*Chengara inching towards open conflict as talks fail* *Pioneer News Service | Pathanamthitta* Horror filled the more than 3,000 makeshift sheds of over 7,000 Dalits and Adivasis agitating in the rubber estates among the Chengara hills in Pathanamthitta district on Monday with the meeting of District Collector PC Sanil Kumar with trade unions blocking the roads to the agitation camp.
The meeting was held as a last attempt to make the workers withdraw from their move to march into the estate on September 3 to forcefully evict the agitators from there. With this, a conflict which could gather any imaginable dimensions became a possibility in the rubber estates, where the agitators have been camping since August 4, 2007 demanding land and livelihood. The District Collector has stated that the workers' would not be allowed to take out the march. The workers, who had been blocking the entry points to the estate since August 3 in a determined bid to smoke the agitators out, are now preparing to flush the Dalits and Adivasis out of the camp with the collective physical force of all the workers registered in the trade unions in the entire Pathanamthitta district. With the agitators preferring death to free passage out of the camp if they do not get land and livelihood, an intense conflict on Wednesday has now become a discomforting possibility. In the context, the district administration is considering various options including clamping prohibitory orders in the area. Stating that the workers would march into the agitation camp on Wednesday as decided earlier, the estate workers, demanding their jobs back in the estate, the trade union representatives told the district administration that the meeting was held 'very late'. Trade union leaders held that there was no meaning in holding discussions with the workers after the authorities adopted a position favourable to the agitators. The estate workers, who claimed that they had lost their jobs in the estate held by Harrison Malayalam Plantations Ltd after the agitators encroached upon it, had been blocking the entry point of the camp since August 3, the first anniversary of the agitation in Chengara. The blockade had become so intense that even the local people turned against the workers due to their unethical methods of checking the passersby. With the blockade continuing, the situation in the camp had deteriorated as the agitators were unable to get food or water or even medicines to treat the sick. Following this, reports came out of the camp that starvation and contagious diseases were spreading through the camp. In this situation, the workers ten days back lifted their blockade 'temporarily' to let the agitators leave the camp before September 3. But even then the workers refused to allow even health workers to reach medical help to the estate. There are reports that the condition of the agitators has deteriorated further with the incidence of diseases going up and starvation becoming more intense in the context of the supply lines being cut off by the workers. The estate workers had even blocked Muslim League workers who had tried to give food and water to the agitators. Rights workers are holding the CPI(M)-led LDF Government responsible for the situation in Chengara. They say that the Government had taken a stand that supported the workers with the clear intention of getting the agitators out of the camp somehow. The CPI(M) Ministers, including Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan had, from the very beginning, adopted a position that the Dalits' stir was actually against the Government. This, and the readiness showed by CPI(M) trade union CITU to lead the workers' blockade, had given confidence to the workers to act against the agitators. However, the Government was forced to talk to Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi, which had been spearheading the Dalits' agitation, after the workers served the September 3 ultimatum on the agitators. Scheduled Caste Welfare Minister AK Balan and Revenue Minister KP Rajendran had talked to Vedi president Lhaha Gopalan and other leaders in Thiruvananthapuram. The discussions held by District Collector Sanil Kumar with the trade unions on Monday were part of the efforts to avoid a physical confrontation between the workers and the agitators. The workers are claiming that they have been working in the estates held by Harrison Malayalam and the agitation had caused the loss of their jobs, which had led to their penury. But the Vedi says that this is nothing but a lie. They say that the workers even otherwise did not have any job in the estate as the Government had already asked the plantation company to stop operations at the estate as the period of land lease had already expired. *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality." - Dr BR Ambedkar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
