South Asia Citizens Web

The Pachwara Central Coal Block now de-allocated from PANEM, but re-allocated to the Punjab State Electricity Board (now PSPCL) formed a Joint venture with EMTA to mine the Block. The Coal Block has now been re-alloted to PSPCL. Contextualizing the present condition of the villagers with the findings of the Independent People’s Tribunal constituted in Ranchi in November 2014, the report raises crucial questions on the nature and circumstances of negotiations where the community was coerced into signing an MoU that lacked legal validity with the company it had stiffly opposed.

The disaster is a grim reminder of how vulnerable large parts of South Asia are to natural calamities like earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, flash floods and landslides. It also shows how unprepared the region’s societies are to cope with these, and how governments routinely fail to mitigate their effects on the plea that some of these events cannot be predicted.

It is not uncommon for universities to disallow talks on so-called ‘sensitive’ issues as the Karachi University did with the Baloch Missing Persons and the Role of State and Society, yet as academics and intellectuals, it becomes our duty to stand up and protest such decisions and actions of the state or whoever wields some authority in its name.

For any post war society grappling with the consequences of past violence and engaged in exploring modalities for transitional justice, reparations is an important tool. Reparations, if designed and implemented in an inclusive manner that factors in the grievances of the victims and affected communities, can be an effective tool in acknowledging and addressing the injustices of the past.

New Delhi: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative expresses concern over the allegations of police violence, brutality and arbitrary action during and after the May Day protests held on 1st and 2nd May 2015.