Land Acquisition

This paper in Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) by Patrik Oskarsson deals with the bauxite (aluminium) project which is very similar to the Vedanta project in Odisha and is coming up in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh.

AnRak Aluminium, a company of the government of Rasal-Khaimah of the United Arab Emirates and Penna Cement of AP has secured approval for both an aluminium complex and the bauxite mines, but the final forest clearance for the mines is awaited.

The AnRak project has replicated the Vedanta model of first building the refinery and then setting up the mine. The mine is to be operated by the state government to circumvent the ban on non-tribal landownership.

The issues surrounding the food security bill, which proposes to confer double benefits-procurement at a remunerative price for the public distribution system are dealt with. This is followed by a discussion on the contribution of usar (sodic land) development to food security in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Ajit Pawar reinstated as deputy CM of Maharashtra  

Bangalore’s garbage crisis grows in heaps and mounds

The city is drowning in its own waste with garbage trucks regularly lined up for hours, their burdens putrefying in the afternoon sun. Some neighborhoods have not had trash pickups for nearly three weeks, and vast mounds of garbage are scattered through out the city.

This document by Ministry of Tribal Affairs sheds light on the rules related to the rights of the Scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers.

Organizer:  National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)

Venue: Jantar Mantar, New Delhi

NAPM is an alliance of progressive people’s organisations and movements, who while retaining their autonomous identities, are working together to bring the struggle for primacy of rights of communities over natural resources, conservation and governance, decentralised democratic development and towards a just, sustainable and egalitarian society in the true spirit of globalism. We stand against corporate globalisation, communalism and religious fundamentalism, patriarchy, casteism, untouchability and discrimination of all kinds. We believe an alliance emerging out of such a process with shared ideology and diverse strategies can give rise to a strong social, political force and a National People's movement. In its quest for a larger alliance, beyond the people’s movements, NAPM also reaches out to integrate various civil society organisations and individuals working towards similar goals.

This article questions the rationale for eviction of forest dwellers from National Parks. This is against the Law. The Wild Life Act was passed when there was no problem regarding poaching. At that time the objective was to create inviolate wilderness areas, a concept that is typically American.

 In their rush to notify buffer areas, which the Court directs should be done within three weeks, state governments are bypassing and violating the processes laid out in the Wild Life Protection Act and the Forest Rights Act. The Amicus Curae (Raj Panjwani) does not seem to be adequately informing the Court on these violations.