Since I was young, I’ve been involved in many movements and this is why I consider myself an activist at heart. I have been engaged in the 1989 student movement that was defending students’ rights in the university. I also attempted to fight against the Ram Mandir Andolan movement in the 1990’s. Further, when Iraq was attacked by America, I…
The government and a power company are forcefully acquiring Dalit land, leading to violence.
“It is ridiculous that they want to use such fertile land for a power company,” says Ajeet. “And that too, at the risk of ruining the lives of almost 50,000 people. I can’t believe it. Even today, industrialization always happens in areas where people are barely subsisting. The priorities of our country’s government need to change.”
Eight villages are being affected by the conflict caused around this project. Thousands of farmers have been out protesting for more than a month now, and clashes with the police led to the death of one farmer. The farmers have established a union and have set up camp close to the wire fences around the land and refuse to let anyone from the power company to resume construction work. The company, JP, is now in the process of preparing to build a helipad on the land.
“They came to the place I work in Allahabad. They came to request help from certain politicians and I was at the office of the activist’s union, which is in the same building. I started talking to them because they seemed so disturbed. I went to where they had set up camp to do this video. I came back disturbed.”
In this video of UPS Manwan Awoora school, Kupwara, Kashmir, the community correspondent Pir Azhar shows us that there are nine classes for 250 students, and due to lack of space, the lower primary classes are held outside in the open. Also the school has only 7 teachers.
Houseboats are a major tourist attraction in Kashmir. History says that this tradition started in the 1800s and since then it has created a unique heritage in the tourism industry.
