Butchers of Bhopal: Cutting 1,000 trees for CBD in TT Nagar

The lush greenery in New Bhopal will be a thing of past. The government has given a go-ahead to Gammon India for cutting nearly 1,000 trees for the Central Business District (CBD) that will come up in TT Nagar.

The State government and the bureaucrats have once again bared their intentions: Killing this beautiful City of Lakes and Gardens. The citizens must rise in protest. They also have a responsibility.

Has a single citizen yet decided to file a PIL against this upcoming ecological disaster. The Dainik Bhaskar today published a report but unfortunately it was also a party and when it lost the bid and the land was given to Gammon India, it has joined the protestors.

The need of the hour is to take a firm stand against the irresponsible act of felling such a great number of trees. Indore has already been turned into a desert. Soon Bhopal will also become a similar urban mass of concrete sans any greenery.

It's a fraud to cut trees and say that development comes at a price. How can the act of injecting poison in green trees to kill them, be tolerated by us? Give a thought to future. Time to wake up and protest.

Do whatever you can do. Send emails, write letters to editors of newspapers, create awareness and try to instill a feeling among your friends to stop such nonsensical projects and force govt to take back its decision.

Why Nai Dunia can't succeed even in its new avatar

The Indore-based Nai Dunia group is desperately trying to hold its base in Malwa and also increase circulation in Bhopal where it has re-launched itself as Nav Dunia but it has failed to create an impact.

Even a paper like Patrika that came from Rajasthan has managed to get a good circulation in Bhopal, but not Nav Dunia that was running its edition from Bhopal for decades and had bureaus in other cities of the state.

For the last week Indore was witnessing violence and the town was in curfew but the front page editorials by Umesh Trivedi and Abhay Chhajlani proved why the paper can't strike a chord with readers in the present era.

Front page editorials are written under special circumstances and the readers expect a unique perspective and incisive coverage. But the paper failed miserable though it has a huge editorial team in Indore and is considered the flagship paper of Indore.

In the frontpage editorials, Umesh Trivedi and Chhajlani were both shedding fake tears about the worsening law-and-order situation of Indore and the erosion of composite culture in the City. It was simply a rant.

They didn't write a line about who engineered the riots, failed to name the local leaders who were involved and gain from such situations. Even the Bajrang Dal and VHP were not named in the editorials.

Then, how can one expect the editors to expose the hypocrisy of the leaders who are involved in scams, real estate business and still claim to be champions of harmony. When you can't write truth and don't have the courage to write the obvious which everybody knows, your journal and your journalism is exposed.

[It is not that Dainik Bhaskar is doing the job either. Shravan Garg's front page article was no good either as it gave no reasons and no names, just a web of words weaved to fill a couple of columns.]

Newspapers are not just used for dissemination of news but they are also supposed to be conscience keepers of the times. They have a duty to inform the readers. But when they fail badly nobody takes them seriously.

Today these papers are simply tools of the administration and have no guts to publish scathing articles. Gone are the days when papers took on mighty leaders. Today they succumb to minor politicians and everybody who has got money--from business barons to brokers.

That's the reason Nai Dunia (or Nav Dunia) has no future and this newspaper is bound to be doomed. They better dump the catchline 'Vishwas ki Parampara'.

Unwilling government, inept officials responsible for Indore riot

The responsibility of throwing Indore into flames clearly falls on the State government. With violence flaring up in Indore and spreading to neighbouring Ujjain, it is clearly the failure of government.


Ever since the BJP has come to power, Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh has become a communal cauldron. Does the government intend to turn it into Gujarat? Riots have become a regular feature and the administration appears indifferent to violence and deaths.

The inefficient Collector and SP who give a bad name to 'promotee' officers also have to share the blame. If they couldn't gauge the gravity of situation in a City like Indore, they don't have the moral right to be in their place.

SP RK Chaudhary, who is a relative of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and got the posting just because of his relation, failed to take any steps. To refresh the memory of readers, Chaudhari was the SP at Dewas when the Dharaji tragedy had taken place.

Over 50 persons were washed away in the Narmada when the dam water was suddenly released and the pilgrims had met watery grave. He was removed and his increment was stopped for the mishandling of the situation.

That's the reason officers of State cadre who become Collector and SP, don't get the respect which IAS and IPS officials get. Their mishandling of tough situations like communal riots and their subservience to political masters prove the point. The Collector Rakesh Shrivastava also proved to be a big letdown.

The local Hindi daily Raj Express on its front page reported how the the banquet was held in the CM House on Friday night. The dinner was not cancelled though Indore was still burning and many other cities had seen violence.

But when BJP leaders ranging from Narendra Singh Tomar to Kailash Vijayvergiya and Himmat Kothari blame the SIMI for the riots and forget Bajrang Dal, VHP and RSS, does the administration has any chance ?

MP government spends Rs 50 lakh to promote Advani's book

The recent event to launch the Hindi edition of LK Advani's book 'My country, My life' cost the people of the state Rs 50 lakh.

The State governmnt spent the huge amount on organising the function. Personalities like Yoga Guru Baba Ram Dev, Art of Living exponent Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and BJP leaders attended the programme in Bhopal.

People's money was spent irresponsible in this Five Star launch. Advani, was upset with the poor sales of the book and that's the reason the Hindi edition was brought out and now in all the Hindi speaking states, particularly those ruled by BJP, the launch functions would be held.

Madhya Pradesh is the first state in the series. Of course, LK Advani wanted the function and Shivraj Singh Chouahan was more than happy to oblige with such a grand ceremony. The deliberations on the pre-poll strategy was just an excuse for the leaders.

The main purpose was to promote the book and still the sale hasn't gone up much. The use of official machinery and huge expenditure on the book release, however, puts the BJP and the celebrity Swayamsevak LK Advani in a poor light.