Archive

Stop Forceful Land Acquisition in Belahari, Odisha

 
/ January 5, 2015

A villager recounts that those displaced earlier for the same project are living as domestic helps. Happy with farming, Belahari villagers from Kalinga Nagar do not want to give their land to TATA Company. CALL TO ACTION : Call District Collector, Anil Kumar Samal at +916728222330 and demand that he...

Land Taken on Name of Development but no Compensation, Mandu Block, Ramgarh, Jharkhand

 
/ December 31, 2014

The Central Government’s recommendations to make significant changes in the Land Acquisition Act 2013, most significantly the removal of the consent clause have left civil society and human rights activists shocked. The changes have been justified by those in power as a means to make the process of acquisition much...

A stream running dry: Locals denied compensation for land acquisition

 
/ October 15, 2014

326 families in rural Madhya Pradesh haven’t been compensated for their lands acquired by the government  about three decades ago. The land was used for a dam project, which is not in a functioning state either. The project that was supposed to empower them, has robbed them of everything they...

Houses of Dalit families burnt by upper caste men

 
/ October 9, 2014

12 powerful men from the ‘upper caste’ burnt down the houses of 4 Dalit families, our Community Correspondent Reena Devi reports from Maha Dalit Tola area of Chitauria Village in Katihar, Bihar.   The conflict arose because the attackers had been trying to forcefully evict the residents. A meeting date...

Success: Waking a languid administration in Odisha

 
/ September 3, 2014

In the month of July last year, three families were thrown out of their house in Deultunda village of Bargarh district in Odisha. The mob, which chased them out of the village, mostly consisting of ‘upper-caste’ Hindus, also vandalised whatever little possessions they had. “They were drunk and chased us...

Save Niyamgiri: Voices from Ground Zero

 
/ August 8, 2014

India’s current obsession with economic development based on extractive mining projects is spelling doom for its indigenous communities. Their rights to land, livelihoods and self-expression, guaranteed by the constitution, are often violated to get such projects going. Ahead of the International day for Indigenous People, we bring you voices of...

Save Mahan: Voices from ground zero

 
/ August 1, 2014

Mahan in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli district has become another front in the battle waging between the desire for economic growth and that to conserve forests and indigenous ways of life. The forests in Mahan are the largest Sal forests in Asia. In a landscape already blackened by mining, this is...

Damned by Sardar Sarovar Dam

 
/ June 13, 2014

Imagine having your village and land flooded for the construction of a dam.  Imagine no compensation, house or land being provided in return.  Imagine standing up for your rights to only be imprisoned by the authorities.  There is no need to imagine for this is the reality of residents from...