Full Coverage: Land

28.04.2006 NEW DELHI, Apr 28 (OneWorld) - Nearly 2,000 people marched Friday under Delhi's blazing summer sun to protest government policies that are causing people to lose their homes and land across India in the name of economic development.

28.04.2006 Nearly 2,000 people marched on Friday in the heart of Delhi to protest against government policies causing displacement of people all over India. They later submitted a memorandum to President APJ Abdul Kalam seeking stoppage of construction work on the Narmada dam till people are rehabilitated and making a national law that prevents displacement of people without rehabilitation.

27.04.2006 Los medios que han atacado sin tregua la acción de Via Campesina, no consideran vandalismo que Aracruz, la mayor empresa global de plantaciones de eucaliptos para celulosa blanqueada, tenga un historial devastador de destrucción de tierras, biodiversidad y fuentes de agua en el norte de Brasil...

27.04.2006 Last month, on International Women's Day (March 8), nearly 2,000 rural women workers marched to the Aracruz Celulose greenhouse in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and destroyed thousands of eucalyptus seedlings and the accompanying research (...) Why did the women destroy the Aracruz seedlings? The women issued the following press release explaining their actions.

25.04.2006 A democratização da renda e da riqueza no campo no Brasil é uma exigência histórica não apenas para fazer frente à crescente desigualdade social, política e econômica no campo e na cidade como para destituir o poder das velhas e novas oligarquias rurais representadas tanto pelo latifúndio como pelo agronegócio burguês, e que impedem a redistribuição da riqueza e da renda rurais.

25.04.2006 Indian NGO Navdanya has said that the package announced by the Indian government to prevent farmers's suicides - that seeks to increase the flow of credit into rural areas - will only lead to more frustration and suicides among farmers. Navdanya's assumption is based on the fact that capital intensive agriculture is pushing farmers into debt and suicides.

24.04.2006 In its latest Press Release, the Narmada Bachao Andolan has said that the Madhya Pradesh government, which had to rehabilitate the displaced people at the Narmada valley is resorting to lies by saying that these people are "outsiders". The NBA has alleged that such a stand by the government amounts to contempt of the Indian Supreme Court.

21.04.2006 Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar has announced that her struggle would no longer be restricted to the Narmada valley but will be broadened to include the rights of displaced people everywhere in India.

21.04.2006 Hundreds of scientists and engineers, several of them faculty at renowned institues like IITs, IISc Bangalore and American universities like Yale and University of Maryland had challenged the claims by SSP engineer Ashok Gajjar that Rs 2,500 crore worth of electricity will be generated every year if the dam was taken up to 121.9 mts.

19.04.2006 Ayer se cumplieron 10 años de la masacre de El Dorado de Carajas, Brasil. Ese día fue instituido por la Vía Campesina, como el “Día Internacional de la Lucha Campesina”.

19.04.2006 In occasione dei dieci anni dal massacro di Eldorado dos Carajás, oggi 18 aprile, alcuni gruppi delle associazioni italiane vicine al Movimento senza terra (Mst) si sono recate all'ambasciata del Brasile a Roma per chiedere giustizia per le vittime e i sopravvissuti. Dieci anni fa gli agenti aprirono il fuoco indiscriminatamente contro un gruppo di 500 contadini, inclusi donne e bambini, che manifestavano pacificamente per il diritto alla terra: 19 di loro furono uccisi e diverse decine rimasero feriti. A dieci anni dai fatti, migliaia di ‘sem terra’ si sono riuniti nel luogo del massacro chiedendo un nuovo processo contro i 147 poliziotti coinvolti, già assolti nel 2000 e nel 2002: “Siamo qui per denunciare l’impunità. Tutti gli agenti che parteciparono all’operazione sono stati prosciolti e anche gli unici due riconosciuti colpevoli non sono in carcere” riportano in una nota i vertici del Mst, riferendosi al colonnello Mário Colares Pantoja e al maggiore José Maria Oliveira, condannati rispettivamente in primo grado a 228 anni e 158 anni e 4 mesi di detenzione, che attendono a piede libero un giudizio di appello non ancora celebrato.

18.04.2006 The Hindu newspaper has made public the confidential Narmada dam report that was prepared by Union Minister of Water Resources, Saifuddin Soz, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar, and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chauhan on their fact-finding mission to the Narmada valley.

18.04.2006 The UN Special Rapporteurs have expressed concern about the impact of the raising of the Narmada dam on the displacement of people and the submergence of villages in the Narmada valley. The rapporteurs have, in a press release, urged the Indian government to take immediate steps to ensure that raising the dam height will not result in the violation of the human rights of those affected.

18.04.2006 NEW DELHI, Apr 17 (OneWorld) - Indian human rights activist Medha Patkar ended her 20-day-old fast Monday after the Supreme Court of India said it will halt construction of a dam on the Narmada river if the government does not appropriately compensate displaced people.

17.04.2006 Indian human rights activist Medha Patkar ended her 20-day old fast on Monday after the Supreme Court of India said that it will stop the construction of a dam on the Narmada river if the government does not rehabilitate displaced people. Rahul Kumar reports from the agitation site.

17.04.2006 The health of environmental activist Medha Patkar, whose hunger strike to protest against the raising of the Narmada dam entered its 19th day, is deteriorating, warned doctors attending on her on Sunday.

17.04.2006 The Supreme Court of India said on Monday that the construction work on the Sardar Sarovar project on Narmada river should go on side by side with effective rehabilitation of the affected people.

17.04.2006 Though 'feminisation' of agriculture is taking place in rural India with more women taking to farming, cultural attitudes towards women remain intact. As more and more men migrating to cities for work, it is believed that up to 50 per cent of the land is being farmed by women.

12.04.2006 Los campesinos recibieron la productiva finca por una reforma agraria gubernamental que en marzo de 1980 arrebató la tierra a la acaudalada, tradicional y cafetalera familia Dueñas, en un intento de quitar banderas políticas a rebeldes izquierdistas armados.

10.04.2006 The three-member ministerial delegation - Minister for Water Resources Saif-ud-din Soz, Minister for Social Justice Meira Kumar and Minister in the Prime Minster's Office Prithviraj Chauhan - that went to the Narmada Valley to investigate the rehabilitation of people were greeted by protestors at many places. The team also collected first-hand information rehabilitation and resettlement of people.