y Our Representative COUNTRYWIEW<\/p>\n
Bullet train is \u201cpure megalomania of a despot\u201d and is the symbol of \u201cmisplaced priorities\u201d of the NDA government. India needs a Mass Rapid Transport System which is \u201caffordable, efficient and truly green, not these white elephants which will push the country in further debt trap for a long time to come.\u201d
\nThis was the main theme of the speakers at the public meeting organized by the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA), India\u2019s land-rights organization, at the Constitution Club, Delhi. It was participation of activists, researchers and parliamentarians.
\nThe meeting was organized amidst the ongoing protests against forcible land acquisition in Gujarat and Maharashtra for Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s 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.
\nA report released by National Alliance for People\u2019s 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.
\nNamed \u201cMumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (Bullet Train), A People\u2019s Critique\u201d, the report says that the government\u2019s report did not illuminate any sustainability model and did not mention the costs and its financial burden upon the citizens.<\/p>\n
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.
\nThe report, citing a Right to Information Act (RTI) plea, points out how the concerned authorities simply cite the \u2018secrecy\u2019 clause of the RTI Act as the reason for not providing any information on the bullet train.
\nThe report further says that the bullet train project\u2019s 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.
\nA 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.
\nAccording 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.
\nAccording 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.<\/p>\n
Releasing the report, Gujarat based environmentalist and social activist Rohit Prajapati termed the consultant\u2019s report on environment as mockery, adding, \u201cNotification 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.\u201d
\nAstonishingly, 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.
\nThe 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.
\nAmong 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.
\nPoliticians 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. https:\/\/www.counterview.net\/2018\/08\/bullet-train-feasibility-report-omits.html<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
y Our Representative COUNTRYWIEW Bullet train is \u201cpure megalomania of a despot\u201d and is the symbol of \u201cmisplaced priorities\u201d of the NDA government. India needs a Mass Rapid Transport System which is \u201caffordable, efficient and truly green, not these white elephants which will push the country in further debt trap for a long time to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUKPQ-HH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2710,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2709\/revisions\/2710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}