POSCO Destroys Rural Families of Jagatsinghpur

Special Economic Zones or SEZs as they are called in India are part and parcel of the New Economic Policy elaborated by the World Bank and imitated by their Indian agents. Since the early nineties the mainstream political parties of India are following the dictates of the imperialist powers and their anti-people puppet institutions e.g. the World Bank (WB) and the International Monitory Fund (IMF). As if these two were not sufficient to destroy the poverty-ridden third world, in 1995 another organisation: the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was added to destroy completely the local industry and agriculture of the third world. Look, how the people in Asia, Africa and Latin America are suffering in their millions in the hands of international corporate fascism!

The aim of the New Economic policy is to dismantle the public sector institutions built-up brick by brick during the last 6 decades with a lot of public wealth so that a colony of British Empire could face the challenges of poverty and destruction due to the ‘partition’ willfully imposed by the British rulers. It is wrong to say that the western educated Indian rulers wanted to build up the post-partition Indian economy where the role of private capital would be minimum or zero. Rather, on the specific requests of Indian trading private capital, public sector organisations were created to serve the long term interests of these private traders of yesteryear and till today that is the philosophy of Indian public sector (PSU). Indian private capital till today is not interested in long term investment in infrastructure and capital goods industry. Their only target was to trade or work as commission agents. Many of present day stalwarts of industry and commerce in India started work as ‘managing agents’ and earned huge amounts of surpluses by corrupt, fraudulent and illegal means. In all businesses where these stalwarts entered, the only philosophy of business was to earn quick profits at the cost of the national interest. In foreign trade, invoices were made fake fictitiously, foreign exchange earned were kept abroad, in preparation for the annual accounts required for Company Law and Income Tax Law, everything was manipulated, and corruption everywhere was the order of the day. MNCs like Hindustan Lever, Imperial Tobacco, Siemens, and Philips etc. were also making quick bucks and putting pressure on the political system to allow more and more MNCs to come to India so that imperialists would enjoy the same freedom to exploit India’s one billion population as the East India Company enjoyed from 1757 to 1858 and the British Raj till 1947.

After the death of Mao Zedong the Chinese Communist Party adopted the age old ‘capitalist’ path resulting in huge investments of MNCs from the rest of the world. Today Chinese goods are on the shelves of almost all the retail trading houses of the world. The phenomenal growth of China both in economic expansion and in military might frighten the imperialists. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headed by the US wants to create a buffer between China and them. On their advice, the Indian ruling class decided to follow the same Chinese route of economic activity, of course, without nuclear war power. The slogan was, ‘liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation’ (LPG). The Indian ruling class on the advice of their foreign masters handed over the future of more than a billion population to organised international criminal corporate houses without developing any type of checks and balances as is normal in the developed world. China has one party rule and they are very strict in enforcing the rules on their business houses. In US laws are meant to help unrestricted working of the corporate sector, but they can’t go beyond the four walls of law. Enron, for example in recent history, was doing a roaring business throughout the globe but once detected of ‘window dressing’ or fraud, the entire structure was crushed. Both Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Lakshmi Mittal faced all sorts of hurdles before they could acquire those steel companies in the EU. No one can imagine that can happen in India, though Indian stalwarts like Pandit Nehru promised to hang them on a ‘lamp post’ if they indulged in corruption, adulteration and cheating the nation. Thus the in Indian context everything is allowed provided one knows whom to approach! On the international ‘corruption index’ India is in a ‘respectable’ high position, but on the ‘human development index’ India’s placement is in the 125th or 127th among the 180 odd countries. This is in short the real lesson from the long story of ‘9 to 10 percent growth or development’ of this subcontinent during the last six decades.

II
In our school textbooks during colonial days we read that ‘Indian agriculture depends on the monsoon’, and today after 60 long years of so-called ‘independence’ day in day out all the media show the progress of monsoon since the first week of June every year. Why is the monsoon is so important to-day? What happened to the crores of rupees spent on big dams and irrigation projects? Where are those contractors, politicians and engineers who cheated this country? Around 700 million people are still in the villages of India whose only occupation is agriculture. Most of the holdings are either small or marginal. Big size holders of land are very small in number. The increasing cost of cultivation, uncertain market conditions and high rate of interest for private loans are causing widespread bankruptcy among increasing number of cultivating families. ‘Farmers’ deaths’ are no longer news; one may get international awards by highlighting the total failure of Indian agriculture. It is happening every day in different parts of the country. Even ‘once upon a time very rich Punjabi farmers’ are committing suicide because they can’t pay their debts. Farmers in Vidarbha in Maharashtra are selling their human organs to pay off debt, in Punjab one finds advertisements that this or that village is ‘on sale’. Even then the Indian representatives in World Economic Forum meetings is increasing year after year! From the face of these representatives of Indian destitutes there is hardly any expression that they at all think of this country and its billion populations.

Who is responsible for this sorry state of affairs? We were told that ‘green revolution’ and ‘white revolution’ were achieved in India. But in recent times our internal production of cereals, lentils, cooking oils and so on are short in supply and India is forced to import them at any price, because the internal price of these commodities of these day to day requirements are sky high. In the same manner milk and milk products are imported by MNCs and distributed in the country. We read everyday discussions on ‘food security’, minimum calories etc.etc. but who is going to implement it in a World Bank dictated ‘market economy’. Food, clothing and shelter are meant for those who have purchasing power, but how many Indians earn one US $ a day for 365 days in a year. One US $ gets now Rs 40 ( in future it will fall further) and the official urban minimum wage is double or treble of this figure in many urban centres in India. One kilogramme of flour costs around Rs. 20 and it is impossible for a family of 5 or 6 members to live on Rs 40 per day income. The villages of India are destroyed by the well planned economic policies followed by the mainstream political parties: both the UPA supported by the ‘left’and the NDA. The recent birth of the UNPA, as a form of another cartel in the political bazaar of India deserves observation, as AIDMK and others betrayed in recent Presidential election!

The present economic situation in rural India is the result of a well thought-out strategy of the imperialist powers. Both the US and the EU have to maintain their agricultural sector with a huge subsidy and they want a greater market share in the developing countries. That is why the WTO forced India to withdraw all import duties on agricultural commodities but refused to withdraw their own subsidies and flatly denied to reduce import restrictions on agricultural commodities from the third world countries. Result is, as an example, Indian cotton growers can not compete with imported subsidised cotton from US and when they run in huge debt they are forced to commit suicide. ‘Genetically modified (GM)’ crops grow in huge quantity and developed countries want market in the developing countries. These GM crops are dangerous for man and beast. We don’t know whether India is importing any GM crop and in what quantity. But they are selling GM seeds manipulating politicians. Even the judiciary is party to this anti-people conspiracy of the MNCs. Our policy makers willingly never allowed either private or public investments in agriculture, though around two-third of our workers are directly dependent on agriculture. This is the largest private sector in India, a family of 5 or 6 are directly engaged in his or her tiny farm during the crop season New economic reform measures of Government of India want to utilise the golden opportunity of man made agricultural bankruptcy to throw out millions of this country from this occupation! What is the alternative for these hapless people?

III
Relatively backward states like Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa are rich in minerals and water resources. Tribals are the significant population in these states. Where tribals live below the surface of their huts and cultivating land there is huge reserve of iron ore, manganese, coal, bauxite etc. etc. – costly mineral resources of the country in huge quantity. Both Indian Corporates and MNCs are flocking in large numbers to these three states and negotiating with the local corrupt politicians of the state governments to get ownership rights of these mineral resources. Every one wants to acquire ‘captive mines’, so that they can make this country empty of minerals within no time. They want to start factories to process these minerals into finished products and /or export raw minerals to foreign countries. Paradeep port on Orissa coast was developed by Japan long ago to export iron ore. Now China is the largest buyer of iron ore from India though they have their own huge reserve of ore. They have stopped export of their own iron ore. There is no ‘national’ mineral policy of the Government of India in general and on iron ore in particular. It is decided ad hoc, based on who will earn what amount. Exhaustible minerals like coal, iron ore and others are not exported when the country like India needs it for its mere survival. The centre is committed to export, it has nothing to do with ‘national interest’. In the recent Corus takeover negotiations of the Tatas, the Government of India is reported to have assured the Tatas of cheaper iron ore from India. The same assurances were probably given to NRI businessman Mr. Mittal. Everyone wants exclusive ownership of captive mines from where they can withdraw as much as they want at the minimum price to be decided by the politicians irrespective of price escalation in the world market. This is practiced only in India, nowhere else in the world. This is only one example how corporate loot is openly allowed by the new economic policy dictated by the WB, IMF and WTO.

IV
The same thing has happened with POSCO (Pohang Steel Company Ltd.) of South Korea. This is a big steel producer in the world and it has steel plants in many countries. On June 22, 2005 POSCO and Government of Orissa entered into an agreement that this foreign company will invest around $12 billion (now around Rs 48000 crores and it may go down further in future with appreciation of Rupee) and produce around 12 million tones of steel per annum. They will use around 600 million tons of iron ore and export around 400 million tons of good quality ore through a captive port to be developed near the existing Paradeep port. The project will get water from the Mahanadi barrage at Jobra and Naraj in Cuttack. As there is no surplus water available, who will suffer when Posco starts withdrawing water. Why do not they use the sea water after processing? Centre has given the green signal to the Project as an SEZ and therefore, it is entitled to all the concessions of an SEZ. The project requires a land area of 4004 acres in three panchayats: Gadakujang, Dhinkia and Nuagaon in the district of Jagatsinghpur. They will require more land for developing infrastructure. The government claims that 471 families will be affected and many of them have already accepted compensation! However, in their meetings those who protest against acquisition claim attendance of more than 20,000 people of around 4000 families. Why is the Orissa government not telling the truth? Whom they are afraid of?

Why is FDI in steel making required in 2007? Don’t we have enough Indian producers of steel; both in the Private and Public sector. Is it that our steel makers don’t have enough funds for investment? Some of them are migrating to distant lands to produce steel. During the last one year two big steel companies were sold out outside India because the owners failed to run it profitably. One was purchased by Mr Mittal, an NRI and the other was acquired by Mr Tata. One of the main reasons why they were sold is because cost of iron ore is getting costlier day by day. China produces huge quantities of steel, it has its own iron ore reserves, but imports from rest of the world, including India, a huge quantity of iron ore every year. It refuses to export its own ore. Indian rulers have decided recently to allow export of more and more good quality ore to foreign countries, depriving the future generations of this precious mineral. Will the people of India accept such an anti national policy of the Centre? This is another form of state terrorism.

V
Regarding Posco project, there is no scope of transferring 4000 acres of fertile agricultural land for a steel factory. People of these three panchayats have refused to allow either government representatives or the salaried staff of the Korean company to enter into their villages, as was done in Nandigram in West Bengal or Kalinganagar in Orissa. The local economy is a thriving, labour-intensive one based on agriculture and fishing. Apart from paddy, coconut etc., cash crops like betel (pan), cashew, supari and kewra are produced in huge quantities and sold throughout the country. Its betel leaves fetch huge profit during the Diwali festival from north and west India. Many families of this area can give employment to the staff of Posco against their vague promise of ‘one member of each affected family’ and that too temporary unskilled job with no minimum wage law as it is a SEZ project (no law of the land is enforceable in the SEZ area). How stupid is this? The government claims that out of 4000 acres of land given to Posco, 3566 acres is forest land and belongs to the government. We hope Naveen Patnaik, chief minister, and his team of NDA government in Orissa knows that forest land belongs to those who live in forest and no government can throw them out as they used to do in the past before the Forest Law was passed last year. Even the Ministry of Forest and Environment cannot help Naveen babu though it is well known throughout the country as anti people, anti forest and anti environment. It is worth reminding our friends in Orissa and in Delhi, the forest that we find along the coast line of Orissa is a must in this area as the area is prone to frequent cyclone and storm. Have we forgotten the Tsunami and Indian coastal people! Are they not still suffering! Will Koreans allow their company to endanger the life of lakhs of coastal people of Orissa to earn some pennies as profit?

The group of ministers appointed by the Prime Minister’s Office to go into SEZ policy after the Nandigram massacre in March 2007 recommended that SEZs should not be set up in areas of cultivable land, then how Posco was recognised for SEZ by Mr. Kamal Nath ?. Why are not state governments instructed by the PMO to do a land survey before they enter into a Memorandum of Understanding? This happened with Tata as he was to be given some ‘gift of land at Singur’ in West Bengal by CPI (M). Singur has the best cultivable land in West Bengal producing more than one crop each year. Paradeep port has sufficient capacity so why is an additional port being built by its side by Posco which will endanger the fishing industry and the life of thousands of rare turtles ? Is the central ministry of shipping, road transport and highways sleeping on the entire issue? Regarding the resettlement of the affected families in the Project area, where is the promised law of settlement of SEZ-affected people and in the absence of that how is the Orissa government allowed to approach individual landholders. Why is not Posco advised to approach individual land owners, instead of using the colonial 1894 Act. Mr Chief Minister of Orissa should sit down with his counter part in Karnataka, because both of them are running NDA governments and ask the latter about land acquisition for industrialisation. The Karnataka government wants industrialists to directly approach landowners and the government has no role in the matter.

This project will establish captive iron ore mines, why? Let them purchase iron ore from the Indian market or elsewhere and carry on their steel production. In China this company is not given any captive mines. Let them pay the increasing price of iron ore prevalent in the international market during the next 30 years. In the same manner both Tatas and Mittals are assured by their benefactors to allocate ‘captive mines’ in Orissa and Jharkhand. How long such anti- people, anti- national policies will be pursued by the governments?
Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce, friend and philosopher of the SEZ in India is reported in the press that he is angry with the Reserve Bank of India and Ministry of Finance for denying various concessions that he wants to give to the industrialists within the SEZs. In a market economy, which his Prime Minister advocates, competition is the catchword and the government has no role to play as was the case before the Economic Reform started in 1991. Why should the people in the SEZs not pay the market rate of interest as was decided by the RBI? Why does he want real estate companies to be exempted in SEZ areas? Why should not they pay all the taxes as millions of ordinary citizens pay as per the Finance Act? Initially we were told that China’s growth is due to excellent export performance. They have 5 Special Economic Zones for exclusive export. Now the Indian Commerce Ministry clarifies that units established within SEZ may not export, but they will enjoy all the concessions and privileges. Do we have any rule of law in this country? If the UPA Govt. supported by ‘left’ feels that both Indian and foreign corporate houses are to be enriched at the cost of national interests, let us debate it first in the country then implement it. Both the UPA and the ‘left’ combine and the NDA are bankrupt political combines, their main interest is to give all bureaucratic protection to the corporates to mercilessly loot the country’s natural resources and thereby keep the vast majority of the population deprived permanently of food, clothing and shelter. These poor homeless people demanded land for shelter from the Andhra Pradesh government but got bullets in return. The same story happened in Nandigram, a state ruled by the ‘left’. Will Kamal Nath and Co. restrain themselves from the ruthless destruction of millions of cultivating families, otherwise they will be left with no other alternative than to resist all attempts of the government to make them paupers and destitutes. Indians are adamant in achieving their demand to survive in their land of origin. No forces of earth can deprive their inherent ‘right to life and livelihood’.
source:revolutionary democracy

BHAGAT SINGH: ABIDING RELEVANCE

The year 2007 has a remarkable bearing on India’s historic struggle for freedom. It marks the 250th anniversary of the battle of Plassey; the 150th anniversary of 1857; the 60th anniversary of 1947; and the birth centenary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

Through the course of this year, many aspects of the life and work of Bhagat Singh have been written about. While Bhagat Singh continues to remain an icon for modern-day Indian youth, the fact that needs to be underlined is that he and his associates acquired the status of living legends even in their brief life time. This is confirmed by the fact that the British clandestinely advanced the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev fearing a public outrage. In an unprecedented manner, these legendary heroes of the Indian freedom movement were hanged until death at dusk on March 23, 1931 instead of the 24th morning. The British tried to surreptitiously dispose the bodies at Hussainwallah on the banks of the Sutlej.

In the few years of his active political life, being just over 23 years of age, when the British executed him, Bhagat Singh, along with his associates had radicalised the freedom struggle. The Delhi bomb case (“to make the deaf hear”) and the murder of British officer Saunders to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai due to the severe lathicharge in the anti-Simon Commission protests brought on to the agenda of the freedom struggle, a militancy hitherto unknown.

HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES

A brief recollection of the historical circumstances of that period is important to understand this and the consequent abiding relevance of Bhagat Singh to contemporary India. All these revolutionaries enthusiastically participated in the non-cooperation movement launched by the Congress under Gandhiji’s leadership in August 1920. However, when Gandhiji withdrew this movement in February 1922 following the attack on the police station in Chauri Chaura calling it a “Himalayan blunder”, the disappointment and the consequent frustration was rampant among the youth. Some historians believe that this withdrawal forced the unspent energy of the masses into fratricidal channels. The spurt in the number of communal riots is often cited as evidence. It is precisely in this period that alternatives to the Congress were being sought. The fledgling Communist Party formed in 1920 brought together the various communist groups across the country at a convention in 1925 at Kanpur. The same year, the RSS was founded in Nagpur. It was in the course of these tumultuous years that three distinct visions on what ought to be the character of independent India emerged.

The Congress, in response to these developments, defined its vision of independent India as being a secular democratic republic. The communists articulated their vision as one that will consolidate the secular democratic republic by transforming the political independence gained by the country into the true economic independence of all its people, i.e., socialism.

The third vision in complete contradistinction to the above two sought to define the character of independent India on the basis of the religious denomination of its people. This had a twin expression. The RSS advocating its fascistic vision of a rabidly intolerant “Hindu Rashtra” and the Muslim League seeking the partition of the country to establish an Islamic republic. The ideological battle amongst these three visions, in fact, continues till date and the present-day political developments can be properly understood only within these parameters. In this battle, Bhagat Singh was closest to the communist vision and, in fact, independently moved towards communist ideological foundations. Bhagat Singh was not a lone hero but part of a remarkable group of revolutionaries. It was at Bhagat Singh’s intervention, at a secret meeting that took place in Ferozeshah Kotla at Delhi on September 8, 1928, that the Hindustan Republican Association was rechristened as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Socialism was now accepted both as a goal and the ideological foundation of their activities. Though Chandrashekhar Azad could not attend the meeting being underground following the famous Kakori incident in August 1925 and the hanging of his associates Ram Prasad Bismal, Ashfaqullah, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh in November 1927, he had given his prior approval to the decisions taken at this meeting.

CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN INDIA

While many today seek to appropriate the legacy of Bhagat Singh and his associates, if a proper justice of their contribution to the evolution of modern independent India is to be done, then that must be based on Bhagat Singh’s own writings. For a youth barely in his twenties, Bhagat Singh, in his times, was fairly well-read. His diaries released by the National Archives on the 50th anniversary of his martyrdom revealed the vast range of contemporary writers that he read. Though Bollywood has now made his reading of Lenin famous, in his diaries, extensive quotations from various writers are there, including the famous concluding lines of the poet, Percy Byshee Shelley’s magnum opus, “The mask of anarchy”:

“Rise like lions after slumber

In unanquishable number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you

Ye are many – they are few.”

Everyday, during their trial, Bhagat Singh and B. K. Dutta used to enter the courts shouting the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad”. When the court questioned them on the meaning of this slogan, they submitted written statement which says: “I, Bhagat Singh, was asked in the lower court as to what we meant by the word `Revolution’. In answer to that question, I would say that Revolution does not necessarily involve a sanguinary strife, nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. By Revolution we mean that the present order of things which is based on manifest injustice must change.

“This is our ideal and with this ideology for our inspiration we have given a fair and loud enough warning.

“Revolution is the inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is the imprescriptible birth right of all. The labourer is the real sustainer of society. The sovereignty of the people is the ultimate destiny of the workers.” Thus, the slogan `Inquilab Zindabad’ was immortalised during our freedom struggle.

UNSHAKEABLE CONVICTION

There are various elements of Bhagat Singh’s life that have contributed to his immortal legend, heroism, sacrifice, the political clarity and the ability to catch the imagination of the people. The Hindi film industry has now converted this legend into an icon. During the first few years of this century, at least six films have been made on this revolutionary. The last in this series being the very creative effort, Rang De Basanti. The title of the film comes from the immortal song which Bhagat Singh and his associates supposedly sang as they were marching to the gallows. Though the film was come under severe criticism for its alleged projection of nihilism, the essential thrust is being missed. In actual life, many individuals may associate passionately with a political project due to various reasons and under varied circumstances. The moot question, however, is, when it comes to the crunch, whether these individuals stand up to their political convictions, or, not. This is the acid test. The protagonists in this film (including one who vacillates) embrace a sure death out of conviction and not being pushed into that position by circumstances. The option to opt out was always there. But, they choose not to do so.

This is exactly what Bhagat Singh and his associates did. They marched to death with a smile. When the hangman offers him to pray before death, he says, “I have neither fear of death nor belief in God”. In terms of political belief, while firmly abjuring “the cult of the bomb and the pistol”, as Bhagat Singh himself notes, they chose to throw the bomb at the Delhi assembly and murder Saunders with pistol under the firm belief that these actions would galvanise the youth to seek freedom.

Contrast this, with those political commentators who in the wake of team India’s historic win of the twenty-20 cricket world cup have sought to suggest that new India’s icons are far removed from the traditions of anti-imperialism that galvanised earlier generations of Indian youth. They need to note that popular Hindi cinema is, by far, the most reliable barometer of popular Indian opinion and sentiment. During the first six years of this decade, as stated above, six mainstream successful films have been released on Bhagat Singh! This is the reaction of the overwhelmingly youthful population of India.

However, in their effort to erase the impact of the finest traditions and legacy of revolutionary struggles that shaped the contours of modern independent India, these pundits of liberalisation spare no opportunity or effort to facilitate the transformation of modern India into a subordinate ally of world imperialism today. The ongoing national debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal and the grave implications it has on India’s sovereignty and independent foreign policy is, indeed, taking place in this very birth centenary year of Bhagat Singh.

The recollection of Bhagat Singh’s legacy, thus, is of contemporary relevance in today’s continuing battle between the three visions that we spoke of above and more importantly to safeguard and strengthen India’s economic sovereignty and, thus, its pride of place in the international comity of nations.

Source:Sitaram Yechury :Cpim.

Dalit students battle prejudice and violence

Times of India



Siddarth Varadarajan





NEW DELHI: Vikram Ram, a Dalit student at the UniversityCollege of Medical Sciences (UCMS) in east Delhi, got a rudeshock when he sat down for his first meal at the hostel mess.``Bloody Shaddu'', he was told fiercely by a group of upper castestudents (using an abusive term for Scheduled Castes), ``youcannot eat with us''. Hurt and bewildered, he made his way to therow of tables where the Dalit students normally sit.






According to the Dalit students, even the hostel has de factobeen ghettoised, with most of them on two floors. When RakeshKumar, an SC student, was assigned a room elsewhere, aneighbour said: ``We will not let you stay here, Shaddu. Yourkind of person cleans our toilets.'' Faced with the prospect ofconstant harassment, he asked to be shifted.





When this reporter asked some upper caste boys at UCMSabout the term `Shaddu', they denied the word was ever used,except during arguments. After some prodding, one student,Anand Bakshi, said: ``It is only a pet name.''As for separate dining and living areas, the upper caste studentsthis reporter spoke to say there is no such policy. ``If at all theyeat and live together'', said Sudhir Kathuria, ``it is because theylike sticking to their own community''.






Today, Vikram, Rakesh and several other Dalit students are ondharna. After years of discrimination, they say they have hadenough. The last straw was the violent attack on them by someupper caste students on February 22. UCMS authorities insist itwas a run-of-the-mill fight between students but the fact is severalDalits were badly beaten. The hostel PA system was used to asall `general category' students to assemble.






The turban of DrJaswant Singh, a gentle, small-built Dalit, was pulled off and hewas punched and kicked. Another Dalit intern, Balwinder Bhatti,hid himself but the mob ransacked his room.When this reporter went to talk to the Dalit students, they weresuspicious. It was only gradually that their complaints poured out.Stubbornly, reluctantly. More than anything, it is the perceiveddiscrimination from the faculty that rankles. A tall, intensetwenty-something, Vikram had topped his school and had neverbefore experienced casteism. ``My parents say `thoda seh lo;but become a doctor at any cost','' he said, wistfully twisting hisstethoscope this way and that.The son of a driver, Vikram hasn't graduated despite being atUCMS for eight years. Like many SC students, he has frequentlybeen made to repeat exams.





If the intake of reserved students is22, only four graduate on time.``We study as hard as anyone else but it is the faculty's casteismwhich is holding us back,'' said a Dalit student. Ram Das, a finalyear student, had just appeared in an exam. ``The first questionthe examiner asked was `Are you a bania?'.





When I said no, hesaid `Then what? Are you from reserved category? What is yourcaste?'.``If an exam begins like this'', said Ram, ``we get demoralised,nervous. How are we supposed to cope?''



(The names of the students have been changed.)

TATA TARGETS TANZANIA.....

TATA chemicals is drawing flak from conservation groups and environmentalists in Africa over its plan to set up a soda ash factory in collaboration with the Govt. of Tanzania.
It is feared that this project(for which a MoU has been signed) may drive the worlds rarest bird (Phoenicopterus) to extinction.

TATA -after disrupting the peace of Singur, Bastar and Munnar has now widened its zone of destruction to overseas-Tanzania....

The plant is proposed to be set up on the shores of Lake Natron in North Tanzania at its border with Kenya, will mine soda from the lake to prepare soda ash (Calcium Carbonate).Conservationists claim that this will disturb the lake's chemical composition and fragile ecosystem that is protected as "Ramsar Site" since 2001.

Thi project may also create a rift between tanzania and its neighbouring country, Kenya.Kenya is vehemently resisting the project saying that tanzania prevented it from Building a dam on river Swaso Nyiro, the main freshwater source for the salty lake, in 1990.Tanzania had raised concerns about the dam's impact on the lake's ecosystem.

Uganda and Ethiopia also oppose the move, arguing that the project will ruin the Flamingo tourism industry in the entire region.

It will also disrupt the region's indegenous Masai tribe that freely travel over Kenya-Tanzania border in search of Pastures for their livestock.

According to the terms of the agreement ,the plant will be operational by 2010.The soda ash facility will also generate associated units producing glass, soap and detergent- leading to more air and water pollution.Such a project is not viable on a sensitive ecosystem like Lake Natron.It's impact on biodiversity, community livelihoods, natural resources and tourism in Eastern African region will be adverse and long term.

It will also pump out about 530 cubic mts. of brine out of the lake every hour.Water is a critical resource for local Masai community whose lifestyle centres on their livestock that is their primary food source. In 15 hours the plant will consume water to meet needs of approx. 40,000 heads of livestock.Influx of people once the plant begins ,will create more pressure on natural resources.

Is it a mere coincidence that TATA is targetting tribal areas, forests, sensitive ecosystems and the poor man's land?First in India and now overseas....

Is It because the poor man has no voice?At the cost of wiping out natural vegetation and the habitat of animals and humans alike, a project will take birth-to ruin, to destroy, to denude the earth of its natural glory.

Source:Down to Earth

Salwa Judum & tale of 644 deserted villages

Tribals in 644 deserted villages in Chhattisgarh don't exist, at least on paper. These villages don't have citizens and hence there is no National RuralEmployment Guarantee scheme for them or any health services or cheap rations.

These villages, located in the state's Dantewada district, have been allegedlyevacuated by the government-backed private army Salwa Judum. All villagers are supposed to be "well settled" now in 20 relief camps.But testimonials by tribals from the district and also footage from a filmmade for Channel 4 of the BBC prove otherwise. People still live in thesedeserted villages, where almost all houses have been burnt by the invading SalwaJudum mob armies. They hide in the jungles most of the day and come back now andthen.

Tribals question the government figure of 50,000 people lodged in 20 reliefcamps. Are they the whole population of 644 villages, asks Lingoo Markam, a wardpanchayat member from Balood panchayat of Dantewada block."If the entire population of the 1,354 villages in the district is seven lakh,how can 644 villages have only 50,000 residents," he asks, adding that nearlytwo lakh people are on the run.

Many are hiding in the forests, while many have fled to neighbouring AndhraPradesh.Manish Kunjam, a former Communist Party of India legislator from Dantewada,agrees that half the tribals in the villages attacked by Salwa Judum have fledto Andhra Pradesh. He says that he organised a rally in Cherla in Andhra Pradeshin which tribals who had fled from Dantewada were present in thousands. Theywere demanding an end to Salwa Judum terror.

The BBC film Unreported World shows a few families taking shelter in the onlysurviving house in a village. One of the tribal had his back mawed by a bear. Hewas in pain. The villagers come and look after him in that house saying that allthe other houses have been burnt. They could not go to a doctor, as they wouldbe caught by the Salwa Judum and killed on the way.Shubrangshu Kumar, who assisted in the making of the film, says that the crewhad no means to reach the deserted villages as they could be caught by the SalwaJudum. So they walked three days taking the jungle route, assisted by two tribal boys from the village they met in a Raipur hostel.What do people in these deserted villages eat? Do they cultivate their lands?Chomuru had left Salwa Judum a few days after he was forced to join it. He says about his own village of Bechapal, which was raided and officially evacuated:"We survive on the burnt rice left in the village. We spend our time in theforests and eat whatever is available there."Himanshu Kumar, activist of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram in Dantewada, says thatthe tribal areas are now split into three.

There are 644 villages, which havebeen evacuated while the remaining 600-odd villages are being targeted forevacuation. This is the enemy zone as far as Salwa Judum is concerned. Theirgoal is to capture these and burn the houses.The third zone is the Naxal-dominated areas where, of course, no one enters.So, in all the three zones, health, education and employment generation is nil.Worse still, people can't move in and out for fear of being killed.

Chattisgarh Home Minister Ramvichar Netam agrees: "The representatives of thegovernment cannot go to the villages following Naxal threats. The rebels havedestroyed the schools, government buildings and are terrorising the teachers anddoctors. How can the government provide relief when Naxals are not allowing us to enter?"He added that even the roads had been damaged to cut off the villages.

Netam acknowledged the fact that all the 644 villages are not deserted. Thereare many villages which house 20 to 30 families.According to Dantewada collector K R Pisda, not a single village is completelydeserted.Only those who fear Naxals have taken shelter in the camps, while the othersare still staying in the villages.

The 644 villages are not the ones that are abandoned. These are the villages where the Salwa Judum campaign has reached,Pisda clarifies."Most of the villagers, who had earlier fled, have returned to the villages andthose who have gone to the neighbouring states are part of the tradition as theygo there every year for work," Pisda explained.

Himanshu Kumar, however, contested this: "If the villages are not abandoned,then why the government has shifted schools to the camps and pulled out otherfacilities?

"Dharmo Rakshati RakshataIf you protect Dharma, Dharma will in turn protect you

Source:cgnet.in

JUST SEVEN WILD BUFFALOES LEFT....

By Sanjeeb Baruah, Raipur, Sep 18: Chhattisgarh's state animal, thewild buffalo, is on its last legs. Only seven of the animals areregistered in the official records, and authorities are now thinkingof implementing drastic conservation measures.

The Udanti and Indravati wildlife sanctuaries in the state are theonly places in central India where genetically 'pure' wild buffaloes(bos bubalis) are to be found.Though some wild buffaloes are also found in Assam, Arunachal Pradeshand Meghalaya, it is not known how 'pure' they are genetically.

Wild buffaloes have become rare across India due to crossbreeding withdomestic buffaloes.Incidentally, despite the wild buffalo being the state animal, there are no previous records about its population figures. The first censuswas carried out this year.

Another sanctuary in Chhattisgarh known to have been home to the animals was Pamed, but there are no wild buffaloes left there."The matter is very serious. We have to start something soon," saidR.N. Mishra, principal chief conservator of forests.The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) is to submit a report to thegovernment on the conservation measures being taken up."WTI has lined up a number of activities. These will be sent to thegovernment for approval. The forest department will initiate the work once it is approved," Rahul Kaul of WTI told IANS.Of the seven wild buffaloes in Udanti, only one is female."We need to take urgent steps to protect them since they are in verysmall numbers and may quickly become extinct," warned Prabal Sarkar ofWTI.He pointed out that population studies were never conducted at theforests in Indravati due to fear of attacks by Maoists. So it is notknown if there are any wild buffaloes there, but officials say thepossibility is highly unlikely."We brought the female buffalo and her calf to an enclosure inside theUdanti forests since we are planning to involve her in a captivebreeding programme after the calf stops drinking milk," said Mishra,the project supervisor."Each (conservation) activity will have a different timeline; somewill be completed early, while some over a longer period," Kaul added."Cattle grazing, encroachments, loss of natural water sources andfrequent forest fires have affected the habitat, leading to theirdecline," Mishra said.

"Hunting for meat by the locals has alsolowered their population."A state wildlife advisory board meeting was held last week and a plan to conserve wild buffaloes was discussed. The state forest minister,officials and conservation organisations attended the meet.Measures high on the agenda are: conduct a genetic study of wildbuffaloes, restrict domestic buffaloes in the sanctuaries, getadditional manpower to undertake conservation, and study the conditionof the animal's habitat.

Praveen Manikpuri

Congress and BJP Bhai-Bhai.....

A jobless BJP,RSS,VHP and other Hindu-Fundamentalist groups have been given a non-issue like Ram-Setu by Congress on a platter to again disturb the peace of the country similar to what happend at the time of Aayodhya incident....