COUNTERVIEW: Ahmedabad: Friday, August 03, 2018.
Bullet train
is “pure megalomania of a despot” and is the symbol of “misplaced priorities”
of the NDA government. India needs a Mass Rapid Transport System which is
“affordable, efficient and truly green, not these white elephants which will
push the country in further debt trap for a long time to come.”
This was the
main theme of the speakers at the public meeting organized by the Bhumi Adhikar
Andolan (BAA), India’s land-rights organization, at the Constitution Club,
Delhi. It was participation of activists, researchers and parliamentarians.
The meeting
was organized amidst the ongoing protests against forcible land acquisition in
Gujarat and Maharashtra for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship bullet
train project, even highlighting how the Feasibility Report of the
Mumbai-Ahmadabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR), prepared by Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA), has omitted four crucial chapters.
A report
released by National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM) at the meeting found
that Chapter 12 to 15 went missing in the feasibility report. These chapters
deal with crucial details on project costs, implementation plan, financing
options, and economic and financial analysis.
Named
“Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (Bullet Train), A People’s Critique”, the
report says that the government’s report did not illuminate any sustainability
model and did not mention the costs and its financial burden upon the citizens.
The bullet
train project, which Modi mentioned as his dream project, has attracted
criticism for not following the procedures stipulated in the Land Acquisition
Act 2013, says the report, adding, the feasibility report surprisingly is using
old data, collected in 2011.
The report,
citing a Right to Information Act (RTI) plea, points out how the concerned
authorities simply cite the ‘secrecy’ clause of the RTI Act as the reason for
not providing any information on the bullet train.
The report
further says that the bullet train project’s scheduled completion date has been
fixed at August 15, 2023, though regretting, the due process such as social an
environmental assessment has not been carried out, as mentioned in the Land
Acquisition Act 2013.
A number of
projects, including expressways, industrial corridors, dedicated flight
corridors, existing expansion of the railway line and now the Bullet Train
planned to be setup in a short stretch of area, creating havoc to lives of the
people.
According to
the report, the government estimates the bullet train would have 40,000
passengers in a year, a claim which government sources themselves debunk,
citing the present-day passenger traffic data from the feasibility study.
According to
the report, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route sees a footfall of 4,700 per day at the
airports, and to assert that 98% of these would shift to Bullet Train, as
estimated by Geeta Tiwari, a professor at the Delhi IIT, suggests that only
those who have certain income they seem to opt for the high-speed train.
Releasing the
report, Gujarat based environmentalist and social activist Rohit Prajapati
termed the consultant’s report on environment as mockery, adding, “Notification
for the consultation was issued just 24 hours, that too as a mere formality.
The project is not in compliance with the Land Acquisition Act.”
Astonishingly,
he said, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change or any other
department of the Government of India is not being involved in consultations
around environment and social impact of the project.
The
consultations are being done primarily because the JICA funding guidelines
require it. This is utter shame when our own laws are not applied and
constantly violated.
Among civil
rights leaders who addressed the meet included Ulka Mahajan of the Sarvhara Jan
Andolan, Krishnakant of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, Jayesh Patel of the
Khedut Samaj, Gujarat), Ashok Chowdhary of the All India Union of Forest
Working People, Vijoo Krishnan of the All India Kisan Sabha, Anil Chaudhary of
Insaaf, Ashok Shrimali of Mines Minerals and People, and others.
Politicians
who addressed the meeting included Hannan Mollah, Mohammad Saleem, Jitendra
Chaudhary of the CPI-M, Naseer Hussain of the Congress, DP Tripathy of the NCP,
Manoj Jha of the RJD, D Raja of the CPI, and others.
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