Green activist's arrest embarrassing Chhattisgarh
NEW DELHI: After the jailing of Binayak Sen, the arrest of an environment and RTI activist Ramesh Agarwal is causing global embarrassment to the Chhattisgarh government.
The activist is renowned in the Indian and international circuit of green activists for his strong scrutiny of private projects in the state that is bursting at its seams with mining projects and thermal power plants.
Agarwal has been at the forefront of using the Right to Information Act and getting companies to share mandatory data with villagers while holding public hearings which are a must to get environmental clearances. Also his use of internet and all media formats has gained him friends across other countries.
He was arrested on May 11 this year for alleged defamatory statements in May last year against Jindal Power Limited in a mandatory public hearing of its projects. The arrest, almost a year after the complaint was filed got the activists' attention. But worse, the photographs of the man arrested and chained to a hospital bed went viral causing an international uproar.
Based on Agarwal's complaints and information against Jindal Power, the Union environment ministry had stopped work at the company project site and sent it a show cause for alleged violation of green laws. The stop work order was later revoked but the company filed a complaint against the activist for defamation and intimidation instead.
The Union environment ministry's team found the 2,400 MW project in violation but the ministry subsequently restored the clearances given to the project.
But the arrest of the activist a year down the road has seen activists not just from Nepal, Pakistan andBangladesh but even from Bulgaria, Peru and Ecuador and countries in Europe send missives to the state government as well as Centre to intervene and bail out Agarwal.http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-08/india/29633743_1_project-site-activist-chhattisgarh
No comments:
Post a Comment