This is the inside story of how the #ModiGovt selectively interpreted the law and helped the #Adani group’s Rs 19, 000 crore projects in ecologically sensitive areas of Western Ghats where such projects are prohibited. article-14.com/post/how-modi-…
Documents show the legal interpretation could, in future, help the #Adani group’s 5 projects which are estimated to cost Rs 60 thousand crores and planned inside ecologically sensitive areas of the Western Ghats.
A careful analysis of the @moefcc's proposed amendments to the Forest (Conservation) Act reveals how they could end up encouraging deforestation and promoting ecologically harmful plantations.
Read 👇
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bit.ly/3oyhPJv
"These amendments reduce the scope of this important legislation that works to prevent rapid deforestation. The emphasis is more on deregulating to enable deforestation for certain exceptions and compensating with plantations," said @arpithakodiveri
Haryana CM Manohar Lal lobbied the environment minister in March to expedite clearances to 15 little known firms which violated the EIA law & weren't eligible to receive Environment Clearance.
Documents show MoEFCC bent the law to help the firms.bit.ly/3CNPuCC
In a letter, the Haryana CM even referenced a special amnesty which his government had granted the 15 firms.
3 months after he wrote this letter, the National Green Tribunal declared this amnesty illegal.
NEW: Days after PM Modi announced the new #CovidVaccine policy, health ministry told me in replies to RTIs that info abt previous policy (on which d Govt did a u turn) won't be provided because doing so is not in public interest. Seriously!
There's more..bit.ly/3iBteW0
When asked for docs about drafting of the infamous vaccine policy where states were asked to float tenders for vaccine, info which even the SC has asked the Govt to provide, health ministry said sharing this info will violate India's strategic interests! bit.ly/3iBteW0
Mar 26, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
📢EXCLUSIVE
Official documents I accessed under the RTI Act expose the role played by legacy media firms in throttling digital news media.
From the FDI cut to the draconian new IT Rules, legacy media's lobbying efforts have their footprints all over.
First, they reveal how the big guns in the legacy media, including the powerful Times Group, lobbied to starve nascent digital media entities of investment to preserve their dominance.
Last week, as air pollution in Delhi-NCR rightly took up all our attention, the Modi Govt quietly gave an important update to the Delhi HC about the translations of the #DraftEIA2020 notification in 22 Indian languages. Details 👇 bit.ly/2TBzLCb
In an affidavit, the environment ministry claimed it received translations of #EIA2020 in 22 Indian languages from states, but won’t publish them for public consultation as the translations can't be verified & so could cause “confusion and complications” bit.ly/2TBzLCb
Jul 28, 2020 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
SCOOP: It may be public knowledge that the environment ministry bungled up public consultation for #EIAdraft2020 But when it was questioned about this, the ministry brazenly misled the Karnataka High Court. See highlights in thread, details in the story: bit.ly/3jNJ0eD
Here's the chronology: On 16 July, the Karnataka HC directed the MoEF&CC to ensure “wide publicity” for the #EIAdraft2020 more than two weeks after the Delhi HC directed the ministry to translate the law into India’s 22 local languages. Details here bit.ly/30tHiGj
Jul 15, 2020 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
🚨SCOOP🚨
Weeks after its 1k+ emails demanding withdrawal of draft #EIA2020 flooded the MoEF&CC's inboxes-& top Modi Govt officials scrutinised their text-@LetIndBreathe website was abruptly blocked by a govt controlled firm, interviews & documents reveal bit.ly/32pXfQB
.@LetIndBreathe recently claimed that #InternetCensorship is in place in India. This report reveals why such fears are expressed. The collective & its legal counsel @internetfreedom mentioned that websites of 2 more campaign organisations are blocked. bit.ly/32pXfQB
Jul 3, 2020 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
EXCLUSIVE: The controversial new draft of India's main law for giving environment clearances—which the Modi Govt tried to push during #lockdown without proper public consultation—was designed to be a diluted version. This is how 2 ministers ensured that. bit.ly/31Ebb99
Briefly put: the specific terms of reference and objectives approved by the ministers for an expert committee working on drafting the new law for environment clearances resulted in some controversial provisions added to its draft, official documents show. bit.ly/31Ebb99
Jun 25, 2020 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
Documents accessed by @HuffPostIndia reveal a blow-by-blow account of how the Modi govt is evading public scrutiny of its actions by using the #coronavirus lockdown to ram through controversial dilutions to one of India's most important environmental laws. bit.ly/2YuIiKt
The story begins on March 23 when the environment ministry first uploaded the draft EIA Notification of 2020 on its website seeking public feedback till May 22. In other words, two days before the country was to go into a #lockdownbit.ly/2YuIiKt
Jun 4, 2020 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
<Interview> In the #COVIDー19 lockdown, we have slid back to an age where information is disclosed to citizens only on need-to-know basis by govt officials & people’s right to know as a principle is ignored, said RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak of @CHRI_INTbit.ly/2BnFYMb
Context for the statement above: Nayak was responding to questions about the recent legally binding advisory issued by the Central Information Commission to the Modi govt to release data about migrant workers who continue to remain stranded across India. bit.ly/2BnFYMb
Apr 8, 2020 • 14 tweets • 7 min read
The Modi government has been at pains to emphasise the virtues of PM-CARES over PMNRF in India's battle over #coronavirus, but both funds fail the test of transparency in one important way. See the story and the tweets in this thread for more details: bit.ly/3aNEnMB
The audited reports on the PMNRF website consciously avoid revealing details about who its donors & beneficiaries are, the PM-CARES fund's dedicated page on the PM's official website also does not disclose these details either. bit.ly/3aNEnMB
Feb 28, 2020 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
1. <The Good Doctors Of Mustafabad> The Al-Hind hospital was thrust into the role of being a saviour of #DelhiRiot2020 victims. Its work was noted after a Delhi HC order, but challenges faced by doctors at the hospital continue; they need help. Our report: bit.ly/2Tkm5ew2. "We didn’t have any idea that situation would worsen so much, so we were not prepared to deal with something like this at all," recalled Dr M Anwar, MD of the hospital, on Wednesday. Al-Hind is an imp hospital because it is the only one in neighbourhood bit.ly/2Tkm5ew
Feb 17, 2020 • 15 tweets • 8 min read
1. Finance Min Nirmala Sitharaman’s claim that the Indian economy is witnessing “green shoots” of recovery is a “problem" & #EconomicSlowdown is here to stay, India's former chief statistician Pronab Sen told me in this interview.Key points in this #Threadbit.ly/3bIlrjd2. Last week, FM Sitharaman said Indian economy was "not in trouble" & there were "green shoots" of recovery citing good numbers from 7 economic indicators, including high FDI & #GST collections. Few days later, 2 key indicators showed poor numbers bit.ly/3bIlrjd
Feb 6, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
1. This is the 1st blow-by-blow account, based on official documents, of how the Modi Govt ensured that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's proposal of making Magsaysay Award winning IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi AAP Govt's anti-corruption chief failed. bit.ly/2OwpNAa2. The proposal generated immense public curiosity at the time. Appointment of Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who has a reputation for probing & exposing scams, in Kejriwal’s Office suited the #AamAadmiParty's stated agenda of battling corruption well bit.ly/2OwpNAa
Dec 12, 2019 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
1. Thousands of forest dwellers in #Jharkhand are at risk of being evicted from their lands due to failure of the state Govt. to fix issues relating to the FRA. This issue has been below the radar, so let me explain why it's imp #JharkhandAssemblyPollsbit.ly/2Pc4DYK2. Remember the SC order in Feb bcoz which put over 1 million Adivasis & other forest dwellers at risk of eviction? Among the states which were asked to respond to that order was the state of #Jharkhand, which is going to polls today. bit.ly/2Pc4DYK
Sep 11, 2019 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
1. SCOOP: Maharashtra Govt admits in Supreme Court that forest rights claims of tens of thousands of Adivasis & others in the state were illegally rejected by babus. This has put the Adivasis at risk of being forcefully evacuated from their lands #Threadbit.ly/2m3YZvt2. In affidavits filed in the SC, Maharashtra govt said the bureaucracy-led District Level Committees rejected over 22,509 forest rights claims without properly assessing evidence submitted to support these claims & gave irrelevant reasons to reject them. bit.ly/2m3YZvt
May 16, 2019 • 21 tweets • 10 min read
EXCLUSIVE: Sharad Pawar & Modi Govt, with the full awareness of the Prime Minister's Office, sought to help a Pune builder who violated green laws & was penalised by the National Green Tribunal for doing so. Full report at: bit.ly/2VFYXuF#Thread with key highlights 1/n
After the NGT imposed Rs 105 cr in damages on the Pune builder for violating green laws & damaging environment, Sharad Pawar wrote a letter lobbying PM Modi to water down NGT's powers, help the "construction sector" of Maharashtra. (pg1 of letter) bit.ly/2VFYXuF 2/n
