Even as the number on attacks RTI activists in the state have become frighteningly routine, political leaders who have come under the scanner, mostly from the ruling BJP, are still untouched. In the latest incident in which Porbandar-based advocate and social worker Bhagu Devani was stabbed on last Friday, police have arrested Laku Odedara, brother of former Porbandar Nagarpalika president Vikram Odedara, along with three others but former irrigation minister Babu...

The episodes of violence in land acquisition by the government, as witnessed recently in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh and in other states earlier, occur because patterns of violence are inbuilt into the process. Despite a bill pending in Parliament since 2007, there has been little effort by political parties to evolve a consensus on acquisition of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. The law as at present and also the provisions...

-The Indian Express   In yet another attack on RTI activists in Gujarat, a Porabnder-based lawyer-cum-RTI activist, Bhagubhai Devani, was grievously stabbed near his home on Friday. Devani, who suffered severe blood loss from multiple stab wounds, has pointed fingers at the former minister. An FIR has been lodged against six unidentified attackers and the activist has been admitted to the Sir Bhavsinhji Hospital. The attack came a day after the hearing on...

An RTI activist Baghu Dewani was attacked by unidentified persons in Porbander in Gujarat on Friday. Dewani has been hospitalised after he was stabbed by unidentified persons. Dewani is said to be in a serious condition in the hospital. The 65-year-old advocate-activist Bhaghubahi Dewani was first assaulted with sticks by two unidentified persons and then stabbed thrice in the abdomen. The assailants then fled the scene. Dewani has accused former BJP minister...

In a major relief to the Ahmedabad-based Adani Group, the Gujarat High Court has disposed of a bunch of Public Interest Litigation petitions challenging the State government's allotment of about 1,000 acres of land to the Adanis for setting up the Mundra Special Economic Zone in Kutch district. ‘No merit' A Division Bench, comprised by Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya and Justice Akil Kureshi, did not find any merit in the PILs which...