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- 1.
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Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:13 pm (PDT)
http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1757/
Report on a recent mass rally against land acquisition in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand
September 1, 2009
By Manali Chakrabarti, Sanhati.
Main yehan Nandigram bana doonga (I'll make this a Nandigram)
This is what the Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribagh, Mr Vinay Chaubey, said on the 8th of August 2009, to a group of villagers in Arahara village, in the state of Jharkhand, who have been refusing to part with their land for compensation. The heavily armed police cover gave credence to this arrogant assertion.
The villagers of Arahara are part of a movement spread over 186 villages in the Karnpura valley in Jharkhand. Extending over three blocks Barkagaon, Keredari and Tandwa, the beautiful green valley of Karnpura, is surrounded by hills (part of the Chota Nagpur range) on three sides, and has a thick lush forest cover too. The valley which is criss-crossed by numerous small water bodies including perennial rivers also has one of the most fertile agricultural lands in the country. At present the valley supplies vegetables to the surrounding areas and even up to major cities like Patna and Kolkata. Like in the rest of Jharkhand there is a significant tribal population in this region.
But, unfortunately for the people of this valley there is a very thick crust of good quality coal (apparently upto 350 metres) under their land. And the government has decided to excavate the whole region into open cast mines to extract coal and produce electricity. Twenty one private companies have been given contracts to mine coal which would primarily feed into a massive (over 2000 Mega Watts) thermal power plant to be set up by the public sector National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). The feasibility report claims that they would be able to extract all the coal in 25 years and that there would be minimal environmental dislocation due to this project. The government has offered cash compensation for the displaced population.
But the people of Karnpura are not ready to fall in with the proposed plan of this grand development project. They are not sure as to:
How money can compensate for their ancestral land, their primary source of income, their bountiful feeding mother?
How can cash compensate for their forests, their religious places, gods and goddesses, the rivers, the streams, their burial grounds, the animals and the birds and the trees? And who owns them anyway?
And among many other questions about the landless people, community land, etc. they also want to know that, when the 640 MW Patratu thermal power plant set up in 1962 produces less than 10 percent of its installed capacity, why should another power plant be set up in the region?
The people have been resisting this forced acquisition by the government for over a decade now. They have repeatedly stated their position in Jan Sunwayis, public meetings and through petitions to various authorities. They have been sincerely trying to get their point across through peaceful means of `civil disobedience' . And their point is simple: "Jaan Denge par zameen nahin denge".
Significantly, the people of Karnpura assert that they are not against development per se and they would be happy to participate in initiatives where they have a say in their own development. They are confident that left to themselves they would be able to mine coal and also produce electricity albeit at a much smaller scale and more importantly without the disastrous displacement inevitable in the administrations' plan. They have even worked out an elaborate plan to implement their claims. They have already registered a producers' company under the amendment made in 2002 of 1956 Company's Act, to mine coal. They have also set up a mini thermal plant in Barkagaon to convince the authorities of their intentions. They hope to replicate this effort all over the region. All they want from the administration is:
a sympathetic attitude towards their genuine efforts,
plan the development of the region according to the wishes of the residents of the region,
and extend all possible support to them.
But the administration does not seem to be in any mood for further dialogue and is desperate to acquire land by any means, including forced eviction as is apparent from the open threat of the Deputy Commissioner.
The people of Karnpura decided to come over to Hazaribagh to tell the District Administration to refrain from using such indecent language. They held a rally in Hazaribagh on the 18th of August, followed by a general meeting and then submitted a petition to the Commissioner's office protesting against the attitude of the district administration. A few of us were invited to participate in this programme.
The first reaction that I had when I came to know of the incident was that the role of District Commissioner has remained unchanged since its creation in the colonial times. Then too they collected revenues from the impoverished population of this country for a private company, and 62 years after independence it still collects (land and other possessions) for corporations. Incidentally the East India Company got the rights to Dewani (collect revenues) of Jharkhand from the Moghul emperor in 1765. This also marked the beginning of a glorious journey of resistance movements against colonial domination by the people of Jharkhand, spanning over two centuries. I was keen to witness the present effort of this wonderful legacy.
Programme on 18th August, 2009, Hazaribagh
1. By 11 am busloads of villagers started arriving at the starting location for the rally. The affected villages are 40 to 60 kilometres from Hazaribagh and the villagers had collectively contributed for the transport. About 1000 people representing all the blocks came for the programme. Significantly almost half of the participants were women.
2. The rally started at around 1.30 pm. The women led the march organised in double file, ensuring there was minimal disruption of traffic. The rallyists carried several banners about their movement and there was mild sloganeering to keep the tempo of the marchers. Pamphlets were distributed all along the way.
3. The rally covered all the important squares of the small town and converged in the Jila School ground at around 3.30 pm. With the marchers seated in neat formations in their flamboyantly bright coloured sarees and head scarves, the ground appeared to be a valley of wild flowers from the makeshift stage.
4. There were emotion laden speeches from representatives of each of the 21 sub-movements of the valley. Every one reiterated their commitment for the collective `Jaan denge Zameen nahin denge' and `Jal Jangal, Zameen, Khanij par hamara adhikaar hai' (We have rights over water, forest, minerals and land).
5. At 4.45 pm a delegation went to give the signed petition protesting against the utterance of the Deputy Commissioner to the Commissioner's (a superior officer) Office. The delegation was received by a representative of the Commissioner and after hearing the position of the petitioners the official orally admitted that "if this was actually said by the Dy. Commissioner it was not proper".
6. The meeting ended with the above reporting to the gathering amidst huge cheering. The exuberant crowd loaded back in the buses and started on their journey home at around 6 pm. There was a mood of festivity all around - in spite of an extremely uncertain tomorrow, today at least was theirs.
I am reporting this to the larger community to bring forth the story of an unknown struggle going on in a small newly formed state against the all too familiar attitude of corporate - state high-handedness. The people of Karnpura are waging their own battle. They know not what will be the final outcome. And yet women, men, elderly and children have decided to fight the State, which insolently threatens "Zameen do, Muaawza lo nahin to Main yehan Nandigram bana doonga" (Give land, take compensation, else I'll make a Nandigram of this place).
- 2.
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Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:19 pm (PDT)
Peace can come to Bastar
only when the State stop treating the adivasi people at large as its enemy and lets them return to their villages.
The Government of Chhattisgarh admits that since the start of Salwa Judum in
the year 2005, 644 villages of district Dantewada, whose overwhelmingly
adivasi population is about 3.5 lakhs, have been emptied out. Our common
sense understanding that enmasse displacement on this scale could only have
been made possible by extreme violence, is vindicated by the horrifying
incidents of arson, loot, murder, rape, and widespread arrests by the SJ and
security forces that have continuously been coming to light, and which can
no longer be ignored.
In honest moments, the security experts of the Jungle Warfare School, Kanker
admit, that this is the well known American counter insurgency strategy of
�draining the water to kill the fish�. Though many of us, who are witness to
widespread displacement all over Chhattisgarh for rich mineral resources,
believe that there is also considerable evidence, that the motive for ground
clearing is acquisition for mining companies. Whatever the motive, what is
the situation in Dantewada today?
Recently the Home Minister admitted, that out of the 50,000 internally
displaced persons who were being housed in the roadside SJ camps since
2005, now barely 8,000 remain, the rest of them have run away. The recent
incidents of a trigger happy CRPF jawan killing a woman and baby in the
Cherpal camp, or of SPOs beating three persons to death in the Matwada camp,
perhaps illustrate why. And yet - all schools, health centres, ration shops,
(of course polling booths), which have been totally withdrawn from the 644
villages, (and even gram sabhas for determination of forest rights!)
continue to be run from those camps.
The administration openly declares that the people of all those villages who
have refused to come to the camps, all those villagers who have not joined/
co-operated with the Salwa Judum, those who are still daring to sow their
fields in the affected villages (only to flee when the security forces
arrive leaving the vulnerable behind to be killed or arrested), and
certainly those, who are living in the forests, are automatically
Naxalites. All youth found in the abandoned villages, and all persons from
these villages who come to markets are beaten black and blue and thrown into
jail on mere suspicion. And there is always a stock of uniforms and rusty
bharmars to show as seizures.
Even conceding that around 50,000 persons might have fled to Andhra Pradesh
and maybe another 50,000 to Orissa or Maharashtra, this means that at least
2 lakh people, by virtue of being in the forests or �Naxal stronghold
areas, have now been declared Naxalites by the State, and therefore it is
considered legitimate that they can be starved of food, medical supplies and
access even to village markets. No doubt anti-Naxal operations against
them have, and would further result, in swelling the ranks of armed
militants. For now, the ever present issues of land and livelihood have
turned into the burning issue of the very survival of these lakhs of people.
And history tells us, that in those circumstances, the adivasi people have
always fought fiercely. Even 14 battalions of paramilitary forces, who,
apart from occasional forays for searching within a small radius of their
base, remain holed up in thanas, jails and schools with electrified barbed
wire fencing, are feeling quite helpless against the swarm attacks of
hundreds of Naxalite militia. In the past few months, at least 25 jawans
have committed suicide after killing their officers and colleagues out of
sheer stress.
That the Government of Chhattisgarh is hell bent on demolishing any middle
ground is amply illustrated by its treatment of the Vanvasi Chetana Ashram,
an NGO inspired by Gandhian ideology, which has been trying to implement the
recommendations of the NHRC with regard to rehabilitation of the displaced
villagers, and to provide legal aid for the filing of FIRs/ complaints in
the cases of disappearances and rapes. The Ashram was demolished recently;
rice being taken to the villages of Lingagiri, Basaguda and Nendra, which
have been resettled by the Ashram, was confiscated as �being supplied to
Naxalites; and a young volunteer of the Ashram Sukhnath - has been booked
under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act. The voice of
civil liberties is still sought to be silenced: two more supplementary
charge sheets, again not disclosing any legally admissible evidence, have
recently been filed against Dr Binayak Sen, General Secretary of the
Chhattisgarh PUCL, even after unconditional bail was granted to him by the
Supreme Court. Apart from the cases filed against Salwa Judum in the Supreme
Court, numerous cases filed against fake encounters in the High Court of
Chhattisgarh, and private complaint cases in the lower courts drag on
without providing substantial relief, despite the best efforts of the
Petitioners. Strident demands made in rallies of local adivasi organizations
in Bastar, protesting the handing over of their lands to companies, meet
with no response, either from the district administration or the Governor
the constitutional authority of the Scheduled Areas.
It is in this context that the implications of clearing out the Naxalites
by military operation have to be understood. Today, this can only mean an
indiscriminate genocide of adivasis, a full scale war against lakhs of
people, against the people at large. How can civilians and combatants
possibly be distinguished under such a dispensation? Have not our
experiences in the North East and Kashmir told us that there is no quick
end to such a war? We are already witness to the recent incidents of
Singhavaram Kokawada.Vechapal, cases where people came out on the streets
in Bastar to protest that the so-called militants killed by the security
forces and SJ SPOs were actually only simple villagers.
That is why, it is with a sense of great urgency, and in defiance of the
fascist attitude of the Government of Chhattisgarh, that we appeal to all
democratic minded people of this country to demand that -
First and foremost, the lakhs of displaced adivasis of Dantewada be allowed
to return to their villages and rebuild their ravaged agrarian and forest
based economies. Thus their rights to food, to basic health, to land and
livelihood, and above all to life, must be assured.
It is only this, that can ensure a de-escalation of the polarization between
security forces on the one hand and the adivasi people at large on the
other, and can avoid genocide in the name of counterinsurgency.
If you agree with us, please raise and support this demand.
Sudha Bharadwaj
On behalf of
Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (Mazdoor Karyakarta Committee)
C/o CMM Office, Labour Camp, Jamul,
District Durg, Chhattisgarh.
Mobile No: 09926603877
- 3.
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Sun Sep 13, 2009 6:22 pm (PDT)
Big blow for Sterlite in Asarco bid
BS Reporter / Mumbai
Bankruptcy court in US favours rival Grupo Mexicos offer.
In a big blow to Anil Agarwal-controlled Sterlite Industries in its
one-and-a half year battle to acquire copper miner Asarco, a bankruptcy
court in the US has backed the rival bid of Grupo Mexico.
Though the verdict of the bankruptcy court needs final approval from the
District Court, something that Sterlite is banking on, legal experts said
that step was just a formality and nothing more.
In its ruling filed late Monday, Judge Richard S Schmidt of the bankruptcy
court at Corpus Christi in Texas recommended the district court judge to
confirm the Grupo Mexicos plan and reject Asarcos own plan, which is
sponsored by the Vedanta group company. The judges recommendation has been
referred to US District Court Judge Andrew Hanen at Brownsville in Texas for
final approval.
In the US, bankruptcy cases involving companies with large asbestos
liabilities, like Asarcos, are sent to a higher court judge for a final
ruling. After the verdict came out, the Sterlite stock slipped 2.88 per cent
on Tuesday and closed at Rs 655.85, while the Sensex dropped 0.74 per cent.
Judge Schmidt said he believed that both the plans were confirmable, but
that the Grupo Mexico-backed plan was superior. Grupo Mexicos plan, he
said, was funded with sufficient cash to pay creditors in full at
confirmation.Asarcos Sterlite-backed plan, however, relies in part on the
proceeds of a legal judgment against Grupo Mexico that�s under appeal.
Grupo Mexicos offer consists of $2.2 billion in cash plus a $280 million
promissory note to the creditors. Vedanta offered $2.1 billion in cash and a
put option for Asarcos asbestos creditors to sell their right in a trust
set up to compensate them. The option is valued at $137 million.
A top Vedanta executive said the company had still some hope in the battle
for Asarco, since the recommendations of the bankruptcy court will be heard
in the district court. The bankruptcy court was favouring the former parent
of Asarco, mainly for clearing liabilities, which accumulated because of
their fault. We lost in the court, not because of our lower offer value but
because of the preference for the estranged parent, he added.
Asarco, which sought bankruptcy protection four years ago, has worked hard
to defeat the Grupo Mexico plan. The Mexican company owns Asarco, but lost
control early in its Chapter 11 case. Most of Asarco�s major creditor
groups, and its biggest labour union supported the Sterlite-backed plan, in
addition to support from Arizona�s Attorney General.
The takeover battle began after Sterlite emerged as the lead bidder for
acquiring Asarco on May 31, 2008. The estranged parent, Grupo, then came up
with a $4.1 billion revival package, rivaling Sterlite. The Indian copper
company later withdrew from the original offer during the downturn, citing a
decline in copper prices, when Grupo had withdrawn from the takeover bid.
Grupo, controlled by Mexicos third-richest man German Larrea, re-entered
the fray when copper prices moved up six months ago. A week back, Sterlite
increased its offer for Asarcos assets by about $500 million to $2.1
billion, citing an increase in copper prices. The revised offer was to match
Grupo Mexicos $2.2 billion offer. Later, Grupo had offered to extend the
collective bargaining agreement of workers at Asarco for two years.
Asarco, which owns three copper mines in Arizona, is a 110-year-old firm and
had filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005 after being sued for $1.6
billion over environmental issues.
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