SUITABLE MERGER??

People are venting their anger over land acquisition in various places.

Tribals and peasants demonstrating against so called "development' projects , ranging from roads to swank factories in SEZ's.The Government puzzled over why the people are resenting projects that are intended for their development..The truth being ,the development is really of the business class and the land mafia!

Here the sentiment of resistance is tapped by the militancy to bring about violent responses.

Earlier non violent protests drew public attention.Now the agitations aim at procuring higher compensation packages, not just money but total packages as offered in Singur to the displaced.

Land acquisitions have helped the scattered Left groups to unite and support the farmers.A kind of symbiotic situation exists.The Left gaining support and in turn the farmer's gaining a support base.

Displacement therefore is binding the tribals and peasants to the Left and to the societies action groups.The common factor being protection from exploitation and the common enemy- the State!

Will an alliance between the Left and the social action groups bring about results? Will an intermingling of volatile responses and peaceful ideologies culminate in the 'ideal solution' that we all are looking for???

30 YEARS LATER, A TRIBAL TRIUMPH

For most people in Jharkhand, the Koel Karo project has been a familiar name since the last three decades.The project was initiated by the then Bihar government in 1973 with the objective of harnessing the Koel and Karo rivers to produce hydroelectric pwer.In 1980, the National hydroelectric corporation(NHPC) was given the task of building dams on the two rivers.Since the announcement of the project it was vehemently opposed by the tribals in Gumla, Ranchi and Singhbhum districts of Jharkhand.They felt the project would submerge a large part of their agricultural land and a number of religious places, especially forest groves calles sarnas that have from ancient times, been considered sacred by the tribals.
Official assessment of the projects scope showed the number showed the number of villages affected to be 42. This was revised to 112.Tribal leaders however claimed that 256 villages would come under the projects submergence area.Also 50,000 acres of forest area and 40,000 acres of agricultural land would be affected besides 300 sarnas,175 churches and 120 mandirs.
Although the govt. offered to resettle the affected villages, the tribals insisted on a total resettlement package. The Koel Karo Jan Sanghatan (formed by the tribals to oppose the project) demanded for resettlement, provided it was total ,social, environmental, religious factors would be considered.They proposed that 2 villages be resettled as a model.If the people were satisfied they would go ahead with the resettlement.However the govt. decided to go ahead with the project.Police were despatched to the area in 1985,. The tribals boycotted the police personnel.They were not allowed to set up their camps and no daily provisions were sold to them..making their daily existance difficult.The project died down.In 1995, PV Narasimha Rao, the then Prime Minister decided to lay the foundation stone.More than 30,000 people mostly tribals agitated.Police opened fire and 8 people were killed. The stone laying was postponed.The Jan Sanghatan then resolved not to hold any more talks for resellement. the Sanghatan thrives from the 16,000 families, most of whom contribute 100rs. a year for the cause.
In 2005, the govt. scrapped the project.But the Sanghatan vows to spread awareness till the project is officially announced as closed in the gazette.They share their experiences with the Narmada bachao andolan and Singur...
source: The Times of India.
If it happpened in Jharkhand,Bastar is not far away...............

A BOLD STATEMENT

A statement from villagers across the Indravati.As reported the villagers are not being allowed to cross the river since 2yrs.Though the govt. claims otherwise, the state has stopped going to these villages after the start of Salwa Judum.Most of them hve shifted to the camps..The villlagers still living there have made the statement..Will somebody wake up and listen, or are they destined to live in exile in their own land?????

Reproduced from:www.cgnet.in

The Present 'Maharaja'

The present 'Maharaja' of Bastar, Shri.Kamal Chandra Bhanjdeo giving a public audience...He is presently pursuing higher studies overseas.Will he put his newfound knowledge to use, for the betterment of his people?It is something we should wait and watch out for! He has a legacy to uphold, being the descendant of an imposing personality like Pravir Chandra Bhanjdeo....

CIVIL LIBERTIES..THE STANDING JOKE!

Police at your doorstep- shocked??? dont be. All because you accessed a website of the CPI(M) or the LeT, or because you rubbed the police the wrong way in your eagerness to investigate encounter killings.These are considered evidences of you being ' anti national'.Binayak Sen of Raipur, Arun Ferreira of Mumbai and Geelani of Delhi met the same fate.
To support the cops are laws like POTA, Armed Forces Special Powers Act or Special Public Security Act, Unlawful activities Prevention Act etc. These are Acts under which held the accused needs to prove himself innocent rather than the prosecution proving him guilty.,Article 19 thus being reduced to a joke.After half a century plus of democracy we still need a clear definition of our political rights!
CSPSA2006: defines an unlawful activity as an act that has a tendency to pose an obstacle to the maintainance of administration of law and order or 'encourages' disobedience of established law or institutions set by the law.
Such a law renders the media and even the citizen who wants to show his objection about mass politics, helpless!!!!

TATA TEA IN "SOUP"!

After Singur and Bastar ,TATA now has to face the wrath in Kerala...Tata Tea now faces allegations of usurping about 50,000 acres of an ecologically fragile area in Munnar,Kerala.They are now pitched against the CM, Achutanandan himself.Sources say that notices to give up 1200 acres of land have already been issued and the land recovery will begin by next week..

It is Tata tea chief, RM Krishna Kumar versus Achutanandan the CM now....

source:The Times Of India

TIME TO TURN HUMANE.......

There's a thin line that seperates a crime fighting hero fom a villian with a licence to kill and it takes no time for the hero to turn into a gun toting cop who considers the slain bodies as achievements and term them as encounters.
They kill,with a vengence..But what sets them apart from other criminals is their uniform and their licenced weapons..They are not punished but rewarded with promotions and perks!"MEN MAKE COUNTERFEIT MONEY.IN MANY MORE CASES MONEY MAKES COUNTERFEIT MEN"!
The infamous Sohrabuddin Sheikh case highlights the Encounter phenomenon and has drawn enough public flak.
Why do the encounters almost always occur only late in the night or the early hours?The scene invariably deserted and a policeman rarely injured?When evidence is hard to produce ,encounters save the day for these uniformed criminals.are they turning inhuman??Sohrabuddin,Nandigram, Surguja, innumerable instances in Bastar, Andhra Pradesh,all in the name of combating terrorism. Lathi charges, violent blows, physical torture, modesty outraged and custody deaths..where is the end??
Are they pledged to eliminate crime or the criminal himself??Police atrocities are rising by the day..NHRC only investigates only the very few cases that are reported.Where does the poor man turn to, for justice??
Its time the police wake up and polish their humane sides along with the guns they weild...Empathy is the need of the day.
' ONE CANNOT ALWAYS BE A HERO,BUT ONE CAN ALWAYS BE A MAN'- Goethe