000-tobecategorised

Metro work causing havoc in Surat in India — by Vidyadhar Date — 28/02/2023
Metro work causing havoc in Surat, in Mr Modi’s home state. In Mumbai bus transport is neglected.

At the same time the governments are heavily discriminating against the low cost bus systems, denying them funds and creating problems for them actually. Rampant privatisation has added to the havoc. In Mumbai the acclaimed BEST Undertaking bus network is being neglected. Last week it took off as many as 400 CNG operated buses from its fleet causing serious hardship to lakhs of commuters. Frequent fires in buses have been cited as the reason.

In Surat’s Varachha area the havoc was caused apparently by a tunnel boring machine. So some residents are getting slush and mud in their water pipes but no drinking water. And this is happening in what is being touted as a smart city.

The Supreme court recently declared that the bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai was of national importance while rejecting a plea by Godrej in a case of land acquisition. but then the Supreme court should also declare bus transport as of much more importance because the bus is the most crucial form of urban transport. nn the bus system is extremely low cost and requires very little infrastructure. Mumbai’s bus transport can easily take care of all the transport needs of the city without one km of Metro.

What Shashi Tharoor said at the Congress plenary that no other party leader did
Story by Kaushik Deka  https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/what-shashi-tharoor-said-at-the-congress-plenary-that-no-other-party-leader-did-2340234-2023-02-27   https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/what-shashi-tharoor-said-at-the-congress-plenary-that-no-other-party-leader-did/ar-AA17YUUz

The former Union minister minced no words when he said: "We must have the courage of our convictions. We could have been more vocal on the Bilkis Bano outrage, the attacks on Christian churches, murder in the name of cow vigilantism, bulldozer demolition of Muslim homes and similar issues." Tharoor said that the Congress should outline the elements of a progressive economic agenda that addresses head on the challenge of unacceptable economic inequality. Like his colleagues, Tharoor also raised the need to launch a direct assault on "rampant crony capitalism", which he said is "concentrating wealth in the hands of a few friends of the ruling regime and is damaging the economy, leading to massive problems of rising unemployment and diminished futures for young Indians".  

Public Statement by Indian people’s movements, trade unions and other civil society groups on G20 https://wgonifis.wordpress.com/2023/02/27/endorsement-for-public-statement-on-indias-g20-presidency/
G20 & its priorities will worsen economic, social and climate crisis.
India’s Presidency is used for vulgar display of pomp & for electoral gains.

G20 has remained as an exclusive club, a forum to save capitalism at the highest political level through the promotion of neoliberal policies. This provides an important imperative for the progressive civil society groups to raise questions around G20’s accountability and more importantly its legitimacy as a forum of global economic governance....In the run-up to scheduled G20 meetings in different cities of India, government authorities are displacing the homeless people to far-flung areas, removing street vendors, and small shops from the roadsides to ‘beautify’ the cities. The party in power is forwarding India as the “centre of diversity” and “mother of democracy” while also consistently using all national institutions at its disposal to silence the dissenting voices of human rights defenders, repeatedly attacking minority communities with impunity and systematically destroying institutions and progressive civil society spaces....

Members of adivasi as also dalit-bahujan farming, fishing, livestock rearing and other forest dwelling communities, in other fragile ecosystems, are losing their lives or their freedoms in the struggle to safeguard their rights over natural resources while constantly facing threats from governments and profit-hungry private corporations. Publicly owned enterprises – importance of which was evident during the pandemic – are being handed over to few privately owned business houses through a massive push for privatisation. Policies are being changed to push the informal sector including small and micro businesses to the edge and to make space for medium and big players. Mega infrastructure projects are being implemented without any heed to their socio-economic impact on communities and environmental damage. And, a complete negligence of the working class and labour rights through withdrawal of welfare policies has resulted in high levels of inequality and social progress indicators touching an abysmal low.