S.O.S - eVoice For Justice - e-news weekly
Spreading the light of humanity & freedom
Editor: Nagaraj.M.R.. Vol.07..Issue.13........26/03/2011
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“There is a higher court than the court of justice and that is the court of conscience It supercedes all other courts. ”
- Mahatma Gandhi
POLICE NOT REGISTERING COMPLAINT AGAINST CHIEF JUSTICE OF
INDIA & OTHERS
From,
NAGARAJ.M.R.
LIG-2 / 761, HUDCO FIRST STAGE,
LAXMIKANTANGAR, HEBBAL,
MYSORE - 570017.
Through,
Honourable DG & IG of Police ,
State Police H.Q ,
Bangalore.
To,
Honourable Circle Inspector of Police,
Vijayanagar Police Station,
Mysore.
Honourable Sir,
Subject : Violation of FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS & HUMAN RIGHTS by
Honourable Chief Jusice of India & H.E.Honourable President of India
& other public servants
Karnataka Police are NOT registering & acting on
my complaint to them dated 04.07.2009
A person committing a criminal offense is a CRIMINAL. The Person who
aids a criminal in his criminal act , in hiding the criminal act , in
destroying the evidences of criminal act is also a CRIMINAL. The
person whose duty is to prevent criminal acts from happening , who
intentionally fails in his preventive duties and thereby
facilitating the criminal in committing crime is also a CRIMINAL.
Information given by government authorities are EVIDENCES , denial
of information amounts to hiding of evidence , improper , half
truth information given amounts to MANIPULATION & DESTRUCTION OF
EVIDENCES. In this way many of our public servants including judges &
police themselves are criminals , but are not prosecuted by the
authorities , why ?
Due to delay in giving appropriate information , many crimes have
taken place which could have been prevented. As the delay in taking
action , giving information / evidence is on the part of government
authorities , the issue of TIME BARRED FOR ADMISSABILITY doesn’t
arise.
At the outset , we express our whole hearted respects to the honest
few public servants in public service including judiciary. However,
the corrupt in public service don’t deserve respect as individuals –
as they are parasites in our legal system. Still we respect the
chairs they occupy but not the corrupt individuals.
All the following articles / issues , whole articles published in the
weblinks mentioned below forms part of this appeal. The term “JUDGE”
mentioned throught includes all public servants discharging judicial
functions right from taluk magistrates , quasi-judicial officers to
Chief Justice of India.
Indian Legal / Judicial System is manipulated at various stages & is
for sale. It is a SHAME. The persons who raise their voice seeking
justice are silenced in many ways. The criminal nexus has already
attempted to silence me in many ways . If anything untoward happens to
me or to my family members , my dependents , Honourable Chief Justice
of India together with jurisdictional police officer will be
responsible for it.
The Vijayanagar police in mysore stated that they don’t have legal
jurisdiction to book the criminals I have mentioned in the complaint &
by taking a statement from me to that effect closed the case
temporarily on 11.09.2010 after sitting over the complaint for
years together. Is it not the duty of DG&IGP to seek the permission
from home ministry to legally prosecute the alleged criminal VVIPs ?
Why he was silent ? Ofcourse the lower rung police officers
practically don’t have power to prosecute high & mighty ?
Hereby , I do request the DG & IG OF Police , Government of Karnataka
to seek the legal sanction from union home ministry & Karnataka state
home ministry , for the prosecution of below mentioned criminal VVIPs
& to reopen my complaint here with.
In India , as per constitution of india all citizens are equal , have
right to equal oppurtunity & equitable justice irrespective of caste ,
creed , religion , etc. the constitution has guaranteed these to every
Indian citizen by way of CONSTITUTIONAL FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS. Also ,
every humanbeing on earth has got HUMAN RIGHTS, by virtue of his / her
birth.
However in india , CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTIONARIES / PUBLIC SERVANTS have
forgotten this & are acting as lords , autocrats - unquestionable
public masters. CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTIONARIES are PUBLIC SERVANTS
appointed to serve the public, public are the kings of democracy ,
they are the taxpayers & paymasters of this very same public servants.
In India , corruption has spread it’s tentacles far & wide , it has
not even spared the judiciary. The last resort of commonman for
seeking justice is judiciary , even there corruption has spread.In
present day India , if one is rich , he can committ any type of crime
& get away clean from courts of law. there are corrupt police
officials who modify FIR , suppress evidences ,manipulate evidences ,
takes up different line of investigation , fix innocents , coughs-up
false confessions from innocents by 3rd degree torture , file B report
closing the case , decides not to appeal in higher court of law ,
etc , ALL FOR A PRICE. Just see the list of millionnaire police
officials who are caught by karnataka lokayukta.
Next step , the prosecutor & defense advocate strikes a deal ,
manipulates evidences , manipulates way of presentation of case & way
of argument favouring the rich crooks for a price , as observed in
high profile BMW case involving public prosecutor IU KHAN & defense
counsel RK ANAND. In this way , if corrupt police & advocates ,
together manipulate the due process of law , the presiding judge is
left high & dry eventhough the judge is honest, he is left helpless.
to add to this , when the judge himself is corrupt , people’s last
hope , democracy is dead. Nowadays we are hearing too many reports of
irregularities in judiciary.
our publication has filed many appeals as PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION
before hon’ble supreme court of India but the vested interests there
are not accepting it as PILs. WHAT DOES PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION
MEANS ? ISSUES WHICH ARE OF PUBLIC CONCERN AFFECTING MANY NUMBER OF
PUBLICS.
The issues raised by us for sample :
1. sale of fake medicines & adulterated food products , beverages ,
colas affecting the health of millions of Indians & public of
importing nations who are importing the same dangerous products from
india .
2. demolition , eviction of houses , lands belonging to poor dalits ,
tribals , backward castes by government authorities whereas
regularising illegal land encroachments , illegal buildings by high &
mighty people in total disregard to law. in some cases government has
even made contempt of court , by defying court orders & enacting
special laws all to favour rich land grabbers.
3. take the cases corporate frauds, violation of labour laws ,
pollution board laws , tax laws , etc by companies.
4. The reports in media about certain highly placed public servants
leaking india’s defense secrets to foreign countries & some
politicians , film stars attending parties hosted by anti nationals
DAWOOD IBRAHIM & underworld dons in gulf countries & elsewhere. these
type of appeals are for public good , national security , as public
are affected by them. still supreme court of india is not considering
our repeated PIL Appeals.the courts have the authority to consider
even a post card , e-mail as a PIL Appeal , the courts even have the
right to initiate suo-motto action for public good , inspite of
absence of any appeals / complaints. over & above this at the time of
my very first appeal my income was very low & i was a retrenched
factory employee who was eligible for free legal aid, even free legal
aid was not given to me. Now , even to my repeated RTI Appeals the
Honourable chief justice of India & H.E.Honourable President of India
are not giving the requested information . these action of CJI &
PRESIDENT OF INDIA is aiding high & mighty criminals , anti
nationals , amounts to suppression of information , truth ,
evidences , which is a cognizable offence.
SOS Appeal to SUPREME COURT of INDIA
http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/2010/08/s-o-s-appeal-to-supreme-...
DEALS IN COURTS & POLICE STATIONS READ :
http://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit/satyameva-jayate ,
http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/2011/01/satyameva-jayate.html ,
ACCUSED Chief Justice of India
http://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit/accused-chief-justice-of...
,
http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/2011/02/accused-chief-justice-of...
CROSS EXAM OF HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA , SUPREME COURT OF
INDIA -
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF UNION HOME SECRETARY , GOI , NEW DELHI –
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF DG&IG OF POLICE , GOK , BANGALORE –
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF GOVERNOR , RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ , http://theftinrbi.rediffblogs.com/
, http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/
CROSS EXAM OF MUDA COMMISSIONER , MUDA , MYSORE –
http://crimesofmuda.blogspot.com/ , http://manivannanmuda.blogspot.com/
, http://crimesatmudamysore.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF BDA COMMISSIONER , BDA , BANGALORE –
http://crimesofbda.blogspot.com/ , http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,
CORPORATE CRIMES RPG CABLES LIMITED
http://crimesatrpg.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesatrpg.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/218
MEGA FRAUD BY GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
are you ready to catch tax thieves ?
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
MOBILE PHONES , CURRENCY SCANDALS
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
reliance industry where is accountability ?
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
crimes at infosys campus
http://crimeatinfy.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimeatinfy.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/214
crimes by B.D.A against a poor woman
http://crimesofbda.blogpot.com/ ,
http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212
crimes of land mafia in India
http://landscamsinindia.blogspot.com/ ,
http://landscam.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212
currency thefts in RBI Press
http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/80
killer colas & killer medicines of India
http://deathcola.blogpot.com/ ,
http://deathcola.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/201
We do have highest respect for all constitutional bodies , public
servants , but it is an appeal to the honest few in public service ,to
bring to book their corrupt colleagues.The Honourable Chief Justice of
India & H.E.Honourable President of India have violated their oaths of
office , failed in their constitutional duties , suppressed material
truths / informations & thereby repeatedly violated my
Constitutionally guaranteed FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS & BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS &
Obstructing me from performing constitutionally prescribed FUNDAMENTAL
DUTIES AS A CITIZEN OF INDIA.
Hereby , i do request you to legally prosecute the below mentioned
public servants ACCUSED CRIMINALS viz
1. H.E.Honourable President of India
2. Honourable Chief Justice Of India
3. Union Home Secretary , GOI
4. Governor , Reserve Bank Of India
5. Director-General & Inspector General Of Police , government of
karnataka
6. Commissioner , Bangalore Development Authority
7. Commissioner , Mysore Urban Development Authority
8. Commissioner , Mysore City Corporation
9. Labour Commissioner , government of karnataka and
10. all public servants belonging to tax dept , pollution control
board , etc mentioned in the above cases with web links.
on the above mentioned charges. the whole issue of this news paper &
the related materials at the weblinks provided, forms part of this
complaint. If i am repeatedly called to police station or else where
for the sake of investigations , the losses i do incurr as a result
like loss of wages , transportation , job , etc must be borne by the
government. prevoiusly the police / IB personnel repeatedly called me
the complainant (sufferer of injustices) to police station for
questioning , but never called the guilty culprits even once to police
station for questioning , as the culprits are high & mighty . this
type of one sided questioning must not be done by police or
investigating agencies . if anything untoward happens to me or to my
family members like loss of job , meeting with hit & run accidents ,
loss of lives , etc , the jurisdictional police together with above
mentioned accussed public servants will be responsible for it. Even if
criminal nexus levels fake charges , police file fake cases against
me or my dependents to silence me , this complaint is & will be
effective.
if anything untoward happens to me or my dependents , the government of
india is liable to pay Rs. one crore as compensation to survivors of
my family. if my whole family is eliminated by the criminal
nexus ,then that compensation money must be donated to Indian Army
Welfare Fund. afterwards , the money must be recovered by GOI as land
arrears from the salary , pension , property , etc of guilty police
officials , public servants & Constitutional functionaries. Thanking
you.
Jai Hind , Vande Mataram.
Date : 17.03.2011…………………………Your’s sincerely,
Place : Mysore……………………………Nagaraj.M.R.
Editorial : SCRAP Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project
HOW MPs ,MLAs , Ministers - PEOPLE’S REPRESENTATIVES MUST FUNCTION
People are the kings , self rulers in a democracy . Peoples representatives must just represent the wishes , aspirations of people. When people in Jaitapur , Maharashtra state of India are totally against a nuke plant in their area and they don’t want it , still the authorities are forcing this project over their head.
Since 63 years of independence , In India the learned IAS babus & Netas are forcing their agendas , SEZs , Projects over the people for their own selfish gains , against the wishes of people. This is not DEMOCRACY.
KILLER COLAS & KILLER MEDICINES OF INDIA
Government officials murdering innocents in league with greedy
industrialists
In india, & many other 3rd world countries , the larger corporations ,
MNCs & industry lobby is
literally running the governments. They are grossly abusing human
rights of people. Hereby, HRW calls upon GOI to rein in those
corporations.
It is not the first time that , the harmful effects of colas – food
beverages are made public. The government is aiding the cola companies
in covering-up their crimes , in hiding harmful ingradients of their
products in the name of trade secrets. The government is yet to enact
a new food legislation making it mandatory for all manufacturers of
food items to specifgically mention the type & quantity of
ingradients on each food product. Even , under the present food Act
itself the government officials can ban the harmful colas & other
products in the interest of public health & lives. Then how will they
get kickbacks ?
The cola companies are so cunning & ruthless that they have used
muscle power – rowdies , corrupt police personnel & assaulted harmless
peaceful protestors. The cola companies have purchased justice
previously in kerala & got favourable judgement. Due to presence of
cola companies , under water table has depleted in surrounding
villages. The farmers are unable to grow their crops & are committing
suicides. One of the senior executive of a cola company – BEJOIS ,
MADE MURDER THREATS , FIX-UPS IN FALSE CASES TO EDITOR OF HUMAN RIGHTS
WATCH’S and even made false complaint to police , but repeatedly
failed to turn-up for enquiry fearing that truth will come out. The
police closed the case subsequently.
In India , many medicines / drugs manufacturing companies are silently
murdering thousands of innocent patients. Some of these companies are
manufacturing counterfeit drugs of popular brands. Some MNCs , big
drug companies are in cheating business , they are just filling chalk
powder in tablets where as on the outer cover they mention
ingradients & quantities of it which are not at all their in the
product. The patients who are taking these chalk powder tablets ,
hoping that they will get cured of diseases are dying due to lack of
proper medication. These greedy , cheating drug companies are also
exporting these counterfeit drugs to many third world countries like
Nigeria. The drugs controller of Nigeria has caught hold of evidences
about these illegal drugs & their import from India. These companies
with the aid of mafia even tried to finish her off. The GOI is yet to
take action on her complaint. Silence of GOI bought for a price by
drug companies.
Just a few months back , there was a programme called “bad medicine”
on BBC channel , where in the drugs controller for nigeria proved that
95% of drugs in nigeria are fake & 80% of them are being exported from
india. These indian fake medicines are killing hundreds of innocents
in nigeria & she is crusading to control to control it. She has
survived murder attempts by the pharma drugs mafia linked to india.
She came over to india along with BBC correspondent & under- cover
they went to greedy industrialists. The said industrialists- FAKE
SPECIALISTS boasted how they fake the holograms , labels of big MNCs ,
how they add chalk powder , paracetamol to all tablets , how they
gifted imported car to a chief minister in return for protecting their
crimes fake businesses , etc. At the end, the drugs controller for
india , refused to give an interview, EVEN TO MEET the BBC
correspondent, fearing that all his beans will spill out. just 2 years
back in karnataka, honourable lokayukta justice N.Venkatachala raided
certain pharmaceutical companies & drugs control department officials
and unearthed a huge scam of Rs.200 crore of fake medicines. However
the government didn’t take any action as politicians were also part of
the ring & threw the report on a back burner. In india, how many are
dying due to fake medicines – the corrupt officials are covering the
numbers & shielding the murderers the greedy industrialists.
Some of the MNCs are practicing double standards , while in their home operations in the U.S.A they are strictly adhering to F.D.A norms as consumer safety is strictly enforced there by the government , while in India they have thrown to wind the consumer safety with respect to indian operations. The situation is so worse that it has been
reported in the media that SOME FARMERS ARE USING THESE SOFT DRINKS AS PESTICIDES IN THEIR FARMS. Hereby, i want following questions answered by soft drink manufacturers specifically coca-cola & pepsi,
1.how you are removing the harmful chemicals from the tube well water ie your raw material ?
2.how you are ensuring the proper mixture of food additives ,
preservatives & flavours within safe limits ?
3.why not you are giving the exact quantity of all contents in the
soft drink of your’s on the product itself ?
4. are you exactly replicating your manufacturing & quality norms of
your U.S.A operations in india ? if not why ?
5.are you strictly adhering to food norms of government of india ?
6. are you keeping the F.D.A NORMS OF U.S.A as benchmark for your
operations in india ?
7. are you ready for the laboratory test of your product randomly
selected by the consumer ?
8. Are they using genetically modified food ingredients ?
9. are they using ingredients sourced from animal origins ?.
Previously HRW has appealed to government authorities including
supreme court of India , but to no avail. It is a sad pointer to the
grim fact that in India there is no value for human lives & the long
arm of corruption has even reached the apex court.
Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Sobering Reflections
By S.G.Vombatkere
13 March, 2011
Countercurrents.org
The tsunami-triggered accident in Fukushima (Japan) Daiichi plant's Unit 1 (operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, TEPCO) brings safety issues into question regarding the operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs). In the Daiichi NPP, the automatic shutting down of the reactor by stopping the controlled nuclear fission process, did occur as designed. However, the reactor did not cool down as fast as it was expected and required to do, and called for activating the emergency coolant pumps according to design. But there was no grid power due to a combination of earthquake and subsequent tsunami to operate the pumps. Also, because of flooding due to the tsunami, the dedicated standby generators could not provide power. The standby battery power (standby to the standby generator) was insufficient to operate the pumps at sufficient rate and duration, and so the (radioactive) steam generated due to overheating had to be vented to relieve the increasing pressure. This has put an unmeasured quantum of radioactive elements (radionucleides) into the atmosphere. But that too did not cool down the reactor sufficiently. It was then reported that sea water was being let into the reactor to cool it to prevent a meltdown. By this a further unmeasured amount of radioactive material would be discharged into the environment. The TEPCO website claims that “monitoring goes on around the clock year round” but at the bottom it says in red: “THIS SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY SHUTDOWN". All this detail is provided to show three things: One, that accidents in NPPs can and do occur for one or more of several reasons; Two, monitoring can fail, and even when it operates, the public is expected to unquestioningly accept the data provided by the NPP authorities as correct, due to official secrecy conditions. Thus, how much of nuclear radiation has already been discharged into the atmosphere and sea water from the Daiichi NPP and how much more will escape in the hours and days to come will never be known. Also, how much is being discharged from the other four affected NPPs is anybody's guess; Three, Unlike hydel or thermal power plants which can be shut down practically instantaneously, the nuclear fuel in NPPs requires cooling to prevent overheating even in normal conditions. Thus, NPPs always need independent power supply (from the grid or their own standby generators) in an emergency. That is, NPPs are not autonomous in respect of safety.
The Japanese nuclear engineers are making heroic efforts at immense personal risk to prevent a steam explosion (not a nuclear explosion) in the NPP. This is the point at which the design and construction standards of the concrete double containment structure of the nuclear reactor will have to withstand the explosion. This could trigger a partial or total meltdown of the reactor core, similar to what happened in USA in 1971 in the Three Mile Island NPP. (This put the US nuclear power industry into the doldrums until USA revived it by negotiating the nuclear deal with India in 2009). Japan has a reputation for good design and safety standards and good quality control and quality assurance in execution. It would be the fervent wish of every thinking person on the planet that the double containment will not fail and that the engineers will control the desperately delicate situation in the Daiichi NPP. Nobody is as yet even thinking of the costs of containing the accident and the subsequent nuclear clean-up.
But let us now cut to the nuclear situation in India. The issue of Indian design and construction quality standards stands naked when we note that the concrete containment dome of the Kaiga (Karnataka) NPP collapsed when under construction, and had to be rebuilt. It has not been revealed whether it was a failure of design or execution quality. It is not possible to obtain reliable information regarding the operation, safety standards and performance or other cost, constructional or operational aspects of any NPP because of the following reasons: One, Section 18 (Restriction on disclosure of information) and Section 24 (Offences and penalties) of the draconian Indian Atomic Energy Act 1962, do not permit anybody to even ask questions about NPPs, Two, nobody except the nuclear industry is permitted to conduct tests for radioactivity even outside the perimeter of any NPP, Three, the Environment Protection Act 1986, does not apply to NPPs, Four, the safety and monitoring agency (AERB) is not an independent agency and the public has to accept whatever health and safety information is released by the NPP or the AERB, Five, the budget of the DAE is not placed even before Parliament and the power generation and efficiency figures are not available even to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). In short, the Indian nuclear industry is a closed door to the rest of India, and this can be at the cost of public safety and health.
Further, in the event of a nuclear accident, Government of India (GoI) has sought to cap or limit the liability of operators or suppliers of nuclear hardware and technology to assure profits to the US nuclear industry. In simpler language, this means that the real financial cost of post-accident nuclear clean-up and repair would be borne by India, as the liability of the suppliers would be limited to the cap amount, while the real costs of health and livelihood would be borne by the people.
In view of the secrecy and the poor standards of construction even in the nuclear industry, the conflicting parameters of safety, operational cost and radioactive emissions of any NPP leave the public to guess when one of India's NPPs may suffer a serious accident, and whether we will be able to handle the disaster effectively and efficiently. Indian nuclear engineers are second to none, thus the issue of safety in India's nuclear establishment is institutional. The secrecy, intransparency, unaccountability and self-certification of the nuclear industry makes one doubt whether we will be able to prevent serious emergency or handle it effectively should it happen.
This also raises questions about the advisability of going for mega NPPs such as planned in Jaitapur, Maharashtra. This is quite apart from the fact of enormous resistance to its construction from local people on the grounds of livelihood and environment. Let us hope that the Indian nuclear establishment would never need to handle a serious accident of the type of Three Mile Island or Chernobyl or Fukushima.
S.G.Vombatkere holds a PhD in civil structural dynamics from I.I.T, Madras, and has extensive structural design and project execution experience.
E-mail: sg9kere@live.com
Children crippled by India's uranium waste
The Guardian - Asia Pacific - 23Aug
An Observer investigation has discovered a link between Indian electricity stations and physical and mental abnormalities
Hundreds of children in the Punjab have been contaminated with uranium in a pollution scandal with implications that could extend far beyond the borders of India.
Scientists and health workers have sounded the alarm after being confronted with a dramatic rise in birth defects, physical and mental abnormalities, and cancers in the Indian state. A subsequent Observer investigation has uncovered evidence linking the contamination to ash from the region's coal-fired power stations. Tests on children born in areas around the power stations have revealed that many have high levels of uranium in their bodies.
The metal is concentrated in the fly ash produced when coal is burned. Tests on ground water around the plants show levels of uranium up to 15 times the World Health Organisation's maximum safe limits.
The revelations coincide with the publication of a report by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Thermal Engineering journal that warns of an increased radiation hazard to people living near coal-fired thermal power stations.
Staff at two clinics around the Punjabi city of Bathinda â€" where there are two coal-fired thermal plants â€" have reported alarming numbers of admissions of severely handicapped children. Children were born with enlarged or small heads, short arms and legs, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and other complications. A German laboratory that tested samples taken from the children found massive levels of uranium in their bodies â€" in one case more than 60 times the maximum safe limit.
Studies of ground water suggest that while the uranium contamination is heaviest around the power plants, it extends across large parts of the state, which is home to 24 million people. The Indian government is committed to an expansion of thermal plants in Punjab and other states. Around the world, many other countries are planning to build new coal-fired power plants, including China, Russia, India, Germany and the United States. In the UK, there are plans for a coal-fired station at the Kingsnorth facility in Kent.
The children are being treated at the Baba Farid centres for special children in Bathinda and nearby Faridkot. Dr Pritpal Singh, who is in charge of the Faridkot clinic, said the number of children affected had risen dramatically in the past six or seven years and claimed the authorities were determined to bury the scandal. "They can't just detoxify these kids, they have to detoxify the whole Punjab. That is the reason for their reluctance," he said.
"They threatened us and said if we didn't stop commenting on what's happening they would close our clinic. But I decided that if I kept silent it would go on for years and no one would do anything about it. If I keep silent then the next day it will be my child. The children are dying in front of me."
Dr Carin Smit, a South African clinical metal toxicologist who arranged for the tests to be carried out, said the situation could not be ignored. "There is evidence of harm for these children in my care and … it is an imperative that their bodies be cleaned up and their metabolism be supported to deal with such a devastating presence of radioactive material," she said.
"If the contamination is as widespread as it would appear to be â€" as far west as Muktsar on Pakistan's border, and as far east as spreading into the foothills of Himachal Pradesh â€" then millions are at high risk and every new baby born to a contaminated mother is at risk."
A team of scientists from India's Department of Atomic Energy visited the area and reported that while the concentration of uranium in drinking water was "slightly high", there was "nothing to worry about", although some of their tests recorded levels of uranium as high as 224micrograms per litre (mcg/l) â€" 15 times higher than the safe level of 15mcg/l recommended by the World Health Organisation. The US Environmental Protection Agency sets a maximum safe level of 20mcg/l. Scientists in Punjab who have studied the presence of uranium in the state have dismissed the government's denials as a whitewash.
Dr Chander Parkash and Dr Surinder Singh, both from Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev University, said it was clear that uranium was present in large quantities in the ground water and should be investigated further.
In the Faridkot centre last week, 15-year-old Harmanbir Kaur's test results came back and showed she had 10 times the safe limit in her body. Her brother, Naunihal Singh, six, had double the safe levels.
Harmanbir was born in Muktsar, 40km from Faridkot. Her mother, Kulbir Kaur, 37, has watched her child slowly degenerate from a healthy baby into the very ill girl she is today â€" dribbling constantly, unable to feed herself and lost in a world of her own.
"God knows what sin I have committed. When we go to our village people say there is a curse of God on you, but I don't believe so," she said. "Every part of this area is affected. We never imagined that there would be uranium in our kids."
A few miles down the road in Bathinda, Sukhminder Singh, a 48-year-old farmer, watched his son Kulwinder, 13, staring into space while curling his hands under his chin. The tests showed that Kulwinder had 19 times the maximum safe level of uranium in his body. He has cerebral palsy and has already had seven operations to unbend his arms and legs. He is furious that the government has ignored the evidence of a serious health risk to children in the Punjab.
"The government should investigate it because if our child is affected it will also affect future generations," he said. "What are they waiting for? How many children do they want to be affected? Another generation?"
Doni Choudhary, aged 15 months, is waiting to be tested, although staff say he shows similar symptoms to children whose results have revealed dangerous levels of uranium, and he is already being treated for suspected uranium poisoning. His mother, Neelum, 22, from the state capital, Chandigarh, says he was born with hydrocephaly â€" water on the brain. His legs are useless.
"He is dependent on others. After me, who can care for him?" Neelum says. "He tries to speak but he can't express himself and my heart cries. When will he understand that his legs don't work? What will he feel?"
Some scientists have also proposed that ground water may have been contaminated by contact with granite lying deep below the thick alluvial deposits that form the Punjab plains, although the parents of most of the children affected say they take their water from the mains supply, which comes from other sources.
Meanwhile, smoke continues to pour from Faridkot's power station chimneys and lorries shuttle backwards and forwards, taking away the fly ash to be mixed into cement at the Ambuja factory next to the Bathinda power plant.
Inside the plant last week, there was ash everywhere, forming drifts, clinging to the skin, getting into the throat. In the main hall, the LED display showed the four generators are churning out 107 megawatts of electricity.
Ravindra Singh, the plant's security officer, said that most of the ash went to the cement works, while the rest was dumped in ash ponds. The first coal-fired power station in Punjabwas commissioned in Bathinda in 1974. It was followed by another in nearby Lehra Mohabbat in 1998. There is a third to the east, at Ropar.
Tests on ground water in villages in Bathinda district found the highest average concentration of uranium â€" 57mcg/l, three times the EPA's safe limit â€" in the town of Bhucho Mandi, a short distance from the Lehra Mohabbat ash pond. This level of uranium means the lifetime cancer risk in the village is more than 150 times that of the normal population
JAITAPUR NUCLEAR PLANT - IMPACT
A Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) report has criticised the location of the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra as sitting on an earthquake zone even as the state government plans to hold a public discussion to clear the air for the proposed reactor. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan plans to rope in atomic energy experts and representatives of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which will set up the project in collaboration with Areva, a French company, to dispel the “misinformation” created by activists at a public discussion in January. The project will have six 1650 MW reactors to be commissioned in a phased manner from 2018.
An impact assessment report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has strongly criticised the nuclear power plant being proposed at Jaitapur in the Konkan region.
The report has indicated that the project - which requires about 968 hectares of land panning five villages - will have a huge negative impact on the social as well as environmental development of not just these villages and the surrounding areas, but also on the Konkan region in general.
The findings suggest that the government subverted facts and called fertile agricultural land barren. It also says that the Jaitapur project is sitting on a high to moderate severity earthquake zone.
The Jaitapur nuclear power complex is located in the ecologically sensitive coastal Maharashtra region which includes Raigad, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts. Nuclear Power Corporation of India is building the 9900 megawatt power plant - said to be the world's largest - in collaboration with French nuclear designing firm Areva. Last month, the Union Environment Ministry gave a conditional go-ahead to the plant. However, it is facing staunch opposition from the locals who fear environmental degradation in the fragile Konkan area.
Maharashtra Congress team heads to Jaitapur
As farmers' protests boil over in Ratnagiri threatening to delay the Jaitapur nuclear power plant, a concerned Maharashtra government dispatched a Congress team to review the situation.
"A Congress committee is going to Jaitapur. The committee will talk to locals and fishermen there. We will listen to their views and problems," Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre said.
Despite the Environment Ministry's conditional go-ahead to the plant, protests refuse to die down.
"People who have faced the effects of a nuclear power project in their vicinity told us that this is a devastating project. They said that our next generation will have nothing to live and survive on. We will lose our paddy fields, our plantations and orchards and we will die of hunger," said Umakant Kambli, a resident of Madban village, Ratnagiri.
"We will die but won't let this project come up," said Manda Laxman Wadekar, former Sarpanch.
There is a sense of mistrust against the government. People here say they were not taken into confidence regarding the project, their lands were forcefully taken away, and their democratic protests were illegally thwarted.
Experts have already said that building, safeguarding and providing imported fuel to the reactor will be so costly that power from Jaitapur will be unaffordable.
Now villagers allege the project has neither planned storage and disposal of its nuclear waste, nor drafted any plan to ecologically protect Ratnagiri - a region of rich agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and biodiversity.
Without these plans in place, they say, letting the project come up will be suicidal.
WHY JAITAPUR NUCLEAR PLANT MUST BE OPPOSED
Citizens are demanding answers to questions regarding approval, rehabilitation and land acquisition, costs, radioactive byproducts, reprocessing of spent fuel and disposal of radioactive wastes and civil nuclear liability limits of the Jaitapur nuclear plant that remains unaddressed. It must be answered by the Indian government, says activist Gopal Krishna.
Madban, a small village in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra [ Images ] is opposed to the nuclear plant in Jaitapur proposed by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India [ Images ]. The project got environmental clearance on November 28 hurriedly to please French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who visted India from December 4-7. The nuclear reactors would be designed and developed by AREVA, a French company.
Prior to this on October 29, more than 3,000 villagers courted arrest after an agitation. The villagers have refused compensation. Former high court judge B G Kolse-Patil, who was served orders preventing him from entering Ratnagiri district, flouted the ban and attended the villagers rally. Former Indian Navy chief Admiral L Ramdas (retired) and former Supreme Court Judge P B Samant too supported the villagers but were stopped by the police from joining the agitation.
The proposed nuclear power park at Madban is situated near the port of Jaitapur in the southern part of Ratnagiri district. It would be the largest single location nuclear power project in the world. It is based on the import of six nuclear power plants from AREVA. In the first phase, two plants are to be built between 2012 and 2017.
It has come to light that in the matter of the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project a rigorous and scientific environment impact assessment and cost benefit analysis has not been performed.
Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh [ Images ], in the presence of the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra officially announced 'conditional' environmental clearance to the JNPP. The citizens of Maharashtra and India are demanding answers to questions regarding approval, rehabilitation and land acquisition, costs, radioactive byproducts, reprocessing of spent fuel and disposal of radioactive wastes and civil nuclear liability limits that remains unaddressed. It must be answered by the Indian government. It is widely felt that it is a Vedanta and Posco kind of clearance given in haste to be repented in leisure.
It appears that the preparations for Sarkozy occupied the Union Cabinet so much that it failed to consult the secretaries of ministries/departments of the government of India on the ramifications in terms of liability from the proposed nuclear plant.
Several organisations and a large number of individuals are campaigning against the plant. The Konkan Bachao Samiti and the Janhit Seva Samiti have been spearheading a campaign against this nuclear power project. There is reliable information that the European regulatory authorities from three countries, Finland, France [ Images ] and UK have jointly written to AREVA, raising certain serious objections to the current design of control and instrumentation for vital safety aspects of Evolutionary Pressurized Reactors plant. It has also been learnt that the US regulator has written to AREVA expressing similar concerns.
Local residents are opposed to the JNPP and have refused to accept any compensation, nor have they demanded a raise in compensation. The project will attract Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 35,000 crore investment in the first two phases. The government is offering Rs 350 crore as compensation to the villagers. It is claimed that there are 2,033 families who would be directly affected by the project on 968 hectares of land. The nuclear project promises power generation of 9,900 MW in phases.
In a backdrop that presented a fait accompli, the biodiversity report prepared by the Bombay Natural History Society formed the basis for the 35 environmental conditions set by the environment ministry while giving the green signal for the nuclear plant. The report recorded the presence of plant and animal life on land and marine both at and around the plant site. The BNHS has also mapped 407 hectares of mangrove vegetation around a 10 km radius of the nuclear plant as well as in some of the affected villages.
The BNHS report contradicted the official 1,200 page environment impact assessment report prepared by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and made public in April, 2010.
The NEERI report had described the land surrounding the nuclear plant as "rocky and barren land with no habitation and vegetation" and hence ruled out any adverse ecological impact in the area. The same area was surveyed during the monsoon by BNHS, which found 134 species of plants on the plateau.
In July, 2010 the BNHS conducted a rapid impact assessment of the biodiversity of the region and found the Madban plateau to be rich in plant and animal diversity with very good marine diversity in adjacent sites of Ambolgad and Kasheli.
The BNHS found 1,000 plant species, NEERI couldn't find even 500 species. Indeed if the project proponents are assigned to conduct EIA, the report cannot be objective. Therefore, once again the NEERI report is flawed. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, the project proponent, is an undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE had commissioned NEERI to prepare the EIA report for the Jaitapur plant in 2005).
Earlier, in a letter to the President of India dated September 1, ToxicsWatch Alliance pointed out that "the cost of a single nuclear reactor can be as high as Rs 30,000 crore as in the case of the reactor planned at Jaitapur by AREVA, a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in Tour Areva near Paris. Consequently, the cost of a reactor can be 20 times the maximum amount of liability. It means that it might be cheaper for the operator to take the risk of paying the maximum liability than to spend, say, 10 per cent extra in adding safety features to the plant."
It has been found that NEERI's EIA report is unscientific. This EIA report was made available only a month prior to the public hearing on May 16. It has been alleged on factual grounds that the EIA report reads as if it was authored by the public relations department of NPCIL or Areva.
It may be noted, "The accident at Chernobyl released into the atmosphere an amount of radioactivity equivalent to 400 bombs of the Hiroshima variety. The nuclear project at Jaitapur is about 10 times the size of the Chernobyl Power Plant. The huge radioactive accumulations at the plant site are the principal causes of concern which must be addressed."
NEERI did not have the competence to assess the project. It entails issues of radioactive radiation. NEERI contends that the project meets Atomic Energy Regulatory Board norms and standards without conducting any independent assessment, relying completely on the AERB. But AERB reports are not part of the EIA.
Unmindful of its admitted incompetence to assess radioactive risk, NEERI certifies the safety of the plant saying, "Through individual event sequence analysis for different initiating events, it is estimated that the plant is provided adequate safety features and measures to mitigate or minimise any unsafe consequences".
The same EIA report reveals the following, "All the above scenarios explained, namely Design Basis Accidents and Beyond Design Basis Accidents are thoroughly studied and detailed reports are generated as Preliminary Safety Analysis Reports and these reports will be submitted to Atomic Energy Regulatory Board for review and approval for construction of nuclear power project at Jaitapur." Clearly implying that the safety approval by the AERB is yet to be obtained and despite this it certified the adequacy of the safety of the plant against "any unsafe consequences".
The threat of a terrorist attack on nuclear plants in India is also considered credible is clear from the specific exclusion in clause 5 (ii) in the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill (2010) which has been passed by the Indian Parliament and awaits the President's assent. It reads: "An operator shall not be liable for any nuclear damage where such damage is caused by a nuclear incident directly due to -- an act of armed conflict, hostility, civil war, insurrection or terrorism".
After the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US, the possibility of terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants is considered quite credible and substantial by US authorities. The DAE has ignored the complete text of a 2009 report presented to the US Congress: on "Nuclear Power Plant Security and Vulnerabilities". Consequently, amendments were made in US law to require nuclear plant design to address this risk but the Indian legislation on nuclear liability does the contrary.
In his testimony to the parliamentary committee, Union Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar categorically had stated, "under different layers of protection, nuclear assets including nuclear installations are being protected through defence." However, he admitted that "absolute and foolproof protection cannot be guaranteed for any nuclear or other assets in the country during peace or war."
Exceptions for acts of terrorism can easily be used by the supplier and the operator to wash their hands off any nuclear disaster. Testimony after testimony before the parliamentary committee had asked for deletion of the word terrorism from the nuclear liability bill but the same is not reflected in the bill which was passed by Parliament.
Misplaced expression of satisfaction by NEERI with NPCIL's claim of safe storage for 100 years is shocking. This constitutes less than one per cent of the lethality lifetime of the spent fuel. There is no explanation as what will happen to the radioactive waste after 100 years. It is a known fact that India does not have a geological repository for nuclear waste and there are no sites in India suitable for building one.
The EIA report is flawed because of the absence of a specific plan for decommissioning as well. No new nuclear plant can be built in Europe or the US without such a plan. The EIA report is untenable.
The cost of electricity generated from JNPP would be in excess of Rs 9 per unit. This does not include the costs of managing radioactive waste and decommissioning. The current cost of electricity is about Rs 4 per unit. It has been noted in the Rajya Sabha that as far as the cost difference between hydro, thermal and all the available options vis-à-vis nuclear electricity is concerned, the cost difference is 1:3.
If the overall objective of wanting to generate 40,000 MW of nuclear power in the next two decades is considered, the cost difference between conventional and nuclear electricity would be more than Rs 300,000 crore. This amount can build 20,000 hundred-bedded modern hospitals all over the country and 2.5 lakhs of Navodaya Vidyalayas with boarding facilities for 100 students all over the country.
The total installed generating capacity in India as on June 30 was 162,367 MW, comprising 64 percent from fossil fuel, 23 percent from hydro, 3 percent from nuclear and balance 10 percent from renewable energy sources. Evidently, share of nuclear power is quite low. It is possible to generate similar power from alternate sources of energy.
In its last report in 2010, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science, Technology, Environment & Forests, had recommended that "the government should consult all such ministries/departments which are even remotely concerned with the provisions of a proposed legislation", the same has not been done. This recommendation has been ignored in the case of Jaitapur nuclear plant as well.
The standing committee referred to how secretaries of ministries of health & family welfare, agriculture, labour & employment, food & public distribution were ignored in the drafting of the Nuclear Liability Bill was a very serious lapse of the Union Cabinet.
It may be noted that secretary, Union ministry of health said, "Since the response system to deal with any kind of emergency of such type, the hospitals are not well-equipped, it is natural that mortality and morbidity due to multiple burn, blasts, radiation injuries and psycho-social impact could be on very high scale and medical tackling of such a large emergency could have enough repercussions in the nearby areas of radioactive fallout."
She also mentioned that in the entire bill, there is not a single clause which speaks about taking healthcare during radiological emergencies. It reflects only about payment of compensation due to health impacts of such radiation. She suggested while setting up nuclear plants, consideration may also be given to the fact that there should be a hospital having trained doctors near such establishments and arrangements should also be made for free treatment of people who are affected by serious nuclear fallout.
She confessed that "her ministry is nowhere to meet an eventuality that may arise out of nuclear and radiological emergencies." Similar testimonies from secretaries of other ministries provide a chilling and prophetic forewarning.
In compliance of the suggestion of chairperson of the parliamentary committee during my testimony on August 3 and pursuant to a written submission dated July 7, TWA had specifically drawn the attention of the committee with regard to the narrow definition of the word 'installation' and conflict of interest ridden existence of the AERB. In a letter to the committee dated August 12, TWA has questioned the merit of centralised power stations given 35-40 percent transmission and distribution loss from power grids.
The secretary, financial services, ministry of finance, submitted before the committee that "any increase in premium of insurance will lead to increase in the cost of production of electricity for nuclear power. It is argued that higher the liability limit higher will be the insurance premium and subsequently higher will be the cost of electricity production."
Keeping these concerns in mind, opposition against the nuclear plants are emerging in a huge way.
Will the sane voice of Madban village be able to compel the might of a determined state to bulldoze its nuclear project at any cost, to rethink? The issue what is supreme AREVA's interest or the interest of villagers. Once again the insincerity and dishonesty of paying lip-service to Mahatma Gandhi's [ Images ] village republic and autocratically refusing to accord a sovereign status to the village at the same time stands exposed.
Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jharkhand
UCIL’s underground mines in Jadugoda, Bhatin, Turamdhih, Narwapahar, and its open cast mine at Banduhurang extract 1,000 tons per day (TPD) of uranium ore. Two underground mines in the pipeline at Baghjata and Mahuldih will boost that amount. The ore is processed at the Jadugoda and Turamdih mills with a combined capacity of 5,000 TDP. The company earned $64 million in 2007-08, and made a $3 million profit.
The 20-year lease for UCIL's mines was up in 2007, and a new application is being processed. Under it, the company wants to add 6.37 hectares to tailing dam capacity and expand production, according to UCIL Chairman and Managing Director Ramendra Gupta. This move requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP) drawn up by the Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research (CIMFR), along with a public hearing.
Addressing the affected community at the May public hearing in Jadugoda, the company represented the local plans as “a marginal expansion.” But the UCIL website promises “a quantum leap in UCIL’s activities” that includes plans to "deepen the existing mines, expand its processing facilities,” and “not only opening new mines, but also the development of the community around its operations.”
While the company has created local schools and provides jobs and social services, villagers who attended the hearing argued that these provisions do not compensate for the health effects and destruction of their way of life.
“Why are we being made to pay such a heavy price, for so many decades”? Asks Hira Hansda, speaking of her three miscarriages and birth to five infants that quickly died. Her husband Sonaram worked at the tailing dam as a casual employee between 1984-87, and like many villagers, he links the deterioration in local health conditions to the arrival of the uranium mines. The last three surveys conducted in the area found increased radiation levels.
Heavy Security at UCIL’s Public Hearing Keeps Villagers Out
The public hearing on UCIL's new application took place at the heavily fortified camp of the Central India Security Force (CISF) within the UCIL colony at Jadugoda. Conducted by theJharkhand State Pollution Control Board, the proceedings were marked by restrictions on personal liberties under sections of a law applying to situations with the potential to cause civil unrest.
Leaving little room for the public or protesters, the hall was packed with hundreds of UCIL workers and other company beneficiaries who held placards reading: “When compared to hunger, pollution is a small issue," and "Save UCIL.”
Those who had lost their lands and health to the mines were physically barred from the tent. Outside the proceedings, protesters shouted: “Do not destroy our land," “No uranium, no uranium waste, no weapons, care for the future." Many indigenous villagers waved the banner of the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR), winner of the Germany-based Nuclear Free Future Award for its long crusade against the hazards of uranium mining in Jadugoda. The protesters denounced the hearing as "a farce" and demanded that it be immediately stopped.
Villager and JOAR president, Ghanashyam Biruli, issued the demands: no new uranium mines, bring the existing mine under international safety guidelines, return unused tribal land, provide livelihood and rehabilitation to displaced people, clean up the contamination, commission an independent study of environmental contamination and health effects, and monitor water bodies to ensure that the radionuclides do not seep into the aquifer that is the lifeline of more than 100,000 people. The activists also argued that since the country can buy uranium on the international market, there is no compelling need to expand UCIL's capacity.
The real compelling need, they asserted, was protecting health and the environment. The 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) provided clear evidence, finding that:
* Couples living near the mines were "1.58 times more vulnerable to primary sterility" with 9.6 percent of couples in study villages unable to conceive after three years of marriage, compared with 6.27 percent in a reference (control) group.
* Birth defects followed a similar pattern with 1.84 times higher incidence: “[B]abies from mothers, who lived near uranium mining operation area, suffered a significant increase in congenital deformities,” according to the report. While 4.49 percent of mothers living in the study villages reported bearing children with congenital deformities, only 2.49 percent of mothers in reference villages fell under this category." The national rate for people with disabilities (including congenital deformities) is 3 percent, according to official government statistics.
* Deformed babies near the mining operations are almost 6 times more likely to die, with 9.25 percent mothers in the study villages reporting congenital deformities as the cause of death of their children. In the reference village, mothers reported 1.70 percent of babies died of deformities.
* Cancer deaths were also higher: 2.87 percent of households in study villages attributed the cause of death to be cancer, compared to 1.89 percent in the reference village.
These factors contributed to a lowered life expectancy. In the study villages 68.33 percent of the population died before reaching the state's average life expectancy: 62 years old.
UCIL Denies Contamination
Despite such alarming reports, radiation data are not made public because they fall under the purview of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962. UCIL / DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) also cites security concerns for refusing to release data on health of the workers. But Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda, a 1999 award-winning film by Shri Prakash documented that, despite a law mandating regular monitoring, in the last five- to ten-year period few workers underwent blood and urine tests to assess the impact of radiation.
Independent scientists have confirmed the danger. Professor Hiroaki Koide, from the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, sampled soil and air in the surrounding villages and documented that “The circumference of tailing ponds is impacted with uranium radiation. The strength of the radiation is of 10 to 100 times high in comparison to places without contamination. ...There are places where uranium concentration is high in the road or the riverside, and it is thought that tailings are used for construction material,” including on villagers' houses." Tailings are production waste material that, according to critics are unsafely stored, dumped, and used for landfills, roads and construction.
UCIL Technical Director D Acharya denied that the company was responsible for radiological contamination. “UCIL’s safety and pollution control measures are at par with the international standards, comparable at any point of time,” he said. The company is dealing with naturally occurring materials, he noted, the very low grade ore extracted is a minimal environmental hazard, and the company is not enriching the ore in Jadugoda.
But tacitly acknowledging the risks, UCIL head, Gupta, noted in the 2008 Annual Report that "External gamma radiation, Radon concentration, suspended particulate matters, airborne long lived Alpha activity and concentration of radio nuclides- uranium and Radium in surface and ground water, in soil and food items etc are monitored regularly."
Although he presented no evidence, UCIL Technical Director Acharya said that allegations of health problems are canards spread by anti-uranium lobbies, and that the physical fitness of the employees can be gauged the UCIL football team's success in winning the DAE tournaments for the past five years.
“From time to time we have also conducted structured health surveys and examinations, by independent sources," said Acharya. "One was done by the erstwhile Bihar Assembly, about ten years ago, but the findings are absolutely normal.” (The area was part of Bihar at the time.) "The effects of radiation are being constantly monitored by independent watchdogs, and there are health physics experts who are always with us, for round-the clock-vigil of the situation. Hence, there is really no cause of concern,” he added.
That is not the experience of many villagers, who link serious health problems to the mines. Like many of the women in the surrounding areas, Hansda's pregnancies were a time of terror. “It fills within us fear and apprehensions of the possible ordeal that may be in store. Who knows what would be the fate of the baby,” she said.
INDIA SOLD OUT TO NUCLEAR POWER GENERATING MNCs DIRT CHEAP
Before enacting the law on “Nuclear Accident Liability Bill” , Government of India should consider the following issues
1. The term Nuclear Accident must include the damages caused due to radiation leak affecting the employees in the nuclear facility , the people living near the facility & people affected by the effluents , scraps generated by the nuclear facility.
2. The government of India does not have any right to fix a price tag for the lives of Indians , that too cheaper than US public.
3. The Nuclear power generating companies must incorporate safety infrastructure & procedures as they do in US market , not any obsolete technology.
4. In USA & other developing countries , they have very huge , efficient social security network , vast pool of resources put in by nuclear power generating companies themselves , to take care of the affected in case of a nuclear accident . In India we don’t have that type of social security network nor matching resources , therefore ideally India must fix a nuclear liability cap much higher than US market in dollar terms.
5. Also the company must be made liable for the complete clean up of the facility & surrounding towns , villages , health care to all the affected victims on par with US market , in case a nuclear accident happens.
6. The Nuclear Equipment Suppliers , Nuclear Plant Operators together with their respective governments like USA , UK must stand as guarantors .
7. The Life Insurance Companies in India Must pay insured amount to nominees of insured in case of nuclear accidents / radiation affects in addition to compensation by the nuclear power companies . as of now many life insurance companies are not covering nuclear accidents / radiation affects.
Neither our MPs , Cabinet ministers nor IAS babus have the right to decide the fate of common people & fix a rate for lives of Indians. They are not experts in this field , they should not conclude any deals , decisions in a hush hush manner . Many scams have come out of hush hush deals . Nobody , no MP , no minister , no IAS officer has paid from his personal pocket to the victims of industrial disasters , etc. After all MPs , Ministers , IAS babus are public servants , they must just represent the voices of people , we people don’t want their personal expertise & opinions. Our Policy makers must heed to the public advice of senior scientists , experts in the field of nuclear power generation .
Ofcourse , as a result unit price of electricity will get front loaded , we may not get cheap electricity . but the lives of Indians are much valuable than Electricty. The person who benefits from cheap electricity – Industrialists does not pay from his pocket to the victims of disasters . Development not at the cost of safety & lives of common people. This must dawn on our ill informed policy makers at the earliest .
Letter To NHRC On Nuclear Liability For IAEA's Treaty
By Gopal Krishna
To,
Justice Shri K.G. Balakrishnan
The Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi
Sub: Human rights violations from nuclear damage - its impact on human life and enviro-occupational health
Sir,
This Hon’ble Commission has been seriously pursuing the problem of “enviro-occupational health”, and has been taking “preventive” as well as “remedial” measures. It is humbly brought to your notice that there is another equally serious enviro-occupational hazard which is exposure from radioactive radiations and wastes. The issue of liability for nuclear damage is directly linked to it. The grave problem of diseases caused to present and future generations by radiation exposures is required to be addressed as it affects environment and human health and violates Article 21 of the Constitution, Directive Principles as well as “human rights” as defined under the UDHR, ICCPR and ICESCR.
2. That at the outset, the Applicant wishes to refer to the problem of exposure from radioactive radiations. The Supreme Court has looked at the entire issue, keeping in view the Directive Principles as well as Article 21 of the Constitution, and held that “life” includes right to health and medical care etc. There is no database on the records of the Government to show, to the best of Applicant’s knowledge, as to what actions the Government has taken, namely, how many persons have been reported to be suffering from exposure to radioactive radiation? How many have died? Did they receive any compensation? How many persons suffering from it are receiving treatment?
3. That the Applicant is an environmental health researcher who was invited to make submissions before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests following a written submission on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 which is meant to pave the way for India to sign International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) for Nuclear Damage, 1997.
4. That in its 25 page report on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on 18th August, 2010.observes, “When the Committee inquired from the Secretaries of Ministries/Departments of Government of India who appeared before the Committee as to whether the draft nuclear liability Bill was referred to them for their views/comments, some of them viz. Ministries of Health & Family Welfare, Agriculture, Labour & Employment, Food & Public Distribution, etc. replied in the negative. The Committee is of the opinion that Government must have sought the opinion of Ministries which are even distantly related to any provision of the legislation. The Committee, therefore, recommends that in future Government should consult all such Ministries/ Departments which are even remotely concerned with the provisions of a proposed legislation.” This Hon’ble Commission may take cognizance of the submissions of these Secretaries and direct the concerned authorities to internalize their suggestions in the text of the Bill to protect the human rights of Indian citizens and safeguard intergenerational equity.
5. That, in view of the facts mentioned above, the applicant humbly submits that the Hon’ble Commission may kindly initiate appropriate proceedings and issue directions to all the concerned Secretaries of the Central Government and relevant States/UTs with regard to the following :
How would they respond in the event of a nuclear disaster?
Do they know as to how many industries/factories exist in the States/UTs where radioactive material is used? Is there an inventory of products wherein the said material is used?
What is the total number of workers employed in the nuclear power industries and other nuclear installations?
Whether there is regular medical check-up and whether medical facilities exist for workers and communities in the vicinity of nuclear installations?
Whether there is any record of persons who died because of radioactive radiation?
How many persons suffer from radioactive radiation and whether they are receiving regular treatment for the said disease?
What steps States/UTs have taken to check/prevent occurrence of radioactive radiations and how many hospitals dealing with the enviro-occupational diseases exist in the States/UTs.
How many institutions in the country have the competence to decontaminate and how many medical, occupational health and scientific institutions can diagnose radiation exposure?
What action has been taken by the central government and the State Governments/UTs have taken to protect exposure from radiation in the future?
6. That it is submitted that this Hon’ble Commission for the purpose of collecting the above information, may also take the benefit of its experience in the case of enviro- occupational diseases which are preventable but incurable. By giving medicines, impact of radioactive radiation can be reduced and life span can be prolonged but ultimately fate of the affected person is painful death. A brief note on the issue of liability from nuclear damage and the submissions of the concerned Secretaries of the central government is enclosed as Annexure A
7. That the applicant wishes to bring to this Hon’ble Commission’s notice that India has ratified Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) but its provisions have not been complied with. India is yet to ratify ILO’s Occupational Cancer Convention, 1974 which is concerning Prevention and Control of Occupational Hazards caused by Carcinogenic Substances and Agents took cognizance of the Radiation Protection Convention and Radiation Protection Recommendation. It refers to the work done by International Agency for Research on Cancer and The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) that provides guidance on all aspects of protection against ionising radiation. Article 6 of the ILO's Radiation Protection Convention with regard to “Maximum permissible doses of ionising radiations which may be received from sources external to or internal to the body and maximum permissible amounts of radioactive substances which can be taken into the body” has been ignored. Article 7 of the Convention calls for “Appropriate levels” be fixed in accordance with Article 6 for workers who are directly engaged in radiation work and are (a) aged 18 and over; (b) under the age of 18, No worker under the age of 16 to be engaged in work involving ionising radiations and Article 8 that seeks “Appropriate levels (to be) fixed in accordance with Article 6 for workers who are not directly engaged in radiation work, but who remain or pass where they may be exposed to ionising radiations or radioactive substances.” Drafters of the Nuclear Liability Bill appear to have ignored their recommendations.
8. It is humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Commission may enquire /investigate into the problem of radioactive radiation and issue necessary directions/recommendation for its prevention and appropriate remedial steps to the Central Government/State Governments and UTs.
Yours Faithfully
Gopal Krishna
NUCLEAR DISASTER IN MYSORE ?
Even in developed countries like USA & UK mal - handling of radio
active
materials takes place now & then, which in itself constitute nuclear
disasters
on small scale. Refer the Deccan Herald ( 12/10/03 to 18/10/03) for
details. few
years back, there were media reports about certain containers with
radio active
materials dumped in the open in Mysore city Railway Station. In Kaiga
nuclear
power project a doom collapsed. In India how many cases of
mal-handling of radio
active materials have taken place ? No public knowledge . In the back
drop of
corrupt ,negligent hush-hush, buck passing work culture in most of the
government service, I do want to know from the union Health Minister &
the
Karnataka State Health Minister, how safe are we from the processing &
storage
of radio active materials at M/s REMP, Mysore M/s REMP Kerala, & M/s
UCIL
Jadaguda Jharkhand ? How the spent fuel is disposed off in nuclear
power plants
in India ? few months back there were media reports about ill effects
of
radiation on the employees & peoples of adjacent villages near the
operations
site of M/s Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. Jadaguda Jharkhand &
Near the
Operations site of M/s REMP in Kerala.
In tsunami waves onslaught of december 2004 , the vital facilities of
kundakulam
nuclear reserch station in tamilnadu were damaged . just last week
tremors of
earth quake were felt in kaiga nuclear power plant in kaiga ,
karnataka . if
anything untoward happens as a result of natural calamities or human
failure ,
etc , what sort of contigency plans the government has got ready for
the safety
of public ?
Even some of the insurance companies like M/s Met Life India Insurance
Co. don't
cover the risk of physical / mental disabilities or death caused due
to nuclear
hazards . In such an event who will bear the cost of compensation ?
How the
quantum of compensation is calculated ? will you take into
consideration the
insurance policies brought by individuals ? Give me information about
the safety
measures taken by M/s REMP, M/s UCIL & other related agencies at all
it's
operation sites / nuclear sites.
Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands
by Moushumi Basu, Special to CorpWatch
October 7th, 2009
“I have had three miscarriages and lost five children within a week of
their births,” says Hira Hansda, a miner’s wife. “Even after 20 years
of marriage we have no children today.” Now in her late forties, she
sits outside her mud hut in Jadugoda Township, site of one of the
oldest uranium mines in India.
The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) operates that mine,
part of a cluster of four underground and one open cast mines and two
processing plants, in East Singbhum district in the Eastern Indian
state of Jharkhand. The deepest plunges almost one kilometer into the
earth.
Incorporated as a public sector enterprise under the Department of
Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1967, UCIL has sole responsibility for mining
and processing all of India's uranium. And since the strength of the
Jadugoda region's uraninite ore is extremely low, it takes many tons
of earth as well as complex metallurgical processes to yield even a
small amount of useable uranium ore—along with tons of radioactive
waste, disposed of in unlined tailing dams.
UCIL processes the ore into yellowcake and sends it to the Nuclear
Fuel Complex in Hyderabad, where it is officially designated for use
in nuclear reactors. But it is an open secret that some of the nuclear
material becomes the key ingredient in India's nuclear arsenal. (India
is one of only three states—along with Israel and Pakistan—that are
not signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons. North Korea withdrew from the Treaty in 2003.)
Unhealthy Villages
Radiation and health experts across the world charge that toxic
materials and radioactivity released by the mining and processing
operations are causing widespread infertility, birth defects and
cancers. A 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International
Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), found that “primary
sterility was found to be more common in the people residing near
uranium mining operations area.”
Jadugoda residents Kaderam Tudu and his wife, Munia, considered
themselves fortunate when their infant was born alive, until, “I found
that my baby son did not have his right ear and instead in its place
was a blob of flesh,” says Tudu, a day worker in his late thirties.
Their son, Shyam Tudu, now eight, has a severe hearing impairment.
Even children who appear healthy are impacted. "The youths from our
villages have become victims of social ostracism," says Parvati
Manjhi, and cannot find spouses. "And a number of our girls have been
abandoned by their husbands, when they failed to give birth,” Now
middle-aged, Parvati and her husband, Dhuwa Manjhi, who used to work
for UCIL, are childless.
Harrowing tales fill the region around the mines, and add irony to the
area's name, Jharkhand, which in the local tribal language means
“forest endowed with nature’s bounties.” If the lush land was the
indigenous population's boon for centuries, its rich mineral reserves
have become their bane. Six decades of industrialization has depleted
the forest cover, degraded the environment, displaced tribal peoples—
who along with Dalit ("untouchables") form an oppressed underclass—and
devastated a way of life deeply interwoven with nature.
Despite India's economic boom and proximity to one of the country's
richest mineral reserves, the villages in Jharkhand are now among the
poorest in the country, according to the Center For Science &
Environment’s (New Delhi) 2008 report “Rich Lands Poor People.”
Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jharkhand
UCIL’s underground mines in Jadugoda, Bhatin, Turamdhih, Narwapahar,
and its open cast mine at Banduhurang extract 1,000 tons per day (TPD)
of uranium ore. Two underground mines in the pipeline at Baghjata and
Mahuldih will boost that amount. The ore is processed at the Jadugoda
and Turamdih mills with a combined capacity of 5,000 TDP. The company
earned $64 million in 2007-08, and made a $3 million profit.
The 20-year lease for UCIL's mines was up in 2007, and a new
application is being processed. Under it, the company wants to add
6.37 hectares to tailing dam capacity and expand production, according
to UCIL Chairman and Managing Director Ramendra Gupta. This move
requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental
Management Plan (EMP) drawn up by the Central Institute of Mining &
Fuel Research (CIMFR), along with a public hearing.
Addressing the affected community at the May public hearing in
Jadugoda, the company represented the local plans as “a marginal
expansion.” But the UCIL website promises “a quantum leap in UCIL’s
activities” that includes plans to "deepen the existing mines, expand
its processing facilities,” and “not only opening new mines, but also
the development of the community around its operations.”
While the company has created local schools and provides jobs and
social services, villagers who attended the hearing argued that these
provisions do not compensate for the health effects and destruction of
their way of life.
“Why are we being made to pay such a heavy price, for so many
decades”? Asks Hira Hansda, speaking of her three miscarriages and
birth to five infants that quickly died. Her husband Sonaram worked at
the tailing dam as a casual employee between 1984-87, and like many
villagers, he links the deterioration in local health conditions to
the arrival of the uranium mines. The last three surveys conducted in
the area found increased radiation levels.
Heavy Security at UCIL’s Public Hearing Keeps Villagers Out
The public hearing on UCIL's new application took place at the heavily
fortified camp of the Central India Security Force (CISF) within the
UCIL colony at Jadugoda. Conducted by the Jharkhand State Pollution
Control Board, the proceedings were marked by restrictions on personal
liberties under sections of a law applying to situations with the
potential to cause civil unrest.
Leaving little room for the public or protesters, the hall was packed
with hundreds of UCIL workers and other company beneficiaries who held
placards reading: “When compared to hunger, pollution is a small
issue," and "Save UCIL.”
Those who had lost their lands and health to the mines were physically
barred from the tent. Outside the proceedings, protesters shouted: “Do
not destroy our land," “No uranium, no uranium waste, no weapons, care
for the future." Many indigenous villagers waved the banner of the
Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR), winner of the
Germany-based Nuclear Free Future Award for its long crusade against
the hazards of uranium mining in Jadugoda. The protesters denounced
the hearing as "a farce" and demanded that it be immediately stopped.
Villager and JOAR president, Ghanashyam Biruli, issued the demands:
no new uranium mines, bring the existing mine under international
safety guidelines, return unused tribal land, provide livelihood and
rehabilitation to displaced people, clean up the contamination,
commission an independent study of environmental contamination and
health effects, and monitor water bodies to ensure that the
radionuclides do not seep into the aquifer that is the lifeline of
more than 100,000 people. The activists also argued that since the
country can buy uranium on the international market, there is no
compelling need to expand UCIL's capacity.
The real compelling need, they asserted, was protecting health and the
environment. The 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of
International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
provided clear evidence, finding that:
* Couples living near the mines were "1.58 times more vulnerable to
primary sterility" with 9.6 percent of couples in study villages
unable to conceive after three years of marriage, compared with 6.27
percent in a reference (control) group.
* Birth defects followed a similar pattern with 1.84 times higher
incidence: “[B]abies from mothers, who lived near uranium mining
operation area, suffered a significant increase in congenital
deformities,” according to the report. While 4.49 percent of mothers
living in the study villages reported bearing children with congenital
deformities, only 2.49 percent of mothers in reference villages fell
under this category." The national rate for people with disabilities
(including congenital deformities) is 3 percent, according to official
government statistics.
* Deformed babies near the mining operations are almost 6 times more
likely to die, with 9.25 percent mothers in the study villages
reporting congenital deformities as the cause of death of their
children. In the reference village, mothers reported 1.70 percent of
babies died of deformities.
* Cancer deaths were also higher: 2.87 percent of households in study
villages attributed the cause of death to be cancer, compared to 1.89
percent in the reference village.
These factors contributed to a lowered life expectancy. In the study
villages 68.33 percent of the population died before reaching the
state's average life expectancy: 62 years old.
UCIL Denies Contamination
Despite such alarming reports, radiation data are not made public
because they fall under the purview of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962.
UCIL / DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) also cites security concerns
for refusing to release data on health of the workers. But Buddha
Weeps in Jadugoda, a 1999 award-winning film by Shri Prakash
documented that, despite a law mandating regular monitoring, in the
last five- to ten-year period few workers underwent blood and urine
tests to assess the impact of radiation.
Independent scientists have confirmed the danger. Professor Hiroaki
Koide, from the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Japan,
sampled soil and air in the surrounding villages and documented that
“The circumference of tailing ponds is impacted with uranium
radiation. The strength of the radiation is of 10 to 100 times high in
comparison to places without contamination. ...There are places where
uranium concentration is high in the road or the riverside, and it is
thought that tailings are used for construction material,” including
on villagers' houses." Tailings are production waste material that,
according to critics are unsafely stored, dumped, and used for
landfills, roads and construction.
UCIL Technical Director D Acharya denied that the company was
responsible for radiological contamination. “UCIL’s safety and
pollution control measures are at par with the international
standards, comparable at any point of time,” he said. The company is
dealing with naturally occurring materials, he noted, the very low
grade ore extracted is a minimal environmental hazard, and the company
is not enriching the ore in Jadugoda.
But tacitly acknowledging the risks, UCIL head, Gupta, noted in the
2008 Annual Report that "External gamma radiation, Radon
concentration, suspended particulate matters, airborne long lived
Alpha activity and concentration of radio nuclides- uranium and Radium
in surface and ground water, in soil and food items etc are monitored
regularly."
Although he presented no evidence, UCIL Technical Director Acharya
said that allegations of health problems are canards spread by anti-
uranium lobbies, and that the physical fitness of the employees can be
gauged the UCIL football team's success in winning the DAE tournaments
for the past five years.
“From time to time we have also conducted structured health surveys
and examinations, by independent sources," said Acharya. "One was done
by the erstwhile Bihar Assembly, about ten years ago, but the findings
are absolutely normal.” (The area was part of Bihar at the time.) "The
effects of radiation are being constantly monitored by independent
watchdogs, and there are health physics experts who are always with
us, for round-the clock-vigil of the situation. Hence, there is really
no cause of concern,” he added.
That is not the experience of many villagers, who link serious health
problems to the mines. Like many of the women in the surrounding
areas, Hansda's pregnancies were a time of terror. “It fills within us
fear and apprehensions of the possible ordeal that may be in store.
Who knows what would be the fate of the baby,” she said.
The Tragedy Of Fukushima Is A Tragedy For All Mankind
By Peter Chamberlin
13 March, 2011
Countercurrents.org
The Tragedy of Fukushima is not yet fully known, at least not in terms of the long-term effects of the radiation released today and tomorrow, perhaps for mankind’s entire “half-lifetime.” We don’t know (meaning our best scientists don’t know) what will grow out of the hole which has been blasted in our collective consciences today. Our knowledge of atomic science, just like our understanding of all earth science, is in its infancy, yet we have chosen to build nuclear reactors in geologically risky locations. Beyond the risky siting problems, lie the earth forces of wind and water, which we only now beginning to see.
Our best minds could figure-out how to take the nuclear fire out of the oven and bring it into our neighborhoods, but they could not guarantee a fail-safe way to go about this—yet, they enthusiastically urged our leaders to dot the countryside with these nuclear pipe-bombs, euphemistically dubbed “reactors.” A “REACTOR” is an abomination, classified as “science.” Here is an untechnical description of a reactor operation:
Inside a closed metal and concrete container, a piece of uranium is ignited, like a piece of coal that is partially smothered, enough to prevent the glowing coal from bursting into open flames. The glowing uranium rod is prevented from open ignition by smothering in special high-temperature coolant. The heat released by this partially burning rod of uranium evaporates water into steam, which flows through pipes like a modern equivalent of a steam engine. The nuclear-powered steam engine turns an electrical generator, which sends electricity flowing through the wires.
If the uranium rod is allowed to burn too hot, it creates more heat than the coolant can transfer and the REACTOR begins to melt, before the fuel rods melt.
If the water system shuts-down for an extended time, the steam being created can’t flow, the pressure builds until the REACTOR explodes, leaving the burning fuel rods fully exposed. The rods melt, burning through the floor of the REACTOR.
If all goes well, none of this ever happens, but like all things made by the hands of man, every mechanical system eventually breaks-down. Our best minds knew all these risks before the first reactor was ever built, yet they recommended that reactors should be built in every country on the face of the earth. Our scientists didn’t care to consider that the day might come when the earth would bite back.
The tragedy of Fukushima is a tragedy for all mankind. We do not yet see it, but this event will be remembered as a turning point in the development of humanity. From this point forward, if nothing else, Fukushima will give pause to every politician, or technocrat in the future who holds up the torch of “nuclear power” as the great hope for our energy-starved planet. But the greater ramifications of the environmental impact from this event will echo down through the corridors of human time, in both subtle and more obvious ways. The first concrete way that this will impact future lives will be in the horrible mutations suffered by those exposed to burning-type of radiation, near the site of the explosion. Children of the workers and neighbors of this plant, and their children, will suffer much higher rates of extreme deformation of their future fetuses, produced after this event.
The more subtle widespread genetic damage is produced by the release of enormous amounts of highly-radioactive dust into the atmosphere, as it is carried around the planet, is something which we can only guess at from our perspective. Today, we cannot foresee the end of this tragic catastrophic event. The only thing we know for certain, is that it is all ending very badly.
Our scientists all thought that something like this would never happen, or so they said. The truth is, they played the odds and lost, or rather the Japanese people lost. Nuclear power has always been a cosmic roll of the dice, with the fate of every living being on planet earth riding on the outcome of the roll. Our great leaders fully understood that bad things might happen, yet they confidantly invested your tax dollars, in order to gamble your lives that one day the radioactive wolf would not come knocking at your door. Well the wolf is outside and he is starting to howl.
Scientists are so caught-up in their own self-worship that they convince themselves that they know what is best for all of us, especially if it means profit or power for them. The self-proclaimed “geniuses” who have unleashed the nuclear genie for our advancement, have made decisions for us which God Himself, chose to leave alone. Human evolution comes about when the species reaches a dead-end, requiring the species to grow (evolve) in some way, in order to go forward. Human technology follows the same pattern of growth–forward momentum reaches a point of impasse, until the impeding wall is breached, allowing forward momentum to resume.
Nuclear power has always been thought-of in these terms–the technology which was built upon the discovery of the thermonuclear reaction, thinking that “nuclear power” was a great leap forward….IT WAS NOT. As I have explained in my steam engine analogy, nuclear power is pseudo-science. It is the adapting of Nineteenth Century technology over the discovery of the thermonuclear reaction and calling it a “REACTOR,” claiming that it was a great leap forward for all mankind, alleviating us from our addictions to coal and oil-fired electricity. We have our need for electricity–vs–unlimited energy from enriched uranium. We have not bridged the gap between them with so-called “nuclear power” (really steam power).
When we have fully understood nuclear science we will have naturally progressed to the knowledge of converting atomic energy into electricity. Until then, we are just burning-up a very limited resource, while endangering all of our lives. In our effort to understand the true science involved in the thermonuclear reaction we will come to understand the real science of nuclear fusion. Until we learn to harness the astronomical amounts of energy being released in the fusion reaction, we will just be spinning our tires, stuck in the same old mud, with our heads still firmly in our asses.
It may be, that when we finally really understand exactly what we have gotten our hands on, we will figure-out that somehow, our evolution as an intelligent species has required a radioactive environment, in order to cause specific species’ mutations that we have not even dreamed of. Who knows? Maybe God had this on His mind all along. Since He is the hidden hand behind our evolution, He must have had reasons for allowing man to open the nuclear nutshell. The discovery of atomic energy was a natural outcome of our primitive scientific quest, just as the discovery of converting fusion energy into electrical energy must be the next step in our quest to improve the species.
Perhaps He who sees all things before they happen put “nuclear power” before us to become the great wall to human progress which together we muct breach. Perhaps we will see this phase in our technological development for what it is, a failed experiment, so that we may absorb the lessons learned from the tragedy at Fukushima and go on. This is my great hope.
It is time to leave nuclear power behind.
peterchamberlin@naharnet.com
RTI – QUESTIONS COMMISSIONER OF BANGALORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ( BDA ) , COMMISSIONER , BRIHATH BANGALORE MAHANAGARA PALIKE ( BBMP ) & CHAIRMAN , KARNATAKA INDUSTRIAL AREA DEVELOPMENT BOARD ( KIADB) ARE AFRAID TO ANSWER
39. can a single individual / firm can purchase such vast tracts of agricultural lands , is it legal ? is it within the KIADB's comprehensive industrial area development plan ?
40. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT given wide publicity , public notice calling for objections before alienation of such lands ?
41. are all those alienations , strictly in conformance to BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT's industrial area development plan ? violations how many ?
42. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT revising / modifying CDP & INDUSTRIAL AREA DEVELOPMENT PLAN , to suit those real estate developers & Private companies ? on what legal grounds ?
43.what action has been taken based on mysore district magistrate mr.T.M.Vijaya Bhaskar's report on land grabbings in mysore ?
44.in mysore city , hebbal-hootagalli industrial area , a lake has been destroyed while building kaynes hotel , hinkal lake is shrinking , lake in front of BEML Quarters has been alloted to M/S THRILLER CLOTHING CO, are all these actions legal & in conformance to MUDA's CDP ? if not why ? what action ?
45. while auctioning off the lands of sick industrial unit M/S IDEAL JAWA LTD , was there any pre-qualification to bidders that after purchase of lands only it must be used for industrial use or only industries can participate in the bidding process ?
46.why not it has been clearly mentioned in the tender document that , said land is open for alienation ?
47. about this issue , our publication has even raised it's objections , in it's newspaper . no action , why ? as a result , the government , banks , employees were cheated off their dues & the private firm made huge profits. is this auction & alienation legal ?
48.numerous NGO's , trusts promoted by religious bodies , mutts are allotted prime lands at preferrential rates , for the reason that they will use it for public / social welfare. however many of the trusts are using the whole or part of the land for commercial purposes other than the stated public / social welfare purpose. what action has been taken by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT in such cases ?
49.how many trusts have violated government norms in this way since 1987 till date? what action taken by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT action taken report yearwise since 1987 till date ?
50.how many such illegalities / violations by trusts are regularized by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT, on what legal grounds ? ATR since 1987 till date ?
51.before regularizing such violations have you sought public objections & given media publicity ? if not why ?
52.how you are monitoring the net wealth growth of some BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT officials & their family members , who have land acquisition / denotifying , land usage conversion authorities ?
53.how many trusts , NGOs are allotted prime residential / commercial lands by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT on lease basis , in turn the said trusts , NGOs have sulet it either partly or wholly to others ?
54.how many such lease allotments are sold by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT before the expiry of lease period , without public auction ?
55. what are the norms followed by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT for the sale of leased lands to the lessee before the expiry of lease period ?
RTI QUESTIONS COMMISSIONER OF MUDA ( MYSORE URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ) & COMMISSIONER OF MCC ( MYSORE CITY CORPORATION ) ARE AFRAID TO ANSWER
1. how many times since 1987 , MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has revised / modified the mysore city's comprehensive city development plan ?
2. how many cases of CDP violations were registered by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ?
3. how many cases of CDP violations were legalized in the CDP revision / modification by the authorities ?
4. when an application for alienation of land is made to you , say from civic amenity site to commercial , what norms are followed by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ?
5. how do you provide alternate civic amenity site in the locality , if the area is already full ? do you deprive people of civic amenities ?
6. during such alenation , is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT collecting market rate difference between civic amenity site & commercial site ? if not why ?
7. in mysore city , many building complexes , buildings have been built fully violating building bye-laws – no set off , no parking space , no emergency fire exit , no earthquake tolerant . what action by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ?
8. how many cases of building bye-laws violations has been registered by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 ? what is the action status report yearwise ?
9. how much of MUDA's / MCC's / GOVERNMENT's lands , sites , buildings & houses have been illegally occupied by criminal tresspassers since 1987 ?
10. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT registered criminal cases against each such illegal occupation ? if not why ? provide status report yearwise ?
11. in how many cases of such illegal occupation MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has legalized , regularized such illegal occupation just through MUDA's / MCC's resolution instead of of reallotting the same through public notification to the next senior most in the waiting list , after giving notice of allotment cancellation to original allottee ? if not done so why ?
12. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT followed all legal norms in reallotment of lands , sites , houses , etc to the illegal occupiers ? what is the procedure followed ?
13. in mysore city , numerous housing societies & real estate Developers have mushroomed , Land allotments of how many housing societies , real estate firms among them are legally authorized by MUDA , MCC , GOVERNMENT & how many not ? since 1987 till date ?
14. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT filed criminal complaints against such illegal housing societies & illegal real estate firms ? if not why ?
15. what action MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has initiated against real estate firms & housing societies who have violated MUDA norms , layout plans , etc ? if not why ?
16. the government has framed building bye-laws like width of road , space for civic amenities , parking space , emergency fire exit , etc keeping high in the mind safety of people first. MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT is in the practice of levying a pittance as penalty on the building byelaw violators , layout Development plan violators & legalizing those
violations. Safety of public & amenities of public are totally neglected by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT . When public people die , suffer injuries / accidents – say during a fire tragedy in a complex due to lack of fire exit , when people park vehicles on pavement in front of a business complex as the complex doesn't have a parking space of it's own , the pedestrians going that way are forced to come down on road resulting in accidents , injuries & deaths . is not the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT responsible for those accidents , injuries & deaths ?
17. what is the criteria adopted by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT for out of Turn allotment of Lands , sites , houses to renowned sports persons , judges , journalists , politicians , artists , etc ?
18. how many judges , artists , politicians , journalists , sports persons , etc have benefited from these out of turn allotments by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ? specific figures yearwise since 1987 ?
19. what action has been taken against developers , housing societies , who have violated MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT norms ?
20. when poor scheduled caste , scheduled tribe people , minority people illegally live On MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT sites building temporary huts , MUDA / AUTHORITIES with the help of police razes down those huts & evicts the poor by brute force. Whereas , when cronies of political bigwigs illegally occupy MUDA , MCC / GOVERNMENT lands worth crores of rupees & build big complexes earning thousands of rupees monthly rent , MUDA or authorities not even files police complaint against them instead regularizes the illegal occupation by levying a pittance as fine. Why this double standard by MUDA / MCC GOVERNMENT ?
21. HOW MANY CASES OF ILLEGAL OCCUPATIONS are regularized by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ? yearwise figures ?
22. how much of MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT lands , sites , houses are under illegal occupation ? status report yearwise since 1987 ?
23. how much of those has been recovered ? has the MUDA ,AUTHORITIES recovered the rents earned by illegal occupation ?
24. have you filed police complaints against those criminals – tresspassers ? if not why ?
25. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT giving wide publicity & sufficient time to bidders about it's auction schedules ?
26. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT giving market value to land loosers ?
27. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT exactly using the acquired lands , for the same purpose mentioned in the project plan ?
28. is the MUDA / AUTHORITIES acquiring lands at lower rates from farmers & selling it at a premium , by way making profits just like a real estate agency ?
29. in villages , there are cattle grazing grounds meant for the usage of whole villagers, forest for the usage of whole village , lands belonging to village temples. Some villagers have donated their personal lands to village temples , cattle grazing for the benefit of whole villagers. All the villagers are stake holders , owners of such lands. When MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT acquires such lands to whom does it pay compensation ? what about welfare objectives of those lands ?
30. till date , how many lakes , ponds , how many feeder canals have been closed , filled with mud , developed , sold as sites , etc by MUDA MCC or other land developers ?
31. has the MUDA , MCC taken alternate steps to create new lakes , ponds ? how many are created till date ?
32. in & around mysore city , high tension electric lines are there in busy residential areas . as per Indian electricity act , no permanent structures should be under the HT lines. However there are buildings under it. In some places , HT lines runs in the middle of the road. The authorities Have developed those areas beneath HT lines as parks , rented out
advertisement spaces & built permanent fencing of those areas spending lakhs of taxpayer's money. This fencing obstructs the movement of service personnel of electricity board , to service HT line. Are all these structures under
& surrounding HT lines legal ?
33. till date how many burial grounds are acquired & sold as sites by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT or other developers ? specific figures yearwise since 1987 castewise , religionwise ?
34. in & around mysore city , in how many areas developed by MUDA & private developers , the sewage water generated in those areas is directly let into lake , ponds ?
35. how many tributaries , lakes , ponds are killed in this fashion by MUDA , MCC & other developers , housing societies ?
36. how many business complexes , flats , residential layouts developed by private real estate developers , housing societies are dumping the sewage , / waste generated in their buildings , into unauthorized dumping grounds , lakes , etc . thus disturbing the environment & creating public health hazard ? how the MUDA / MCC is monitoring sewage / waste disposal ? status report yearwise since 1987 till date .
37. how many unauthorized housing layouts are there in & around mysore city ? what action by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT against them ? action taken report yearwise since 1987 till date .
38. around mysore city , vast areas of village farm lands , agricultural lands are acquired by private real estate developers for non agricultural purposes by a single firm or single owner. Are these actions legal ? some of these real estate agents have sold those lands to private industries , multinational companies for crores of rupees. Has the MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT given alienation of land ie conversion from agricultural to industrial usage. Has KIADB given consent to it ?
39. can a single individual / firm can purchase such vast tracts of agricultural lands , is it legal ? is it within the KIADB's
comprehensive industrial area development plan ?
40. has the MUDA / MCC , KIADB given wide publicity , public notice calling for objections before alienation of such lands ?
41. are all those alienations , strictly in conformance to MUDA's / MCC's CDP & KIADB's industrial area development plan ? violations how many ?
42. is the MUDA & KIADB revising / modifying CDP & INDUSTRIAL AREA DEVELOPMENT PLAN , to suit those real estate developers & Private companies ? on what legal grounds ?
43.what action has been taken based on mysore district magistrate mr.T.M.Vijaya Bhaskar's report on land grabbings in mysore ?
44.in mysore city , hebbal-hootagalli industrial area , a lake has been destroyed while building kaynes hotel , hinkal lake is shrinking , lake in front of BEML Quarters has been alloted to M/S THRILLER CLOTHING CO, are all these actions legal & in conformance to MUDA's CDP ? if not why ? what action ?
45. while auctioning off the lands of sick industrial unit M/S IDEAL JAWA LTD , was there any pre-qualification to bidders that after purchase of lands only it must be used for industrial use or only industries can participate in the bidding process ?
46.why not it has been clearly mentioned in the tender document that , said land is open for alienation ?
47. about this issue , our publication has even raised it's objections , in it's newspaper . no action , why ? as a result , the government , banks , employees were cheated off their dues & the private firm made huge profits. is this auction & alienation legal ?
48.numerous NGO's , trusts promoted by religious bodies , mutts are allotted prime lands at preferrential rates , for the reason that they will use it for public / social welfare. however many of the trusts are using the whole or part of the land for commercial purposes other than the stated public / social welfare purpose. what action has been taken by MUDA , MCC or government in such cases ?
49.how many trusts have violated government norms in this way since 1987 till date? what action taken by MUDA , MCC & government action taken report yearwise since 1987 till date ?
50.how many such illegalities / violations by trusts are regularized by MUDA , MCC or authorities , on what legal grounds ? ATR since 1987 till date ?
51.before regularizing such violations have you sought public objections & given media publicity ? if not why ?
52.how you are monitoring the net wealth growth of some MUDA / MCC / REVENUE officials & their family members , who have land acquisition / denotifying , land usage conversion authorities ?
53.how many trusts , NGOs are allotted prime residential / commercial lands by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT on lease basis , in turn the said trusts , NGOs have sulet it either partly or wholly to others ?
54.how many such lease allotments are sold by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT before the expiry of lease period , without public auction ?
55. what are the norms followed by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT for the sale of leased lands to the lessee before the expiry of lease period ?
NICE Corridor Questions to CHIEF MINISTER .Mr.Yediyurappa
Edited, printed , published owned by NAGARAJ.M.R. @ #LIG-2 / 761,HUDCO FIRST STAGE ,OPP WATERWORKS , LAXMIKANTANAGAR , HEBBAL ,MYSORE - 570017 INDIA … cell :09341820313 home page : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw ,
http://groups.google.co.in/group/hrwepaper/ ,
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/ ,
http://evoiceofhumanrightswatch.wordpress.com/ ,
http://indiapolicelaw.blogspot.com/ ,
http://naghrw.tripod.com/evoice/ ,
http://e-voiceofhumanrightswatch.blogspot.com ,
contact : naghrw@yahoo.com , nagarajhrw@hotmail.com
Spreading the light of humanity & freedom
Editor: Nagaraj.M.R.. Vol.07..Issue.13........26/03/2011
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“There is a higher court than the court of justice and that is the court of conscience It supercedes all other courts. ”
- Mahatma Gandhi
POLICE NOT REGISTERING COMPLAINT AGAINST CHIEF JUSTICE OF
INDIA & OTHERS
From,
NAGARAJ.M.R.
LIG-2 / 761, HUDCO FIRST STAGE,
LAXMIKANTANGAR, HEBBAL,
MYSORE - 570017.
Through,
Honourable DG & IG of Police ,
State Police H.Q ,
Bangalore.
To,
Honourable Circle Inspector of Police,
Vijayanagar Police Station,
Mysore.
Honourable Sir,
Subject : Violation of FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS & HUMAN RIGHTS by
Honourable Chief Jusice of India & H.E.Honourable President of India
& other public servants
Karnataka Police are NOT registering & acting on
my complaint to them dated 04.07.2009
A person committing a criminal offense is a CRIMINAL. The Person who
aids a criminal in his criminal act , in hiding the criminal act , in
destroying the evidences of criminal act is also a CRIMINAL. The
person whose duty is to prevent criminal acts from happening , who
intentionally fails in his preventive duties and thereby
facilitating the criminal in committing crime is also a CRIMINAL.
Information given by government authorities are EVIDENCES , denial
of information amounts to hiding of evidence , improper , half
truth information given amounts to MANIPULATION & DESTRUCTION OF
EVIDENCES. In this way many of our public servants including judges &
police themselves are criminals , but are not prosecuted by the
authorities , why ?
Due to delay in giving appropriate information , many crimes have
taken place which could have been prevented. As the delay in taking
action , giving information / evidence is on the part of government
authorities , the issue of TIME BARRED FOR ADMISSABILITY doesn’t
arise.
At the outset , we express our whole hearted respects to the honest
few public servants in public service including judiciary. However,
the corrupt in public service don’t deserve respect as individuals –
as they are parasites in our legal system. Still we respect the
chairs they occupy but not the corrupt individuals.
All the following articles / issues , whole articles published in the
weblinks mentioned below forms part of this appeal. The term “JUDGE”
mentioned throught includes all public servants discharging judicial
functions right from taluk magistrates , quasi-judicial officers to
Chief Justice of India.
Indian Legal / Judicial System is manipulated at various stages & is
for sale. It is a SHAME. The persons who raise their voice seeking
justice are silenced in many ways. The criminal nexus has already
attempted to silence me in many ways . If anything untoward happens to
me or to my family members , my dependents , Honourable Chief Justice
of India together with jurisdictional police officer will be
responsible for it.
The Vijayanagar police in mysore stated that they don’t have legal
jurisdiction to book the criminals I have mentioned in the complaint &
by taking a statement from me to that effect closed the case
temporarily on 11.09.2010 after sitting over the complaint for
years together. Is it not the duty of DG&IGP to seek the permission
from home ministry to legally prosecute the alleged criminal VVIPs ?
Why he was silent ? Ofcourse the lower rung police officers
practically don’t have power to prosecute high & mighty ?
Hereby , I do request the DG & IG OF Police , Government of Karnataka
to seek the legal sanction from union home ministry & Karnataka state
home ministry , for the prosecution of below mentioned criminal VVIPs
& to reopen my complaint here with.
In India , as per constitution of india all citizens are equal , have
right to equal oppurtunity & equitable justice irrespective of caste ,
creed , religion , etc. the constitution has guaranteed these to every
Indian citizen by way of CONSTITUTIONAL FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS. Also ,
every humanbeing on earth has got HUMAN RIGHTS, by virtue of his / her
birth.
However in india , CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTIONARIES / PUBLIC SERVANTS have
forgotten this & are acting as lords , autocrats - unquestionable
public masters. CONSTITUTIONAL FUNCTIONARIES are PUBLIC SERVANTS
appointed to serve the public, public are the kings of democracy ,
they are the taxpayers & paymasters of this very same public servants.
In India , corruption has spread it’s tentacles far & wide , it has
not even spared the judiciary. The last resort of commonman for
seeking justice is judiciary , even there corruption has spread.In
present day India , if one is rich , he can committ any type of crime
& get away clean from courts of law. there are corrupt police
officials who modify FIR , suppress evidences ,manipulate evidences ,
takes up different line of investigation , fix innocents , coughs-up
false confessions from innocents by 3rd degree torture , file B report
closing the case , decides not to appeal in higher court of law ,
etc , ALL FOR A PRICE. Just see the list of millionnaire police
officials who are caught by karnataka lokayukta.
Next step , the prosecutor & defense advocate strikes a deal ,
manipulates evidences , manipulates way of presentation of case & way
of argument favouring the rich crooks for a price , as observed in
high profile BMW case involving public prosecutor IU KHAN & defense
counsel RK ANAND. In this way , if corrupt police & advocates ,
together manipulate the due process of law , the presiding judge is
left high & dry eventhough the judge is honest, he is left helpless.
to add to this , when the judge himself is corrupt , people’s last
hope , democracy is dead. Nowadays we are hearing too many reports of
irregularities in judiciary.
our publication has filed many appeals as PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION
before hon’ble supreme court of India but the vested interests there
are not accepting it as PILs. WHAT DOES PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION
MEANS ? ISSUES WHICH ARE OF PUBLIC CONCERN AFFECTING MANY NUMBER OF
PUBLICS.
The issues raised by us for sample :
1. sale of fake medicines & adulterated food products , beverages ,
colas affecting the health of millions of Indians & public of
importing nations who are importing the same dangerous products from
india .
2. demolition , eviction of houses , lands belonging to poor dalits ,
tribals , backward castes by government authorities whereas
regularising illegal land encroachments , illegal buildings by high &
mighty people in total disregard to law. in some cases government has
even made contempt of court , by defying court orders & enacting
special laws all to favour rich land grabbers.
3. take the cases corporate frauds, violation of labour laws ,
pollution board laws , tax laws , etc by companies.
4. The reports in media about certain highly placed public servants
leaking india’s defense secrets to foreign countries & some
politicians , film stars attending parties hosted by anti nationals
DAWOOD IBRAHIM & underworld dons in gulf countries & elsewhere. these
type of appeals are for public good , national security , as public
are affected by them. still supreme court of india is not considering
our repeated PIL Appeals.the courts have the authority to consider
even a post card , e-mail as a PIL Appeal , the courts even have the
right to initiate suo-motto action for public good , inspite of
absence of any appeals / complaints. over & above this at the time of
my very first appeal my income was very low & i was a retrenched
factory employee who was eligible for free legal aid, even free legal
aid was not given to me. Now , even to my repeated RTI Appeals the
Honourable chief justice of India & H.E.Honourable President of India
are not giving the requested information . these action of CJI &
PRESIDENT OF INDIA is aiding high & mighty criminals , anti
nationals , amounts to suppression of information , truth ,
evidences , which is a cognizable offence.
SOS Appeal to SUPREME COURT of INDIA
http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/2010/08/s-o-s-appeal-to-supreme-...
DEALS IN COURTS & POLICE STATIONS READ :
http://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit/satyameva-jayate ,
http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/2011/01/satyameva-jayate.html ,
ACCUSED Chief Justice of India
http://sites.google.com/site/eclarionofdalit/accused-chief-justice-of...
,
http://e-clarionofdalit.blogspot.com/2011/02/accused-chief-justice-of...
CROSS EXAM OF HONOURABLE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA , SUPREME COURT OF
INDIA -
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF UNION HOME SECRETARY , GOI , NEW DELHI –
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF DG&IG OF POLICE , GOK , BANGALORE –
http://crosscji.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesofsupremecourt.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crosscji.wordpress.com/ ,
http://crossexamofchiefjustice.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF GOVERNOR , RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ , http://theftinrbi.rediffblogs.com/
, http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/
CROSS EXAM OF MUDA COMMISSIONER , MUDA , MYSORE –
http://crimesofmuda.blogspot.com/ , http://manivannanmuda.blogspot.com/
, http://crimesatmudamysore.wordpress.com/ ,
CROSS EXAM OF BDA COMMISSIONER , BDA , BANGALORE –
http://crimesofbda.blogspot.com/ , http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,
CORPORATE CRIMES RPG CABLES LIMITED
http://crimesatrpg.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimesatrpg.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/218
MEGA FRAUD BY GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
are you ready to catch tax thieves ?
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
MOBILE PHONES , CURRENCY SCANDALS
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
reliance industry where is accountability ?
http://megafraudbygoi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://megafraudbygoi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/196
crimes at infosys campus
http://crimeatinfy.blogspot.com/ ,
http://crimeatinfy.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/214
crimes by B.D.A against a poor woman
http://crimesofbda.blogpot.com/ ,
http://bdacrimes.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212
crimes of land mafia in India
http://landscamsinindia.blogspot.com/ ,
http://landscam.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/212
currency thefts in RBI Press
http://theftinrbi.blogspot.com/ ,
http://theftinrbi.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/80
killer colas & killer medicines of India
http://deathcola.blogpot.com/ ,
http://deathcola.wordpress.com/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naghrw/message/201
We do have highest respect for all constitutional bodies , public
servants , but it is an appeal to the honest few in public service ,to
bring to book their corrupt colleagues.The Honourable Chief Justice of
India & H.E.Honourable President of India have violated their oaths of
office , failed in their constitutional duties , suppressed material
truths / informations & thereby repeatedly violated my
Constitutionally guaranteed FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS & BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS &
Obstructing me from performing constitutionally prescribed FUNDAMENTAL
DUTIES AS A CITIZEN OF INDIA.
Hereby , i do request you to legally prosecute the below mentioned
public servants ACCUSED CRIMINALS viz
1. H.E.Honourable President of India
2. Honourable Chief Justice Of India
3. Union Home Secretary , GOI
4. Governor , Reserve Bank Of India
5. Director-General & Inspector General Of Police , government of
karnataka
6. Commissioner , Bangalore Development Authority
7. Commissioner , Mysore Urban Development Authority
8. Commissioner , Mysore City Corporation
9. Labour Commissioner , government of karnataka and
10. all public servants belonging to tax dept , pollution control
board , etc mentioned in the above cases with web links.
on the above mentioned charges. the whole issue of this news paper &
the related materials at the weblinks provided, forms part of this
complaint. If i am repeatedly called to police station or else where
for the sake of investigations , the losses i do incurr as a result
like loss of wages , transportation , job , etc must be borne by the
government. prevoiusly the police / IB personnel repeatedly called me
the complainant (sufferer of injustices) to police station for
questioning , but never called the guilty culprits even once to police
station for questioning , as the culprits are high & mighty . this
type of one sided questioning must not be done by police or
investigating agencies . if anything untoward happens to me or to my
family members like loss of job , meeting with hit & run accidents ,
loss of lives , etc , the jurisdictional police together with above
mentioned accussed public servants will be responsible for it. Even if
criminal nexus levels fake charges , police file fake cases against
me or my dependents to silence me , this complaint is & will be
effective.
if anything untoward happens to me or my dependents , the government of
india is liable to pay Rs. one crore as compensation to survivors of
my family. if my whole family is eliminated by the criminal
nexus ,then that compensation money must be donated to Indian Army
Welfare Fund. afterwards , the money must be recovered by GOI as land
arrears from the salary , pension , property , etc of guilty police
officials , public servants & Constitutional functionaries. Thanking
you.
Jai Hind , Vande Mataram.
Date : 17.03.2011…………………………Your’s sincerely,
Place : Mysore……………………………Nagaraj.M.R.
Editorial : SCRAP Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project
- A B C D of Democracy – A Lesson for all people’s representatives
People are the kings , self rulers in a democracy . Peoples representatives must just represent the wishes , aspirations of people. When people in Jaitapur , Maharashtra state of India are totally against a nuke plant in their area and they don’t want it , still the authorities are forcing this project over their head.
Since 63 years of independence , In India the learned IAS babus & Netas are forcing their agendas , SEZs , Projects over the people for their own selfish gains , against the wishes of people. This is not DEMOCRACY.
In india, indirect democracy is the form of governance. In this
form, people's representatives are bound to raise the questions ,
issues concerning their constituents on their behalf , on the floor of
the house. However the sad part in india even after 63 years of
democracy , is the lobbying is at it's peak. The lobbying is a
gentleman's white collared crook's way of forming favour seeker's
group , creating a corpus to pay lumpsum bribe & influencing decision
making.
The people's representatives are bound to represent their people
first , then their party & party think tanks. India has come to this
sorry state of affairs , widespread corruption , huge black economy &
rampant poverty, all due to inefficient legislations & enforcements.
These think tanks & IAS lobby, consider themselves as most super
brains on earth & gives out suggestions . the present state of affairs
is a barometer of their brilliance. These think tanks & IAS lobby are
the hand maidens of lobbyists / bribers.
Now consider the following example :
Mr.raj gandhi is a member of parliament from mandya constituency in
karnataka state. He is a MBA graduate & member of ruling indian
progressive party. The multinational giant M/S GREY HOUND CORPORATION
wants to enter into paper manufacturing business in india. It's sight
falls on the public sector paper giant mandya national paper mills (
MNPM) in mandya district of karnataka. The MNC effectively lobbies
with the government. The ruling party think tank & the cabinet
advisory group recommends to the government to make strategic
disinvestment in the PSU M/S MNPM. They bring out graph with full
power point presentation stating that it is good for the company as
well as the government. The lobbyists follows it up with media reports
on the positive aspect of strategic disinvestment. A favourable
impression is created in the minds of literate public. The cabinet
committee okays it.
The " strategic dis investment issue " comes before the parliament
for legislation / approval. The ruling party issues a party whip to
it's members to vote in favour of dis investment. However M.P mr.raj
gandhi who is an MBA in his own wisdom also favours the dis
investment. However ,most importantly the constituents – people in
mandya parliamentary constituency through protest marches , mass post
card campaigns lakhs in numbers expresses their disagreement with the
dis investment & urges their MP mr.gandhi to vote against the
disinvestment legislation.
On the D-day in parliament , mr. Raj gandhi as per his party whip &
his own wisdom votes in favour of strategic disinvestment legislation,
much against the wishes of his people , constituents & mis represents
them in parliament. the democracy has failed here. in This way
democracy is being derailed since 62 years in india.
In democracy, party whip , MP or MLA's own wisdom / brilliance,
think tank & IAS lobby recommendations are all secondary , the
constituent's of his constituency , people's wishes aspirations are
of primary importance & supreme. What people need is a honest
representative, who simply delivers the people's aspirations on the
floor of the house back & forth , without superimposing it with his
own ideas & party ideas. For true democracy , the people's
representatives must be true postmans.
Towards this end , the people must be educated about their
democratic rights & responsibilities. This is an appeal to the honest
few in the parliament & state legislatures to weed out their corrupt
colleagues , lobbyists, to uphold the dignity of the house & to
install democracy in it's true form.
form, people's representatives are bound to raise the questions ,
issues concerning their constituents on their behalf , on the floor of
the house. However the sad part in india even after 63 years of
democracy , is the lobbying is at it's peak. The lobbying is a
gentleman's white collared crook's way of forming favour seeker's
group , creating a corpus to pay lumpsum bribe & influencing decision
making.
The people's representatives are bound to represent their people
first , then their party & party think tanks. India has come to this
sorry state of affairs , widespread corruption , huge black economy &
rampant poverty, all due to inefficient legislations & enforcements.
These think tanks & IAS lobby, consider themselves as most super
brains on earth & gives out suggestions . the present state of affairs
is a barometer of their brilliance. These think tanks & IAS lobby are
the hand maidens of lobbyists / bribers.
Now consider the following example :
Mr.raj gandhi is a member of parliament from mandya constituency in
karnataka state. He is a MBA graduate & member of ruling indian
progressive party. The multinational giant M/S GREY HOUND CORPORATION
wants to enter into paper manufacturing business in india. It's sight
falls on the public sector paper giant mandya national paper mills (
MNPM) in mandya district of karnataka. The MNC effectively lobbies
with the government. The ruling party think tank & the cabinet
advisory group recommends to the government to make strategic
disinvestment in the PSU M/S MNPM. They bring out graph with full
power point presentation stating that it is good for the company as
well as the government. The lobbyists follows it up with media reports
on the positive aspect of strategic disinvestment. A favourable
impression is created in the minds of literate public. The cabinet
committee okays it.
The " strategic dis investment issue " comes before the parliament
for legislation / approval. The ruling party issues a party whip to
it's members to vote in favour of dis investment. However M.P mr.raj
gandhi who is an MBA in his own wisdom also favours the dis
investment. However ,most importantly the constituents – people in
mandya parliamentary constituency through protest marches , mass post
card campaigns lakhs in numbers expresses their disagreement with the
dis investment & urges their MP mr.gandhi to vote against the
disinvestment legislation.
On the D-day in parliament , mr. Raj gandhi as per his party whip &
his own wisdom votes in favour of strategic disinvestment legislation,
much against the wishes of his people , constituents & mis represents
them in parliament. the democracy has failed here. in This way
democracy is being derailed since 62 years in india.
In democracy, party whip , MP or MLA's own wisdom / brilliance,
think tank & IAS lobby recommendations are all secondary , the
constituent's of his constituency , people's wishes aspirations are
of primary importance & supreme. What people need is a honest
representative, who simply delivers the people's aspirations on the
floor of the house back & forth , without superimposing it with his
own ideas & party ideas. For true democracy , the people's
representatives must be true postmans.
Towards this end , the people must be educated about their
democratic rights & responsibilities. This is an appeal to the honest
few in the parliament & state legislatures to weed out their corrupt
colleagues , lobbyists, to uphold the dignity of the house & to
install democracy in it's true form.
Hereby, We do request the Honourable High Court of Maharashtra state & Honorable Supreme Court of India , to scrap Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project as it is against the wishes of people , as the government has taken the decision with respect to this project violating democratic principles , Indian Peoples Representation Act and as the said project is detrimental to the ecology & people’s lives.
Hereby , we do request the Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra state to immediately , scrap Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project. Jai Hind. Vande Mataram.
Your’s sincerely,
Nagaraj M R
Government officials murdering innocents in league with greedy
industrialists
In india, & many other 3rd world countries , the larger corporations ,
MNCs & industry lobby is
literally running the governments. They are grossly abusing human
rights of people. Hereby, HRW calls upon GOI to rein in those
corporations.
It is not the first time that , the harmful effects of colas – food
beverages are made public. The government is aiding the cola companies
in covering-up their crimes , in hiding harmful ingradients of their
products in the name of trade secrets. The government is yet to enact
a new food legislation making it mandatory for all manufacturers of
food items to specifgically mention the type & quantity of
ingradients on each food product. Even , under the present food Act
itself the government officials can ban the harmful colas & other
products in the interest of public health & lives. Then how will they
get kickbacks ?
The cola companies are so cunning & ruthless that they have used
muscle power – rowdies , corrupt police personnel & assaulted harmless
peaceful protestors. The cola companies have purchased justice
previously in kerala & got favourable judgement. Due to presence of
cola companies , under water table has depleted in surrounding
villages. The farmers are unable to grow their crops & are committing
suicides. One of the senior executive of a cola company – BEJOIS ,
MADE MURDER THREATS , FIX-UPS IN FALSE CASES TO EDITOR OF HUMAN RIGHTS
WATCH’S and even made false complaint to police , but repeatedly
failed to turn-up for enquiry fearing that truth will come out. The
police closed the case subsequently.
In India , many medicines / drugs manufacturing companies are silently
murdering thousands of innocent patients. Some of these companies are
manufacturing counterfeit drugs of popular brands. Some MNCs , big
drug companies are in cheating business , they are just filling chalk
powder in tablets where as on the outer cover they mention
ingradients & quantities of it which are not at all their in the
product. The patients who are taking these chalk powder tablets ,
hoping that they will get cured of diseases are dying due to lack of
proper medication. These greedy , cheating drug companies are also
exporting these counterfeit drugs to many third world countries like
Nigeria. The drugs controller of Nigeria has caught hold of evidences
about these illegal drugs & their import from India. These companies
with the aid of mafia even tried to finish her off. The GOI is yet to
take action on her complaint. Silence of GOI bought for a price by
drug companies.
Just a few months back , there was a programme called “bad medicine”
on BBC channel , where in the drugs controller for nigeria proved that
95% of drugs in nigeria are fake & 80% of them are being exported from
india. These indian fake medicines are killing hundreds of innocents
in nigeria & she is crusading to control to control it. She has
survived murder attempts by the pharma drugs mafia linked to india.
She came over to india along with BBC correspondent & under- cover
they went to greedy industrialists. The said industrialists- FAKE
SPECIALISTS boasted how they fake the holograms , labels of big MNCs ,
how they add chalk powder , paracetamol to all tablets , how they
gifted imported car to a chief minister in return for protecting their
crimes fake businesses , etc. At the end, the drugs controller for
india , refused to give an interview, EVEN TO MEET the BBC
correspondent, fearing that all his beans will spill out. just 2 years
back in karnataka, honourable lokayukta justice N.Venkatachala raided
certain pharmaceutical companies & drugs control department officials
and unearthed a huge scam of Rs.200 crore of fake medicines. However
the government didn’t take any action as politicians were also part of
the ring & threw the report on a back burner. In india, how many are
dying due to fake medicines – the corrupt officials are covering the
numbers & shielding the murderers the greedy industrialists.
Some of the MNCs are practicing double standards , while in their home operations in the U.S.A they are strictly adhering to F.D.A norms as consumer safety is strictly enforced there by the government , while in India they have thrown to wind the consumer safety with respect to indian operations. The situation is so worse that it has been
reported in the media that SOME FARMERS ARE USING THESE SOFT DRINKS AS PESTICIDES IN THEIR FARMS. Hereby, i want following questions answered by soft drink manufacturers specifically coca-cola & pepsi,
1.how you are removing the harmful chemicals from the tube well water ie your raw material ?
2.how you are ensuring the proper mixture of food additives ,
preservatives & flavours within safe limits ?
3.why not you are giving the exact quantity of all contents in the
soft drink of your’s on the product itself ?
4. are you exactly replicating your manufacturing & quality norms of
your U.S.A operations in india ? if not why ?
5.are you strictly adhering to food norms of government of india ?
6. are you keeping the F.D.A NORMS OF U.S.A as benchmark for your
operations in india ?
7. are you ready for the laboratory test of your product randomly
selected by the consumer ?
8. Are they using genetically modified food ingredients ?
9. are they using ingredients sourced from animal origins ?.
Previously HRW has appealed to government authorities including
supreme court of India , but to no avail. It is a sad pointer to the
grim fact that in India there is no value for human lives & the long
arm of corruption has even reached the apex court.
By S.G.Vombatkere
13 March, 2011
Countercurrents.org
The tsunami-triggered accident in Fukushima (Japan) Daiichi plant's Unit 1 (operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, TEPCO) brings safety issues into question regarding the operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs). In the Daiichi NPP, the automatic shutting down of the reactor by stopping the controlled nuclear fission process, did occur as designed. However, the reactor did not cool down as fast as it was expected and required to do, and called for activating the emergency coolant pumps according to design. But there was no grid power due to a combination of earthquake and subsequent tsunami to operate the pumps. Also, because of flooding due to the tsunami, the dedicated standby generators could not provide power. The standby battery power (standby to the standby generator) was insufficient to operate the pumps at sufficient rate and duration, and so the (radioactive) steam generated due to overheating had to be vented to relieve the increasing pressure. This has put an unmeasured quantum of radioactive elements (radionucleides) into the atmosphere. But that too did not cool down the reactor sufficiently. It was then reported that sea water was being let into the reactor to cool it to prevent a meltdown. By this a further unmeasured amount of radioactive material would be discharged into the environment. The TEPCO website
The Japanese nuclear engineers are making heroic efforts at immense personal risk to prevent a steam explosion (not a nuclear explosion) in the NPP. This is the point at which the design and construction standards of the concrete double containment structure of the nuclear reactor will have to withstand the explosion. This could trigger a partial or total meltdown of the reactor core, similar to what happened in USA in 1971 in the Three Mile Island NPP. (This put the US nuclear power industry into the doldrums until USA revived it by negotiating the nuclear deal with India in 2009). Japan has a reputation for good design and safety standards and good quality control and quality assurance in execution. It would be the fervent wish of every thinking person on the planet that the double containment will not fail and that the engineers will control the desperately delicate situation in the Daiichi NPP. Nobody is as yet even thinking of the costs of containing the accident and the subsequent nuclear clean-up.
But let us now cut to the nuclear situation in India. The issue of Indian design and construction quality standards stands naked when we note that the concrete containment dome of the Kaiga (Karnataka) NPP collapsed when under construction, and had to be rebuilt. It has not been revealed whether it was a failure of design or execution quality. It is not possible to obtain reliable information regarding the operation, safety standards and performance or other cost, constructional or operational aspects of any NPP because of the following reasons: One, Section 18 (Restriction on disclosure of information) and Section 24 (Offences and penalties) of the draconian Indian Atomic Energy Act 1962, do not permit anybody to even ask questions about NPPs, Two, nobody except the nuclear industry is permitted to conduct tests for radioactivity even outside the perimeter of any NPP, Three, the Environment Protection Act 1986, does not apply to NPPs, Four, the safety and monitoring agency (AERB) is not an independent agency and the public has to accept whatever health and safety information is released by the NPP or the AERB, Five, the budget of the DAE is not placed even before Parliament and the power generation and efficiency figures are not available even to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). In short, the Indian nuclear industry is a closed door to the rest of India, and this can be at the cost of public safety and health.
Further, in the event of a nuclear accident, Government of India (GoI) has sought to cap or limit the liability of operators or suppliers of nuclear hardware and technology to assure profits to the US nuclear industry. In simpler language, this means that the real financial cost of post-accident nuclear clean-up and repair would be borne by India, as the liability of the suppliers would be limited to the cap amount, while the real costs of health and livelihood would be borne by the people.
In view of the secrecy and the poor standards of construction even in the nuclear industry, the conflicting parameters of safety, operational cost and radioactive emissions of any NPP leave the public to guess when one of India's NPPs may suffer a serious accident, and whether we will be able to handle the disaster effectively and efficiently. Indian nuclear engineers are second to none, thus the issue of safety in India's nuclear establishment is institutional. The secrecy, intransparency, unaccountability and self-certification of the nuclear industry makes one doubt whether we will be able to prevent serious emergency or handle it effectively should it happen.
This also raises questions about the advisability of going for mega NPPs such as planned in Jaitapur, Maharashtra. This is quite apart from the fact of enormous resistance to its construction from local people on the grounds of livelihood and environment. Let us hope that the Indian nuclear establishment would never need to handle a serious accident of the type of Three Mile Island or Chernobyl or Fukushima.
S.G.Vombatkere holds a PhD in civil structural dynamics from I.I.T, Madras, and has extensive structural design and project execution experience.
E-mail: sg9kere@live.com
Children crippled by India's uranium waste
The Guardian - Asia Pacific - 23Aug
An Observer investigation has discovered a link between Indian electricity stations and physical and mental abnormalities
Hundreds of children in the Punjab have been contaminated with uranium in a pollution scandal with implications that could extend far beyond the borders of India.
Scientists and health workers have sounded the alarm after being confronted with a dramatic rise in birth defects, physical and mental abnormalities, and cancers in the Indian state. A subsequent Observer investigation has uncovered evidence linking the contamination to ash from the region's coal-fired power stations. Tests on children born in areas around the power stations have revealed that many have high levels of uranium in their bodies.
The metal is concentrated in the fly ash produced when coal is burned. Tests on ground water around the plants show levels of uranium up to 15 times the World Health Organisation's maximum safe limits.
The revelations coincide with the publication of a report by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Thermal Engineering journal that warns of an increased radiation hazard to people living near coal-fired thermal power stations.
Staff at two clinics around the Punjabi city of Bathinda â€" where there are two coal-fired thermal plants â€" have reported alarming numbers of admissions of severely handicapped children. Children were born with enlarged or small heads, short arms and legs, cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome and other complications. A German laboratory that tested samples taken from the children found massive levels of uranium in their bodies â€" in one case more than 60 times the maximum safe limit.
Studies of ground water suggest that while the uranium contamination is heaviest around the power plants, it extends across large parts of the state, which is home to 24 million people. The Indian government is committed to an expansion of thermal plants in Punjab and other states. Around the world, many other countries are planning to build new coal-fired power plants, including China, Russia, India, Germany and the United States. In the UK, there are plans for a coal-fired station at the Kingsnorth facility in Kent.
The children are being treated at the Baba Farid centres for special children in Bathinda and nearby Faridkot. Dr Pritpal Singh, who is in charge of the Faridkot clinic, said the number of children affected had risen dramatically in the past six or seven years and claimed the authorities were determined to bury the scandal. "They can't just detoxify these kids, they have to detoxify the whole Punjab. That is the reason for their reluctance," he said.
"They threatened us and said if we didn't stop commenting on what's happening they would close our clinic. But I decided that if I kept silent it would go on for years and no one would do anything about it. If I keep silent then the next day it will be my child. The children are dying in front of me."
Dr Carin Smit, a South African clinical metal toxicologist who arranged for the tests to be carried out, said the situation could not be ignored. "There is evidence of harm for these children in my care and … it is an imperative that their bodies be cleaned up and their metabolism be supported to deal with such a devastating presence of radioactive material," she said.
"If the contamination is as widespread as it would appear to be â€" as far west as Muktsar on Pakistan's border, and as far east as spreading into the foothills of Himachal Pradesh â€" then millions are at high risk and every new baby born to a contaminated mother is at risk."
A team of scientists from India's Department of Atomic Energy visited the area and reported that while the concentration of uranium in drinking water was "slightly high", there was "nothing to worry about", although some of their tests recorded levels of uranium as high as 224micrograms per litre (mcg/l) â€" 15 times higher than the safe level of 15mcg/l recommended by the World Health Organisation. The US Environmental Protection Agency sets a maximum safe level of 20mcg/l. Scientists in Punjab who have studied the presence of uranium in the state have dismissed the government's denials as a whitewash.
Dr Chander Parkash and Dr Surinder Singh, both from Amritsar's Guru Nanak Dev University, said it was clear that uranium was present in large quantities in the ground water and should be investigated further.
In the Faridkot centre last week, 15-year-old Harmanbir Kaur's test results came back and showed she had 10 times the safe limit in her body. Her brother, Naunihal Singh, six, had double the safe levels.
Harmanbir was born in Muktsar, 40km from Faridkot. Her mother, Kulbir Kaur, 37, has watched her child slowly degenerate from a healthy baby into the very ill girl she is today â€" dribbling constantly, unable to feed herself and lost in a world of her own.
"God knows what sin I have committed. When we go to our village people say there is a curse of God on you, but I don't believe so," she said. "Every part of this area is affected. We never imagined that there would be uranium in our kids."
A few miles down the road in Bathinda, Sukhminder Singh, a 48-year-old farmer, watched his son Kulwinder, 13, staring into space while curling his hands under his chin. The tests showed that Kulwinder had 19 times the maximum safe level of uranium in his body. He has cerebral palsy and has already had seven operations to unbend his arms and legs. He is furious that the government has ignored the evidence of a serious health risk to children in the Punjab.
"The government should investigate it because if our child is affected it will also affect future generations," he said. "What are they waiting for? How many children do they want to be affected? Another generation?"
Doni Choudhary, aged 15 months, is waiting to be tested, although staff say he shows similar symptoms to children whose results have revealed dangerous levels of uranium, and he is already being treated for suspected uranium poisoning. His mother, Neelum, 22, from the state capital, Chandigarh, says he was born with hydrocephaly â€" water on the brain. His legs are useless.
"He is dependent on others. After me, who can care for him?" Neelum says. "He tries to speak but he can't express himself and my heart cries. When will he understand that his legs don't work? What will he feel?"
Some scientists have also proposed that ground water may have been contaminated by contact with granite lying deep below the thick alluvial deposits that form the Punjab plains, although the parents of most of the children affected say they take their water from the mains supply, which comes from other sources.
Meanwhile, smoke continues to pour from Faridkot's power station chimneys and lorries shuttle backwards and forwards, taking away the fly ash to be mixed into cement at the Ambuja factory next to the Bathinda power plant.
Inside the plant last week, there was ash everywhere, forming drifts, clinging to the skin, getting into the throat. In the main hall, the LED display showed the four generators are churning out 107 megawatts of electricity.
Ravindra Singh, the plant's security officer, said that most of the ash went to the cement works, while the rest was dumped in ash ponds. The first coal-fired power station in Punjabwas commissioned in Bathinda in 1974. It was followed by another in nearby Lehra Mohabbat in 1998. There is a third to the east, at Ropar.
Tests on ground water in villages in Bathinda district found the highest average concentration of uranium â€" 57mcg/l, three times the EPA's safe limit â€" in the town of Bhucho Mandi, a short distance from the Lehra Mohabbat ash pond. This level of uranium means the lifetime cancer risk in the village is more than 150 times that of the normal population
JAITAPUR NUCLEAR PLANT - IMPACT
A Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) report has criticised the location of the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra as sitting on an earthquake zone even as the state government plans to hold a public discussion to clear the air for the proposed reactor. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan plans to rope in atomic energy experts and representatives of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), which will set up the project in collaboration with Areva, a French company, to dispel the “misinformation” created by activists at a public discussion in January. The project will have six 1650 MW reactors to be commissioned in a phased manner from 2018.
An impact assessment report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has strongly criticised the nuclear power plant being proposed at Jaitapur in the Konkan region.
The report has indicated that the project - which requires about 968 hectares of land panning five villages - will have a huge negative impact on the social as well as environmental development of not just these villages and the surrounding areas, but also on the Konkan region in general.
The findings suggest that the government subverted facts and called fertile agricultural land barren. It also says that the Jaitapur project is sitting on a high to moderate severity earthquake zone.
The Jaitapur nuclear power complex is located in the ecologically sensitive coastal Maharashtra region which includes Raigad, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts. Nuclear Power Corporation of India is building the 9900 megawatt power plant - said to be the world's largest - in collaboration with French nuclear designing firm Areva. Last month, the Union Environment Ministry gave a conditional go-ahead to the plant. However, it is facing staunch opposition from the locals who fear environmental degradation in the fragile Konkan area.
Maharashtra Congress team heads to Jaitapur
As farmers' protests boil over in Ratnagiri threatening to delay the Jaitapur nuclear power plant, a concerned Maharashtra government dispatched a Congress team to review the situation.
"A Congress committee is going to Jaitapur. The committee will talk to locals and fishermen there. We will listen to their views and problems," Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre said.
Despite the Environment Ministry's conditional go-ahead to the plant, protests refuse to die down.
"People who have faced the effects of a nuclear power project in their vicinity told us that this is a devastating project. They said that our next generation will have nothing to live and survive on. We will lose our paddy fields, our plantations and orchards and we will die of hunger," said Umakant Kambli, a resident of Madban village, Ratnagiri.
"We will die but won't let this project come up," said Manda Laxman Wadekar, former Sarpanch.
There is a sense of mistrust against the government. People here say they were not taken into confidence regarding the project, their lands were forcefully taken away, and their democratic protests were illegally thwarted.
Experts have already said that building, safeguarding and providing imported fuel to the reactor will be so costly that power from Jaitapur will be unaffordable.
Now villagers allege the project has neither planned storage and disposal of its nuclear waste, nor drafted any plan to ecologically protect Ratnagiri - a region of rich agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and biodiversity.
Without these plans in place, they say, letting the project come up will be suicidal.
WHY JAITAPUR NUCLEAR PLANT MUST BE OPPOSED
Citizens are demanding answers to questions regarding approval, rehabilitation and land acquisition, costs, radioactive byproducts, reprocessing of spent fuel and disposal of radioactive wastes and civil nuclear liability limits of the Jaitapur nuclear plant that remains unaddressed. It must be answered by the Indian government, says activist Gopal Krishna.
Madban, a small village in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra [ Images ] is opposed to the nuclear plant in Jaitapur proposed by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India [ Images ]. The project got environmental clearance on November 28 hurriedly to please French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who visted India from December 4-7. The nuclear reactors would be designed and developed by AREVA, a French company.
Prior to this on October 29, more than 3,000 villagers courted arrest after an agitation. The villagers have refused compensation. Former high court judge B G Kolse-Patil, who was served orders preventing him from entering Ratnagiri district, flouted the ban and attended the villagers rally. Former Indian Navy chief Admiral L Ramdas (retired) and former Supreme Court Judge P B Samant too supported the villagers but were stopped by the police from joining the agitation.
The proposed nuclear power park at Madban is situated near the port of Jaitapur in the southern part of Ratnagiri district. It would be the largest single location nuclear power project in the world. It is based on the import of six nuclear power plants from AREVA. In the first phase, two plants are to be built between 2012 and 2017.
It has come to light that in the matter of the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project a rigorous and scientific environment impact assessment and cost benefit analysis has not been performed.
Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh [ Images ], in the presence of the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra officially announced 'conditional' environmental clearance to the JNPP. The citizens of Maharashtra and India are demanding answers to questions regarding approval, rehabilitation and land acquisition, costs, radioactive byproducts, reprocessing of spent fuel and disposal of radioactive wastes and civil nuclear liability limits that remains unaddressed. It must be answered by the Indian government. It is widely felt that it is a Vedanta and Posco kind of clearance given in haste to be repented in leisure.
It appears that the preparations for Sarkozy occupied the Union Cabinet so much that it failed to consult the secretaries of ministries/departments of the government of India on the ramifications in terms of liability from the proposed nuclear plant.
Several organisations and a large number of individuals are campaigning against the plant. The Konkan Bachao Samiti and the Janhit Seva Samiti have been spearheading a campaign against this nuclear power project. There is reliable information that the European regulatory authorities from three countries, Finland, France [ Images ] and UK have jointly written to AREVA, raising certain serious objections to the current design of control and instrumentation for vital safety aspects of Evolutionary Pressurized Reactors plant. It has also been learnt that the US regulator has written to AREVA expressing similar concerns.
Local residents are opposed to the JNPP and have refused to accept any compensation, nor have they demanded a raise in compensation. The project will attract Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 35,000 crore investment in the first two phases. The government is offering Rs 350 crore as compensation to the villagers. It is claimed that there are 2,033 families who would be directly affected by the project on 968 hectares of land. The nuclear project promises power generation of 9,900 MW in phases.
In a backdrop that presented a fait accompli, the biodiversity report prepared by the Bombay Natural History Society formed the basis for the 35 environmental conditions set by the environment ministry while giving the green signal for the nuclear plant. The report recorded the presence of plant and animal life on land and marine both at and around the plant site. The BNHS has also mapped 407 hectares of mangrove vegetation around a 10 km radius of the nuclear plant as well as in some of the affected villages.
The BNHS report contradicted the official 1,200 page environment impact assessment report prepared by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and made public in April, 2010.
The NEERI report had described the land surrounding the nuclear plant as "rocky and barren land with no habitation and vegetation" and hence ruled out any adverse ecological impact in the area. The same area was surveyed during the monsoon by BNHS, which found 134 species of plants on the plateau.
In July, 2010 the BNHS conducted a rapid impact assessment of the biodiversity of the region and found the Madban plateau to be rich in plant and animal diversity with very good marine diversity in adjacent sites of Ambolgad and Kasheli.
The BNHS found 1,000 plant species, NEERI couldn't find even 500 species. Indeed if the project proponents are assigned to conduct EIA, the report cannot be objective. Therefore, once again the NEERI report is flawed. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, the project proponent, is an undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE had commissioned NEERI to prepare the EIA report for the Jaitapur plant in 2005).
Earlier, in a letter to the President of India dated September 1, ToxicsWatch Alliance pointed out that "the cost of a single nuclear reactor can be as high as Rs 30,000 crore as in the case of the reactor planned at Jaitapur by AREVA, a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in Tour Areva near Paris. Consequently, the cost of a reactor can be 20 times the maximum amount of liability. It means that it might be cheaper for the operator to take the risk of paying the maximum liability than to spend, say, 10 per cent extra in adding safety features to the plant."
It has been found that NEERI's EIA report is unscientific. This EIA report was made available only a month prior to the public hearing on May 16. It has been alleged on factual grounds that the EIA report reads as if it was authored by the public relations department of NPCIL or Areva.
It may be noted, "The accident at Chernobyl released into the atmosphere an amount of radioactivity equivalent to 400 bombs of the Hiroshima variety. The nuclear project at Jaitapur is about 10 times the size of the Chernobyl Power Plant. The huge radioactive accumulations at the plant site are the principal causes of concern which must be addressed."
NEERI did not have the competence to assess the project. It entails issues of radioactive radiation. NEERI contends that the project meets Atomic Energy Regulatory Board norms and standards without conducting any independent assessment, relying completely on the AERB. But AERB reports are not part of the EIA.
Unmindful of its admitted incompetence to assess radioactive risk, NEERI certifies the safety of the plant saying, "Through individual event sequence analysis for different initiating events, it is estimated that the plant is provided adequate safety features and measures to mitigate or minimise any unsafe consequences".
The same EIA report reveals the following, "All the above scenarios explained, namely Design Basis Accidents and Beyond Design Basis Accidents are thoroughly studied and detailed reports are generated as Preliminary Safety Analysis Reports and these reports will be submitted to Atomic Energy Regulatory Board for review and approval for construction of nuclear power project at Jaitapur." Clearly implying that the safety approval by the AERB is yet to be obtained and despite this it certified the adequacy of the safety of the plant against "any unsafe consequences".
The threat of a terrorist attack on nuclear plants in India is also considered credible is clear from the specific exclusion in clause 5 (ii) in the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill (2010) which has been passed by the Indian Parliament and awaits the President's assent. It reads: "An operator shall not be liable for any nuclear damage where such damage is caused by a nuclear incident directly due to -- an act of armed conflict, hostility, civil war, insurrection or terrorism".
After the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US, the possibility of terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants is considered quite credible and substantial by US authorities. The DAE has ignored the complete text of a 2009 report presented to the US Congress: on "Nuclear Power Plant Security and Vulnerabilities". Consequently, amendments were made in US law to require nuclear plant design to address this risk but the Indian legislation on nuclear liability does the contrary.
In his testimony to the parliamentary committee, Union Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar categorically had stated, "under different layers of protection, nuclear assets including nuclear installations are being protected through defence." However, he admitted that "absolute and foolproof protection cannot be guaranteed for any nuclear or other assets in the country during peace or war."
Exceptions for acts of terrorism can easily be used by the supplier and the operator to wash their hands off any nuclear disaster. Testimony after testimony before the parliamentary committee had asked for deletion of the word terrorism from the nuclear liability bill but the same is not reflected in the bill which was passed by Parliament.
Misplaced expression of satisfaction by NEERI with NPCIL's claim of safe storage for 100 years is shocking. This constitutes less than one per cent of the lethality lifetime of the spent fuel. There is no explanation as what will happen to the radioactive waste after 100 years. It is a known fact that India does not have a geological repository for nuclear waste and there are no sites in India suitable for building one.
The EIA report is flawed because of the absence of a specific plan for decommissioning as well. No new nuclear plant can be built in Europe or the US without such a plan. The EIA report is untenable.
The cost of electricity generated from JNPP would be in excess of Rs 9 per unit. This does not include the costs of managing radioactive waste and decommissioning. The current cost of electricity is about Rs 4 per unit. It has been noted in the Rajya Sabha that as far as the cost difference between hydro, thermal and all the available options vis-à-vis nuclear electricity is concerned, the cost difference is 1:3.
If the overall objective of wanting to generate 40,000 MW of nuclear power in the next two decades is considered, the cost difference between conventional and nuclear electricity would be more than Rs 300,000 crore. This amount can build 20,000 hundred-bedded modern hospitals all over the country and 2.5 lakhs of Navodaya Vidyalayas with boarding facilities for 100 students all over the country.
The total installed generating capacity in India as on June 30 was 162,367 MW, comprising 64 percent from fossil fuel, 23 percent from hydro, 3 percent from nuclear and balance 10 percent from renewable energy sources. Evidently, share of nuclear power is quite low. It is possible to generate similar power from alternate sources of energy.
In its last report in 2010, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science, Technology, Environment & Forests, had recommended that "the government should consult all such ministries/departments which are even remotely concerned with the provisions of a proposed legislation", the same has not been done. This recommendation has been ignored in the case of Jaitapur nuclear plant as well.
The standing committee referred to how secretaries of ministries of health & family welfare, agriculture, labour & employment, food & public distribution were ignored in the drafting of the Nuclear Liability Bill was a very serious lapse of the Union Cabinet.
It may be noted that secretary, Union ministry of health said, "Since the response system to deal with any kind of emergency of such type, the hospitals are not well-equipped, it is natural that mortality and morbidity due to multiple burn, blasts, radiation injuries and psycho-social impact could be on very high scale and medical tackling of such a large emergency could have enough repercussions in the nearby areas of radioactive fallout."
She also mentioned that in the entire bill, there is not a single clause which speaks about taking healthcare during radiological emergencies. It reflects only about payment of compensation due to health impacts of such radiation. She suggested while setting up nuclear plants, consideration may also be given to the fact that there should be a hospital having trained doctors near such establishments and arrangements should also be made for free treatment of people who are affected by serious nuclear fallout.
She confessed that "her ministry is nowhere to meet an eventuality that may arise out of nuclear and radiological emergencies." Similar testimonies from secretaries of other ministries provide a chilling and prophetic forewarning.
In compliance of the suggestion of chairperson of the parliamentary committee during my testimony on August 3 and pursuant to a written submission dated July 7, TWA had specifically drawn the attention of the committee with regard to the narrow definition of the word 'installation' and conflict of interest ridden existence of the AERB. In a letter to the committee dated August 12, TWA has questioned the merit of centralised power stations given 35-40 percent transmission and distribution loss from power grids.
The secretary, financial services, ministry of finance, submitted before the committee that "any increase in premium of insurance will lead to increase in the cost of production of electricity for nuclear power. It is argued that higher the liability limit higher will be the insurance premium and subsequently higher will be the cost of electricity production."
Keeping these concerns in mind, opposition against the nuclear plants are emerging in a huge way.
Will the sane voice of Madban village be able to compel the might of a determined state to bulldoze its nuclear project at any cost, to rethink? The issue what is supreme AREVA's interest or the interest of villagers. Once again the insincerity and dishonesty of paying lip-service to Mahatma Gandhi's [ Images ] village republic and autocratically refusing to accord a sovereign status to the village at the same time stands exposed.
Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jharkhand
UCIL’s underground mines in Jadugoda, Bhatin, Turamdhih, Narwapahar, and its open cast mine at Banduhurang extract 1,000 tons per day (TPD) of uranium ore. Two underground mines in the pipeline at Baghjata and Mahuldih will boost that amount. The ore is processed at the Jadugoda and Turamdih mills with a combined capacity of 5,000 TDP. The company earned $64 million in 2007-08, and made a $3 million profit.
The 20-year lease for UCIL's mines was up in 2007, and a new application is being processed. Under it, the company wants to add 6.37 hectares to tailing dam capacity and expand production, according to UCIL Chairman and Managing Director Ramendra Gupta. This move requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP) drawn up by the Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research (CIMFR), along with a public hearing.
Addressing the affected community at the May public hearing in Jadugoda, the company represented the local plans as “a marginal expansion.” But the UCIL website promises “a quantum leap in UCIL’s activities” that includes plans to "deepen the existing mines, expand its processing facilities,” and “not only opening new mines, but also the development of the community around its operations.”
While the company has created local schools and provides jobs and social services, villagers who attended the hearing argued that these provisions do not compensate for the health effects and destruction of their way of life.
“Why are we being made to pay such a heavy price, for so many decades”? Asks Hira Hansda, speaking of her three miscarriages and birth to five infants that quickly died. Her husband Sonaram worked at the tailing dam as a casual employee between 1984-87, and like many villagers, he links the deterioration in local health conditions to the arrival of the uranium mines. The last three surveys conducted in the area found increased radiation levels.
Heavy Security at UCIL’s Public Hearing Keeps Villagers Out
The public hearing on UCIL's new application took place at the heavily fortified camp of the Central India Security Force (CISF) within the UCIL colony at Jadugoda. Conducted by theJharkhand State Pollution Control Board, the proceedings were marked by restrictions on personal liberties under sections of a law applying to situations with the potential to cause civil unrest.
Leaving little room for the public or protesters, the hall was packed with hundreds of UCIL workers and other company beneficiaries who held placards reading: “When compared to hunger, pollution is a small issue," and "Save UCIL.”
Those who had lost their lands and health to the mines were physically barred from the tent. Outside the proceedings, protesters shouted: “Do not destroy our land," “No uranium, no uranium waste, no weapons, care for the future." Many indigenous villagers waved the banner of the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR), winner of the Germany-based Nuclear Free Future Award for its long crusade against the hazards of uranium mining in Jadugoda. The protesters denounced the hearing as "a farce" and demanded that it be immediately stopped.
Villager and JOAR president, Ghanashyam Biruli, issued the demands: no new uranium mines, bring the existing mine under international safety guidelines, return unused tribal land, provide livelihood and rehabilitation to displaced people, clean up the contamination, commission an independent study of environmental contamination and health effects, and monitor water bodies to ensure that the radionuclides do not seep into the aquifer that is the lifeline of more than 100,000 people. The activists also argued that since the country can buy uranium on the international market, there is no compelling need to expand UCIL's capacity.
The real compelling need, they asserted, was protecting health and the environment. The 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) provided clear evidence, finding that:
* Couples living near the mines were "1.58 times more vulnerable to primary sterility" with 9.6 percent of couples in study villages unable to conceive after three years of marriage, compared with 6.27 percent in a reference (control) group.
* Birth defects followed a similar pattern with 1.84 times higher incidence: “[B]abies from mothers, who lived near uranium mining operation area, suffered a significant increase in congenital deformities,” according to the report. While 4.49 percent of mothers living in the study villages reported bearing children with congenital deformities, only 2.49 percent of mothers in reference villages fell under this category." The national rate for people with disabilities (including congenital deformities) is 3 percent, according to official government statistics.
* Deformed babies near the mining operations are almost 6 times more likely to die, with 9.25 percent mothers in the study villages reporting congenital deformities as the cause of death of their children. In the reference village, mothers reported 1.70 percent of babies died of deformities.
* Cancer deaths were also higher: 2.87 percent of households in study villages attributed the cause of death to be cancer, compared to 1.89 percent in the reference village.
These factors contributed to a lowered life expectancy. In the study villages 68.33 percent of the population died before reaching the state's average life expectancy: 62 years old.
UCIL Denies Contamination
Despite such alarming reports, radiation data are not made public because they fall under the purview of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962. UCIL / DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) also cites security concerns for refusing to release data on health of the workers. But Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda, a 1999 award-winning film by Shri Prakash documented that, despite a law mandating regular monitoring, in the last five- to ten-year period few workers underwent blood and urine tests to assess the impact of radiation.
Independent scientists have confirmed the danger. Professor Hiroaki Koide, from the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, sampled soil and air in the surrounding villages and documented that “The circumference of tailing ponds is impacted with uranium radiation. The strength of the radiation is of 10 to 100 times high in comparison to places without contamination. ...There are places where uranium concentration is high in the road or the riverside, and it is thought that tailings are used for construction material,” including on villagers' houses." Tailings are production waste material that, according to critics are unsafely stored, dumped, and used for landfills, roads and construction.
UCIL Technical Director D Acharya denied that the company was responsible for radiological contamination. “UCIL’s safety and pollution control measures are at par with the international standards, comparable at any point of time,” he said. The company is dealing with naturally occurring materials, he noted, the very low grade ore extracted is a minimal environmental hazard, and the company is not enriching the ore in Jadugoda.
But tacitly acknowledging the risks, UCIL head, Gupta, noted in the 2008 Annual Report that "External gamma radiation, Radon concentration, suspended particulate matters, airborne long lived Alpha activity and concentration of radio nuclides- uranium and Radium in surface and ground water, in soil and food items etc are monitored regularly."
Although he presented no evidence, UCIL Technical Director Acharya said that allegations of health problems are canards spread by anti-uranium lobbies, and that the physical fitness of the employees can be gauged the UCIL football team's success in winning the DAE tournaments for the past five years.
“From time to time we have also conducted structured health surveys and examinations, by independent sources," said Acharya. "One was done by the erstwhile Bihar Assembly, about ten years ago, but the findings are absolutely normal.” (The area was part of Bihar at the time.) "The effects of radiation are being constantly monitored by independent watchdogs, and there are health physics experts who are always with us, for round-the clock-vigil of the situation. Hence, there is really no cause of concern,” he added.
That is not the experience of many villagers, who link serious health problems to the mines. Like many of the women in the surrounding areas, Hansda's pregnancies were a time of terror. “It fills within us fear and apprehensions of the possible ordeal that may be in store. Who knows what would be the fate of the baby,” she said.
INDIA SOLD OUT TO NUCLEAR POWER GENERATING MNCs DIRT CHEAP
Before enacting the law on “Nuclear Accident Liability Bill” , Government of India should consider the following issues
1. The term Nuclear Accident must include the damages caused due to radiation leak affecting the employees in the nuclear facility , the people living near the facility & people affected by the effluents , scraps generated by the nuclear facility.
2. The government of India does not have any right to fix a price tag for the lives of Indians , that too cheaper than US public.
3. The Nuclear power generating companies must incorporate safety infrastructure & procedures as they do in US market , not any obsolete technology.
4. In USA & other developing countries , they have very huge , efficient social security network , vast pool of resources put in by nuclear power generating companies themselves , to take care of the affected in case of a nuclear accident . In India we don’t have that type of social security network nor matching resources , therefore ideally India must fix a nuclear liability cap much higher than US market in dollar terms.
5. Also the company must be made liable for the complete clean up of the facility & surrounding towns , villages , health care to all the affected victims on par with US market , in case a nuclear accident happens.
6. The Nuclear Equipment Suppliers , Nuclear Plant Operators together with their respective governments like USA , UK must stand as guarantors .
7. The Life Insurance Companies in India Must pay insured amount to nominees of insured in case of nuclear accidents / radiation affects in addition to compensation by the nuclear power companies . as of now many life insurance companies are not covering nuclear accidents / radiation affects.
Neither our MPs , Cabinet ministers nor IAS babus have the right to decide the fate of common people & fix a rate for lives of Indians. They are not experts in this field , they should not conclude any deals , decisions in a hush hush manner . Many scams have come out of hush hush deals . Nobody , no MP , no minister , no IAS officer has paid from his personal pocket to the victims of industrial disasters , etc. After all MPs , Ministers , IAS babus are public servants , they must just represent the voices of people , we people don’t want their personal expertise & opinions. Our Policy makers must heed to the public advice of senior scientists , experts in the field of nuclear power generation .
Ofcourse , as a result unit price of electricity will get front loaded , we may not get cheap electricity . but the lives of Indians are much valuable than Electricty. The person who benefits from cheap electricity – Industrialists does not pay from his pocket to the victims of disasters . Development not at the cost of safety & lives of common people. This must dawn on our ill informed policy makers at the earliest .
Letter To NHRC On Nuclear Liability For IAEA's Treaty
By Gopal Krishna
To,
Justice Shri K.G. Balakrishnan
The Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi
Sub: Human rights violations from nuclear damage - its impact on human life and enviro-occupational health
Sir,
This Hon’ble Commission has been seriously pursuing the problem of “enviro-occupational health”, and has been taking “preventive” as well as “remedial” measures. It is humbly brought to your notice that there is another equally serious enviro-occupational hazard which is exposure from radioactive radiations and wastes. The issue of liability for nuclear damage is directly linked to it. The grave problem of diseases caused to present and future generations by radiation exposures is required to be addressed as it affects environment and human health and violates Article 21 of the Constitution, Directive Principles as well as “human rights” as defined under the UDHR, ICCPR and ICESCR.
2. That at the outset, the Applicant wishes to refer to the problem of exposure from radioactive radiations. The Supreme Court has looked at the entire issue, keeping in view the Directive Principles as well as Article 21 of the Constitution, and held that “life” includes right to health and medical care etc. There is no database on the records of the Government to show, to the best of Applicant’s knowledge, as to what actions the Government has taken, namely, how many persons have been reported to be suffering from exposure to radioactive radiation? How many have died? Did they receive any compensation? How many persons suffering from it are receiving treatment?
3. That the Applicant is an environmental health researcher who was invited to make submissions before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests following a written submission on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010 which is meant to pave the way for India to sign International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) for Nuclear Damage, 1997.
4. That in its 25 page report on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on 18th August, 2010.observes, “When the Committee inquired from the Secretaries of Ministries/Departments of Government of India who appeared before the Committee as to whether the draft nuclear liability Bill was referred to them for their views/comments, some of them viz. Ministries of Health & Family Welfare, Agriculture, Labour & Employment, Food & Public Distribution, etc. replied in the negative. The Committee is of the opinion that Government must have sought the opinion of Ministries which are even distantly related to any provision of the legislation. The Committee, therefore, recommends that in future Government should consult all such Ministries/ Departments which are even remotely concerned with the provisions of a proposed legislation.” This Hon’ble Commission may take cognizance of the submissions of these Secretaries and direct the concerned authorities to internalize their suggestions in the text of the Bill to protect the human rights of Indian citizens and safeguard intergenerational equity.
5. That, in view of the facts mentioned above, the applicant humbly submits that the Hon’ble Commission may kindly initiate appropriate proceedings and issue directions to all the concerned Secretaries of the Central Government and relevant States/UTs with regard to the following :
How would they respond in the event of a nuclear disaster?
Do they know as to how many industries/factories exist in the States/UTs where radioactive material is used? Is there an inventory of products wherein the said material is used?
What is the total number of workers employed in the nuclear power industries and other nuclear installations?
Whether there is regular medical check-up and whether medical facilities exist for workers and communities in the vicinity of nuclear installations?
Whether there is any record of persons who died because of radioactive radiation?
How many persons suffer from radioactive radiation and whether they are receiving regular treatment for the said disease?
What steps States/UTs have taken to check/prevent occurrence of radioactive radiations and how many hospitals dealing with the enviro-occupational diseases exist in the States/UTs.
How many institutions in the country have the competence to decontaminate and how many medical, occupational health and scientific institutions can diagnose radiation exposure?
What action has been taken by the central government and the State Governments/UTs have taken to protect exposure from radiation in the future?
6. That it is submitted that this Hon’ble Commission for the purpose of collecting the above information, may also take the benefit of its experience in the case of enviro- occupational diseases which are preventable but incurable. By giving medicines, impact of radioactive radiation can be reduced and life span can be prolonged but ultimately fate of the affected person is painful death. A brief note on the issue of liability from nuclear damage and the submissions of the concerned Secretaries of the central government is enclosed as Annexure A
7. That the applicant wishes to bring to this Hon’ble Commission’s notice that India has ratified Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) but its provisions have not been complied with. India is yet to ratify ILO’s Occupational Cancer Convention, 1974 which is concerning Prevention and Control of Occupational Hazards caused by Carcinogenic Substances and Agents took cognizance of the Radiation Protection Convention and Radiation Protection Recommendation. It refers to the work done by International Agency for Research on Cancer and The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) that provides guidance on all aspects of protection against ionising radiation. Article 6 of the ILO's Radiation Protection Convention with regard to “Maximum permissible doses of ionising radiations which may be received from sources external to or internal to the body and maximum permissible amounts of radioactive substances which can be taken into the body” has been ignored. Article 7 of the Convention calls for “Appropriate levels” be fixed in accordance with Article 6 for workers who are directly engaged in radiation work and are (a) aged 18 and over; (b) under the age of 18, No worker under the age of 16 to be engaged in work involving ionising radiations and Article 8 that seeks “Appropriate levels (to be) fixed in accordance with Article 6 for workers who are not directly engaged in radiation work, but who remain or pass where they may be exposed to ionising radiations or radioactive substances.” Drafters of the Nuclear Liability Bill appear to have ignored their recommendations.
8. It is humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Commission may enquire /investigate into the problem of radioactive radiation and issue necessary directions/recommendation for its prevention and appropriate remedial steps to the Central Government/State Governments and UTs.
Yours Faithfully
Gopal Krishna
NUCLEAR DISASTER IN MYSORE ?
Even in developed countries like USA & UK mal - handling of radio
active
materials takes place now & then, which in itself constitute nuclear
disasters
on small scale. Refer the Deccan Herald ( 12/10/03 to 18/10/03) for
details. few
years back, there were media reports about certain containers with
radio active
materials dumped in the open in Mysore city Railway Station. In Kaiga
nuclear
power project a doom collapsed. In India how many cases of
mal-handling of radio
active materials have taken place ? No public knowledge . In the back
drop of
corrupt ,negligent hush-hush, buck passing work culture in most of the
government service, I do want to know from the union Health Minister &
the
Karnataka State Health Minister, how safe are we from the processing &
storage
of radio active materials at M/s REMP, Mysore M/s REMP Kerala, & M/s
UCIL
Jadaguda Jharkhand ? How the spent fuel is disposed off in nuclear
power plants
in India ? few months back there were media reports about ill effects
of
radiation on the employees & peoples of adjacent villages near the
operations
site of M/s Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. Jadaguda Jharkhand &
Near the
Operations site of M/s REMP in Kerala.
In tsunami waves onslaught of december 2004 , the vital facilities of
kundakulam
nuclear reserch station in tamilnadu were damaged . just last week
tremors of
earth quake were felt in kaiga nuclear power plant in kaiga ,
karnataka . if
anything untoward happens as a result of natural calamities or human
failure ,
etc , what sort of contigency plans the government has got ready for
the safety
of public ?
Even some of the insurance companies like M/s Met Life India Insurance
Co. don't
cover the risk of physical / mental disabilities or death caused due
to nuclear
hazards . In such an event who will bear the cost of compensation ?
How the
quantum of compensation is calculated ? will you take into
consideration the
insurance policies brought by individuals ? Give me information about
the safety
measures taken by M/s REMP, M/s UCIL & other related agencies at all
it's
operation sites / nuclear sites.
Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands
by Moushumi Basu, Special to CorpWatch
October 7th, 2009
“I have had three miscarriages and lost five children within a week of
their births,” says Hira Hansda, a miner’s wife. “Even after 20 years
of marriage we have no children today.” Now in her late forties, she
sits outside her mud hut in Jadugoda Township, site of one of the
oldest uranium mines in India.
The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) operates that mine,
part of a cluster of four underground and one open cast mines and two
processing plants, in East Singbhum district in the Eastern Indian
state of Jharkhand. The deepest plunges almost one kilometer into the
earth.
Incorporated as a public sector enterprise under the Department of
Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1967, UCIL has sole responsibility for mining
and processing all of India's uranium. And since the strength of the
Jadugoda region's uraninite ore is extremely low, it takes many tons
of earth as well as complex metallurgical processes to yield even a
small amount of useable uranium ore—along with tons of radioactive
waste, disposed of in unlined tailing dams.
UCIL processes the ore into yellowcake and sends it to the Nuclear
Fuel Complex in Hyderabad, where it is officially designated for use
in nuclear reactors. But it is an open secret that some of the nuclear
material becomes the key ingredient in India's nuclear arsenal. (India
is one of only three states—along with Israel and Pakistan—that are
not signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons. North Korea withdrew from the Treaty in 2003.)
Unhealthy Villages
Radiation and health experts across the world charge that toxic
materials and radioactivity released by the mining and processing
operations are causing widespread infertility, birth defects and
cancers. A 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International
Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), found that “primary
sterility was found to be more common in the people residing near
uranium mining operations area.”
Jadugoda residents Kaderam Tudu and his wife, Munia, considered
themselves fortunate when their infant was born alive, until, “I found
that my baby son did not have his right ear and instead in its place
was a blob of flesh,” says Tudu, a day worker in his late thirties.
Their son, Shyam Tudu, now eight, has a severe hearing impairment.
Even children who appear healthy are impacted. "The youths from our
villages have become victims of social ostracism," says Parvati
Manjhi, and cannot find spouses. "And a number of our girls have been
abandoned by their husbands, when they failed to give birth,” Now
middle-aged, Parvati and her husband, Dhuwa Manjhi, who used to work
for UCIL, are childless.
Harrowing tales fill the region around the mines, and add irony to the
area's name, Jharkhand, which in the local tribal language means
“forest endowed with nature’s bounties.” If the lush land was the
indigenous population's boon for centuries, its rich mineral reserves
have become their bane. Six decades of industrialization has depleted
the forest cover, degraded the environment, displaced tribal peoples—
who along with Dalit ("untouchables") form an oppressed underclass—and
devastated a way of life deeply interwoven with nature.
Despite India's economic boom and proximity to one of the country's
richest mineral reserves, the villages in Jharkhand are now among the
poorest in the country, according to the Center For Science &
Environment’s (New Delhi) 2008 report “Rich Lands Poor People.”
Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jharkhand
UCIL’s underground mines in Jadugoda, Bhatin, Turamdhih, Narwapahar,
and its open cast mine at Banduhurang extract 1,000 tons per day (TPD)
of uranium ore. Two underground mines in the pipeline at Baghjata and
Mahuldih will boost that amount. The ore is processed at the Jadugoda
and Turamdih mills with a combined capacity of 5,000 TDP. The company
earned $64 million in 2007-08, and made a $3 million profit.
The 20-year lease for UCIL's mines was up in 2007, and a new
application is being processed. Under it, the company wants to add
6.37 hectares to tailing dam capacity and expand production, according
to UCIL Chairman and Managing Director Ramendra Gupta. This move
requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental
Management Plan (EMP) drawn up by the Central Institute of Mining &
Fuel Research (CIMFR), along with a public hearing.
Addressing the affected community at the May public hearing in
Jadugoda, the company represented the local plans as “a marginal
expansion.” But the UCIL website promises “a quantum leap in UCIL’s
activities” that includes plans to "deepen the existing mines, expand
its processing facilities,” and “not only opening new mines, but also
the development of the community around its operations.”
While the company has created local schools and provides jobs and
social services, villagers who attended the hearing argued that these
provisions do not compensate for the health effects and destruction of
their way of life.
“Why are we being made to pay such a heavy price, for so many
decades”? Asks Hira Hansda, speaking of her three miscarriages and
birth to five infants that quickly died. Her husband Sonaram worked at
the tailing dam as a casual employee between 1984-87, and like many
villagers, he links the deterioration in local health conditions to
the arrival of the uranium mines. The last three surveys conducted in
the area found increased radiation levels.
Heavy Security at UCIL’s Public Hearing Keeps Villagers Out
The public hearing on UCIL's new application took place at the heavily
fortified camp of the Central India Security Force (CISF) within the
UCIL colony at Jadugoda. Conducted by the Jharkhand State Pollution
Control Board, the proceedings were marked by restrictions on personal
liberties under sections of a law applying to situations with the
potential to cause civil unrest.
Leaving little room for the public or protesters, the hall was packed
with hundreds of UCIL workers and other company beneficiaries who held
placards reading: “When compared to hunger, pollution is a small
issue," and "Save UCIL.”
Those who had lost their lands and health to the mines were physically
barred from the tent. Outside the proceedings, protesters shouted: “Do
not destroy our land," “No uranium, no uranium waste, no weapons, care
for the future." Many indigenous villagers waved the banner of the
Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR), winner of the
Germany-based Nuclear Free Future Award for its long crusade against
the hazards of uranium mining in Jadugoda. The protesters denounced
the hearing as "a farce" and demanded that it be immediately stopped.
Villager and JOAR president, Ghanashyam Biruli, issued the demands:
no new uranium mines, bring the existing mine under international
safety guidelines, return unused tribal land, provide livelihood and
rehabilitation to displaced people, clean up the contamination,
commission an independent study of environmental contamination and
health effects, and monitor water bodies to ensure that the
radionuclides do not seep into the aquifer that is the lifeline of
more than 100,000 people. The activists also argued that since the
country can buy uranium on the international market, there is no
compelling need to expand UCIL's capacity.
The real compelling need, they asserted, was protecting health and the
environment. The 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of
International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
provided clear evidence, finding that:
* Couples living near the mines were "1.58 times more vulnerable to
primary sterility" with 9.6 percent of couples in study villages
unable to conceive after three years of marriage, compared with 6.27
percent in a reference (control) group.
* Birth defects followed a similar pattern with 1.84 times higher
incidence: “[B]abies from mothers, who lived near uranium mining
operation area, suffered a significant increase in congenital
deformities,” according to the report. While 4.49 percent of mothers
living in the study villages reported bearing children with congenital
deformities, only 2.49 percent of mothers in reference villages fell
under this category." The national rate for people with disabilities
(including congenital deformities) is 3 percent, according to official
government statistics.
* Deformed babies near the mining operations are almost 6 times more
likely to die, with 9.25 percent mothers in the study villages
reporting congenital deformities as the cause of death of their
children. In the reference village, mothers reported 1.70 percent of
babies died of deformities.
* Cancer deaths were also higher: 2.87 percent of households in study
villages attributed the cause of death to be cancer, compared to 1.89
percent in the reference village.
These factors contributed to a lowered life expectancy. In the study
villages 68.33 percent of the population died before reaching the
state's average life expectancy: 62 years old.
UCIL Denies Contamination
Despite such alarming reports, radiation data are not made public
because they fall under the purview of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962.
UCIL / DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) also cites security concerns
for refusing to release data on health of the workers. But Buddha
Weeps in Jadugoda, a 1999 award-winning film by Shri Prakash
documented that, despite a law mandating regular monitoring, in the
last five- to ten-year period few workers underwent blood and urine
tests to assess the impact of radiation.
Independent scientists have confirmed the danger. Professor Hiroaki
Koide, from the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Japan,
sampled soil and air in the surrounding villages and documented that
“The circumference of tailing ponds is impacted with uranium
radiation. The strength of the radiation is of 10 to 100 times high in
comparison to places without contamination. ...There are places where
uranium concentration is high in the road or the riverside, and it is
thought that tailings are used for construction material,” including
on villagers' houses." Tailings are production waste material that,
according to critics are unsafely stored, dumped, and used for
landfills, roads and construction.
UCIL Technical Director D Acharya denied that the company was
responsible for radiological contamination. “UCIL’s safety and
pollution control measures are at par with the international
standards, comparable at any point of time,” he said. The company is
dealing with naturally occurring materials, he noted, the very low
grade ore extracted is a minimal environmental hazard, and the company
is not enriching the ore in Jadugoda.
But tacitly acknowledging the risks, UCIL head, Gupta, noted in the
2008 Annual Report that "External gamma radiation, Radon
concentration, suspended particulate matters, airborne long lived
Alpha activity and concentration of radio nuclides- uranium and Radium
in surface and ground water, in soil and food items etc are monitored
regularly."
Although he presented no evidence, UCIL Technical Director Acharya
said that allegations of health problems are canards spread by anti-
uranium lobbies, and that the physical fitness of the employees can be
gauged the UCIL football team's success in winning the DAE tournaments
for the past five years.
“From time to time we have also conducted structured health surveys
and examinations, by independent sources," said Acharya. "One was done
by the erstwhile Bihar Assembly, about ten years ago, but the findings
are absolutely normal.” (The area was part of Bihar at the time.) "The
effects of radiation are being constantly monitored by independent
watchdogs, and there are health physics experts who are always with
us, for round-the clock-vigil of the situation. Hence, there is really
no cause of concern,” he added.
That is not the experience of many villagers, who link serious health
problems to the mines. Like many of the women in the surrounding
areas, Hansda's pregnancies were a time of terror. “It fills within us
fear and apprehensions of the possible ordeal that may be in store.
Who knows what would be the fate of the baby,” she said.
The Tragedy Of Fukushima Is A Tragedy For All Mankind
By Peter Chamberlin
13 March, 2011
Countercurrents.org
The Tragedy of Fukushima is not yet fully known, at least not in terms of the long-term effects of the radiation released today and tomorrow, perhaps for mankind’s entire “half-lifetime.” We don’t know (meaning our best scientists don’t know) what will grow out of the hole which has been blasted in our collective consciences today. Our knowledge of atomic science, just like our understanding of all earth science, is in its infancy, yet we have chosen to build nuclear reactors in geologically risky locations. Beyond the risky siting problems, lie the earth forces of wind and water, which we only now beginning to see.
Our best minds could figure-out how to take the nuclear fire out of the oven and bring it into our neighborhoods, but they could not guarantee a fail-safe way to go about this—yet, they enthusiastically urged our leaders to dot the countryside with these nuclear pipe-bombs, euphemistically dubbed “reactors.” A “REACTOR” is an abomination, classified as “science.” Here is an untechnical description of a reactor operation:
Inside a closed metal and concrete container, a piece of uranium is ignited, like a piece of coal that is partially smothered, enough to prevent the glowing coal from bursting into open flames. The glowing uranium rod is prevented from open ignition by smothering in special high-temperature coolant. The heat released by this partially burning rod of uranium evaporates water into steam, which flows through pipes like a modern equivalent of a steam engine. The nuclear-powered steam engine turns an electrical generator, which sends electricity flowing through the wires.
If the uranium rod is allowed to burn too hot, it creates more heat than the coolant can transfer and the REACTOR begins to melt, before the fuel rods melt.
If the water system shuts-down for an extended time, the steam being created can’t flow, the pressure builds until the REACTOR explodes, leaving the burning fuel rods fully exposed. The rods melt, burning through the floor of the REACTOR.
If all goes well, none of this ever happens, but like all things made by the hands of man, every mechanical system eventually breaks-down. Our best minds knew all these risks before the first reactor was ever built, yet they recommended that reactors should be built in every country on the face of the earth. Our scientists didn’t care to consider that the day might come when the earth would bite back.
The tragedy of Fukushima is a tragedy for all mankind. We do not yet see it, but this event will be remembered as a turning point in the development of humanity. From this point forward, if nothing else, Fukushima will give pause to every politician, or technocrat in the future who holds up the torch of “nuclear power” as the great hope for our energy-starved planet. But the greater ramifications of the environmental impact from this event will echo down through the corridors of human time, in both subtle and more obvious ways. The first concrete way that this will impact future lives will be in the horrible mutations suffered by those exposed to burning-type of radiation, near the site of the explosion. Children of the workers and neighbors of this plant, and their children, will suffer much higher rates of extreme deformation of their future fetuses, produced after this event.
The more subtle widespread genetic damage is produced by the release of enormous amounts of highly-radioactive dust into the atmosphere, as it is carried around the planet, is something which we can only guess at from our perspective. Today, we cannot foresee the end of this tragic catastrophic event. The only thing we know for certain, is that it is all ending very badly.
Our scientists all thought that something like this would never happen, or so they said. The truth is, they played the odds and lost, or rather the Japanese people lost. Nuclear power has always been a cosmic roll of the dice, with the fate of every living being on planet earth riding on the outcome of the roll. Our great leaders fully understood that bad things might happen, yet they confidantly invested your tax dollars, in order to gamble your lives that one day the radioactive wolf would not come knocking at your door. Well the wolf is outside and he is starting to howl.
Scientists are so caught-up in their own self-worship that they convince themselves that they know what is best for all of us, especially if it means profit or power for them. The self-proclaimed “geniuses” who have unleashed the nuclear genie for our advancement, have made decisions for us which God Himself, chose to leave alone. Human evolution comes about when the species reaches a dead-end, requiring the species to grow (evolve) in some way, in order to go forward. Human technology follows the same pattern of growth–forward momentum reaches a point of impasse, until the impeding wall is breached, allowing forward momentum to resume.
Nuclear power has always been thought-of in these terms–the technology which was built upon the discovery of the thermonuclear reaction, thinking that “nuclear power” was a great leap forward….IT WAS NOT. As I have explained in my steam engine analogy, nuclear power is pseudo-science. It is the adapting of Nineteenth Century technology over the discovery of the thermonuclear reaction and calling it a “REACTOR,” claiming that it was a great leap forward for all mankind, alleviating us from our addictions to coal and oil-fired electricity. We have our need for electricity–vs–unlimited energy from enriched uranium. We have not bridged the gap between them with so-called “nuclear power” (really steam power).
When we have fully understood nuclear science we will have naturally progressed to the knowledge of converting atomic energy into electricity. Until then, we are just burning-up a very limited resource, while endangering all of our lives. In our effort to understand the true science involved in the thermonuclear reaction we will come to understand the real science of nuclear fusion. Until we learn to harness the astronomical amounts of energy being released in the fusion reaction, we will just be spinning our tires, stuck in the same old mud, with our heads still firmly in our asses.
It may be, that when we finally really understand exactly what we have gotten our hands on, we will figure-out that somehow, our evolution as an intelligent species has required a radioactive environment, in order to cause specific species’ mutations that we have not even dreamed of. Who knows? Maybe God had this on His mind all along. Since He is the hidden hand behind our evolution, He must have had reasons for allowing man to open the nuclear nutshell. The discovery of atomic energy was a natural outcome of our primitive scientific quest, just as the discovery of converting fusion energy into electrical energy must be the next step in our quest to improve the species.
Perhaps He who sees all things before they happen put “nuclear power” before us to become the great wall to human progress which together we muct breach. Perhaps we will see this phase in our technological development for what it is, a failed experiment, so that we may absorb the lessons learned from the tragedy at Fukushima and go on. This is my great hope.
It is time to leave nuclear power behind.
peterchamberlin@naharnet.com
RTI – QUESTIONS COMMISSIONER OF BANGALORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ( BDA ) , COMMISSIONER , BRIHATH BANGALORE MAHANAGARA PALIKE ( BBMP ) & CHAIRMAN , KARNATAKA INDUSTRIAL AREA DEVELOPMENT BOARD ( KIADB) ARE AFRAID TO ANSWER
1. how many times since 1987 , BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT has revised / modified the Bangalore city's comprehensive city development plan ?
2. how many cases of CDP violations were registered by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ?
3. how many cases of CDP violations were legalized in the CDP revision / modification by the authorities ?
4. when an application for alienation of land is made to you , say from civic amenity site to commercial , what norms are followed by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT?
5. how do you provide alternate civic amenity site in the locality , if the area is already full ? do you deprive people of civic amenities ?
6. during such alenation , is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT collecting market rate difference between civic amenity site & commercial site ? if not why ?
7. in bangalore city , many building complexes , buildings have been built fully violating building bye-laws – no set off , no parking space , no emergency fire exit , no earthquake tolerant . what action by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT?
8. how many cases of building bye-laws violations has been registered by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT since 1987 ? what is the action status report yearwise ?
9. how much of BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT lands , sites , buildings & houses have been illegally occupied by criminal tresspassers since 1987 ?
10. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT registered criminal cases against each such illegal occupation ? if not why ? provide status report yearwise ?
11. in how many cases of such illegal occupation BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT has legalized , regularized such illegal occupation just through BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT ` s resolution instead of of re-allotting the same through public notification to the next senior most in the waiting list , after giving notice of allotment cancellation to original allottee ? if not done so why ?
12. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT followed all legal norms in reallotment of lands , sites , houses , etc to the illegal occupiers ? what is the procedure followed ?
13. in bangalore city , numerous housing societies & real estate Developers have mushroomed , Land allotments of how many housing societies , real estate firms among them are legally authorized by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT & how many not ? since 1987 till date ?
14. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT filed criminal complaints against such illegal housing societies & illegal real estate firms ? if not why ?
15. what action BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT has initiated against real estate firms & housing societies who have violated BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT norms , layout plans , etc ? if not why ?
16. the government has framed building bye-laws like width of road , space for civic amenities , parking space , emergency fire exit , etc keeping high in the mind safety of people first. BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT is in the practice of levying a pittance as penalty on the building byelaw violators , layout Development plan violators & legalizing those violations. Safety of public & amenities of public are totally neglected by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT. When public people die , suffer injuries / accidents – say during a fire tragedy in a complex due to lack of fire exit , when people park vehicles on pavement in front of a business complex as the complex doesn't have a parking space of it's own , the pedestrians going that way are forced to come down on road resulting in accidents , injuries & deaths . is not the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT responsible for those accidents , injuries & deaths ?
17. what is the criteria adopted by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT for out of Turn allotment of Lands , sites , houses to renowned sports persons , judges , journalists , politicians , artists , etc ?
18. how many judges , artists , politicians , journalists , sports persons , etc have benefited from these out of turn allotments by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT? specific figures yearwise since 1987 ?
19. what action has been taken against developers , housing societies , who have violated BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT norms ?
20. when poor scheduled caste , scheduled tribe people , minority people illegally live On BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT sites building temporary huts , BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT with the help of police razes down those huts & evicts the poor by brute force. Whereas , when cronies of political bigwigs illegally occupy BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT lands worth crores of rupees & build big complexes earning thousands of rupees monthly rent , BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT or authorities not even files police complaint against them instead regularizes the illegal occupation by levying a pittance as fine. Why this double standard by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT?
21. HOW MANY CASES OF ILLEGAL OCCUPATIONS are regularized by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ? yearwise figures ?
22. how much of BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT lands , sites , houses are under illegal occupation ? status report yearwise since 1987 ?
23. how much of those has been recovered ? has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT arecovered the rents earned by illegal occupation ?
24. have you filed police complaints against those criminals – tresspassers ? if not why ?
25. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT giving wide publicity & sufficient time to bidders about it's auction schedules ?
26. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT giving market value to land loosers ?
27. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT exactly using the acquired lands , for the same purpose mentioned in the project plan ?
28. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT acquiring lands at lower rates from farmers & selling it at a premium , by way making profits just like a real estate agency ?
29. in villages , there are cattle grazing grounds meant for the usage of whole villagers, forest for the usage of whole village , lands belonging to village temples. Some villagers have donated their personal lands to village temples , cattle grazing for the benefit of whole villagers. All the villagers are stake holders , owners of such lands. When BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT acquires such lands to whom does it pay compensation ? what about welfare objectives of those lands ?
30. till date , how many lakes , ponds , how many feeder canals have been closed , filled with mud , developed , sold as sites , etc by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT or other land developers ?
31. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT taken alternate steps to create new lakes , ponds ? how many are created till date ?
32. in & around bangalore city , high tension electric lines are there in busy residential areas . as per Indian electricity act , no permanent structures should be under the HT lines. However there are buildings under it. In some places , HT lines runs in the middle of the road. The authorities Have developed those areas beneath HT lines as parks , rented out advertisement spaces & built permanent fencing of those areas spending lakhs of taxpayer's money. This fencing obstructs the movement of service personnel of electricity board , to service HT line. Are all these structures under & surrounding HT lines legal ?
33. till date how many burial grounds are acquired & sold as sites by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT or other developers ? specific figures yearwise since 1987 castewise , religionwise ?
34. in & around bangalore city , in how many areas developed by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT & private developers , the sewage water generated in those areas is directly let into lake , ponds ?
35. how many tributaries , lakes , ponds are killed in this fashion by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT & other developers , housing societies ?
36. how many business complexes , flats , residential layouts developed by private real estate developers , housing societies are dumping the sewage , / waste generated in their buildings , into unauthorized dumping grounds , lakes , etc . thus disturbing the environment & creating public health hazard ? how the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT is monitoring sewage / waste disposal ? status report yearwise since 1987 till date .
37. how many unauthorized housing layouts are there in & around bangalore city ? what action by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT against them ? action taken report yearwise since 1987 till date .
38. around bangalore city , vast areas of village farm lands , agricultural lands are acquired by private real estate developers for non agricultural purposes by a single firm or single owner. Are these actions legal ? some of these real estate agents have sold those lands to private industries , multinational companies for crores of rupees. Has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT given alienation of land ie conversion from agricultural to industrial usage. Has KIADB given consent to it ?
2. how many cases of CDP violations were registered by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ?
3. how many cases of CDP violations were legalized in the CDP revision / modification by the authorities ?
4. when an application for alienation of land is made to you , say from civic amenity site to commercial , what norms are followed by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT?
5. how do you provide alternate civic amenity site in the locality , if the area is already full ? do you deprive people of civic amenities ?
6. during such alenation , is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT collecting market rate difference between civic amenity site & commercial site ? if not why ?
7. in bangalore city , many building complexes , buildings have been built fully violating building bye-laws – no set off , no parking space , no emergency fire exit , no earthquake tolerant . what action by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT?
8. how many cases of building bye-laws violations has been registered by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT since 1987 ? what is the action status report yearwise ?
9. how much of BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT lands , sites , buildings & houses have been illegally occupied by criminal tresspassers since 1987 ?
10. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT registered criminal cases against each such illegal occupation ? if not why ? provide status report yearwise ?
11. in how many cases of such illegal occupation BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT has legalized , regularized such illegal occupation just through BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT ` s resolution instead of of re-allotting the same through public notification to the next senior most in the waiting list , after giving notice of allotment cancellation to original allottee ? if not done so why ?
12. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT followed all legal norms in reallotment of lands , sites , houses , etc to the illegal occupiers ? what is the procedure followed ?
13. in bangalore city , numerous housing societies & real estate Developers have mushroomed , Land allotments of how many housing societies , real estate firms among them are legally authorized by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT & how many not ? since 1987 till date ?
14. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT filed criminal complaints against such illegal housing societies & illegal real estate firms ? if not why ?
15. what action BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT has initiated against real estate firms & housing societies who have violated BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT norms , layout plans , etc ? if not why ?
16. the government has framed building bye-laws like width of road , space for civic amenities , parking space , emergency fire exit , etc keeping high in the mind safety of people first. BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT is in the practice of levying a pittance as penalty on the building byelaw violators , layout Development plan violators & legalizing those violations. Safety of public & amenities of public are totally neglected by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT. When public people die , suffer injuries / accidents – say during a fire tragedy in a complex due to lack of fire exit , when people park vehicles on pavement in front of a business complex as the complex doesn't have a parking space of it's own , the pedestrians going that way are forced to come down on road resulting in accidents , injuries & deaths . is not the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT responsible for those accidents , injuries & deaths ?
17. what is the criteria adopted by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT for out of Turn allotment of Lands , sites , houses to renowned sports persons , judges , journalists , politicians , artists , etc ?
18. how many judges , artists , politicians , journalists , sports persons , etc have benefited from these out of turn allotments by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT? specific figures yearwise since 1987 ?
19. what action has been taken against developers , housing societies , who have violated BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT norms ?
20. when poor scheduled caste , scheduled tribe people , minority people illegally live On BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT sites building temporary huts , BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT with the help of police razes down those huts & evicts the poor by brute force. Whereas , when cronies of political bigwigs illegally occupy BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT lands worth crores of rupees & build big complexes earning thousands of rupees monthly rent , BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT or authorities not even files police complaint against them instead regularizes the illegal occupation by levying a pittance as fine. Why this double standard by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT?
21. HOW MANY CASES OF ILLEGAL OCCUPATIONS are regularized by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ? yearwise figures ?
22. how much of BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT lands , sites , houses are under illegal occupation ? status report yearwise since 1987 ?
23. how much of those has been recovered ? has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT arecovered the rents earned by illegal occupation ?
24. have you filed police complaints against those criminals – tresspassers ? if not why ?
25. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT giving wide publicity & sufficient time to bidders about it's auction schedules ?
26. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT giving market value to land loosers ?
27. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT exactly using the acquired lands , for the same purpose mentioned in the project plan ?
28. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT acquiring lands at lower rates from farmers & selling it at a premium , by way making profits just like a real estate agency ?
29. in villages , there are cattle grazing grounds meant for the usage of whole villagers, forest for the usage of whole village , lands belonging to village temples. Some villagers have donated their personal lands to village temples , cattle grazing for the benefit of whole villagers. All the villagers are stake holders , owners of such lands. When BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT acquires such lands to whom does it pay compensation ? what about welfare objectives of those lands ?
30. till date , how many lakes , ponds , how many feeder canals have been closed , filled with mud , developed , sold as sites , etc by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT or other land developers ?
31. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT taken alternate steps to create new lakes , ponds ? how many are created till date ?
32. in & around bangalore city , high tension electric lines are there in busy residential areas . as per Indian electricity act , no permanent structures should be under the HT lines. However there are buildings under it. In some places , HT lines runs in the middle of the road. The authorities Have developed those areas beneath HT lines as parks , rented out advertisement spaces & built permanent fencing of those areas spending lakhs of taxpayer's money. This fencing obstructs the movement of service personnel of electricity board , to service HT line. Are all these structures under & surrounding HT lines legal ?
33. till date how many burial grounds are acquired & sold as sites by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT or other developers ? specific figures yearwise since 1987 castewise , religionwise ?
34. in & around bangalore city , in how many areas developed by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT & private developers , the sewage water generated in those areas is directly let into lake , ponds ?
35. how many tributaries , lakes , ponds are killed in this fashion by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT & other developers , housing societies ?
36. how many business complexes , flats , residential layouts developed by private real estate developers , housing societies are dumping the sewage , / waste generated in their buildings , into unauthorized dumping grounds , lakes , etc . thus disturbing the environment & creating public health hazard ? how the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT is monitoring sewage / waste disposal ? status report yearwise since 1987 till date .
37. how many unauthorized housing layouts are there in & around bangalore city ? what action by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT against them ? action taken report yearwise since 1987 till date .
38. around bangalore city , vast areas of village farm lands , agricultural lands are acquired by private real estate developers for non agricultural purposes by a single firm or single owner. Are these actions legal ? some of these real estate agents have sold those lands to private industries , multinational companies for crores of rupees. Has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT given alienation of land ie conversion from agricultural to industrial usage. Has KIADB given consent to it ?
39. can a single individual / firm can purchase such vast tracts of agricultural lands , is it legal ? is it within the KIADB's comprehensive industrial area development plan ?
40. has the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT given wide publicity , public notice calling for objections before alienation of such lands ?
41. are all those alienations , strictly in conformance to BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT's industrial area development plan ? violations how many ?
42. is the BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT revising / modifying CDP & INDUSTRIAL AREA DEVELOPMENT PLAN , to suit those real estate developers & Private companies ? on what legal grounds ?
43.what action has been taken based on mysore district magistrate mr.T.M.Vijaya Bhaskar's report on land grabbings in mysore ?
44.in mysore city , hebbal-hootagalli industrial area , a lake has been destroyed while building kaynes hotel , hinkal lake is shrinking , lake in front of BEML Quarters has been alloted to M/S THRILLER CLOTHING CO, are all these actions legal & in conformance to MUDA's CDP ? if not why ? what action ?
45. while auctioning off the lands of sick industrial unit M/S IDEAL JAWA LTD , was there any pre-qualification to bidders that after purchase of lands only it must be used for industrial use or only industries can participate in the bidding process ?
46.why not it has been clearly mentioned in the tender document that , said land is open for alienation ?
47. about this issue , our publication has even raised it's objections , in it's newspaper . no action , why ? as a result , the government , banks , employees were cheated off their dues & the private firm made huge profits. is this auction & alienation legal ?
48.numerous NGO's , trusts promoted by religious bodies , mutts are allotted prime lands at preferrential rates , for the reason that they will use it for public / social welfare. however many of the trusts are using the whole or part of the land for commercial purposes other than the stated public / social welfare purpose. what action has been taken by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT in such cases ?
49.how many trusts have violated government norms in this way since 1987 till date? what action taken by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT action taken report yearwise since 1987 till date ?
50.how many such illegalities / violations by trusts are regularized by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT, on what legal grounds ? ATR since 1987 till date ?
51.before regularizing such violations have you sought public objections & given media publicity ? if not why ?
52.how you are monitoring the net wealth growth of some BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT officials & their family members , who have land acquisition / denotifying , land usage conversion authorities ?
53.how many trusts , NGOs are allotted prime residential / commercial lands by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT on lease basis , in turn the said trusts , NGOs have sulet it either partly or wholly to others ?
54.how many such lease allotments are sold by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT before the expiry of lease period , without public auction ?
55. what are the norms followed by BDA / BBMNP / KIADB / GOVERNMENT for the sale of leased lands to the lessee before the expiry of lease period ?
56. what is the status of house allotted to sri.chandrashekariah vide BDA allotment letter no: 310/267/BDA/ADM/KMRSL(H)/78-79 dt 11/08/1978.
57. why BDA didn't file police complaint to evict encroachers?
58. why BDA didn't inform the descendents of original allottee about the cancellation of their allotment ?
59.what happened to the money deposited by original allottee?
60.is the action of BDA allotting the said house to an illegal encroacher just by the resolution of BDA committee legal ?
61. in case the BDA wished to re-allot the said house , first it must have informed the original allottee about cancellation of allotment allowing them sufficient time to reply with public notice in news papers , then they should have allotted the said house to the senior most in the waiting list. But BDA has just allotted the house to an illegal encroacher by the resolution of BDA committee. Is it legal ?
62. BDA officials gave half truths to my RTI request & stated that the said file concerning this issue cann't be found ie lost . is it legal ?
63. has the BDA filed police complaint regarding theft of file from the record room ? HONOURABLE COMMISSIONER OF BDA PLEASE REFER THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE.
1. how many times since 1987 , MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has revised / modified the mysore city's comprehensive city development plan ?
2. how many cases of CDP violations were registered by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ?
3. how many cases of CDP violations were legalized in the CDP revision / modification by the authorities ?
4. when an application for alienation of land is made to you , say from civic amenity site to commercial , what norms are followed by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ?
5. how do you provide alternate civic amenity site in the locality , if the area is already full ? do you deprive people of civic amenities ?
6. during such alenation , is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT collecting market rate difference between civic amenity site & commercial site ? if not why ?
7. in mysore city , many building complexes , buildings have been built fully violating building bye-laws – no set off , no parking space , no emergency fire exit , no earthquake tolerant . what action by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ?
8. how many cases of building bye-laws violations has been registered by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 ? what is the action status report yearwise ?
9. how much of MUDA's / MCC's / GOVERNMENT's lands , sites , buildings & houses have been illegally occupied by criminal tresspassers since 1987 ?
10. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT registered criminal cases against each such illegal occupation ? if not why ? provide status report yearwise ?
11. in how many cases of such illegal occupation MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has legalized , regularized such illegal occupation just through MUDA's / MCC's resolution instead of of reallotting the same through public notification to the next senior most in the waiting list , after giving notice of allotment cancellation to original allottee ? if not done so why ?
12. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT followed all legal norms in reallotment of lands , sites , houses , etc to the illegal occupiers ? what is the procedure followed ?
13. in mysore city , numerous housing societies & real estate Developers have mushroomed , Land allotments of how many housing societies , real estate firms among them are legally authorized by MUDA , MCC , GOVERNMENT & how many not ? since 1987 till date ?
14. has the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT filed criminal complaints against such illegal housing societies & illegal real estate firms ? if not why ?
15. what action MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT has initiated against real estate firms & housing societies who have violated MUDA norms , layout plans , etc ? if not why ?
16. the government has framed building bye-laws like width of road , space for civic amenities , parking space , emergency fire exit , etc keeping high in the mind safety of people first. MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT is in the practice of levying a pittance as penalty on the building byelaw violators , layout Development plan violators & legalizing those
violations. Safety of public & amenities of public are totally neglected by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT . When public people die , suffer injuries / accidents – say during a fire tragedy in a complex due to lack of fire exit , when people park vehicles on pavement in front of a business complex as the complex doesn't have a parking space of it's own , the pedestrians going that way are forced to come down on road resulting in accidents , injuries & deaths . is not the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT responsible for those accidents , injuries & deaths ?
17. what is the criteria adopted by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT for out of Turn allotment of Lands , sites , houses to renowned sports persons , judges , journalists , politicians , artists , etc ?
18. how many judges , artists , politicians , journalists , sports persons , etc have benefited from these out of turn allotments by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT ? specific figures yearwise since 1987 ?
19. what action has been taken against developers , housing societies , who have violated MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT norms ?
20. when poor scheduled caste , scheduled tribe people , minority people illegally live On MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT sites building temporary huts , MUDA / AUTHORITIES with the help of police razes down those huts & evicts the poor by brute force. Whereas , when cronies of political bigwigs illegally occupy MUDA , MCC / GOVERNMENT lands worth crores of rupees & build big complexes earning thousands of rupees monthly rent , MUDA or authorities not even files police complaint against them instead regularizes the illegal occupation by levying a pittance as fine. Why this double standard by MUDA / MCC GOVERNMENT ?
21. HOW MANY CASES OF ILLEGAL OCCUPATIONS are regularized by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT since 1987 till date ? yearwise figures ?
22. how much of MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT lands , sites , houses are under illegal occupation ? status report yearwise since 1987 ?
23. how much of those has been recovered ? has the MUDA ,AUTHORITIES recovered the rents earned by illegal occupation ?
24. have you filed police complaints against those criminals – tresspassers ? if not why ?
25. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT giving wide publicity & sufficient time to bidders about it's auction schedules ?
26. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT giving market value to land loosers ?
27. is the MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT exactly using the acquired lands , for the same purpose mentioned in the project plan ?
28. is the MUDA / AUTHORITIES acquiring lands at lower rates from farmers & selling it at a premium , by way making profits just like a real estate agency ?
29. in villages , there are cattle grazing grounds meant for the usage of whole villagers, forest for the usage of whole village , lands belonging to village temples. Some villagers have donated their personal lands to village temples , cattle grazing for the benefit of whole villagers. All the villagers are stake holders , owners of such lands. When MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT acquires such lands to whom does it pay compensation ? what about welfare objectives of those lands ?
30. till date , how many lakes , ponds , how many feeder canals have been closed , filled with mud , developed , sold as sites , etc by MUDA MCC or other land developers ?
31. has the MUDA , MCC taken alternate steps to create new lakes , ponds ? how many are created till date ?
32. in & around mysore city , high tension electric lines are there in busy residential areas . as per Indian electricity act , no permanent structures should be under the HT lines. However there are buildings under it. In some places , HT lines runs in the middle of the road. The authorities Have developed those areas beneath HT lines as parks , rented out
advertisement spaces & built permanent fencing of those areas spending lakhs of taxpayer's money. This fencing obstructs the movement of service personnel of electricity board , to service HT line. Are all these structures under
& surrounding HT lines legal ?
33. till date how many burial grounds are acquired & sold as sites by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT or other developers ? specific figures yearwise since 1987 castewise , religionwise ?
34. in & around mysore city , in how many areas developed by MUDA & private developers , the sewage water generated in those areas is directly let into lake , ponds ?
35. how many tributaries , lakes , ponds are killed in this fashion by MUDA , MCC & other developers , housing societies ?
36. how many business complexes , flats , residential layouts developed by private real estate developers , housing societies are dumping the sewage , / waste generated in their buildings , into unauthorized dumping grounds , lakes , etc . thus disturbing the environment & creating public health hazard ? how the MUDA / MCC is monitoring sewage / waste disposal ? status report yearwise since 1987 till date .
37. how many unauthorized housing layouts are there in & around mysore city ? what action by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT against them ? action taken report yearwise since 1987 till date .
38. around mysore city , vast areas of village farm lands , agricultural lands are acquired by private real estate developers for non agricultural purposes by a single firm or single owner. Are these actions legal ? some of these real estate agents have sold those lands to private industries , multinational companies for crores of rupees. Has the MUDA / MCC /
GOVERNMENT given alienation of land ie conversion from agricultural to industrial usage. Has KIADB given consent to it ?
39. can a single individual / firm can purchase such vast tracts of agricultural lands , is it legal ? is it within the KIADB's
comprehensive industrial area development plan ?
40. has the MUDA / MCC , KIADB given wide publicity , public notice calling for objections before alienation of such lands ?
41. are all those alienations , strictly in conformance to MUDA's / MCC's CDP & KIADB's industrial area development plan ? violations how many ?
42. is the MUDA & KIADB revising / modifying CDP & INDUSTRIAL AREA DEVELOPMENT PLAN , to suit those real estate developers & Private companies ? on what legal grounds ?
43.what action has been taken based on mysore district magistrate mr.T.M.Vijaya Bhaskar's report on land grabbings in mysore ?
44.in mysore city , hebbal-hootagalli industrial area , a lake has been destroyed while building kaynes hotel , hinkal lake is shrinking , lake in front of BEML Quarters has been alloted to M/S THRILLER CLOTHING CO, are all these actions legal & in conformance to MUDA's CDP ? if not why ? what action ?
45. while auctioning off the lands of sick industrial unit M/S IDEAL JAWA LTD , was there any pre-qualification to bidders that after purchase of lands only it must be used for industrial use or only industries can participate in the bidding process ?
46.why not it has been clearly mentioned in the tender document that , said land is open for alienation ?
47. about this issue , our publication has even raised it's objections , in it's newspaper . no action , why ? as a result , the government , banks , employees were cheated off their dues & the private firm made huge profits. is this auction & alienation legal ?
48.numerous NGO's , trusts promoted by religious bodies , mutts are allotted prime lands at preferrential rates , for the reason that they will use it for public / social welfare. however many of the trusts are using the whole or part of the land for commercial purposes other than the stated public / social welfare purpose. what action has been taken by MUDA , MCC or government in such cases ?
49.how many trusts have violated government norms in this way since 1987 till date? what action taken by MUDA , MCC & government action taken report yearwise since 1987 till date ?
50.how many such illegalities / violations by trusts are regularized by MUDA , MCC or authorities , on what legal grounds ? ATR since 1987 till date ?
51.before regularizing such violations have you sought public objections & given media publicity ? if not why ?
52.how you are monitoring the net wealth growth of some MUDA / MCC / REVENUE officials & their family members , who have land acquisition / denotifying , land usage conversion authorities ?
53.how many trusts , NGOs are allotted prime residential / commercial lands by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT on lease basis , in turn the said trusts , NGOs have sulet it either partly or wholly to others ?
54.how many such lease allotments are sold by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT before the expiry of lease period , without public auction ?
55. what are the norms followed by MUDA / MCC / GOVERNMENT for the sale of leased lands to the lessee before the expiry of lease period ?
Read full questionnaire
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/nice-corridor-questions-to-chie\
f-minister
http://sites.google.com/site/sosevoiceforjustice/nice-corridor-questions-to-chie\
f-minister
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