South Asia Citizens Web

The recent regularisation of around 900 colonies in Delhi is an inevitable and welcome move. No city can allow a majority of its residents to live in conditions of illegality, particularly when that illegality is a direct outcome of its own history of urban planning. However, why are moves to
regularise unauthorised colonies not being followed by similar moves to regularise bastis (often reductively called ’slums’) that house the city’s poor?

Shri VS Achuthandandan, the Leader of Opposition in Kerala assembly and the Ex Chief Minister said that the underground laboratory -India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)- being built under the hills of Kerala and Tamil Nadu may have serious consequences for the ecosystem and dams in Idukki district. INO is part of a US research study. High energy neutrinos beamed from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Chicago, US will pass through the core and mantle of the earth and will be detected by the Indian observatory. This study has the potential of developing the newest weapon of the 20th century – much more powerful and indefensible than the nuclear weapons. The project came as part of the Indo-US nuclear deal signed by George Bush and Manmohan Singh in 2005.

Critical analysis of textbooks being taught in primary schools shows how the literature of hatred is poisoning our young minds

The movement against the Koodankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu has entered a new phase with a Jal-satyagraha following the repressive police action of September 10. More than 120 eminent citizens from different walks of life have signed the following statement expressing solidarity with the protesters, and calling for serious engagement with them on vital issues of safety.

The repression, including lethal firing, unleashed on peaceful protesters against the Kudankulam nuclear plant on Monday, on top of FIRs over many months charging thousands with sedition, makes two things clear. Nuclear projects in India can only be thrust on unwilling citizens at gunpoint. As the jalsatyagraha shows, people will resist them tenaciously, because they are aware of their hazards. That’s true of every nuclear project, whether Jaitapur (Maharashtra), Gorakhpur (Haryana), Mithi-Virdi (Gujarat), Kovvada (Andhra Pradesh), Haripur (West Bengal), Chutka (Madhya Pradesh) or Banswada (Rajasthan). For instance, at Gorakhpur, there has been a daily dharna against four proposed reactors for two years, unbeknownst to Delhi, which lies in their potential radiation-fallout zone.