South Asia Citizens Web

After languishing for years in Pakistani and Indian prisons, 398 Indian fishermen and 22 Pakistani workers were repatriated between May-June this year [2023]. Experts Article 14 spoke to said that most of the prisoners, who were captured by police for accidentally crossing the maritime borders, ended up spending over 5 years in jail on an average, with delayed legal trials, violating laws which require the release of prisoners within a year of confirmation of their national status.

Due to large-scale degradation of forests in India due to mining and other development activities, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 was enacted by Parliament. This Act regulated many unlawful activities within forests and legislated several compensatory measures to redress any loss of forest due to activities by public or private entities. The Union government introduced the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023 in the Lok Sabha on March 29th

In the backdrop of the Joint Parliamentary Committee giving it

We, the undersigned women’s organizations, are deeply shocked and appalled to learn that a complaint had been made to the National Commission for Women (NCW) on 12 June 2023, regarding the heinous incident in Manipur of three women being publicly stripped and raped by a mob and that the NCW far from responding to the call of distress and taking immediate action, wrote letters to the Manipur government and kept waiting for a response. Hence, the NCW remained entirely inactive for more than a month. It is reported that there are other cases of sexual violence in Manipur. Only a couple of days back when a video clip of the brutal torture became public and there was widespread outrage all over the country, did the NCW wake from its sleep and take ’suo moto cognizance’ of the crime.

I write this letter to convey to you distressing developments from your own Lok Sabha constituency which you have not taken note of. The campus of the Sarva Sewa Sangh in Varanasi is being demolished by the administration and several followers of Mahatma Gandhi, leaders of political parties, academicians and civil society activists were arrested for protesting this move. The administration wishes to demolish the seven-decades-old campus which houses a publishing house, a library, a free preschool, a Khadi Bhandar and a statue of Mahatma Gandhi to build a guest house in its place.