[Reader-list] Fw: Tatas, Ambanis, Mittals bat for Modi as PM

[Aashish Gupta]

At around the same time Ambani and others were batting for Modi, the
following email was sent to the foil list.

Modi's communalism is not the only thing that is against him. Even the
nature of Gujarat's industrialization may not be too great.

And lets not forget, when Medha Patkar was on a hunger strike, both the
ambani brothers, along with other famous businessmen, released full page ads
in all the major newspapers, saying they support the Narmada Dams.

Business and Governments both appear to be against the poor in Gujarat.

Aashish


PRESS RELEASE
DATE; 13TH JANUARY 2009
· The success story of the two digit growth has masked
the several digit realities of loss of livelihood,
land acquisition, displacement and permanent loss of
natural resources which are treated as free goods in
this process.

· The investment figure without the displacement and
depletion of natural resources figure and the
employment figure without loss of livelihood does not
make sense. – Rohit Prajapati and Dr. Trupti Shah

· No wise person would talk about the income without
talking the cost of acquiring that income or wealth.

In the midst of the euphoria created by the investment
flooding in to Gujarat and lakhs of new jobs likely to
be created we would like to draw the attention of the
5.5 crore of Gujaratis that this is only one side of
the story.

The success story of the two digit growth has masked
the several digit realities of loss of livelihood,
land acquisition, displacement and permanent loss of
natural resources, which are treated as free goods in
this process. The investment figure without the
displacement and depletion of natural resources figure
and the employment figure without loss of livelihood
does not make sense. No wise person would talk about
the income without talking the cost of acquiring that
income or wealth.

It is a shocking fact that we have never tried to
arrive at even a realistic estimate of these figures
but the magnitude of the loss can be guessed from some
of the facts emerging from various important research
works. This is just a tip of iceberg.

Development-Induced Displacement in Gujarat 1947-2004
report prepared by Dr. Lancy Lobo and Shashikant Kumar
of Centre for Culture and Development clearly
indicates that there are 4,00,000 households displaced
and affected in Gujarat during 57 years of
Independence, amounting to 5% of the total population
of Gujarat from developmental projects such as water
resource related, transport and communications,
industries, mines, defence, sanctuaries, human
resource related, government offices, tourism and so
on. This report further indicates that a total of
33,00,000 hectares of land has been acquired during
1947-2004 as computed from 80,000 Gazette
notifications of the government of Gujarat and from
Land Acquisition Departments from 25 Collectorates
through RTI Act. This figure does not include the land
acquired and people affected by the most controversial
project Sardar Sarovar Dam [Narmada]. The acquisition
of land was not based on the market value of the
land but by bypassing all the rules of market
mechanism.

This figure of displaced also does not include the
people who were dependent on land for their livelihood
but were not the owner of the land. Thus real figure
of loss of livelihood may even cross the figure of
50,00,000. We hope that this figure is not negligible
for the Government of Gujarat.

2007 and now in 2009 vibrant Gujarat summit is talking
about huge investment but is silent on the issue of
land acquisition and loss of livelihood because of the
land "acquisition".

We would like to inform 5.5 Crore Gujaratis that
because of haphazard industrialisation, Gujarat has a
number of industrial pollution Hot-Spots, where
pollution levels are critical in surface water,
groundwater and air. Ankleshwar, Vapi, Nandesari and
Vatva are some such Hot-Spots.

However, no zoning atlas is available for heavily
industrialised districts in the Golden Corridor,
where, in addition to existing industries, the
Government has planned a number of Mega chemicals
Industrial Estates.

In Gujarat, groundwater is the major source of
drinking water in several talukas including those with
a high concentration of industries. This groundwater
has been contaminated in some areas of about 74
talukas out of 184 talukas. Some of them are in the
Golden Corridor - areas along the Kharicut Canal near
Ahmedabad, areas around Ankleshwar Industrial Estate,
some areas along ECP, and the areas surrounding Vapi
which are among the critical polluted areas. The types
of groundwater pollutants are TDS, hardness, salinity,
chloride, COD, color, heavy metals, and POPs.

Current knowledge of the Gujarat Government on surface
and groundwater contamination is very limited.
Isolated reports exist of groundwater contamination in
industrial areas. Comprehensive studies to identify
the contamination of entire aquifers are absent.

Rohit Prajapati
[ROHIT PRAJAPATI]
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST
Trupti Shah
[Dr. TRUPTI SHAH]
ECONOMIST