RSS
Email
SMS
google comes to the rescue of farmers
(Rate this article)
Loading ...Email It!
I would have completely missed this, had it not been for one of our associate blogger(srivats) who told me about this story at IBNlive.com.
Well, what happens when your land is being taken over by the state government, and maybe you are asked to re-locate yourself - you turn to Police? you turn to your friend who knows some minister? or you turn to google earth?
No matter how vague the last option might sound, but for farmers of Pen taluka in Raigad district (140 Kms from mumbai), it was Google earth only that at least helped them in getting a good bargain for their land from state government. According to state government orders this land was to be acquired for building the 25,000 acre Maha Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
Apparently, these guys used Google earth to prove to the authorities that the land was fertile as opposed to their claim that "some parts of it is was submerged by salty creek water " - meaning lower compensation for the farmers.
And if this wasnt enough, technology also helped them in networking with farmers from 45 other villages to put up a protest against government’s action.
Well, we think this was just an amazing story and worth mentioning here, also this would probably give our President and other archaic leaders of our country, a lesson how technology is not neccessarily a thing to be banned and also change their stone-aged views on google earth!!!
Loading ...
U have stolen Srivats Lead.. Only he takes such sought of issues..S rivats would have been better with sucha Lead… :))
Hey Natasha,,,, Garima is definitely better.. Its just that I am interested in Google… She is a Journo with a Social Cause in all her Articles… :))
for everyone's benefit ….srivats calls his laptop "natasha" :))
Another good thing is that journalists are now using Google Earth to support their case when exposing land grabs… like when officials say certain building was there for several years, but google earth shows nothing, etc.
I dont think President and others wanted to ban technology. That was the most ignorant statement of the whole writeup. They wanted information about certain high profile areas to be not so public. They didnt want to wipe off India from Google Earth. Get your facts straight before you blanket-blame people.
Peace.
hey raj, it wasnt my intention to blanket-blame people…..and well i was quite straight in mentioning "our President" because of his statement "developing countries, which are already in danger of terrorist attacks, have been singularly chosen" - this was said in context to google earth showing images of Rastrapati bhawan in delhi and other defence areas….1) i dint see a reason for google to specially target developing countries (for instance i can also see 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC quite easily on google earth and also images from the other developing countries) and 2) terrorist attacks!!! - i mean come-on u think they're going to use it? how have terrorist groups been operating before Google Maps? Maybe we should think about what motivates "terrorists" , than about all the stuff in the world they could abuse….and well practically *anything* our civilization built up ? technology/ tools, accumulated knowledge ? can be abused….
perhaps thats getting into a different debate…Perhaps. I'd love to debate this. Perhaps later in blogsphere
Hi Garima,
What you said in your comment may be all true… but that does not say that they want to 'ban technology'…. How did you go from 'sensitive areas of developing countries are shown and that is bad' (even if it is not only developing countries) to 'we want to ban technology'?
'their stone-aged views on google earth'? just because they voice concern (even if it looked a little immature about 'developing countries' bit) and their embarassment about being caught unawares showed? come on! if they really had stone-aged views on GE, they would have banned it in 5 mins without all this public discussion. Sure their concerns may be misplaced at some level and their statements a bit misleading, but that does not warrant blanket-characterization like 'they want to ban technology' and have 'stone-aged views of GE'. That kind of framing does not help the discussion.
As far as the (in)appropriateness of their concerns, that is a whole another discussion… hopefully that does not start with "you are stone-aged and want to ban technology".
Peace.
raj, I appreciate ur feedback
PLease keep on posting feedbacks
that was me