A long march of the dispossessed to Delhi

by P. Sainath

People’s Archive of Rural India | June 22, 2018

Image: People’s Archive of Rural India

India’s agrarian crisis has gone beyond the agrarian.

It’s a crisis of society. Maybe even a civilizational crisis, with perhaps the largest body of small farmers and labourers on earth fighting to save their livelihoods. The agrarian crisis is no longer just a measure of loss of land. Nor only a measure of loss of human life, jobs or productivity. It is a measure of our own loss of humanity. Of the shrinking boundaries of our humaneness. That we have sat by and watched the deepening misery of the dispossessed, including the death by suicide of well over 300,000 farmers these past 20 years. While some – ‘leading economists’ – have mocked the enormous suffering around us, even denying the existence of a crisis.

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GM Crops in India: Approval by Contamination?

by Colin Todhunter

Countercurrents.org | June 30, 2018

The regulatory system for GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in India is in tatters. So said the Coalition for a GMFree India (CGMFI) in 2017 after media reports about the illegal cultivation of GM soybean in the country.

Letter: From All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP)

Illegal arrest of tribal women and activist

June 14, 2018

To
Shri Surajit Dey,
Hon’ble Registrar,
National Human Rights Commission,
Manav Adhikar Bhawan Block-C, GPO Complex, INA, New Delhi, Delhi 110023

Subject: Urgent Action Required: NHRC Visit and Investigation into illegal arrest of tribal women and activist in connection to violence unleashed by police and Forest Department in  Village Lilasi, District Sonbhadra UP.

Respected Sir,
In the letter dated 30th May 2018 we had written to the Hon’ble Chairperson, Justice HL Dattu and even met him,  regarding the unleashed violence against women Adivasis and forest workers in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, in Sonbhadra forest, even as they were exercising their rights as guaranteed under the Indian Constitution (Special Schedules) and further enforced by the Forest Rights Act of 2006. 

Indian Banks Wrote off Rs 1.44 Lakh Crore in Loans in 2017-2018

The Wire | June 15, 2018

Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

New Delhi: Faced with rising delinquencies, the Indian banking sector has written off loans worth Rs 4.8 lakh crore in the past decade. Loan write-offs by banks rose by a whopping 61% to Rs 1.44 lakh crore in 2017-18 from the previous year, data compiled by credit rating agency ICRA shows.

This data was first reported by the Indian Express.

India Facing Worst Water Crisis in History, Likely to Get Worse: NITI Aayog

PTI | June 15, 2018

According to the report, 52% of India’s agricultural area remains dependent on rainfall, so the future expansion of irrigation needs to be focused on last-mile efficiency. Credit: Reuters

New Delhi: India is suffering from ‘the worst water crisis’ in its history with about 60 crore people facing high to extreme water stress and about two lakh people dying every year due to inadequate access to safe water, NITI Aayog said in a report on June 14.

The report, titled ‘Composite Water Management Index’ released by the minister for water resources Nitin Gadkari, further said the crisis is only going to get worse.

India: Anti-Sterlite Protest: 11 Killed in Police Firing in Tamil Nadu

PTI | May 23, 2018

Smoke billowing from burning vehicles after a violent protest demanding closure of Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper unit entered the 100th day, in Thoothukudi, on Tuesday. Credit: PTI

Tuticorin: The months-long protests for the closure of Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper unit in Tuticorin over pollution concerns turned violent today, with agitators fighting pitched battles with police, prompting it to open fire in which 11 were killed.

India–Sterlite Protest: Speculation Rife That Police Firing Was Pre-Planned (pictures)

by Kavitha Muralidharan

The Wire | May 23, 2018

Smoke billows over Thoothukudi after protests demanding the closure of Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper unit entered the 100th day on May 22, 2018. Credit: Surya, Tuticorin

Thoothukudi: In an unprecedented turn of events, at least 11 protesters were killed on May 22 in Thoothukudi after police opened fire at the protest rally demanding the closure of the Sterlite unit in the town. The protest by the people of Thoothukudi against Sterlite, which they have claimed is polluting the town and resulted in a higher incidence of cancer, had reached its 100th day on May 22.