गुरुवार को झारखंड के गोड्डा जिले में स्थित सुंदरपहाड़ी ब्लॉक के आमजोड़ा गांव में आदिवासी अस्तित्व और पर्यावरण सुरक्षा का ऐलान किया गया। कल दिनभर चले सम्मेलन में गोड्डा पावर प्लांट, बोआरीजोर ट्रांसमिशन लाइन, साहेबगंज रिजर्वोयर आदि प्रोजेक्ट प्रभावित इलाकों में रहने वाले करीब 500 लोगों ने शिरकत की।
Defenders of India’s Hasdeo forests enjoyed a huge breakthrough last week, when the relevant state government said it was suspending works on three Adani coal-mining projects. The decision was made following dissent against the mining by a high-profile member of the ruling Congress party in the state of Chhattisgarh. Adivasi (tribal) people have strenuously opposed the coal mines because of the threats to their ancestral lands and way of life. They have called for the stay on the mines to be made permanent.
Odisha authorities told to ‘snuff out’ tribal protests against rail expansion for coal from Adani’s Carmichael mine. In March, police in the eastern Indian state of Odisha cracked down heavily on a protest by Adivasi (tribal) people being displaced by a railway expansion. It is the second time in 70 years that this community has been uprooted without adequate compensation.
Difficulties with completing all the interlocking elements of the huge Godda coal-power project, combined with the monsoon, will probably push its completion date into 2024. One insider believes it will take at least another five years for the plant to produce the full 1600 MW.
Congress figurehead, Rahul Gandhi, has said tribal protests against Adani’s coal mines in the Hasdeo forests are ‘justified’. Results of his work behind the scenes on the ‘problem’ should be ‘visible in a couple of weeks.’
A firm owned by a long-time friend of Gautam Adani is running lucrative covid tests at Adani-run airports in India. The firm appears to have charged rates that are substantially higher than those charged by laboratories at other airports. The company, North Star Diagnostics Private Limited, is owned by Adani’s long-time buddy Dr Malay Ramesh Mahadevia and his immediate family members, including his wife Sonali Mahadevia and his two daughters Tulsi and Bansari.
The firm, Opalina Technologies, was involved in the #MainBhiChowkidar campaign. Shivnath Thukral owned stake in this firm, and his father continues to do so. Shivnath Thukral, a public policy director, India, at WhatsApp Inc (owned by Facebook, now known as Meta) since March 2020, had once owned a stake in Opalina Technologies – a company that has provided software solutions for India’s prime minister Narendra Modi, the prime minister’s office, the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The privatisation of the public sector helicopter operator raises questions that the government so far has refused to answer. An investigation by The Wire and NewsClick. On April 29, 2022, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Star9 Mobility Private Limited’s bid to buy the government’s 51% stake in public sector helicopter service provider Pawan Hans Limited for Rs 211 crore.
The privatisation of Pawan Hans Limited – the Indian government-owned helicopter operator – is shrouded in mystery. The entity that has acquired a controlling stake in Pawan Hans is Star9 Mobility Private Limited, a consortium led by a Dubai-based company about which little information is available. Indian regulators had imposed sanctions on this company, which appears not to have satisfied the eligibility criteria.
