‘Have some rationale while planning projects' Staff Reporter http://www.thehindu.com/2010/08/08/stories/2010080853400300.htm
Irrational development projects lead to rights violations: Medha Patkar Thrissur: Irrational development programmes have led to violation of human rights of the under-privileged, social activist Medha Patkar has said. Addressing a meeting of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) here on Saturday, Ms. Patkar, national convener of NAPM, urged the Union and State governments to have some rationale while planning projects and deciding sites for industries. “Farm lands and even densely-populated areas have been evacuated for infrastructure. No ruler is bothered about the problems of the displaced people.” The nexus between politicians and land mafia had resulted in loss of precious land belonging to the common man, she said. “On one side, there are wide national highways and huge flyovers and on the other are the Adivasis, who have been denied all basic rights.” People had to raise their voice for survival as the State failed to protect people's Constitutional rights, she said. People's movements had been trying to voice the agony of the marginalised sections in a democratic manner, she said. Ms. Patkar said that State-sponsored violence should be stopped to bring back peace to the tribal belt of the country. “The rulers want to evacuate the tribals from the resource-rich belt to enable the corporate giants to occupy their land. Even the peaceful struggles of people's movements are branded insurgence,” she said. She appealed to all democratic forces to unite and fight the brazen attempts to grab the land of tribals and farmers. Senior journalist B.R.P. Baskar delivered keynote address. Leaders of various people's movements, including Laha Gopalan (Chengara land struggle); T. Peter (Fish worker's struggle); Vilayodi Venugopal (Anti CocoCola struggle, Plachimada); Hashim Chennampilly (Movement against land acquisition for NH-17 and NH-47 widening); A. Latha (Athirappilly hydel project issue); C.F. George (Chakkumkandam sewage issue) and T.K. Vasu (Lalur Makineekarana Viruddha Samara Samithi) also spoke. http://www.keralafishworkers.in http://www.alakal.net -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
