South Asia Citizens Web

We, a group of activists and citizens of India, express our deep concern over the recent arrests on the false pretext that have been taking place using the regressive Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) by the Union government. When governments all over the world are fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic and trying to obliterate the Coronavirus, Modi government using the opportunity created by the lockdown is fighting dissidents and abolishing them of their fundamental rights. People are being picked up and put in jails under fictitious cases.

Even as the country is reeling under the impacts of the lockdown and coping with a pandemic, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has made a time-bound call for comments on the draft Environmental Impact Assessment Notification (EIA) 2020, published on its website on 12th March, 2020. The National Alliance of People’s Movements condemns this ill-timed move aimed at complete dilution of existing provisions that are meant to protect the interests of the environment and project affected people.

The undersigned represent scientists and researchers from across the globe. The current COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented and we need innovative ways of coming out of the current lockdowns. However, we are concerned that some “solutions” to the crisis may, via mission creep, result in systems which would allow unprecedented surveillance of society at large.

April 25th, 2020 marks the end of the first month of India’s gigantic, country-wide lockdown to counter and check the spread of the COVID -19 – Corona virus. As the Prime Minister gets down to discuss on 27th April, 2020, with the CMs of all the states of India, about whether to continue fully or partially with the biggest ever global shutdown of this size, it is an apt occasion for citizen’s to review progress and point out key concerns, to both the Prime Minister of India, as also all the Chief Ministers.

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) takes strong exception to the Supreme Court quashing of the order providing 100 per cent reservation to Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates for the posts of teachers in schools in the Scheduled Areas. ... 100 per cent reservation was to strengthen educational infrastructure in the Scheduled Area