---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rohit Shetti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 12:53 PM Subject: Today: Kodaikanal & Chengara struggles To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
** ** Hi friends, As action picks up targeting Unilever for its Corporate Social Irresponsibility in Kodaikanal (http://kodaikanalstruggle.blogspot.com), another struggle for land in Chengara, Kerala is about to enter its 9th month. There is a night vigil planned *tonight, 7th March, 08 *in front of Secretariate Trivandrum, supporting Chengara land struggle. Please contact your friends in Kerala / Trivandrum and ask them to support the people's struggle. For more details, get in touch with Dileep Raj: (09447316701) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Warm regards, Rohit *KSEB restructuring inevitable: Balan * ** Special Correspondent http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/06/stories/2008030650160100.htm THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Minister for Electricity and Welfare of Scheduled and Other Backward Communities A. K. Balan has said restructuring of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) is inevitable. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the Minister said the Central government had already extended the deadline for the board to comply with the provisions of the Central Electricity Act eight times. The last extension would expire on June 9, and further extension could not be expected. The Minister said the expert committee, constituted by the State government, had recommended restructuring of the board under a single umbrella organisation. Mr. Balan said the employees, agitating against restructuring, should be protesting against the Centre and not the State government. The State should be implementing the Act as no State was exempted from the provisions of the Act. The Act required separation of the generation, distribution and transmission wings of the board. He said the board was at present facing a revenue deficit of Rs.750 crore on account of purchase of power at higher rates from the Central pool. The Accountant General had reported a revenue gap of Rs.142 crore in 2006-07. The situation was such that power cut would become inevitable. Tribal people's stir The Minister urged tribal organisations to withdraw from their stir demanding land and cooperate with the government's efforts to distribute it to them. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had been requested to convene a meeting to settle the agitation by tribals at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district. The government had already distributed land to 6,310 tribal families, including 1,717 families at the Aralam farm. A project for building houses for 2,572 tribal families at Aralam with infrastructure facilities was under preparation, the Minister said. ** ** *Land grabbers keep police at bay with suicide threat * http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=205373&version=1&template_id=40&parent_id=22 *By Ashraf Padanna* *THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:* Police in Kerala’s hilly district of Pathanamthitta are in a dilemma. They need to conduct a surgery without any loss of blood. A deadline set by the Kerala High Court to evict people forcibly occupying an estate of Harrisons Malayalam Limited (HML) at Chengara ends on Friday but the police are fearful of approaching them after they threatened to commit mass suicide. Some 13,000 people belonging to 7000 â€کlandless’ families, mainly tribesmen, occupied the estate in August last year demanding title deeds for five acres to each family and Rs50,000 in cash for farming in the land. The court last month asked the government to evict the families without bloodshed or loss of life before Friday. “The court wants us to take the flesh without shedding blood,†Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said. “We want to give land to the landless tribal families. But there are external elements instigating them. These external elements are bearing all the expenses of the tribals ever since they entered the estate and started living there,†he added. There are suicide squads men, women and children ready with cans of kerosene to immolate themselves. On Monday, some of them perched on treetops with a rope around their necks tied to the trunk waiting for the police. Left with no option, the government yesterday sought from the court another three months to get them evicted. “We have appraised the court of the developments. We would now wait for the court to take a decision,†the minister said. Authorities fear a repeat of Nandigram in West Bengal, where police intervention led to clashes and deaths. Though Kerala’s two dominant political fronts, the ruling Left Democratic Front and the opposition United Democratic Front are adopting a neutral stand, the Bharatiya Janata Party has expressed its support for the tribals along with rights groups and leftist extremists. Several activists including Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, who hails from nearby Kottayam district, and social activist Medha Patkar have already trekked through the rough terrains to express their solidarity with the encroachers. The protest was launched by the independent Sadhujana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi (Joint Front for the Liberation of the Poor) which claims it is inspired by Ayyankali, a militant Dalit leader, and B R Ambedkar, the Dalit architect of India’s constitution. Besides Dalits, people from all communities are among the occupiers. The SVSV maintains that the HML is in possession of only 12,500 acres, not 25,000 acres according to the lease records and the protesters were only occupying the land that they rightly claim. The State Human Rights Commission has sought a report from the authorities and SVSV leader Laha Gopalan on the plight of poor people living in makeshift huts there. “All of them are not landless people as made out to be. There are people who possess acres of land elsewhere,†Communist Party of India (Marxist) legislator Raju Abraham said. The protesters have also started playschools, provision shops, teashops and saloons in the newfound land spread over 15,000 acres. *Cyanide cry in eviction* JOHN MARY http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080305/jsp/nation/story_8980905.jsp *Thiruvananthapuram, March 4:* Tribals illegally occupying a plantation for the past 215 days are said to have procured cyanide capsules to stall a court-ordered eviction. The group of over 7,000, including children, has refused to leave the 800-acre Harrisons Malayalam estate at Chengara in Pathanamthitta's Adur, 125km from Thiruvananthapuram, unless each family is given five acres, Rs 50,000 and other housing facilities. Fearing a Nandigram-type situation, the Left government on Monday asked police to withdraw just as they were about to start removing the squatters. The high court has set March 7 as the deadline for peaceful eviction. Police officials conceded there was tension in the area but didn't appear ready to believe the "cyanide claim". "The crowds are restive. They had flaunted kerosene cans yesterday but none apparently had matches. I believe that the cyanide capsules are at best a claim," said inspector-general (south zone) Arun Kumar Sinha. The government fears a repeat of the tribal occupation of the Muthanga wildlife sanctuary in 2002, when a tribal activist and a policeman had died during the eviction. Home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told the Assembly today that the government had to comply with the court directive but was wary of ordering forces into the plantation for fear of violence and bloodshed. "We know that most of the so-called tribal people occupying the plantation have land and a good number of them sport the tribal tag for convenience," he added. A committee has been set up to negotiate with the protesters. -- Dileep R I thuravoor --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
