Bharuch Lok Sabha MP Mansukh Vasava, a heavyweight tribal leader, has written to the Narmada Collector advising that the demolition drive to remove 1,500 'encroachments' in the tribal village of Selamba in Sagbara taluka should be carried out "by winning the trust" of the people. Vasava extended his support to the demolition drive as it comes after the overnight stay of the Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in Jawali village last month. The CM is said to have instructed for the removal of the encroachments to clear the road leading from Selamba to Jawali. However, Vasava said the drive "should not be a forceful eviction but conducted by taking the people into confidence after counselling them about the laws pertaining to encroachment of roads". A survey has identified nearly 1,500 shops and homes as "encroachments" on the road built to connect the two villages. Dictatorial Diktat After Chief Whip of the Gujarat government, Balkrishna Shukla, wrote to Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi seeking 'relaxation' in the prohibitory orders following a petition from sculptors of Ganesh idols, now the Congress unit of Vadodara city has also started a campaign in support of the sculptors. Leading a march with banners in the city to the office of the commissioner of police, Congress leaders termed the prohibitory order restricting the height of idols as a "dictatorial diktat". Demanding that the notification be withdrawn immediately, the banner of the Vadodara Congress said the police is "creating obstacles" in the way of the celebrations of the festival in Vadodara although the festival is dedicated to Lord Ganesh, who is worshipped for "removing obstacles". Lion’s language Rasila Vadher, a range forest officer with the Gujarat forest department, had an interesting take while addressing the G-20 Ministerial Meeting on Women’s Empowerment. Addressing the conference, Vadher, who has led around 1,100 operations to rescue Asiatic lions and leopards in Gir forest, observed that most of the speakers at the conference were speaking in English but lions do not follow English. Therefore, she said, she will speak in Gujarati or Hindi only. Vadher then proceeded to recount the story of how she joined the forest department as a guard and received awards from Narendra Modi and Anandiben Patel.
