South Asia Citizens Web

The Government of India and the Department of Atomic Energy refuse to take the Fukushima nuclear disaster seriously. In a typical ritualistic manner, the Indian prime minister has called for a review of the safety procedures in the nuclear power plants (as though their "review" would make the plants much safer.) The DAE chief Srikumar Banerjee has dismissed the Fukushima radiation claims in a press meet in Mumbai and claimed that "all of it was not factually correct." We need to tell our establishment that Indian lives have worth and sanctity. We are not dispensable people. As the citizens of the largest democracy in the world, we decide what we want for our better future. We are not for electricity; electricity is for us.

The new bribery revelations, a rigged process to import reactors and safety-related concerns must lead to the long-blocked scrutiny of the nuclear deal by Parliament.

The Executive Director of PILER Karamat Ali expressed serious concern over absence of an effective occupational health and safety policy in [Pakistan], which has resulted in deaths and injuries to a large number of workers in industries particularly in coal mines.

The Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is holding hundreds of people each year without charge or trial in order to ‘keep them out of circulation’, a new Amnesty International report released today shows.

The Round Table on “Strategising Civil Society’s Role in Peace Process: Identifying Priority Issues/Areas and Interventions” held at Hotel Beach Luxury, Karachi on March 20, 2011 unanimously demanded that the Indian and Pakistani governments should release all the civilian prisoners including fishermen as a good will gesture. Both the countries should also liberalise visa regime, revive the India-Pakistan Judicial Committee on Prisoners, open trade, reduce military expenditure and urgently implement the already resolved disputed issues like Siachen, Sir Creek.