AID News for Jan 25 2004
aid...@aidindia.org
AID News for Sun Jan 25 2004
AID News for Sun Jan 25, 2004
-->
AID News for Sun Jan 25, 2004
Good morning everbody
Today's Headlines
1) One for India
2) WSF Links
3) Narmada press update
4) Interesting Links
Today's News
1) One for India
Thank you one and all,
One For India - AID's year end donation campaign ended successfully
on Jan 18th. 574 people have contributed to One For India monetarily
- a grand total of $88,304.
As we promise to make each and every dollar of that count, we also
remember to thank all our donors, OFI and non-OFI donors, and tell
them as usual, AID runs on individual contributions. More than 95%
of our funds come from individual donors. Your contribution to us,
lets us do our projects in India. And we at AID work to strive to
make every contribution reach India.
We thank all donors for a wonderful year end season and wish them a
prosperous new year ahead! More statistics can be found on
OneForIndia.org. Please do bookmark it as we will be back with it
again at the year end! Meanwhile, to make your tax deductible
donations to AID, please visit http://www.aidindia.org/donate
Also if you are interested in volunteering with AID, please visit
www.aidindia.org for a chapter nearest to you. If there is none, you
can start one! Remember, everyONE counts to develop India!
Briefly:
Campaign ran from Nov 17th thru Jan 18th
Number of donors = 574
Target: $80,000
Amount Raised: $88,904
Our work has got us a four star rating from Charity Navigator. For
details:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/7135.htm
Again, we take this opportunity to thank all our donors and promise
them - we will make everyONE count!
The OFI team!
- Rajasekhar Jammalamadaka <sek...@glue.umd.edu>
2) World Social Forum and AID
a) Photo Story of WSF
Hi all,
Michael Mazgaonkar, one of our Saathis, shares this with AIDers. One
of Michael's friends from Germany has put up very good photos with
informative captions covering WSF. It is the best place I have found
(so far) that gives an in-depth picture of what happened. Especially
in light of mostly superficial coverage in the press. The Hindu is
one of the newspapers which covered it in depth.
here's the site. enjoy!
http://www.asax.net/wsf/index-en.html
Also visit the WSF site at: http://www.wsfindia.org There's some
audio by indymedia at that site.
cheers
kiran
-- Kirankumar Vissa <kiran...@aid.teamon.com>
b) WSF on AIDIndia
Dear Friends,
We have just received photos of WSF -2004 in Mumbai that show the
AID stall at WSF as well as stalls of other NGOs and movements that
AID is in solidarity with or has collaborated on projects. Also
included are photos of NBA action in front of the mantralaya during
the WSF.
The photos are available at our Gallery area.
http://www.aidindia.org/hq/misc/gallery/gallery8.shtml
Photos are taken by Ravi and Aravinda.
-- Naga and Priya.
*) Errata
There was an error in the last edition of AID new (20th Jan 2004).
``There World social forum (WSF) was held in Mumbai in the last
week. Here is an excellent coverage for the same''. This is in error!
The WSF was not over, when the news was sent out. The forum was
during Jan 16-21 2004.
I apologize for the error.
-- Ed.
3) Narmada Bachao Andolan (Press Release)
January 24, 2004
MEDHA PATKAR,THREE ACTIVISTS LAUNCH 4-DAY FAST : APPEAL TO CM TO NOT
TO RAISE SSP HEIGHT WHEN R& R IS INCOMPLETE
Four activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) have decided to
launch a four-day fast from January 23 to 27, ``to appeal to the
conscience of the Chief Minister to follow the path of justice by
not succumbing to the pressures to raise the height of the
controversial Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) and not to allow the
lives and rights of tribals from his state to be crushed'', from the
evening of Friday, near Mantralaya (state secretariat) in Mumbai.
Though the Government of Maharashtra has issued a revised note on
cabinet decisions regarding the resettlement of the tribal oustees
of the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), on Friday (January 23), it has
not made clear whether it would agree to the raising of the height
of the dam from 100 meters to 110 m. before the resettlement till
that height is complete.
On the 27th , there will be a meeting of the Rehabilitation Planning
Committee with the NBA representatives, which will review the
current status of rehabilitation, as Kalusingh Padvi (village
Danel), Bhikam Singh Vasave (Dhankhedi), Kamala Yadav (Chhota
Badada) and Medha Patkar have launched the four-day fast. Many
organizations and common citizens are extending their support to the
cause. Noted anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and former upright
administrator Arun Bhatia extended unequivocal support for the
Andolan^Òs current phase of struggle.
The Decisions
According to the new decisions, the Maharashtra government has
agreed to resettle all categories of the tribal oustees affected by
the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) and has assured to
complete the ``scrutiny'' and the process of ``declaring'' all
categories of ``undeclared'' oustees major sons, tapu affected,
those without land-title and others before March 30, 2004.
It has agreed to procure additional 1500 hectares of degraded forest
land for resettlement from the central Ministry of Environment and
Forest (MoEF) within 2 months. As far as private land procurement
for resettlement, the details of lands would be conveyed to the Land
Purchase Committees to start the procurement procedure by showing
that land to the affected people.
It has agreed to cancel earlier ex-parte land allotment and will
replace uncultivable lands with lands with the concurrence of the
oustees, as per the recommendations of the Task Force. Those who had
returned from Gujarat resettlement sites or were not resettled,
these families will be entitled to resettle in Maharashtra. It has
agreed to provide for the fodder-land and schools in the
resettlement sites among other things.
The state government had agreed to pay compensation to the oustees
for the damages due to unwarranted submergence in the monsoon 2003,
and will be providing compensation for the affected people in the
submergence from 1993-98.
The Action Taken Report (ATR) will be put before the joint
Resettlement Planning and Overviews committees and appropriate
decision will be taken after the discussion. The meeting of the
meeting of Joint Rehabilitation Planning Committee with Andolan
representatives, will be held in Mumbai on January 27.
The state government has agreed to revive the process of the Review
of Cost-benefit of the dam to Maharashtra, while rejecting the
resignation of two independent experts.
The state government has agreed on these and other issues, after a
meeting with the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on January 20 and with
the delegation of prominent persons and the NBA on January 21. The
delegation included senior jurists and leader of human rights
campaign, PUCL, Justice (Rtd) Rajinder Sachar, Justice (Rtd) Suresh
Hosbet, Justice (Rtd) Daud, renowned stage and film personality and
social worker Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Sharad Palav, Mr. PD Kaul, and
Pratibha Shinde and Medha Patkar of NBA. But, what the government
gave in writing on that evening was a watered down and distorted
version was what was agreed upon. The people were also waiting for
the decision by the state government whether it would agree to raise
the height of the dam from 100 meters to 110 meters. Therefore the
dharna by the Narmada valley tribals and farmers continued.
The government had given a revised version of the official note to
the Andolan next day (Friday, January 23). However, the Chief
Minister did not meet the Andolan representatives despite the
insistence by the Home Minister. Therefore the Andolan has to wait
and see whether the government of Maharashtra is serious to protect
the rights and lives of the affected people or cares for the dam and
interests of the Gujarat^Òs Chief Minister.
Even when the people below 80 m. height of the dam are still left
without resettlement, the governments have gone ahead with
increasing the height of the dam up to 100 m. violating all laws,
regulations and even the decisions by the Supreme Court (1991 and
2000). For that we still are ready to have discussions with the
Chief Minister and his government.
Narmada Bachao Andolan has been holding dharna near the Mantralaya
(state secretariat) since January 19, with a demand to take concrete
steps on war footing to resettle 3000 tribal Adivasis in 33 villages
in the Satpuda ranges, affected by Sardar Sarovar dam. There are
over 45,000 families in the three states who are going to be
affected by the full 138.68 m. height of the dam.
If the height of the dam is increased up to 110 meters, as the
Gujarat government has been pressing for long, over 12000 families
from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are likely to be hit by
submergence during monsoon of 2004 in case of the highest flood
scenario.
Ranya Padvi
Kewalsingh
Pratibha Shinde
-- Contributed by Ravi and Aravinda <a...@vsnl.com>
4) Interesting Links
a) Mahila Shanti Sena
Tens of thousands of women have now been trained in a women's peace
corps and their collective efforts are beginning to change the
social and political climate in parts of northern India
http://www.peacemagazine.org/0401/pearson.htm
-- Contributed by Arun Sripati <spa...@jhu.edu>
b) In search of India's inventors
India's National Innovation Foundation is collecting small ideas
that are making a world of difference to the people who dreamt them
up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3403289.stm
-- Contributed by Hema <hxs...@psu.edu>
Thats all for today
Sid
Make a difference this holiday season. Visit
http://www.OneForIndia.org
where every One counts
P.S. The AID News archives are available at AID News website
http://www.aidindia.org/hq/publications/aid_news.htm
P.P.S. Please visit the AID News site for more details on addition,
subtraction from the list and also to send in comments or if you
prefer email, the editor's email id is
aid...@aidindia.org
P.P.P.S. Access articles quoted in AID News: AID News Links Page
http://www.aidindia.org/links/
P.P.P.P.S. Disclaimers - The views expressed in AID News, including
disclaimers, are not necessarily those of AID. Chapter, BoD or EB
decisions are sometimes conveyed in AID News. The views of the
editor do not necessarily reflect those of AID and the views
expressed by others do not necessarily reflect those of the editor.
=cut