Though people oppose refinery expansion, officials record their statements as favourable for project  The official record of the public hearing on the Vedanta Aluminium’s plan to expand its refinery in the foothills of Orissa’s Niyamgiri Hills seems to contradict itself. While the people said “no” to the project, the officials recording their statements concluded with a “yes”. The public hearing, held on April 25, 2009, contributed to the decision of several...

The Centre has given the State a “very poor” rating The number of claims has jumped to 3,03,960 by the end of January The implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act in Maharashtra has dismayed Adivasis and Activists alike. Even the State government is painfully aware of its slow progress. With only 1.19 per cent of the 2,39,542 total claims under the Act received till...

A wretched, forsaken corner of the world’s biggest democracy SURROUNDED by troops, the suspected militant saw the vehicle already waiting to take his corpse to the morgue. He expected to die, like many others, in an “encounter” with the security forces. In jail he told a human-rights Activist—himself held on charges of waging war against the state and tortured with electric shocks—that he probably owed his life to a piece of...

The Centre has drafted a health bill to ensure the right to health. However, health experts feel the bill will, instead, legitimise denial of health services to the poor. The Draft National Health Bill 2009 was prepared on the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission to recognise and operationalise the right to healthcare. The demand for such a right was led by the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, the Indian chapter...

When the government passed the Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2005, it should have added a statutory warning: exercising this right may be extremely injurious to health. Shashidhar Mishra of Begusarai, who was murdered by unknown assailants last Sunday, is the second RTI Activist to be killed in a month for perhaps knowing too much. Attacks on RTI Activists have emerged as a disturbing trend of late, especially in...