and Chennai who are serving the cause of the
disabled persons were also honoured.
The disabled persons were honoured and presented the awards by Swami Gautamananda, President, Sri Ramakrishna Math,
Chennai , in the presence of Sri. Gnani, well known Tamil writer and social activist.
Several self employed disabled persons also spoke about the problems in self employment pursuits and their aspirations.
37
Speaking on the occasion, Swami Gautamananda quoted extensively from the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and stressed the need
for self confidence and pride in one’s activity and chosen profession. He pointed out that every human being has the potentials,
whether they are disabled or normal and the sparks have to be kindled in the individuals by teachings and up bringing. The disabled
persons have all the capability to achieve great heights and they are already doing and emerging as role models in the society.
Sri. Gnani said that the disabled persons should educate and qualify themselves in the best manner possible, as their level of education
would ultimately benefit them in achieving high success in their self employment activity. Viewing the extraordinary initiatives of the
disabled persons in the self employment pursuits, he said that their capability should be highlighted and brought to the attention of
the society at large , which can be done only by active media support.
The meeting was attended by nearly 350 persons from all over Tamil Nadu of which more than 95% were disabled or belong to lower
income group.
It was disappointing that people in the middle and upper income group did not turn up for the meeting in good number in spite of
invitations sent to over 6000 of them by mail and printed invitation cards. The organizers desired that people from middle and upper
income group should attend the meeting, see the extraordinary capability of the disabled persons, hear them and encourage them.
This did not happen.
The organizers also sent repeated invitations to all the leading newspapers and journals both English and Tamil published from Tamil
Nadu as well as T V Channels and neighbour hood newspapers. Only two of them turned up. The expectations of the organizers that
media would cover this unique meeting to publicise the capability and initiatives of disabled persons did not also materialize.
The disabled persons went with great satisfaction. They were provided refreshments and lunch and were looked after with dignity and
respect which they richly deserve.
Report by-
N.S.Venkataraman
--------------------------------
‘CONSPIRACY AGAINST INDIAN MILITARY’
Punjab, India
Yet an other the degradation of the military by the 6 Pay Commission and subsequent farce enacted by the Committee of Secretaries,
“Is a deliberate act”. Actually it appears to be ‘Conspiracy’ to weaken our military.
Before WW II, when Hitler had decided to attack Russia, the Germans launched a massive intelligence operation to convince Stalin,
the Russian dictator , about the unreliability of the Russian military and a military coup against him. So successful was the German
ploy that Stalin thoroughly purged his military and executed about 40,000 (forty thousand ) officers in the process. When the Germans
eventually attacked Russia , the Russian military was virtually leaderless, resulting in stunning German victories which brought them at
the very gates of Moscow.
Similar game is being played against our military by our (potential) enemies for quite some time. When Nehru died in 1964, wiser
from the massive problems of crowd control which were faced during Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral and handed over to army at last
moment , the then Army Chief, Gen JN Chaudhary, ordered move of brigade to Delhi for that purpose . Pakistan intelligence
reportedly alerted our govt. Though it was too late and perhaps too risky to countermand the Chief ’s order at that stage, the clever
‘Babus’ reportedly came with a plan to appoint the three military chiefs as “Chief Mourners” to keep vigil over Nehru’s body, pending
his funeral, so that they could not launch any coup. No wonder later the govt passed orders that no formation could be moved to Delhi
without its permission. That’s why when other Prime Ministers died the Chiefs were no longer put as ‘Chief Mourners’, (for there was
no need to thus ‘confine’ them). Later the ‘Vested Interest’ convinced an insecure and suspicious Mrs India Gandhi the then Prime
Minister , to raise a parallel army complete with artillery and other supporting weapons in the form of BSF. This increased
‘Establishment’ for the IAS and opened flood gates of promotions for the IPS officers.
During the Indo-Pak ‘stand- off ’ in 1986-87, in the form of Exercise ‘Brass Tacks’ and ‘Operation Trident’, Pakistani Gen Arif
confirmed in a book that the Pak ISI, spread canard of military take over in India . Unfortunately Mr Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime
Minister swallowed the bait and Pakistan killed two birds with one stone. Not only any possibility, how so remote it might have been, of
any Indian attack, was removed, but a strong suspicion was sown in the mind of the Prime Minister against the Army Chief. When the
38
mutual relations between him and Gen Sunderji deteriorated as a sequel to the on going Boffors (Gun) controversy , Gen Sunderji ,
after his retirement in an interview to ‘India Today’ in July 1989 remarked, “What could they have done to me? Get me killed through
RAW?”. The very fact that a thought of RAW killing him crossed his mind speaks volumes in itself. No wonder, the Indian Defence
Services suffered massive degradation at the hands of 4th and 5th Pay Commissions.
Now, through the mechanism of the 6th Pay Commission, the process of massive degradation and humiliation of our Defence
Services has almost been completed. It appears to be aimed at total breakdown of their self-confidence and working relationship with
the Para Military Forces. In the light of ‘Red Corridor’ spanning about one third of India covering in almost 160 districts, where
hardly any ‘governance’ exists; frequent pan India serial blasts by the terrorists at will ; dangerous spread of regionalism and religious
hatred; very strong centrifugal forces are at play. These centrifugal forces have a strong potential to balkanize India ( which is the
‘stated aim’ of Pakistan and may of China too). If, the only centripetal force, the military, can be rendered dysfunctional due to low
self-esteem, poor morale and perpetual bickering between it and others, our enemies would have delightfully achieved their aim.
In view of the foregoing, is it far fetched to theorise that a conspiracy is on against India to break it and the 6th Pay Commission is just
one of its tools? After all, our bureaucracy is notorious for its all pervasive corruption. With just a few thousand crores per head
slashed in foreign banks, perhaps some of the bureaucrats have been occasionally bought by our enemies to play ‘fifth columnists’ to
weaken our Defence Services . Otherwise how can one explain non implementation of Subrahamanyam Report after ‘Kargil’ fiasco.
Every one agrees that ‘Kargil’ was a massive intelligence failure, interestingly the RAW chief who should have been held accountable
for it, was sent as Governor of Arunanchal Pradesh perhaps, as a reward.
We have a strong tradition of Raj Ambhis, Jai Chands and Mir Jaffars, just to name a few. It is not beyond the pale of imagination that
they are again active in their modern avtars in the form of our ‘Review Committees’ and others bent upon destroying the morale and
motivation of the Indian military. When the final moment of reckoning comes, perhaps history would repeat it self as it has been
doing from Alexander the Great onwards ; over a span of about 2300 years, with just one exception of 1971 AD, victory in
Bangladesh.
My countrymen, stand warned against this apparently ongoing conspiracy to destabilize India by weakening its military.
(In July 2009, In a seminar held at Delhi on police reforms recently, Director IDSA Mr. N.S. Sisodia an IAS Officer said that if
Defence Forces are given more powers, they will cease power like Pakistan and Bangladesh.)
By-
Brig Harwant Singh (Rtd)
----------------------------------
39
Columns
HAS THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN INDIA NOW REACHED DEAD END ? WHY NOT GO
FOR PASSIVE RESISTANCE?
It appears that the fight against corruption has now reached a dead end in the country. It is more than evident from the fact that the
country men do not any more react to multi crore scandals and scams where the public money is being looted by section of the
country men. Several ministers, bureaucrats and business men accused of corruption walk with their heads high and do not feel any
sense of shame. The large section of country men do not treat such people with contempt but run behind them, as long as they hold
positions of power and authority.
It is sad that Indian citizens and media do not any more distinguish the dishonest and corrupt persons from others, which indicate the
fact that people have become immune to the “corruption shocks”.
Finally, the fact that politicians bribe the voters openly to win elections and voters also accept such money and wide publicity given in
media with photographs to such deeds do not make any difference to the ground reality, make one think that the battle against
corruption has been lost already. People seem to have reconciled to a situation where corruption is the order of the day.
Companies, business men and even individuals are reported to earmark certain funds for paying corrupt money to get business and
other deals done in their overall budget.
During one of the interactions with a few college students who are born after 1990 , the students said that reading the life sketch of
great national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Subramanya Bharathi give them a feeling as if they are reading Ramayana and
Mahabharatha , as life style of Mahatma Gandhi and Bharathi are so unlike the present day conditions in the country.
With the Government and the politicians and bureaucrats running the government being part of the corrupt political system, one
cannot anymore expect that the government will stand by the country to put down corruption. The judiciary was one hope but it is no
more so, with Dinakaran episode bringing out the worst in the judiciary. There have been repeated talks about media having gone into
the hands of business houses and functioning with commercial objectives , who squeeze the news amongst the advertisements and
then publish only those news which provide sensation or of entertainment value that would boost circulation and consequent
advertisement income. Media taking money for publishing paid news has become the talk of the day.
It is difficult to conclude as to whether the fight against corruption has been lost due to the above conditions or the above conditions
exist due to the failure of the fight against corruption. In any case, the net result is there for all to see.
Certainly, those at the helm of the administration in the country including the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers have let down the
country and allowed the fight against corruption to be defeated by either by their indifference to the corrupt practices around or
themselves being corrupt , for the sake of clinging on to the positions of power at any cost.
The citizens should also take up the responsibility for such sordid state of affairs, who have subjected themselves to be part of the
corrupt system even unwillingly on many occasions, due to their lack of will to sacrifice their interests and lack of mindset to show the
will to resist the corruption at individual levels. Can anyone of them show a single instance of registering a property for sale or
purchase without greasing the palm?
Due to the widespread and unchecked corruption at every level, the administration in the country in all states have virtually collapsed.
The corrupt elements have become very bold and are increasingly taking the law into their own hands. The law abiding citizens feel
insecured.
Now, what is the way out and where does the country go from here?
In spite of such alarming situation, there is no doubt that the millions of Indians feel sad about such state of affairs and earnestly
desire that the conditions should improve. But, how will it improve when the concerned citizens simply remain as arm chair critics and
confine themselves to exchange views in closed door meetings. Most of them with good intentions at heart and great love for the
country feel insecured to come out and protest in public, as it may mean crossing sword with the administration and thugs and
resulting consequences. Quite a number of them write letters to the media both anonymous and otherwise but rarely get their
thoughts published.
The silent majority have to protest but they dare not do so, the present conditions being what it is.
The only alternative is for concerned citizens to go for massive and passive resistance. What is passive resistance ? Passive resistance
means, that one would refuse to involve himself in corrupt practices for the sake of getting things done. They should deny themselves
40
even rightful benefits if such benefits would come from only by greasing the palm. Corruption is knocking at the door steps of
everyone everyday. Refuse to open the door when the corrupt elements knock. In the process , if one would suffer , let it be so.
Such passive resistance to corruption on national scale will certainly bring about great and significant changes before long and make
the corrupt forces realize that there are people who go for such anti corruption satyagraha at their own levels. Like salt satyagraha
launched by Mahatma Gandhi that shook the British administration in the independence movement inspite of the fact that it was only
a symbolic act , this passive resistance will certainly drive home the point.
When facing such situations of corruption knocking at your door, if you happen to have a dilemma, then think of Subramanya
Bharathi, the man who fought for values under extremely tough and adverse conditions. If the life style of Subamanya Bharathi
cannot inspire one to act for the forces of truth and welfare of the country, then nothing else can.
Column by:
N S Venkataraman
-------------------
SECOND INNINGS – REBIRTH OF ELDERLY PEOPLE
No one can stem the tide of youth, for old age catches up with everyone. It is a global phenomena and one that
needs to be addressed. The aspect of elderly care gathers greater significance in the light of the fact that families
are becoming nuclear and want to stay that way. Hence this is not only a private concern but also a public one
where the state or social institutions come into play.
While becoming old is a natural phenomenon, the problems associated with it are also inevitable. It is at this stage of life that one
needs housing, healthcare and financial care more than ever. Not everyone is endowed with a family, which is prepared to look after
these elder people and allow them to lead a life of dignity and peace.
Caring for the elder is always a challenge and the older the person is, the more difficult it becomes. The sense of responsibility
increases manifold. During this time, in spite of regular work schedules, we have to make time to take care of them and their needs.
Understanding their mental makeup and learning to identify signals, which spell their requirements, are very important aspects.
Elderly care can be emotionally trying for both the cared and the caregiver. On the one hand, the caregiver rues the fact that a healthy
individual has metamorphosed into a sickly senior and on the other hand the elder parent or individual feels that he is robbed of his
sense of independence and is hence emotionally drained. Addressing this problem is not easy, but reassurance has to be given time and
time again to reiterate the fact that the senior is not alone in his troubles.
The caregiver has got to think, anticipate, and find ways to take care of all this. Balancing safety and needs without compromising too
much on independence is a task by itself. If there are other family members to take care, the problem is slightly less and with paid
caregivers, the emotional quotient will be missing.
In India, when there were joint families and people were not hard pressed for time, there was always someone to take care of the
elderly. Now times have changed. The Indian elderly population is growing rapidly because science and technology has created a
revolution in the healthcare system and the health care needs of the elderly Indian has increased. Poverty and illiteracy have
exacerbated the problem of elderly care and has rendered them more vulnerable. In rural India, the problem is worse. In such a
situation, having to depend on their children to look after them brings a lot of fundamental values and the principles of ethics into
play.
The loving care that they can get in a family environment contributes to their good health and emotional well being, but in a society,
which is always going somewhere, there is no time for it to stop and cater to the needs of the elderly people.
Elderly people are left in the Old Age Homes who promise to give them good care, which is no doubt giving by the Old Age Homes.
However, Are all these elderly people happy there? Is this what they want? Can we provide them what they want?
So let’s all join hands in giving a wonderful care for the elderly people and bring Happiness back on their face.
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I as an responsible citizen of this country, have taken a stand for those Elderly people, who are left in the Old Age Homes, to re-unite
them with their family. And my request for each and every citizen of this country, also to take a stand for these Elderly people to re-live
their life with their loved ones.
Column by:
Savitha K Ranganathan
--------------------------------------
PERMISSIVE LIFE STYLE RAPIDLY FALLING VALUE SYSTEMS IN SOCIETY
With increasing influence of western countries and their way of life in India, the attitude of individuals, both young and old, seem to
be undergoing enormous changes towards the basic value systems. The journals and media are increasingly contributing towards such
trend without being concerned about their long term impact in the fibre and fabric of the society. The net result is that permissive life
style of individuals are now threatening to disturb and upset the family culture in the country.
Almost every day, newspapers and media report about the incidents of rape and molestation of women in different parts of the
country. Obviously, what is reported in the media is fraction of real happenings in the country. This indicates that women are being
increasingly looked upon as objects of pleasure to satisfy the animal instincts of man.
It is no more uncommon to read about male teachers molesting the women students and fathers misbehaving with their daughters,
which are freely reported in the media, as if they are matters of routine and mere sensation.
Drinking habit amongst all age groups particularly among the youth is spreading at alarming rate. The liquor business is now
considered as the most profitable business and commercial activity, not only by the business houses but even by the government. It is
alarming to hear that the women are increasingly taking to drinking habits particularly in the upper and elitist section of the society.
The functional marriage systems are rapidly breaking down and multiple marriages are becoming common. Homo sexuality,
unnatural sex practices and men and women living together without formal marriage are being justified and publicized in the media,
as if they are normal and acceptable facts of life.
Night clubs, week end mixing of boys and girls and unwed mothers are now becoming the tragedy of India.
The saddest part is that the governments, both in the centre and states appear to remain unconcerned as if such happenings are part
of the development process.
While thinking people are concerned, they appear to be helpless and in minority.
On the one hand, there is huge concern about the rapid spread of AIDS and HIV disease but there is no efforts or inclination to curb
the falling discipline in personal life of individuals, which spread such despicable ailments as AIDS.
Those who want to fight for restoring the importance of family concepts in the national sphere are being branded by the business
oriented media as indulging in moral policing. They call it as retrograde and backward approach.
It is unfortunate that there is no realization that family tie ups , joint family system and respect for elders are the glory of Indian ethos
and values, which are now sought to be broken down by commercial interests and such interests are left unchallenged.
Column by:
N S Venkantaraman
---------------------
42
Open letter on Natural & Renewable Energy and Nuclear Energy
1. Natural & Renewable Energy and Nuclear Energy

(1) Nuclear Energy
Nuclear Energy is being used in Electricity Generation Plant.
Every matter is organized by Atom. Atom is organized by Proton, Neutron which is in the Nuclear, and Electron which is orbiting the
Nuclear. When Heavy Atom (such as Uranium) absorbs Neutron, Nuclear is going to break with a lot of energy and a few Neutrons.
These Neutrons are going to break other Atoms. This phenomenon is called Chain Reaction of Nuclear Fission. 1gram of Uranium
Nuclear Fission makes a lot of energy equal to burning 9 drum of oil or 3 ton of coal.
The basic process is

1) Boil the water with Chain Reaction of Nuclear Fission and this will make the super vaporized steam.
2) The super vaporized steam will go to the turbine of electric generator.
(2) Natural & Renewable Energy

Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Tidal Energy, Terrestrial heat Energy are also good power resources. These Energies have no toxic waste,
and are clean and renewable. In this document we will focus specially on Solar Energy.
Solar Energy is coming from the Sun. This energy can be used by distillation and power generation. Distillation is one of the great
invention technologies. It can be used to transform the seawater to the fresh water.
For example, Symi island in Greece have Solar distillation facility. This facility has hemisphere shape. Seawater is going to vaporize
inside of hemisphere with solar energy and vapor is going to condense inside of hemisphere surface and fall down. With This process
it can supply 1 gallon of fresh water to each 4000 people of this island in one day. This facility doesn’t need a complex device to build
it. Just with this, hemisphere shape can make 4000 gallon of fresh water per day.
Concentrating Solar Power plant has same basic idea from conventional power station to produce electricity. Because they both are
using the steam to run the turbine, but CSP plant uses solar energy to make steam. There are 4 major parts of Concentrating Solar
Power generation, Concentrator, a receiver, storage and power conversion. CSPs are classified with how they can concentrate the
sunlight. Until now four types of concentrators have been invented.
The Parabolic Trough has parabolic surface to concentrate the sunlight to the center of trough. Central Receivers has many mirrors
to reflex the sunlight to the Central Tower. Parabolic Dish has looks like reflexible antenna. it concentrates the sunlight to the one
point and this point has receiver. Linear Fresnel has similar structure with Parabolic Trough but plane mirror reflexes the sunlight to
the receiver.
Information of four types of concentrator is given in Table 1.
2. Comparing about energy.

(1) Nuclear
Nuclear energy is more useful than Solar energy. Nuclear energy can generate electricity 24 hours a day. Also it doesn’t require the
large land to install the plant. But nuclear power plant uses the uranium as fuel.
Uranium is used in the nuclear power plant as fuel. Natural uranium consists of 0.7% of uranium 235 and 99.3% of uranium 238.
Natural uranium that is going through the refining process and enrich process, will change Natural uranium concentrate to the 2~5%
of uranium 235 and then it’s used by fuel in the nuclear power plant.
Nuclear power process uses 3% of fuel and it remains 1% of plutonium and 95~96% of uranium. If this waste going through the
separation process it can be divided with plutonium and uranium. Plutonium is a material of nuclear bomb of Nagasaki in Oct 9th
1945. There is some rumor that U.S.A threw the nuclear bomb twice because they wanted to have experiment about 2 kind of nuclear
bomb which made of plutonium and uranium.
This Nuclear waste has high radiation intensity and produces a lot of heat. Also, nuclear waste has toxic radioactivity. If human is
exposed to radiation, it causes illnesses such as, headache, vomiting, infection, internal hemorrhage, destruction of marrow and cancer
or even death. Furthermore, nuclear waste disposal technology does not exist. So, it cannot be exposed in the air. Normally it is kept in
temporary tank inside of nuclear power plant with the cooling water. If it has to move, it goes into the 120~150 ton of cask and goes
to the nuclear waste site.
Even U.S.A, Japan and any other countries which have Nuclear Power Plant are spending a lot of money and land to keep the nuclear
waste and do the experiment about nuclear waste technologies.
(2) Natural Energy

Solar Energy is one of the good renewable energy sources. but it has many issues. Firstly, it needs a lot of space to install the plant.
43
Sun radiate 2cal/min of energy in 1cm2 to outer space of the earth. This is Solar coefficient and considering about latitude, weather
condition, shape of the earth, normally Sun convey 1/8 of energy to the surface. According to the International Nuclear Safety
School, Nuclear power plant require 1~2km2 for generate 1,000MWe but solar power plant require 20~50km2. Because of this
problem, the efficiency of solar power generation is very low.
This is only one issue of solar energy. Beside of this issue it has a lot of advantage.
Table-2
3. Conclusion
With these facts, we can think about 3 options. First, keep using the nuclear energy which has expensive cost and risk for radiation
exposure. Second, we can develop the renewable energy. Finally find another energy sources.
Nuclear energy is more useful than Renewable energy on one side. This is true at some point. Nuclear energy is more powerful, useful
and has a higher capacity than Renewable energy. But it is expensive because high active waste needs to be kept in safe way and
keeping time will be centuries. Furthermore, the high active waste disposal technology does not exist. It’s like keeping the bomb inside
of our body. Also since no one didn’t dispose the nuclear waste (Just Keep in nuclear waste site), no one knows the nuclear waste
disposal cost.
Renewable energy has a lot of problems but also it has a lot of possibility. It’s well known fact that clean and unlimited. Fossil fuel and
nuclear fuel are has limit. Eventually, these energies are going to exhausted. But as long as the Sun exists, renewable energies are not
going to exhaust.
If we concentrate on renewable energies, we can develop the technologies of renewable energies. And our next generation can live
with clean environment.
4. Reference
Concentrating Solar Power Global Outlook 09’ (Greenpeace International, ESTELA, SolarPACES)
Environment Movement in Korea.
http://blog.cbs.co.kr/jwkim2.blog$1/656390 by Reporter Jewon Kim.
LG Business insight 2009 9 16 p29~35. By Researcher Nakhwan Seong
http://www.e2news.com/pdf/check.php?fd=115&dnfile=01.PDF by Reporter Sangbok Lee
International Nuclear Safety School
Report By-
Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi
Convenor- PVCHR
-----------------------
LISTEN TO THE MUSLIM WOMAN’S VOICE: by Zakia Soman
India’s largest minority population lives in poverty and socio-economic exclusion even after 62 years of Independence. Muslims live in
ghettos across the country with a persistent feeling of fear and insecurity. According to the Sachar Committee, around 4% of Muslims
have managed to become graduates; Muslims have a very thin presence in banks, universities and in Government jobs. This sort of
socio-economic backwardness could not have taken place overnight. Successive Governments have failed in their responsibility to
enable Muslims to participate in India’s democracy. The nexus between the vote managers posing as community leaders and the
supposedly secular political parties has ensured that the Muslim community remains mired in poverty, illiteracy, backwardness and
insecurity. Living with communalism has become the fate of the ordinary Muslim. Since 1947 the community has been pushed to the
margins, so much so that some experts feel that they are the Dalits of tomorrow. Worse, unlike the Dalits, Muslims do not have any
legacy of social mobilisation and political consciousness. The Dalits were fortunate to have visionaries like B.R. Ambedkar and Jotiba
Phule. Muslims have no leadership worth the name; and whoever claims to be a community leader should own up to the all-round
failure.
There are two important reasons, among others, for this dismal situation. One, the failure of the state to fulfil its welfare responsibility
towards citizens in spite of the guarantees given by the Constitution; and two, the failure of the Muslim leadership, if one believes it
exists.
44
We are all aware how our democracy is marred by a corrupt and insincere polity which has no interest in the welfare of any of its
excluded citizens, be it the Dalits, the Adivasis, the Muslims, the labour or the women. In the case of Muslims this is coupled with the
failure to safeguard their lives and properties from communal violence. The discrimination faced by Muslims because of communal
mindsets, particularly among the police and sections of the bureaucracy, is a commonly lived reality. Why else would the Sachar
Committee recommend a full-fledged sensitisation programme? The community has little or no access to welfare schemes largely
because of this communal mindset, apart from a general lack of education within the community. The rise of communal and fascist
political parties has added to Muslim fear and insecurity.
The second reason — lack of leadership — is equally important and has far-reaching implications.
It is agreed that in a diverse country like ours Muslims are not a monolithic community. There are Urdu speaking Muslims, just as
there are Tamil Muslims and Bengali Muslims. There are Sunnis, Shias, low castes and OBCs. And then there are men, women and
the youth including girls and boys. Apart from faith there is another common factor that has acquired a huge importance in recent
times. It is about how they are perceived by the larger world as a community: “Muslims are dirty; Muslims are backward; Muslims are
not patriotic; Muslims are terrorists.”
While the challenges faced by the community are of Herculean proportions, the fractured Muslim leadership neither has the
commitment nor the competence to address these problems. They are obsessed with non-substantive and seemingly emotive issues.
Unfortunately, it suits various Governments that no real demands are made for education, jobs, financial assistance, health facilities,
security, etc. All that the latter have to do is to pander to these dubious elements and thus “take care” of almost 15% of the Indian
population. The community has paid a huge price because of this. The leadership is not challenged and the Government gets away
without fulfilling its welfare obligations.
Why does the Muslim leadership have to be of a particular variety? On issues concerning Muslims, why does the Government consult
primarily those who have religious identities? Why does the mainstream media concentrate on highlighting the opinion of a few men
with beards and skull-caps? Why do all these people have to be men? Why has everybody forgotten about the Muslim women who
comprise 50% of the community? How can any opinion that leaves out half the community be relied upon? No wonder the Muslim
leadership has failed to find solutions to the pressing issues.
As for the question mark on the patriotism of Muslims, the question mark is actually on the Indianness of some of the self-styled
guardians of the Indian nation. The truth is that Muslims are as Indian as anybody else. The debate on this issue is humbug generated
by vested interests clad either in saffron or green. Are you a Muslim first or an Indian is a non-substantive question raised with mala
fide intentions and is best ignored.
In spite of the prevailing situation there has been a sure and steady stirring within the community. There are ordinary citizens who
want to do something for the community and society. They are teachers, students, businesspersons, professionals, and most
importantly, women — people who have multiple identities like most other Indians. Thousands of ordinary Muslim women spread
across the country are working tirelessly towards meaningful and responsible participation in India’s democracy. They believe in the
values of equality, justice and democracy enshrined in the Constitution. They are working to make democracy a reality. Most of them
have struggled to survive difficult personal and social circumstances and are now standing by others like them. Gujarat 2002 is a dark
blot on the history of independent India, as is 1984. But most people may not be aware of a positive fallout of 2002. The way the riot-
affected women of Gujarat have fought the battle for justice is historic. It is a pity that our patriarchal leaders do not feel the need to
talk about this. “Hume insaf chahiye, madad nahi [We want justice, not help],” was an assertion we heard in Gujarat repeatedly. Even
as the larger community was dejected and resigned to its fate as almost second-class citizens, it was the women who continued the fight
for justice. They said, “Can’t we go to the Supreme Court? Can’t we go to Parliament?” When innocent boys were picked up under
the draconian POTA, thousands of them came out on the streets of Ahmedabad and bravely demanded the arrest of the culprits,
some of whom were sitting members in the State Government. Similar incidents took place in Mumbai following the 1992 riots, and
in other places.
The story has only grown in 2009. Thousands of Muslim women activists are struggling to bring to the fore the community’s sane,
alternative and progressive voice. These women are demanding a comprehensive implementation of the Sachar Committee
recommendations, even as they are working to disseminate its findings. They are asking Government officers what they have done for
them. They are using Right to Information to enforce accountability in various Government institutions. Slowly but clearly a collective
feminine voice is emerging: we too are human beings and want to be recognised. We want jobs, we want schools for our children, we
want a life of dignity. We want security and safety. We want respect and we want to respect all. We want a world where there is space
for all, irrespective of religion, caste and sex. We want freedom for ourselves and our sisters and brothers. We won’t tolerate the diktat
of some self-appointed leaders. We oppose them as much as we oppose the Hindutva communalists. We are determined to fight the
communalists and the patriarchal fanatics with equal resolution, because for us it is a question of life and death. God has endowed us
with the ability to think and made us capable of making our own decisions; and we make decisions that are in our interests and in the
interests of our families, our society and the world. We will not tolerate injustice and we will not allow injustice to take place around
us. We will fight for our rights. We will carry out our responsibilities as the citizens of our country and participate in the affairs of the
world.
It is not religion that has treated Muslim women unjustly, but the supposedly religious men. The Muslim woman has been treated
unfairly by the distorted interpretations of Islam’s religious texts by some ulemas. What is most abominable is that these ulemas have
45
made it a habit of dispersing injustice in the name of religion. I, for one, like thousand others, do not want to get into the details about
which line, which verse, which chapter prevents a woman from doing this or that. I refuse to play this power game. I do not have to be
a scholar to know that my God is just; I do not have to go to a seminary to know that I am as equal as anyone else in front of my God.
I do not need dubious experts to tell me what is right and what is wrong for me, for I rely on my common sense and my heart. It is a
matter between me and my God and I refuse to recognise the middlemen.
Isn’t Islam a religion of justice, equality, kindness and humanity? How can then some Muslims be more equal than others? How can
Muslim men be more equal than Muslim women? How can privileges be heaped on one section while another section is excluded?
This is discrimination, this is injustice. And it is common knowledge that discrimination and injustice are un-Islamic.
Column by-
Zakia Soman
Founder member of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
-------------------------
Nehru’s birth anniversary Matter of integrity: When Nehru & Patel competed over sacrifice
Karnataka, India
There was a time when anyone opting for political life was deemed to be performing a ‘sacrifice’ and engaging in a ‘service’ to society.
That was an honest characterisation of politicians as a breed during the freedom struggle. But, it certainly does not hold true now.
Today a political career is the easiest route to easy street.
The fear of the acquisition of power leading to corruption was uppermost in the mind of Sardar Patel, who was second only to
Jawaharlal Nehru in the government of free India. He fully realised the temptations of office and power and he wrote to a friend: "My
own candid opinion is that the best service to the Congress organisation can be rendered by ministers setting tone and standard from
the top and studiously and scrupulously avoiding to succumb to pressure from below. It is comparatively easy to have one’s career
unsullied when he is out of power. It is much more difficult to maintain that reputation in power. If you can succeed in achieving the
latter, you can be much more of an inspiration and guide to the Congress organisation."
Sadly this has long been forgotten. Politicians in power, irrespective of the party they belong to, have become richer and richer in the
past six decades. But, when Sardar Patel died, his daughter Maniben Patel noted that he had left behind a sum of Rs 18 lakh he had
collected for party purposes. In those days it was a big amount. She lost no time in informing Prime Minister Nehru and President
Rajedra Prasad about it. She handed over every paisa to the party treasurer. Is such integrity conceivable in these days?
Soon after Independence, serious differences developed between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel. These pertained to
administrative and political issues. The two were not pulling on together. Each wanted to resign. But there was no name-calling, no
character assassination or planting of stories in the press. Though differences were acute, their personal relations remained cordial and
civilised.
Nehru informed Patel of his decision to quit and asked the latter to take over the prime ministership. In a note to Mahatma Gandhi
Nehru said: "Practical difficulties continuously arise… this means that either I should go out or Sardar Patel should go out. For my
part, I would greatly prefer my going out. Of course, this going out of either of us need not and should not mean any kind of
subsequent opposition. Whether we are in or out of the government we remain, I hope, not only loyal Congressmen but also loyal
colleagues, and we will still try to pull together in our respective spheres of activity."
Rational
When Gandhi sent Nehru’s letter to Patel, the latter wrote to Mahatma as follows: "The prime minister has also referred to his
preference for leaving office if mutual accommodation cannot be secured. I maintain, however, that if anyone has to go, it should be
myself. I have long passed the age of active service. The prime minister is the acknowledged leader of the country and is
comparatively young. He has established an international position of pre-eminence for himself. I have no doubt that the choice
between him and myself should be resolved in his favour. There is therefore no question of his quitting office."
Meanwhile, Gandhi was assassinated. The Nehru-Patel differences persisted. In a long letter, Patel wrote to Nehru: "I have no desire to
continue if I cannot fulfil the mission entrusted to me by Bapu in his last moments and strengthen your hands." Nehru replied: "I
know how much pains you have taken in the past to accommodate me and I am grateful to you for it."
46
A major crisis was averted, though the two continued to differ on many issues. If either of them had resigned the newly independent
nation would have plunged into an unprecedented crisis. But their main concern was the welfare of the country and the unity of the
party for which they considered no sacrifice too great.
What a great legacy Nehru and Patel left behind and how wantonly and callously it has been squandered away by their unworthy
successors! The salt has lost its savour, as far as Indian patriotism and nationalism are concerned. What happened to all that idealism?
The new crop of leaders is different. No values, no ideals, no principles, but it is power that counts with them. And no price is big
enough if they can make it to the chair.
Politicians of today cannot be expected to recall the little known facts of Nehru-Patel legacy with the same nostalgia and sentiment
that overpowers the older generation. Moreover, it is futile to go on talking about the good old Nehru-Patel days or freedom struggle.
These memories are too precious to be squandered on unheeding ears.
But away, away, with this black mood of doom and despair and decay, let me summon to my aid, in the end, the Byronic prayer: "Fare
thee well, and if for ever/Still for ever, fare thee well/ My beloved country, fallen on/ Evil times…"
Column by-
P. N. Benjamin
---------------
The bora community in kumaon himalayas
Uttaranchal, India
( This is an article I wrote after interacting with the Bora community in Digoli. I feel at it is necessary to save the traditional
occupation of this community, even as we find newer means of producing the fibre and weaving the fabric. As far as my knowledge
goes, this fabric has already (a small) and can generate a potential market. Of course, price wise it might not be very competitive as
regards cotton and jute, but definitely will strike balance with items of silk and muslin. )
The community was brought into existence when one of the two Rawat brothers married a Bora girl, descending upon the
generations to come the title of Bora Kuthalia. “We are still Thakurs by lineage,” insists Bachche Singh Bora. “It’s just that our great
grandfather decided to marry out of his community and villagers tagged us as Bora children, as per the woman’s caste, when it is the
men’s caste that is to be recorded,” he adds, with some amount of disappointment.
The Bora community that lives in the Kumaon Himalayas is known for their trade in the products made from the cannabis plant, the
commercial cultivation of which was banned over ten years ago. While the seeds, which have no toxic content, are used as a spice in
the household, the stem of the plant makes for a tough and durable fibre. “The seeds are used extensively in food, during the winters,
because they provide warmth. Moreover, they are not even toxic, so can safely be consumed by everyone,” elaborates Govind Bora.
The fibre too offers multiple uses. “We made sacks to carry the grass cut for the cattle and also strings to tie the buffalos to their
stands,” says Kamla Bora, who gave up this profession many years ago, because of the government restrictions. “Which is also why, we
are called Boras - the local term for gunny bags,” says Shamu Bora from Sukhna. Shamu is currently learning to weave with silk and
wool.
Spread out over different villages in the Kumaon, I interacted with the community, primarily around Digoli and other villages in their
vicinity, where some families still weave with the fibre. Working on a simple loom, which is strung around the waist of the weaver, the
other end being pinned into the wall, a rough cloth is woven from the cannabis fibre. “The length can be made to order, but the width
will remain in ratio to the waist of the woman,” explains Bachuli Devi Bora. However, this didn’t hamper the number of items that
were created. From (budhala) carpets to bed covers and table cloths with some embroidery, the lady had a stock of such goods. “We
weave a number of pieces and stitch them together accordingly,” she explained. The goods are then sold at fairs and in the local
market.
Producing the fabric isn’t an easy task however. “The weaving doesn’t take as much time. It is actually the process of making the fibre
that requires a lot of effort,” states Dhan Singh Bora, as reason for the cost price. Once the seeds are harvested, the stem of the plant
is dried in the sun, where after it is soaked in water for a day or two, before the craftsmen peel the skin off the stem using their teeth.
“The skin of course cannot be used just as it is, it must further be split into finer lengths, until you get the fibre to become as fine as a
thread,” says he.
47
However, this profession is waning in present times. With the ban on cultivation of the cannabis plant, for fear of its toxic contents
such as hashish and marijuana finding illegal routes, the community began to find it difficult to make these items and have switched to
other activities like rearing cows and buffaloes and selling milk and butter to earn a livelihood. “The raw material cannot be grown in
the required quantity,” explains Bachche Singh. “If we must grow enough to make the budhlas (carpets) and kuthlas (bags), the
patwari will take a sum for allowing this cultivation,” he states. And the sum can vary from anywhere between absolutely no cost (!) to
a whopping Rs 500. “It depends on what relations you have maintained with this local legal authority,” says Kaushlya Devi.
Of course the fabric is much sought after in the international market. Large manufacturing units all over the world, with the help of
governments and agriculturists, are making efforts to grow the less toxic varieties of the cannabis plant. This so, even as a small
community tucked away in the folds of the mountains that always thrived on this business finds its long standing tradition coming to
an end.
By-
Kalindi Kokal
-------------------------
48
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!काशन नी'तय*:
*वK का कोई भी मन^_य ,ाउ.ड *रपोट2 इ.*डया I िलखa का अ*धकार रखता N। अाbटकल या *रपोट2 अcर या अावाज या चलिचB या इन% िमdज^d *कसी
भी eप I fजा जा सकता N। fजM समय *नgन hबiअ? I Yोjसाहन अkिcत N।
• अापका Yोjसाहन अkिcत N, य*द ,ाउ.ड *रपोट2 इ.*डया सामािजक म^l? अौर अराजनm*तक अाbटकल की अkcा रखती N ।
• अापका Yोjसाहन अkिcत N, य*द *रपोट2 की सjयता % Yमाण YGत^त करa की अkcा की जाती N ।
• अापका Yोjसाहन अkिcत N, य*द अाbटकल % मौिलक होa की अkcा की जाती N ।
• य*द ,ाउ.ड *रपोट2 इ.*डया *कसी अाbटकल या *रपोट2 को Yकािशत कर पाa I असमथ2ता EयFत करती N तो कnपया अाप ,ाउ.ड *रपोट2 इ.*डया की
असमथ2ता को अ5यथा नहo dp। Yकािशत ना हो पाa % कारण? की चचq का Gवागत ,ाउ.ड *रपोट2 इ.*डया सदmव करती N।
• अापका Yोjसाहन अkिcत N, य*द ,ाउ.ड *रपोट2 इ.*डया *कसी ऐV अाbटकल या *रपोट2 को Yकािशत कर पाa I असमथ2ता EयFत करती N
िजसका अाधार %वल *कसी EयिFत *व[ष या स.Gथा *व[ष को लाभ पs.चाना हो ।
• अापका Yोjसाहन अkिcत N, कापीराइट्स % अ*धकार? को मानa ।
• अापका Yोjसाहन अkिcत N, य*द ,ाउ.ड *रपोट2 इ.*डया अkcा करती N *क य*द *कसी कारणवश *कसी अौर का अाbटकल Yकाशन % िलR
*दया गया N तो अाbटकल % ज5मदाता या म@ल अ*धकार रखa वाd का अाभार EयFत *कया जाR ।
49
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Ground Report India (GRI) December 2009

GRI - December 2009 3

Obama Announces Troop Surge - Bellingham Residents Hit the Streets! 6

European Court: Landmark Ruling on Racial and Religious Exclusion 8

Rebooting journalism -- study, report experiments in Seattle, Jan. 7-10 9

Water, Yes, but at 10 times the cost 13

CIC Selection: Govt of India gives evasive answer to Legal Notice 15

An article on Conflict between Naxals and the State 16

Minors were tortured inhumanly by the protectors of the land 18

Addressing Governance Issues through an Adivasi lens 19

Surojit Mondal, a minor, Scheduled Caste boy tortured & killed 20

The legacy of CTA in the present context 24

DANTEWADA PADYATRA, SATYAGRAH AND JAN SUNWAI 27

TALK ON MATERIALISM SPIRITUALISM AND SHRAMA DHARMA (MSMT) 29

IMPACT OF “DINAKARAN” ON JUDICIARY’S IMAGE 30

Two SUSANTA BISWAS Documentaries got International Festival selection in 2009 31

MID-DAY: Manmohan gets a legal notice on CIC Selection 31

Community Rallies Against Coca-Cola, Demands Climate Justice 32

PURPOSE OF THE BRIEFING ON ARMED FORCES SPECIAL POWERS ACT 35

WORLD DISABLED DAY :: AWARD FOR SELF EMPLOYED DISABLED PERSONS 37

‘CONSPIRACY AGAINST INDIAN MILITARY’ 38

SECOND INNINGS – REBIRTH OF ELDERLY PEOPLE 41

PERMISSIVE LIFE STYLE RAPIDLY FALLING VALUE SYSTEMS IN SOCIETY 42

Open letter on Natural & Renewable Energy and Nuclear Energy 43

LISTEN TO THE MUSLIM WOMAN’S VOICE: by Zakia Soman 44

The bora community in kumaon himalayas 47

About Ground Report India 49

GRI - December 2009

The future of journalism. Or: why journalism is not “media”

But why care? Why care indeed?

Media’s worth has been predicated on extrinsic values:

So journalism got all tangled up with media?

Press conference in Copenhagen

Two witness reports

Obama Announces Troop Surge - Bellingham Residents Hit the Streets!

United States of America

Ramy Khalil and Logan Steele

LONDON, UK/TORONTO, CANADA, December 25, 2009

European Court: Landmark Ruling on Racial and Religious Exclusion

Rebooting journalism -- study, report experiments in Seattle, Jan. 7-10

WHEN: Jan. 7-10, 2010

For general information follow this link: http://journalismthatmatters.org/JTM-PNW

ANSWERING THE CALL

WHAT WE'LL ACHIEVE

* New and unexpected partnerships between participants

* Journalism innovations seeded throughout the northwest

* Deeper understanding of emerging relationships among journalism, communities, and democracy

For the press: Tracy Record, co-publisher and editor, www.WestSeattleBlog.com

CCIC WAJAHAT’S CIRCUITOUS REASONING:

DOPT’s standard stonewalling reply was:

CCIC WAJAHAT’s REASONING FOR UPHOLDING DOPT’S STONEWALLING:

Water, Yes, but at 10 times the cost

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

‘WE DO NOT SELL WATER’

‘BUT YOU CAN ASK GUPTAJI’

MAFIA HAS NO POACHING PACT

‘MIL BAAT KE KHAATE HAI JI’

As if tanker mafia is not enough... WATER MAFIA IN SLUMS

NO COMPLAINTS DURING 26/7

CIC Selection: Govt of India gives evasive answer to Legal Notice

West Bengal, India

Date & time of incident: On 31.10.2009 at about 4pm

Minors were tortured inhumanly by the protectors of the land