From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu Sep 2 02:11:44 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 13:41:44 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: CFP (Asia Research Inst.): Decentralization & Urban Transformation in Asia (15 Nov. Deadline) Message-ID: <739062.59695.qm@web57409.mail.re1.yahoo.com> i thought this might resonate with the work of some of our list members. curt ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Wendy Plotkin To: H-URBAN at H-NET.MSU.EDU Sent: Wed, September 1, 2010 2:48:07 PM Subject: CFP (Asia Research Inst.): Decentralization & Urban Transformation in Asia (15 Nov. Deadline) From: Frank Conlon [Ed: Please note that Frank Conlon, the H-Asia editor, forwarded this Call for Papers to H-Urban. If you have questions about the conference, please contact the conference organizers, whose names are included in the call.] Cross-post from H-ASIA, August 28, 2010 Call for papers Decentralization and Urban Transformation in Asia Singapore, March 10-11, 2011 DEADLINE 15 NOVEMBER 2010 *********************************************************************** From: H-Net Announcements Decentralization and Urban Transformation in Asia [Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore March 10-11, 2011] Location: Singapore Call for Papers Date: 2010-11-15 Date Submitted: 2010-08-26 Announcement ID: 178385 This multidisciplinary conference explores the relationship between different forms and degrees of decentralization and urban change in Asia. Recent regional trends toward the devolution of state power and resources have implications for the emergence of city-regions as important actors within and beyond nation-states, and as sites of innovation in addressing challenges related to urban growth, public service delivery, community building, and the management of resources for livable and sustainable cities. The shift in responsibility from central governments to the local level also has import for internal migration flows from rural-to-urban areas (and vice versa) and for the changing material fabric of urban centers, both in their built environment and in the lived spaces of city residents. The nexus between decentralization and urban transformation in Asia may take on various practical permutations and function at different levels. Decentralization may achieve its normative goal of encouraging city administrations to be more responsive to the needs and aspirations of their constituents by bringing government closer to the people. Conversely, decentralization within the contexts of globalization and privatization may circumvent critical aspects of democratic procedure if city administrations use their increased access to state power and resources to nurture clientelistic networks of patronage and/or to tap into wider circles of regional or global economic activity at the expense of local development. Decentralization may also operate at multiple levels as both an agent and consequence of urban transformation. For instance, decentralization to cities may contribute towards decentralization within cities in a process of urban decentralization, otherwise known as suburbanization or urban sprawl. We invite submission of papers from young and established scholars, policymakers, planners, legislators, architects and development practitioners on the interplay between decentralization and urban change in Asia. In this, we encourage applicants to consider empirical case studies and theories within comparative Asian contexts, and what lessons might be learned from Asia for urban transformations in other parts of the world. Questions that will guide the conference proceedings to speak to related themes across disciplinary and geographical boundaries include: How has decentralization changed the role and functions of local administrations in Asian cities? In what ways has decentralization transformed the built environment of urban spaces and the lived environments of city residents? How have the processes and structures of decentralization empowered cities to emerge as new centers of innovation in responding to localized challenges (such as conflict management, rapid urbanization and issues of livability, sustainability, public service delivery and community building)? What networks of governance and inter-city cooperation have emerged between cities within and beyond national borders since the initiation of decentralization? How has decentralization reconfigured relations between cities and between cities and their surrounding hinterlands (that is, urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban linkages and networks)? To what extent are cities in Asia seen as models of best practice in the governance of decentralization? Does this portend for the travel of Asian city models of good governance and urban sustainability within and beyond the region? SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract (250 words maximum) and a brief personal biography of 150 words by 15 November 2010. Please submit and address all applications and enquiries to Dr Michelle Miller (arimam at nus.edu.sg). Successful applicants will be notified by 30 November 2010 and will be required to send in a completed draft paper (5,000 - 8,000 words) by 11 February 2011. CONTACT DETAILS Organisers: Dr Michelle Miller arimam at nus.edu.sg Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore Dr Tim Bunnell geotgb at nus.edu.sg Asia Research Institute and Dept of Geography, National University of Singapore Ms Valerie Yeo Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore 469A Tower Block, Level 10, Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 259770 Tel: (65) 6516 5279 Fax: (65) 6779 1428 Email: valerie.yeo at nus.edu.sg Visit the website at http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/events_categorydetails.asp?categoryid=6&eventid=1088 Frank Conlon Editor, H-Asia http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/ ******************************************************************* H-Urban Posting/Mailing Address: h-urban at h-net.msu.edu (mailto: h-urban at h-net.msu.edu) (H-Urban editor-on-duty reviews *all* mail, including postings) Please include institutional/departmental affiliation and your WWW site URL, if possible. If you currently have no institutional affiliation, include a brief note so that we don't write to ask for one. H-Urban Posting Guidelines: http://www.h-net.org/~urban/disclist#posts H-Urban Job Postings: Please place an announcement in the H-Net Job Guide (at http://www.h-net.org/jobs/instructions.php ) and then send the posting to H-Urban, at h-urban at h-net.msu.edu , with a note that it has been posted in the Job Guide. We may not post job announcements unless they are first placed in the H-Net Job Guide. H-Urban Reviews: Please ask publishers to send books to be reviewed to H-Net, per the instructions at http://www.h-net.org/help/reviews.php#publishers . Please do not send your own announcements of books to H-Urban. H-Urban Logs (Monthly): http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=lm&LIST=H-Urban (To retrieve earlier messages on a recent topic -- need to choose H-Urban in pull-down window) H-Urban Logs (Search since 1993): http://www.h-net.org/logsearch/ (Need to choose H-Urban in pull-down window) H-Urban WWW: http://www.h-net.org/~urban/ ******************************************************************* From cugambetta at yahoo.com Tue Sep 7 04:56:22 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2010 16:26:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] The challenges of urban planning, 7th of September, Bangalore Message-ID: <241145.39340.qm@web57405.mail.re1.yahoo.com> via Sathya Prakash Varanashi varanashi at gmail.com Swissnex india Challenges of urban planning swissnex India invites a panel of experts to discuss the challenges of urban planning in Bangalore Date_7th of September 2010 Time_6-8 pm (including refreshments) Location_National Gallery of Modern Art · 49 Palace Road · Bangalore Participation by invitation only_Email confirmation appreciated to swnxindia at gmail.com Talks and panel discussion by_ Mrs. Swathi Ramanathan_Co-Founder of Janaagraha and Chairperson of India Urban Space Foundation Prof Sathya Prakash Varanashi_Urban Studies, Heritage Conservation & Public Forums Prof Bernd Scholl_Institute for Spatial & Landscape Planning ETHZ (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) Prof Susan Ubbelohde_Department of Architecture, University of California Berkeley and Co-Founder of »Loisos + Ubbelohde« architcture firm Moderator_Mr. Soumitro Ghosh_Mathew & Ghosh architects pvt.ltd From ravis at sarai.net Wed Sep 8 18:22:32 2010 From: ravis at sarai.net (Ravi Sundaram) Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:22:32 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] Friday: Libraries and the city Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20100908182117.03e709a0@mail.sarai.net> The Delhi Urban Platform invites you to a discussion on Libraries and the City 6 pm, 10th September, 2010 Library, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi-54 Imagine Paradise, like Jorge Luis Borges did, as some kind of library. And this sprawling Paradise of great big wooden shelves sky high that you have to manoeuvre like a silverfish trapped in bookspines. The Library Space is a realm of imagined realities, the space of lore and learning and shared knowledge, where you can roam free and be what you read. Ideas rippling with magical electricity, surprising you in explosive ways. A physical landscape and simultaneously an imagined one, of the mind but rendered with texture and organisation and meaning. Do such spaces exist in great big cities like Delhi, where the quiet hum of a reading community can come together and access knowledge and gather to think? The library is now the bureaucratised machinery of catalogues and storage space. The lack of public libraries and libraries as public spaces proclaims an absence of a culture of an opening up of the library to the reader,the absence of a librarian who is not merely the taxonomist of dead cellulose, and the absence of books that are not only bought or owned, but savoured in circulation. This Friday, the 10th of September, we invite librarians, publishers, readers and book lovers to to reflect on the role of libraries as a site of public gathering and learning in the city. Join us for an conservation with: Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Media practitioner, filmmaker, writer, and reader) Sikander Changezi (Founder of a community library in Old Delhi) Chiki Sarkar (Editor-in-chief of Random House India) Avinash Jha (Librarian, CSDS) Cordelia Jenkins (Journalist at Mint) Anjana Chatthopadhyay (Director, Delhi Public Library) Sheeba Cchachi ( Installation artist, photographer, activist, and writer) [Shuddhabrata Sengupta as chair] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu Sep 9 04:40:43 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 16:10:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: Unlimited, Designing for the Asia Pacific Message-ID: <494208.62875.qm@web57402.mail.re1.yahoo.com> >From list member Philippa Abbott Philippa Abbott ----------------------------------------- Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific is a new international initiative supported by the Queensland Government to promote the value of design thinking in shaping a positive future for the Asia Pacific region. From October 4-10, 2010, Unlimited hosts its first event in Brisbane, Australia. Beyond the traditional design festival, Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific explores economic, social and environmental challenges impacting our region, and takes a close look at how design is making a difference. Through the coming weeks the Unlimited Portal will develop a public dialogue and access point. We will be creating content exploring what design is and can be. Unlimited will interview and commission some of the top design thinkers globally and exploring how design is impacting lives on the ground. Unlimited will build an insightful picture of the Asia Pacific, developing a dialogue on how we can create opportunity from complex problems such as rapid urbanisation, climate change and poverty. See below for the latest news and announcements! Philippa Abbott Assistant Curator Unlimited Designing for the Asia Pacific If you have trouble reading this email, please go to http://newsletters.portablecontent.com/t/y/e/meidk/bjtkyikjk/ Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific Join us online for a series of exclusive interviews with global designers who are leading change. Founder of Project H Design, Emily Pilloton's (pictured below) interview will be available online. 2010 Nielson Design Lecture with Sir Peter Cook Redesigning the world with Warren Berger, author of Glimmer CJ Lim's Smart City master class explores the productive city Food Futures workshop with IDEO's Paul Bennett What is Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific? Food Futures workshop Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific is a new international initiative supported by the Queensland Government to promote the value of design thinking in shaping a positive future for the Asia Pacific region. From October 4-10, 2010, Unlimited hosts its first event in Brisbane, Australia. Beyond the traditional design festival, Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific explores economic, social and environmental challenges impacting our region, and takes a close look at how design is making a difference. A diverse program of talks, exhibitions, seminars and workshops, for business leaders, the public, and the design industry, will develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which design is shaping the world around us. Join us online and for the first Unlimited event – we welcome your thoughts, your creativity and your own design story... 2010 event announcements 4–10 October, Brisbane, Australia Paul Bennett, Chief Creative Officer of international design and innovation powerhouse IDEO, leads the two-day Food Futures workshop, where design thinking enables the development of new business models for indigenous food products. Food Futures workshop with IDEO's Paul Bennett Esteemed architect Sir Peter Cook has influenced a generation of architects and city planners to explore the relationship between cities and the new technologies of information, movement and perception. 2010 Nielson Design Lecture with Sir Peter Cook Korea’s experimental AnL Studio is commissioned to design a light installation for South Bank, a sensory landscape that will launch the Unlimited 2010 event in Brisbane. Lightwave installation by AnL Studio at South Bank Unlimited Associations is a collection of cultural and design events, installations and exhibitions. To be part of the 2010 event visit the Unlimited website and send us your submission by 13 August 2010 Calling for participants in Unlimited 2010 What is design thinking? Unlimited online articles and interviews exploring design thinking in action Warren Berger author of ‘Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Business, Your Life, and Maybe Even the World’, writes for Unlimited on why it’s now time to redesign the world. Warren Berger and the Glimmer effect Subscribe for all the latest on Unlimited news on events, speakers and collaborations, and join us for online discussions with participants and design thinkers. Subscribe About: Unlimited is a new international program for the Asia Pacific that links design thinkers with community, government, education and industry leaders to find creative solutions for the big picture challenges in our region. Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 4–10 October 2010 Unlimited reserves the right to change or cancel speakers and events. To unscribe from the newsletter, click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu Sep 9 04:47:39 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 16:17:39 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Krishnan: Micro History of Mumbai Message-ID: <735112.62317.qm@web57405.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Thought this would be of interest. Shekhar Krishnan on Mariam Dossal's new book, in EPW: http://beta.epw.in/newsItem/comment/188718/ From cugambetta at yahoo.com Thu Sep 9 04:58:12 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 16:28:12 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fw: INVITE: Relook 6: The Look of History: the Power of the Aesthetic by CHRISTOPHER PINNEY: 13 SEP 2010 6:30 pm Message-ID: <214825.99900.qm@web57403.mail.re1.yahoo.com> If in Bangalore on Monday the 13th, check this out. Pinney is a reference point for many of us, whether or not we work on visual culture. -Curt ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: 1Shanthiroad Studio <1.shanthiroad at gmail.com> To: Suresh Jayaram <1.shanthiroad at gmail.com> Sent: Wed, September 8, 2010 3:31:27 AM Subject: INVITE: Relook 6: The Look of History: the Power of the Aesthetic by CHRISTOPHER PINNEY: 13 SEP 2010 6:30 pm Somberikatte @ 1 Shanthiroad presents RE-LOOK: Lectures on Indian Art “ The Look of History: the power of the Aesthetic ”a lecture by Christopher Pinney - Anthropologist and Art Historian, London Monday 13 September 2010 6.30 pm @ 1.Shanthiroad studio/gallery 1 Shanthiroad, Shanthinagar, Bangalore - 560 027 The Look of History: the Power of the Aesthetic William Blake angrily scribbled ‘Empire follows art, and not vice versa’ in his copy of Reynolds Discourses on Art. This insight prefigures recent texts by Lyotard and Rancière. This talk sketches a history – up to the present – of the power of the aesthetic in India via indigo, Birsa Munda, B. R. Ambedkar, the India Shining campaign of 2004, and contemporary Dalit shamanism in Madhya Pradesh. Christopher Pinney, anthropologist and art historian, is widely recognised as an authority on the popular art and visual culture of South Asia. He is the author of several influential books including Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs and Photos of the Gods: Printed Image and Political Struggle in India. His most recent book is The Coming of Photography in India (British Library, 2008). Photography and Anthropology is forthcoming from Reaktion.Christopher Pinney teaches at University College London. --- *RE-LOOK - Lectures on Indian Art This series of lectures will present exciting new research being done in the areas of art history, art practice and visual anthropology in India, each for the first time in Bengaluru. Distinguished art historians and academics will be invited to give illustrated papers on their recent work and interests. There will be a lecture every month, which will take place at the popular artist space 1. Shanthi Road, situated in the heart of the city. *Somberikatte: Somberikatte is a Kannada word meaning idler’s platform- usually the platform around a large tree where people gather to gossip and exchange news. It is a fictional institution, sometimes a forum, sometimes a film production company or the name of a photo studio, used by the artist Pushpamala N. *1.Shanthiroad: The Studio/Gallery at 1.Shanthiroad, Bangalore, is an independent artist run space for art residencies, slide lectures, small conferences, installations, performances, screenings and informal gatherings. It was initiated by Suresh Jayaram and is administered by a not-for-profit trust VAC –Visual Art Collective. www.1shanthiroad.com ---- * Please join our Google group to receive event invites and updates regularly. This will also avoid sending you multiple copies of the same message. http://groups.google.co.in/group/1shanthiroadstudio -----1.Shanthi Road Studio/Gallery -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 140340 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Pinney-Relook.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 140340 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Sep 14 14:22:55 2010 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:22:55 +0530 Subject: [Urbanstudy] yona friedman on house Message-ID: When I was a schoolboy I discovered that a house alone does not exist, that it does not end at the outer limits of the ground floor but continues onto the streets, the garden, then to the house across the street. The house across the street itself continues into what is in front of it, and so forth. To imagine one house is to imagine the whole world. (Yona Friedman) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cugambetta at yahoo.com Fri Sep 17 09:28:51 2010 From: cugambetta at yahoo.com (Curt Gambetta) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:58:51 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Fwd: Re: West Bengal Government decided to draft and Pass West Bengal hawkers Policy Message-ID: <169205.40201.qm@web57412.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Has anyone been following this? Curious to know what this will mean (on the ground) for hawkers in Kolkata. Curt ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Leo Saldanha ESG To: hasiruusiru ; caf Sent: Thu, September 16, 2010 11:25:46 PM Subject: [HasiruUsiru] Fwd: Fwd: Re: West Bengal Government decided to draft and Pass West Bengal hawkers Policy FYI On 9/16/10, national hawker federation wrote: >Dear All, > > >kolkata hawkers victory. Finally West Bengal Government agreed to >draft Policy on Street Vendors after 14 years continuous struggle. >this Government in 1996 started operation Sunshine to evict every >hawkers of Kolkata now ready to accept hawkers social and >economic contribution through the Policy. hawker sangram committee >proposed to constitute a separate social security board for the >hawkers through the policy along with other demands Government is >willing to accept it. >-- >Regards >Saktiman Ghosh > -- Rezaul Karim Chowdhury www.equitybd.org www.coastbd.org Mobile : +8801711529792 Skype: rezaul.c __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: * New Members 1 Visit Your Group Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From samirfayaz at yahoo.com Sun Sep 19 17:16:19 2010 From: samirfayaz at yahoo.com (Samir Shaikh) Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 04:46:19 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Philip polanski Message-ID: <367140.12855.qm@web113301.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Hi! Don’t forget to visit this web site: http://schmittdaniel.free.fr/net.php From sollybenj at yahoo.co.in Mon Sep 27 19:10:26 2010 From: sollybenj at yahoo.co.in (solomon benjamin) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:10:26 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Urbanstudy] Lecture on Urban Poor's Claims to the City at the CSH-CPR workshop series Message-ID: <676074.16989.qm@web8805.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear  Colleagues,   Please find the flyer for the 8th CSH-CPR workshop on urban issues, held every last Tuesday of every month. The next one will be on Tuesday 28, September at 3:45 Pm at the Centre de Sciences Humaines.   Sorry for cross-posting and please send an email if you want your name deleted from the sending list,   Sincerely,   Marie – Hélène Zérah and Partha Mukhopadhyay       theindiancity.net       Urban Workshop Series Urban Poor's Claims to the City Bhuvaneswari Raman 3:45 pm       Tuesday,  28 September 2010 Centre de Sciences Humaines, 2 Aurangzeb Road, New Delhi   City spaces are an outcome of a complex contests between different groups, including the poor. Such conflicts to claim space and to shape its use have intensified since the nineties, particularly between the poor and the city. Bhuvaneswari Raman's presentation will explore one such conflict, drawing on an ethnographic research on street traders in the city of Bangalore.  Her presentation, elaborates on the gap between street traders’ interests relating to location and localities and the manner in which it is conceptualized in development programmes.  Critically engaging with theoretical works that have sought to understand the impact of neo-liberal globalization on Indian cities and the politics of urban informality, it seeks to explain the intra-city differences between street traders in terms of their ability to negotiate their claims within the emerging forms of governmentality and governance.  It concludes with an argument for adopting a grounded theory strategy and a focus on everyday practices and politics to comprehend such processes. Bhuvaneswari Raman is trained in architecture, urban planning and social sciences and currently holds a research consulting position with the London School of Economics (LSE), UK.  She has held research positions at the LSE, UK and has consulted for academic institutions including the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and the University of Birmingham, UK as well as international development agencies including the World Bank and the UNCHS.  She has experience with implementing urban poverty alleviation schemes having worked with the Bangalore Urban Poverty Alleviation Programme. Currently, she is working on the impact of the squatter relocation programme in India.  She was educated at the School of Planning and Architecture in Chennai, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok and the London School of Economics, London This is the eighth in a series of Urban Workshops planned by the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi and Centre for Policy Research (CPR). These workshops seek to provoke public discussion on issues relating to the development of the city and try to address all its facets including its administration, culture, economy, society, and politics. For further information, please contact: Marie-Hélène Zerah at marie-helene.zerah at ird.fr or Partha Mukhopadhyay at partha at cprindia.org         -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From geetanjoy at rediffmail.com Wed Sep 29 11:24:23 2010 From: geetanjoy at rediffmail.com (Geetanjoy Sahu) Date: 29 Sep 2010 05:54:23 -0000 Subject: [Urbanstudy] =?utf-8?q?Court_orders_closure_of_Sterlite_plant?= Message-ID: <20100929055423.739.qmail@f4mail-235-135.rediffmail.com> Dear All, See this link: http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/29/stories/2010092961050100.htm Court orders closure of Sterlite plant B. Kolappan CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered immediate closure of the copper smelting plant set up by Sterlite Industries (India) Limited in Tuticorin. “We are constrained to take this decision, owing to voluminous material available on record about the negative impact of the running of the industry at the place and in the manner it is being run,” a Division Bench, comprising Justices Elipe Dharmarao and N. Paul Vasanthakumar, said passing orders on a batch of writ petitions. The petitioners included the National Trust for Clean Environment, MDMK general secretary Vaiko, Tuticorin district unit of the Communist Party of India and the Centre for Indian Trade Unions. While placing on record that they “do not want to leave the employees in the lurch,” the Judges made it clear that they were entitled for compensation from the company under section 25 FFF of the Industrial Disputes Act. They also directed the Tuticorin District Collector to take immediate steps for re-employment of the workforce in other companies/factories/organisations keeping in view their educational and technical qualifications, besides their experience. The company, which employs over 1,050 workers (according to a petition by an employee of the company), had been given permission to produce 391 tonnes of blister copper and 1,060 tonnes of sulphuric acid. Explaining the reasons for revoking the licence granted to the company in Meelvattam village in Tuticorin, the Judges said courts could not afford to deal lightly with cases involving pollution of air and water. “The materials on record show that the continuing air pollution being caused by the noxious effluents discharged…is having a more devastating effect on the people living in the surroundings. There has been unabated pollution by the respondent company, which should be stopped at least now so as to protect the mother nature from being tarred,” the Judges observed. While the company wanted the court to take into consideration a “favourable” report submitted by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in 2003, the Judges said a subsequent report by NEERI in 2005 was clear that the waste from the company had high concentration of heavy metals, arsenic and fluorides. “The pathetic condition that has been recorded by NEERI in its report is that the plant site itself is severely polluted and the ground samples present levels of arsenic which indicate that the whole site may be classified as hazardous waste according to the Indian standards,” they said. The groundwater samples taken in the vicinity of the deposit site shows elevated values of copper, chrome, lead, cadmium and arsenic. Regards, Geetanjoy Sahu Assistant Professor Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai-400088 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: