Dear Reader,

As Operation Sindoor raged, following the terrorist attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, one of the noxious and dangerous side effects has been the barrage of fake news and disinformation, particularly on mainstream TV channels and social media. The distortions and falsehoods have ranged from fabricating imaginary attacks and exaggerating casualty figures to stoking public panic and confusion; in some cases, even attempting to inflame sectarian passions. Never has the need for fact-checking and debunking fake news felt more urgent and pressing—a critical role that the Foundation’s grantee, Telugu Post, stepped up to fill.

Over the course of the hostilities between 7th and 10th May, Telugu Post rigorously and diligently fact-checked and red-flagged about two dozen stories that put out fake news. This work by Telugu Post in Telugu, Kannada, Urdu, Odiya, Tamil, Malayalam, and English, debunked fake stories that purported to falsely show, among other things, that the Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikrant had attacked the Pakistani port city of Karachi, that Pakistan launched an air strike on Srinagar in Kashmir, that the government ordered people to stock rations, and that a female Indian pilot was captured by Pakistan. It was largely the independent media, particularly the Foundation’s current and previously funded grantees, such as Alt News and YouTurn, apart from Telugu Post, that stemmed the flow and brought a semblance of sanity to the news.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Ken-Betwa Link Project, first proposed 30 years ago, entails transferring “surplus” water from the Ken River to the Betwa River, both of which rise in the highlands of Madhya Pradesh and join the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh. The ₹44,605 crore project, India’s first under the river interlinking scheme, will irrigate 10.62 lakh hectares in Madhya Pradesh and 2.51 lakh hectares in Uttar Pradesh, and provide drinking water to around 62 lakh people across 2,000 villages.

In Madhya Pradesh, over 7,000 people across 22 villages face displacement as work begins on the project. The residents, mostly Adivasis, who have been displaced, or are set to be ousted from their homes by the land acquisition, are up in arms. They say that the environmental impact assessments for the project were flawed, and the acquisitions were done without consultation, compensation, or legal notice. That apart, the project will submerge nearly 9,000 hectares, including core areas of Panna Tiger Reserve. Article 14 reports from Chhatarpur and Panna in Madhya Pradesh.

On 8 April the Chhattisgarh government launched ‘Sushasan Tyohar’—'good governance festival’— a campaign to ensure that the delivery of governance services and the state of local infrastructure is on par with what the state has committed. This included active mentoring by the state bureaucracy and surprise visits by the chief minister himself to penalise errant officials responsible for subpar delivery.

However, a ground report by मैं भी भारत from Sithram village in the Koilibeda tehsil of Kanker district revealed a yawning gap between what was promised and the lived experiences of the villagers. A building for the Anganwadi lies in ruins, after collapsing during its construction, and the primary health centre is locked, with the assigned doctor and medical staff missing.

Chandigarh is noted for being independent India's first planned city. But, hidden away from its broad avenues and grid layout, are the people who built the city — migrant workers who lived in informal colonies or slums near the planned sectors, now forgotten and pushed to the margins of the city. The city's masterplan did not account for those who laboured to build it.

As Chandigarh expands beyond Mohali and other satellite towns, migrants are being pushed to the fringes of these cities, in unplanned, unregulated settlements, where lack of basic services, garbage, and unsanitary conditions are the norm, which is now blamed on the migrants.

The Migration Story speaks to migrants in one such settlement in Jagatpura, between Mohali and Chandigarh Airport, and finds a familiar playbook—of migrants being used, then becoming an inconvenient presence, and left to fend for themselves.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF