Fwd: [initiative-india] URGENT APPEAL DEMANDING RELEASE OF RAMESH AGARWAL AND HARIHAR PATEL

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: NAPM India <napmindia@napm-india.org>
Date: Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 8:38 PM
Subject: [initiative-india] URGENT APPEAL DEMANDING RELEASE OF RAMESH AGARWAL AND HARIHAR PATEL

URGENT APPEAL DEMANDING RELEASE OF RAMESH AGARWAL AND HARIHAR PATEL

Sign online petition http://www.change.org/petitions/free-raigarh-activists

Dear Friends,

Greetings !

After sustained campaign Dr. Binayak Sen is now out on bail from Supreme Court but on a daily basis Chattisgarh Government continues to suppress the voices of human rights and social activists across the state. The recent victims of such an attrocity has been Ramesh Agrawal and Hairhar Patel, who has been crucial in raising awareness of the mining industry and its irregular practices in the Raigarh District of Chhattisgarh.

Sign an online petition demanding their immediate release http://www.change.org/petitions/free-raigarh-activists

Both were detained on May 28th 2011 for speaking out at a June 2010 public hearing against Jindal Steel and Power's 2,400 MW expansion of a 1,000 MW Tamnar-based thermal power plant. The plant has a long running list of legal and environmental violations—some ranking as serious as failure to get environmental and forest clearance. Naveen Jindal, the Congress MP from Kurukshetra, Haryana since 2004 is the Managing Director of JSP and has used his personal influence with the concerned ministries at the Central and State government to seek undue favour. He claims to be a patriot but it is nothing but a complete conflict of interest.   

The public hearing is a forum, as mandated by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, which exists wholly for the purpose of gauging public opinion—yet this exercise is almost always a farce. The Union environment ministry has asked now on June 10 to Naveen Jindal-owned Jindal Steel & Power to respond to allegations that the company had built its coal washery at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh without obtaining prior environmental clearance from the ministry.

In 2008 Dr. Patel was beaten unconscious by the police at one of such hearings, after JSP goons had dispensed alcohol to company workers and instructed them to start a riot. Now, according to Amnesty International, Ramesh Agrawal, needed urgent medical attention but was instead handcuffed to a hospital bed in a government hospital. This amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

An online petition has been created demanding his release, kindly do sign it and circulate it http://www.change.org/petitions/free-raigarh-activists. Their cases will be heard in the High Court the week of June 20th.

NAPM Condemns this act against the human rights activists and demands immediate release and revoking of false charges against both the activists.

Yours Sincerely,

Madhuresh Kumar

for

NAPM

More information regarding Ramesh Agrawal and Harihar Patel's arrest:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/025/2011/en/93b9014b-e2fa-4936-8282-5b67cd6f1ef6/asa200252011en.html

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Environmental-crusader-sent-to-jail-for-taking-on-company/articleshow/8631387.cms

http://www.anhourago.in/show.aspx?l=8601839&d=502
http://www.breakingnewsindia.in/environmental-crusader-sent-to-jail-for-taking-on-company/2011/05/
http://www.ecopressnews.com/all/environmental-crusader-sent-to-jail-for-taking-on-company-times-of-india/
http://onespot.wsj.com/indian-politics/2011/05/28/41d69/environmental-crusader-sent-to-jail-for

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-04/india/29620090_1_sessions-court-chhattisgarh-patel

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rti-activist-arrested-chained-to-hospital-bed/156273-3.html.

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