'With around 40,000 trees cut down to make way for a coal mining project in Sambalpur district of Orissa, the residents of Khinda and Talabira villages have begun a Jungle Suraksha Satyagraha to prevent the mining project from progressing any further. On December 9, 2019, the lush forest, of predominantly Sal trees, was laid to waste to make way for the coal mining project being spearheaded by Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) in Sambalpur and Jharsuguda districts. The coal mines are to be developed and operated by the Adani Group as per a contract signed between NLC and the Group in 2018.
'When Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s government hastily served notices to more than 300 people for allegedly damaging public property during the recent anti-CAA protests, many recalled how hundreds of serious criminal cases against him and his Hindu Yuva Vahini members are still pending. But a bigger indictment than these cases are the annual reports of Uttar Pradesh Police’s intelligence units – which I have accessed – against the Hindu Yuva Vahini, an outfit that Adityanath established...
'People of India are now coming to see that, if implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) are going to pose a threat to the future of not just people belonging to the Muslim community, but also the Scheduled Castes / Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes of the country.
'In sanctioning the re-election of Dilip Ghosh as Bengal’s Bharatiya Janata Party president, the party high command has validated his rhetoric of violence and hate. Ghosh’s reappointment for the top job in Bengal comes hot on the heels of his intemperate comments and an open call to violence. Two days ago, at a public meeting in Nadia district, the BJP chief denounced chief minister Mamata Banerjee for not following in the footsteps of the BJP-led governments in UP and Assam and shooting anti-CAA/NRC protesters “like dogs“...'
'Amidst the ongoing controversy over the collection of Aadhaar numbers during the process of updating the National Population Register (NPR), the Union home ministry on Thursday insisted the government would not force people to submit their Aadhaar credentials to official enumerators. However, official documents show that the ministry wanted mandatory collection of Aadhaar numbers to be an essential part of the NPR exercise.
'Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2020 here on Thursday, chief of defence staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat pointed a finger at nations that sponsored terror and urged the international community to isolate them. But he also suggested a controversial remedy for dealing with Kashmiri children influenced by “radicalisation”: that they be “put in de-radicalisation camps”. “Terrorism is here to stay so long as there are states that will sponsor terrorism and use terrorists as proxies, make weapons and funding available for them.
'The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a criminal case against Adani Enterprises Ltd for colluding with officials of the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) to unfairly win a contract for supplying coal to an Andhra Pradesh government-owned company. The agency named former NCCF chairman Virender Singh, its then managing director G.P. Gupta and former senior adviser S.C. Singhal in the first information report (FIR). Adani Enterprises and the NCCF officials were booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act...'
'Poverty and lack of opportunity in their hometowns drove 93 million Indians from disadvantaged castes and tribes in 2011 to migrate to other areas within their states in the hope of securing education or employment. However. they continue to face social segregation, labour market discrimination and barriers to accessing the most basic services, finds an analysis of Census data and research studies by India Migration Now, a Mumbai-based non-profit.
'Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Binay Tamang faction) has taken offence to comments made by Dilip Ghosh about Gorkhas who died in the 2017 statehood agitation. He has threatened to come out in protest if Ghosh does not retract his statement. Tamang said, “In a television interview, Ghosh had dubbed the 11 martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the 2017 agitation as antisocial elements, who were rightly shot by the police for vandalising government property.
'Even as several groups in Chennai continue to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the City Police Commissioner AK Viswanathan promulgated an order prohibiting all protests, meetings, assemblies etc. for the next 15 dates. The Hindu reported that Monday’s order has been brought into effect under section 41 of the Tamil Nadu City Police Act 1888, which grants police the “power to regulate assemblies, meetings and processions in public places.” The order that is passed will not apply to any procession or demonstration for which permission has already been granted.
