India: Intimidation, harassment, illegal and arbitrary detention of farmer leaders, elected representatives, environment activists and farmers and denial of their right to participate in the public hearing by Surat Police in Gujarat
Event- Country
- India
- Initial Date
- May 14, 2018
- Event Description
Background: The Mumbai - Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (Bullet Train) project is being proposed with financial aid from Japan through its agency Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). It is said that the Indian government has exempted the project from environment and social impact studies. However, the JICA finance mandates that social and environment impact be carried out to ascertain minimum impact due to the project.There are guidelines provided by JICA to undertake the social and environment impact studies and it also provides that transparency be maintained by taking the stakeholders into confidence and holding consultations for the same. There is a discontent brewing among the affected farmers and populace as there is not much information shared with them by the project authorities about the impact and likely displacement. Incident Details: On May 14, 2018, the environment consultation for the Bullet Train project was announced by National HighSpeed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL), a special purpose company registered under the Companies Act with the ownership of Government of India through the Ministry of Railways. The consultation was organised by Arcadis, a company from Netherland holding the contract to undertake surveys.The said consultation wasto be held at 3 PM at Gandhi Smruti Hall, Nanpura, Surat. For the public hearing invitations were sent to elected representatives of local bodies and also through newspaper advertisement to the general public to participate and raise their queries. There was unprecedented police deployment at the entrance and inside of the Gandhi Smruti Hall, around 150 police personnel were present.Peoplewho came to attendthe consultation were frisked and thoroughly checked at the entrance itself. Even their hand-kerchiefs were checked for the colour, to ensure that only people supporting the project get access to the consultation. An atmosphere of fear and intimidation was created by the police to intimidate the farmers and deter them from representing themselves and facts in a fair manner. Before the start of the consultation, Mr. Darshan Nayak, Member of the Surat District Panchayat and Director of Sayan Sugar Co-operative Society who was in conversation with the designated land acquisition officer was taken into custody by police personnel. The farmers and activists demanded to know his whereabouts. The police then detained other farmer leaders and environment activists who demanded the whereabouts of Mr. Darshan Nayak who was detained by the police. The farmers and leaders were forcefully taken away from the venue and were illegally detained by the police for more than two hours, thus, preventing them from participating in the public hearing and to raise and share their legitimate concerns and issues
- Impact of Event
- 8
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Intimidation and Threats
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Summary for Publications
On May 14, 2018, several land and environmental rights defender were harrassed and arbitrarily detained by Surat City Police personnel as they held a consultation for the highly Bullet Train project to be built in India.