South Asia Citizens Web

Housing and Land Rights Network undertook a detailed fact-finding mission across 19 sites in Delhi from where the government forcibly evicted families because of the Commonwealth Games, for reasons ranging from construction of infrastructure to ‘security’ and ‘city beautification.’ Based on field work and research, HLRN estimates that since 2004, at least 200,000 people in Delhi have been forcibly evicted as a result of the CWG. The city, however, witnessed many more demolitions and evictions in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games.
Thr HLRN report uses national and international law and guidelines, in particular the United Nations Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-based Evictions and Displacement, to analyse the forced evictions in Delhi.

The latest news from America must have thrilled many: Pakistan probably has more nuclear weapons than India. But for argument’s sake, let’s assume that the claims made are correct. Indeed, let us suppose that Pakistan surpasses India in numbers – say by 50 per cent or even 100 per cent. Will that really make Pakistan more secure?

The 106-page report, "The ‘Anti-Nationals’: Arbitrary Detention and Torture of Terrorism Suspects in India," documents consistent abuse by Indian security forces in their response to the scourge of terrorism attacks. State police, jail officials, and other authorities have committed a range of human rights violations, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, and religious discrimination. The report details the mistreatment of alleged members of the Indian Mujahideen, a militant Islamist group that since 2008 has claimed responsibility for six bombings and other deadly attacks, as well as that of Hindu nationalist suspects charged in a separate bombing in 2008.

The largest nuclear power station in the world—is under construction in Jaitapur, in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district in Western India to be executed by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), a subsidiary of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), with six giant reactors of 1,650 MW megawatts each, designed by the French nuclear company, Areva. The people of the Jaitapur-Madban area, resolutely oppose the project. The Jaitapur nuclear power station has become a great contest of wills between a conscious public and an arrogant officialdom, which has unleashed savage repression against peaceful protesters. It is a test case for the success of popular movements against projects that forcibly acquire people’s lands, wreck their livelihoods, and inflict irreparable damage on the environment. Jaitapur has special public significance because of the project’s nuclear hazards and its location in a unique biodiversity-rich ecosystem.

Md. Salman, arrested by the Uttar Pradesh ATS from Siddharthnagar on 6 March 2010, was accused of being a conspirator in the 2008 Delhi blasts. Today (5th February 2011), additional sessions Judge Ms. Santosh Snehi Mann threw out all charges against him— at the point of charge—in all five cases in Delhi bomb blasts for lack of any evidence that could prove that he had conspired to bomb various places in Delhi in 2008.