Noted social activist Medha Patkar on Monday termed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's model of development as a "corporate model" where poor people have lost their land to big corporate houses.
Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar on Monday trained her guns on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and slammed his government for "committing excesses" on tribals, who have lost their land to the Sardar Sarovar Project in the state.
Unrelenting in her demand that work on the Sardar Sarovar Dam should be halted immediately, Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar's indefinite fast entered the eighth day Wednesday.
Activist Medha Patkar, along with 200 other protestors, was detained by the Mumbai police at Santacruz in suburban Mumbai, after she blocked the Western Express Highway on Thursday morning. Traffic movement near the highway was affected by the blockade for over two hours. Patkar and local residents were protesting the demolition of several homes for a slum rehabilitation authority project in Golibar in Santacruz.
Medha Patkar was on Monday arrested when she tried to stage a demonstration outside the Secretariat in Mumbai demanding implementation of rehabilitation package for people in Maharashtra affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project.
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested businessman Sujit Patkar, a friend of Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray MP Sanjay Raut, and another person in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged irregularities in setting up of jumbo COVID-19 treatment facilities in Mumbai, an official said on Thursday.
As his indefinite fast against "inflated" power bills entered the 11th day, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday got the support from activists Aruna Roy and Medha Patkar, who had differences with him on various issues.
Social activist Medha Patkar called off her nine-day long fast following an assurance by Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan that an inquiry would be conducted into the demolition of a slum in Mumbai. She ended her fast after Friday midnight, an associate of the veteran activist said.
Social activist Medha Patkar has said that offensive by security forces against Maoist rebels in the country is hurting people's interests. Talking to reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday, Patkar said, "The offensive was only encouraging violence. This is definite that Central and state government, whether it is Chhattisgarh or West Bengal, are collectively formulating a strategy, which is useless and is not heading towards solving the crisis but is encouraging violence."
Police have registered an offence against social activist Medha Patkar for violating orders prohibiting assembly of more than five people.
There is no logic behind special economic zones, which destroy one form of manufacturing to promote another, says Medha Patkar.
Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar has told the Supreme Court that she is seeking transfer of a criminal defamation case against her outside Gujarat as there was threat to her life in the state from the respondent.
Stating that the Aam Aadmi Party has reduced itself to a "tamasha", veteran social activist Medha Patkar on Saturday resigned from the party as its internal turbulence reached a flashpoint with the ouster of founding members Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from a key panel of the fledgling outfit.
The fiery activist, who is crusading against demolition of slums in Mumbai, entered the conference hall at a hotel in south Mumbai when Chidambaram was about to leave to catch a flight to Delhi after delivering a speech on urban renewal.
The police, however, cited no reason for their arrest.
Medha Patkar, a member of Team Anna, on Friday said there was a need for "overhauling" the group as it was facing a number of allegations and many members of the core committee were being targeted. At the same time, Patkar said she will not be attending Saturday's core committee meeting, which Anna Hazare and Justice Santosh Hegde have also decided to skip. "I don't think there is a difference of opinion," she said.
Social activist and Aam Aadmi Party candidate for upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Mumbai northeast seat, Medha Patkar said her decision to enter the electoral fray was very tough.
"There were CPI-M men carrying red flags who blocked my car and some other vehicles which were going along with mine to Nandigram. I was hit on the face and they tried to pull my hair and were about to drag me out of the car," Patkar told PTI over phone from the spot.
Patkar, who was accompanied by members of Association for Protection of Democratic Righs, SUCI and women rights activist Anuradha Talwar, went around the area in a large group as police personnel looked on.
Anti-dam crusader Medha Patkar on Thursday added more decibels to the raging anti-mega dam agitation in Assam and said that it was now snowballing into national movement for the mass support it had generated.
Social activist Medha Patkar on Wednesday expressed confidence that the Jan Lokpal Bill, now being studied by a Parliamentary Standing Committee, will finally come into effect as it has public support.
Social activist Medha Patkar, who was protesting the eviction of slum-dwellers from Golibar in suburban Khar in Mumbai ended her fast on the ninth day on Saturday after the Maharashtra government agreed to her demands.
The NBA has received no response from the PMO after the fact-finding mission.
Patkar said she expected some concrete action from the Centre on the Narmada Bachao Andolan's demand for rehabilitation of the project-affected people and reversal of the decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam.
"The police not only arrested us, but also beat up some of our members mercilessly. We have not come here to break the law. Why is the police stopping us from moving freely in an independent democratic country," Patkar sought to know.
In a determined voice, she told rediff.com, "I beckon the people of the state and voluntary organisations to launch a well-concerted protest to counter the injustice meted out to the people of Nandigram. We cannot just sit idle and let a government destroy a state."
The abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 paved the way for outsiders to contest polls in the Union Territory.
Singh said the BJP will resist setting up of industries in high-yielding crop land and had also asked the Maharashtra government not to do so. "We want industrialisation on barren land."
"Our arrest is against the law as no written order was shown to us," Yadav said.
Narmada Bachao Movement leader Medha Patkar led a massive protest rally in Guwahati on Wednesday demanding shelving of dam projects in ecologically fragile and tectonically highly sensitive Northeastern region especially in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in order to safeguard interests of masses in the region.
Special economic zones may have got the green signal from the group of ministers, but it is now being termed as unconstitutional.
Patkar and his three partners allegedly bagged Mumbai civic body contracts fraudulently for managing COVID-19 field hospitals during the pandemic, the official said.
Chavan entered the ED office in south Mumbai at around 12.30 pm and came out at about 9 pm, the official said.
She has accused the government of concentrating only on the fishing community.
As many as 37 farmer leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Yogendra Yadav, Darshan Pal and Gurnam Singh Chaduni, have been named in a first information report in connection with the violence during the tractor parade that left 300 police personnel injured even as two farmer unions on Wednesday withdrew from the agitation against the farm laws.
Activist Medha Patkar on Tuesday suggested that Anna Hazare may have taken the decision to disband his team in view of his "concerns" about getting involved with their proposed political front.
An exhausted-looking Patkar, into the fourth day of her fast-unto-death amid the rubble that was once home to scores of people, told rediff.com's Prasanna Zore that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is insensitive to the issues of the urban poor.
In an interview with rediff.com's Sahim Salim social activist Medha Patkar said that Team Anna expected a deadlock between the Congress and BJP when the BJP took a stance on the matter.
Patkar, who was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, said all the activists would return to the valley tonight en route Bhopal and Indore and continue the struggle from there in order to keep up the political pressure generated on the issue.
'We need a candidate who will do our work and fight with the authorities; someone we can hold accountable.' 'Piyush Goyal is not that candidate.'
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