UPDATE Koodankulam– Police harass Udayakumar’s family

September 13, 2012
9 p.m.

A posse of about 10 policemen from Koodankulam Police Station in Tirunelveli today visited the house of Udayakumar’s father at around 2 p.m. They said they wanted to hand over a summons in the name of Meera, wife of Udayakumar.

When he refused to accept it, he was threatened and the elderly gentleman — who was alone — was told that he would be taken in. The summons, which was accepted, was issued by the Valliyoor Court and contained the following details:
Crime No. 141/12 and 73/12.
Sections 143, 157 and 291 of IPC read along with 149 of IPC and the 3(b)(c) Religious Institutions Act of 1998.

143 — Punishment for unlawful assembly
157 — Harbouring persons hired for unlawful assembly
291 — Continuance of nuisance after injunction to discontinue

Sec 3(b)(c) of Religious Institutions Act, 1988
3. No religious institution or manager thereof shall use or allow the
use of any premises belonging to, or under the control of, the institution-
(a) for the promotion or propagation of any political activity. or
(b) for the harbouring of any person accused or convicted of an
offence under any law for the time being in force; or
(c) for the storing of any arms or ammunition

India has highest child mortality rate, says UN report

Press Trust of India | Updated: September 13, 2012 11:38 IST

New Delhi: With almost 19,000 children under five years of age dying every day across the world, India tops the list of countries with the highest number of 16.55 lakh such deaths in 2011, according to a UN agency.

The ‘Child Mortality Estimates Report 2012’ released by Unicef in New York has said that in 2011, around 50 per cent of global under-five deaths occurred in just five countries of India, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and China.

Incidentally, India’s toll is higher than the deaths in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan put together. While there have been 7.56 lakh deaths in Nigeria during the last year, Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for 4.65 lakh deaths and Pakistan 3.52 lakh deaths of under-five children during 2011.

China reported 2.49 lakh deaths of under-5 kids last year, followed by 1.94 lakh by Ethiopia and 1.34 lakh each by Indonesia and Bangladesh. Uganda with 1.31 lakh such deaths and Afghanistan with 1.28 lakh deaths held the ninth and 10th position in the list of 10 top countries reporting under-five children deaths. Singapore with a mortality rate of 2.6 has the lowest under-five deaths, while Slovenia and Sweden followed it with a mortality of 2.8. The Unicef report also states that globally

Pneumonia is the leading killer of children under five, causing 18 per cent of all under-five deaths worldwide – a loss of roughly 1.3 million lives in 2011, the bulk of which occur in just two regions, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Globally, the five leading causes of deaths among children under five include pneumonia (18 per cent); pre-term birth complications (14 per cent); diarrhoea (11 per cent); intrapartum-related complications (9 per cent) and malaria (7 per cent). Besides, more than a third of child deaths are attributable to undernutrition globally, the report states.

No anticipatory bail in cases under SC/ST Act, says SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a person charged under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, would not be entitled toanticipatory bail and barred all courts from entertaining pleas for such relief.

A bench of Justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi said pre-arrest bail could be denied if the court came to a conclusion that the a prima facie case was made out against the accused as per the FIR.

“Section 18 of the SC/ST Act creates a bar in invoking Section 438 (for anticipatory bail) of the CrPC. However, a duty is cast on the court to verify the averments in the complaint and to find out whether an offence under Section 3(1) of the Act has been prima facie made out,” the bench said.

Justice Sathasivam said, “If there is a specific averment in the complaint, namely insult or intimidation with intent to humiliate by calling the caste name, the accused persons are not entitled to anticipatory bail.”

PRESS RELEASE–M.P. Govt must stop betrayal of thousands of project-oustees

M.P. Govt must stop betrayal of thousands of project-oustees

and respond to the Jal and Jammen Satyagraha

 

The farmers, labourers, potters and fish workers in the Sardar Sarovar affected areas, many of whom are also affected by the canals of the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar Projects and those affected by the Jobat Dam warn the Government of Madhya Pradesh against its totally insensitive attitude and illegal moves, destroying the lands and livelihoods of thousands of oustees affected by the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar Projects. We stand by the nature based communities, the women and men who on the 14^th day of the Jal Satyagraha, are facing the waters, protesting against the Government’s plan to make their villages a watery grave and evict them by the watery force. About 2,500 land holder families in Omkareshwar and thousands of families in Indira Sagar are pushed, not merely into ‘submergence’, but ‘destruction’ zone, that too without prior and legal rehabilitation.

 

It is absolute injustice meted out to the adivasi and non-adivasi farmers and the Madhya Pradesh Government has violated all norms, both its own Rehabilitation Policy and Judgements of the Supreme Court. In total contempt of the communities living in the Narmada valley since generations, the Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and his cabinet is refusing to acknowledge not just the gross illegalities but also the truth and non-violence expressed through the Jal Satyagraha of the oustees and the activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan, Chittaroopa Palit and Alok Agarwal.

 

They refuse to take note of the scenario wherein not one but all dams in the Narmada valley are pushed ahead illegally, with scant respect for environment, law and justice. The two Ministers, as envoys of the CM, who visited the site of the Satyagaraha yesterday, failed to put forth any concrete proposal before the Satyagrahis and the oustees. The Centre too, through the Narmada Control Authority and the Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Environment have not promptly intervened in this critical situation, appearing to be beyond control when not one but at least waters from 8 dams are released and the downstream areas are flooded, destroying hundreds of acres of standing land and houses.

 

In Sardar Sarovar, the oustees of ISP and OSP have flooded more than 300 houses, along with a few shops in Nisarpur and hundreds of acres of standing crop in dozens of farms, across villages. The SSP is however, stopped and no permission is granted for any further raise in height, since 40,000 families are still residing in the submergence zone and huge scandal of Corruption in the Rehabilitation is unearthed and is under scrutiny by Justice Jha Commission.

 

However, while in SSP, for the last 27 years of struggle including Jal Satyagraha to Jal Samadhi, agitations have led to the land-based rehabilitation of 11,000 families in Maharashtra and Gujarat, but not one is rehabilitated in Madhya Pradesh. The situation is same in all the large dams in the Madhya Prdaesh part of the Narmada valley – Bargi, Maheshwar, Omkareshwar, Indira Sagar, Maan, Jobat, Veda, Goi etc.  This is self-evident of the state government’s disrespect for the adivasis and farmers. Madhya Pradesh is locating and allocating land for investors across the globe but denies the same to the project – affected and only forces them to accept rocky, uncultivable or decades-old encroached land from its ‘Waste Land Bank’.The same insensitivity is reflected in its silence in dealing concretely with the 10 month long Jobat Zameen HaqSatyagraha by the SSP oustees, mostly the hilly adivasis, displaced since 1994. The oustees who are on the verge of reaping the second crop on the government seed farm land they have ‘occupied’ since 10 months is another slap in the face of the State!

 

It is this callous attitude that is being challenged, staking lives and livelihoods in Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar dam affected areas today and the same must be responded to immediately. We appeal to all the agencies, including the NHRC, the Commission for Scheduled Tribes to intervene, at least now, after 15 days of the Satyagraha.The High Court and the Supreme Court can also take suo moto notice of the crisis and intervene to protect the rights and lives, with due respect to those sacrificing their land and village communities from the oldest of the civilizations, i.e. Narmada in ‘public interest’. If not, an intensified struggle all over will challenge the power holders on the entire issue of the Narmada valley.

 

Medha Patkar              Devram Kanera Khema Vestha     Shrikanth Ghokru Bhilala

Ph: 09423965153 / 09179148973