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Activists decry rights’ violations
Violence perpetrated by the State, including fake encounters, illegal detentions and through mining policy and environmental destruction were the main issues that figured in the 16th State-level conference of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), which was held at Sarojini Auditorium on Saturday. Several human rights organizations participated at the event.
State conference of APCLC held
Hyderabad: Violence perpetrated by the State, including fake encounters, illegal detentions and through mining policy and environmental destruction were the main issues that figured in the 16th State-level conference of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), which was held at Sarojini Auditorium on Saturday. Several human rights organizations participated at the event.
Goutam Navlakha of PUDR , Delhi, Vrinda Grover, Supreme Court Advocate, Dr P Sathya Lakshmi, Environmentalist were the speakers at the event, apart from the leadership of APCLC and other organizations like Human Rights Forum, OPDR and CLMC.
The programme was started by offering tributes to martyrs, followed by inauguration of the event by MT Khan, a senior journalist. Navlakha said that Operation Green Hunt was a resounding fact of State violence and that Maoist movement needed to be viewed as a political movement, instead of an anti-State movement. He demanded the UAPA (Unlawful Assembly Prevention Act) and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to be scrapped immediately.
Vrinda Grover said that the extra-judicial killings of the State were against the UN convention on human rights. Prof S Seshaiah, President of APCLC, said that the organization has lost six-martyrs due to State violence- Japa Laxmareddy, Dr Ramnadham, Gopi Rajanna, Narra Prabhakar Reddy, Purushottam and Azam Ali. He alleged that the State was directly responsible for the murder of Ganti Prasadam, who was brutally murdered by some goons in Nellore recently. He said that the State has been using ‘Chattisgrh Chirutalu’ and other organisations making it to look like an inter-Maoist group clashes, which were in fact dummy organizations created by the forces.
Prof Seshaiah and Raghunath from APCLC had appeared in the newspapers recently, when they were threatened by ‘Chattisgarh Chiruthalu’ that they would be killed if they talked about Ganti Prasadam. Dr Sathya Lakshmi explained how mining activities have been affecting the health of people around the mining areas. She said that 1.2 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes of iron ore were exported to China at the time of Olympics, even though 20 mining companies were banned in Karnataka at the time.
She pointed out how grains like Ragi, Sajja and Jawar were not being cultivated in villages anymore. She said that the State Government had recently given permission to 70 companies in coastal corridor for power projects.
