Sanjay Singhvi with Dr Thomas Sebastian on Indian Elections 2009

Sanjay Singhvi with Naeem Malik on the South Asia

Sanjay Singhvi with Dr. Khazir Zaman on Kashmir

Campaign Against Land Grab and Forced Displacement of People

Indian Workers Association (GB)

South Asia Solidarity Group

call

PICKET

STOP STATE TERROR IN LALGARH

FRIDAY 10 July 2009 at 4.00 pm

INDIAN CONSULATE

1 The Spencers, 20 Augusta St, Jewellery Quater, Hockley

Birmingham, B18 6JL

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STRUGGLE OF THE OPPRESSED CONTINUES:
LALGARH (INDIA) AND THE STATE TERROR

On 18 June 2009, in a massive operation, the central government of India rushed 6 companies of Border Security Force (BSF) and 4 teams of CoBra special security force to Lalgarh, in West Midnapore region of the West Bengal state of India, in a massive operation against the local tribal populations. Why? Because they protested against the state facilitated corporate land-grab for one of the notorious Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Since the mid nineties when the Indian government launched its economic liberalization programme following “globalization”, it has seized thousands of acres of land uprooting tribals, dalits, small farmers and landless farm workers (by one estimate affecting approximately 250 million) and handed it over to the transnational corporations – Indian and foreign. The Indian state created SEZs where industries are exempted from labour and environmental laws, bestowed complete tax exemption and are constitutionally to be treated as foreign territories on Indian soil, come fully equipped with the special courts to serve purposes of the corporations.

Discontent among the largely neglected tribal population started mounting since the state government of West Bengal seized 5000 acres of land for an SEZ in Salboni, West Midnapore district which includes Lalgarh, to be handed over to Jindal Steel Works, a leading Indian multinational steel company with interests in India and outside, including Bolivia. On 2nd November last year when the Chief Minister of West Bengal and the central minister for mining were returning from the inauguration of the Jindal Steel Works in the SEZ, a landmine explosion occurred targeting the ministerial convoy.

Instead of investigating the mine blast, on 5 November 2008 the state government began a massive police operation against the people of the region – arresting them indiscriminately, torturing, raping and killing many. None of this is unusual. Tribals have mostly been ignored by the policy makers, kept safely hidden from the public discourse to be exploited or persecuted when they try to stand up against their exploitation.

What is different is that this time the people of Lalgarh said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. They gathered at the police station where three school boys had been detained and demanded:

1. Unconditional apology from the superintendent of police for the indiscriminate arrests, torture, rape and illegal detention of the people.

2. Apology from the policemen involved in the operations.

3. Compensation for those injured and families of the dead.

4. All negotiations be held in public and not behind closed doors.

Their demands have met with support from a wide area to the point where 1000 sq. acres has been bounded off and the area is expanding. The Indian state has labelled this is an attempt to create a “liberated zone” and has lately sent a massive special security force to suppress the people.

YOU DECIDE – ARE THE DEMANDS OF THE PEOPLE OF LALGARH JUST?

In South Asia people have spoken. Some are with the state or fence-sitting – supporting the state with their silence, and others with the people of Lalgarh supporting their struggle for economic and social justice.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

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antilandgrab@ymail.com

Public Meeting

In Homage to
Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra
A martyr to the independence struggle in the sub-continent

1pm Sunday 22 February 2009
Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre
346 Soho Road, Birmingham B21 9QL

Madan Lal Dhingra was the first Indian revolutionary to be hanged in Britain. Bhagat Singh was inspired by two heroes: Dhingra and Kartar Singh Sarabha. Like Khudi Ram Bose before and Bhagat Singh later, Dhingra kissed the gallows with a smile on his face.

“May I be re-born to the same Mother, and May I re-die in the same sacred cause till the cause is successful, and she stands free for the good of humanity and the glory of God.”

These were the last words of the 22-year old Indian engineering student before going to the gallows on August 17, 1909 at Pentonville Prison, London, for killing Sir Curzon Wyllie, Political Aide-de-Camp to the Secretary of State for India, Lord Morley.

Indian sub-continent has a long history of fighting against imperialism. This struggle has produced many great martyrs who fought to the end for a truly independent India and to see its people free from foreign exploitation. Vast majority of the people in the sub-continent continue to be exploited and remain in the vicious grip of poverty. The foreign and domestic exploitation has now taken a different form and is being carried out under the policies of globalization, privatization and liberalisation, unleashing trans-national corporations to exploit the people and loot the wealth of the land. The struggle against imperialist capitalism continues.

We will be marking Madan Lal Dhingra’s life and at the same time reviewing the challenges the peoples of the sub-continent face today. Madan Lal Dhingra Memorial Committee welcomes all progressive organisations and individuals to join in the Centenary Celebration.

Speakers:
Salvinder Dhillon – Indian Workers’ Association
Radha D’Souza – Lecturer at Westminster University
Amrit Wilson – South Asia Solidarity Group
Kamel Hawwash – Vice-Chair of national PSC

email: mldhingramemorial@googlemail.com
websites: antilandgrab.wordpress.com, www.1857.org.uk

Centenary Commemoration of Martyrdom of Shaheed Madan Lal Dhingra

On August 17th 1909, another fine son of India laid down his young life for the liberation of his motherland. He was hanged in Pentonville prison, London, for shooting William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, Political Aide-de-Camp to the Secretary of State for India, Lord Morley. This further inspired patriots in India and abroad to rise up against the colonial rule and free their country. This followed 52 years after the first war of Indian independence in 1857 and thirty years before Shaheed Udham Singh avenged the Amritsar massacre by killing Michael ‘O’ Dwyer at Caxton hall in London.

The British Colonial rule had decimated Indian agriculture and its famous manufacturing industries, giving rise to frequent long periods of famines. This brought death and starvation to tens of millions of people. The Indian people lived a life of starvation, misery and humiliation under colonial rule. The hearts of Indian patriots seethed with anger against these injustices and had a burning passion for independence. The sacrifice of Madan Lal Dhingra added another chapter in the proud traditions of our people in their struggle to achieve real freedom and create a society offering a life of dignity and security of livelihood for all, free from exploitation.

The British colonialist created their own army of native Indians and a class of native collaborators to help them rule the Indian subcontinent. The new class became the main rich elite running industry and agriculture serving colonial interest. People from this agent class were given education and training in England to uphold the ‘British way of life and values’ and safeguard colonial rule. Political parties were set up from these recruits to contain the flames of revolution. The continued revolts and rising tide of revolution following the Second World War forced the British colonialists to transfer power in 1947 to their trusted agents, the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. The transfer of power resulted in the partition of the Indian subcontinent sowing the seeds of development of current political economic systems in India, Pakistan and later Bangladesh, serving the interests of the rich elite.

The Subcontinent is ruled by wealthy minority elites, who enjoy all the privileges, in the three artificially created countries, whilst the hundreds of millions of the people face extreme poverty. These countries have the world’s largest population of child labour and bondage labour which amounts to present day system of slavery. On top of that the Subcontinent, India in particular, still continues the evil practice of Caste system which legitimizes treating of Dalits as sub-humans.

There are more starving people in India than the whole population of Africa. Whilst the people struggle to find a plot for a home, vast areas of land is being given away free to multinational corporations with a free rein to loot the precious mineral wealth, exploit the rivers and forests. The Subcontinent of today is a far cry from the aspiration of our heroes, who laid down their lives to see their people from exploitation.

The increased impoverishment of the people at the hands of the brown sahibs has forced the people to continue to wage struggles to end the exploitive rule by the new masters. The Telengana uprising, Naxalbari and numerous struggles waged by the working class, peasantry and other exploited sections are a proof that the Indian people will build on these experiences and continue their struggles until the lofty aspirations and visions of the patriots of 1857 uprising, Gadhar Lehr, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Shaheed Udham Singh and Shaheed Bhagat Singh are fulfilled.

The people of Asia Subcontinent are proud to commemorate the centenary of Madan Lal Dhingra. To this end Madan Lal Dhingra Memorial Committee ha been formed. It aims to research his revolutionary life and struggle against imperialism. The Memorial Committee will pay homage to other revolutionary heroes inspired by Madan Lal Dhingra and assess how the present day imperialist exploitation still continues in the Subcontinent and rest of the world. The Memorial Committee welcomes all progressive organisations and individuals to join in and let us together celebrate the centenary. Public meetings will be held up and down the country. These will be supplemented by the 1857 website, publication of ‘Madan Lal Dhingra Centenary’ and a book of revolutionary songs and poems.

Editorial

The current global financial crisis in the form of a credit-crunch is part of the regular boom and bust that humanity has been experiencing since the inception of capitalism. In Britain, Gordon Brown, when new Labour first took power in 1997, promised an end to this cycle of boom and bust with his “careful” management of the economy. Yet his economic management over a decade delivered the worst economic crisis in UK of our lives. According to some of the economic commentators it is the worst crisis capitalism has faced since the 1920’s. This crisis will be used to consolidate capitalism and expand its global control over emerging and other third world countries. The net effect of the crisis will be the expansion of globalization and the consolidation of the multinationals and their control over the world’s resources, including land and energy. According to some financial analysts seventy five percent of all equity is owned by ordinary people, private equity firms and entrepreneurs are robbing ordinary pensioners and workers who are powerless to do anything about such financial wizardry. Ultimately ordinary workers would be paying these entrepreneurs and equity firms expand their empires from the losses ordinary people would have made in the collapse of the stock market. Entrepreneurs and Equity firms would expand their empires. Ordinary people in the developed world would lose substantial portions of their pensions and savings. Some will even lose houses and jobs as the mortgage companies increase interest rates and demand payments. The world will find bigger and fewer multinationals controlling most of the world’s resources. Our jobs will be less secure as a result of this crisis. The consolidation of multinationals will also ensure that the next crisis of capitalism will be even more severe than the current one. In this crisis the food prices, especially in the third world, have increased enormously causing real hardship for the poorest peoples in the world. Various international financial institutions, like the IMF and the World Bank are forcing third world regimes to increase prices by removing subsidies and removing price controls on essential food and energy items.

The International Labour Organization predicts world unemployment would increase by 20 million, reaching 200 million by the end of 2009. In the same period, the ILO also predicts that those living on less than a dollar a day to increase by 40 million and those living under two dollars a day by some 100 million.

The major powers, as a result of this crisis, want to reform the world’s financial institutions and make them even more powerful and able to manipulate world economies, particularly those of the poorer countries. This would not prevent the next crisis from happening. In fact the measures they take now to avert the collapse of their banks would lay the foundation of an even deeper crisis next time round. What these measures will do is allow these institutions to better protect the most powerful of the multinationals against the excesses of the cyclic economic crises inherent in capitalist economy. These institutions would also make the poorer countries even more vulnerable to the crises that we face today.

The present crisis has highlighted the importance for the emerging and poorer countries to develop their economies on the basis of self reliance and sustainability. The third world countries, especially the poorer ones, should be de-linking their economies from the global markets that are purely driven by short term profit motives of the multinationals.

Pakistan’s current democratic, but US compliant regime, has followed every instruction from the international financial institutions. Sherie Rehman a very central figure in the Peoples Party cabinet, even before she has had the chance to secure her cabinet position claimed she had signed a memorandum of understanding with Monsanto, a multinational notorious for exploiting farmers in the poorer countries. The PPP administration has since removed subsidies from fuel products. Electricity is in short supply and despite power blackouts in Karachi for as long as ten to twelve hours a day, families in the city are paying more on energy bills than before the current crisis. Flour, despite the price hikes, is not available in most stores as a consequence of the energy crisis. Apart from perhaps the worst economic crisis Pakistan has ever been through, the country is in the midst of a civil war in the North and West of the country. On a daily basis people are being killed, as a result of the United States and NATO incursions into the country, Pakistan’s own military bombing the tribal areas, or suicide bombings in some of its major cities. The present administration seems least able to sort some of Pakistan’s pressing economic, political and security problems. Democracy has come to Pakistan but it has not offered any respite to the peoples of Pakistan from poverty, from the worst impact of the war on terror and from the anti-people policies of the multi-national institutions like the IMF and the World Bank.

The land grab policies, implemented under the guise of special economic zones and other similar schemes means a larger group will be affected by the current economic crisis. If the farmers are able to farm their lands and not rely on the international markets for their livelihood they are less likely to be impacted by the global financial crisis. Those who have lost their lands to the Special Economic Zones would be among one of the worst affected as a consequence of this crisis. As the demand for consumer goods in the West economies shrinks as a result of the credit crunch, factories within SEZ would close their gates to the workers. These workers would be the ones who would have been left with little defense against the excesses of capitalism under the capital friendly environment of the Special Economic Zones. The struggle against land grab continues in the sub-continent. In Singur, Tata has decided to abandon its plans to build a car factory on land acquired as part of the special economic zone policies of the West Bengal government. There are reports that Tata plans to move its production plans to Gujrat where, it expects to find a more friendly administration under Modi. It remains to be seen how the farmers and ordinary peoples of Gujarat will receive Tata and his proposal to manufacture cars on land acquired under SEZ policies.

At the same time, there are reports from Maharashtra, that in the first ever referendum on SEZ in India, farmers voted overwhelmingly against the acquisition of lands by multinationals. From some 6,199 farms registered, 5,866 voted against the SEZ and with 24 villages voting against the proposed 3417 hectare SEZ. Close to 22,100 farmers voted in this referendum.

Please contact us at antilandgrab@ymail.com for more information about the campaign or if you wish to organise something in your area.

Report on the Public Meeting in London (Lucas Arms pub)

Sunday 12th October 2008

Another successful public meeting was held in London following the earlier launch of the campaign in Birmingham. The meeting was attended by a number of people including councilor for Kensington and Chelsea Mr. M. Lasharie who chairs the Third World Solidarity Network and Arman Riazi of the ILPS. Riazi affirmed ILPS support for the campaign and said that displacement was a phenomenon experienced by peoples of third world everywhere and not India alone. Riazi told the audience that ILPS was conducting a campaign against displacement internationally and congratulated the No2displacement campaign in the UK for their initiative.

The first speaker was Radha D^‘Souza who is a reader at Westminster University and campaigner for human rights in India. Radha spoke on the economic policies relating to Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and the effect they were having on peoples’ lives on the subcontinent. Her speech was full of factual information and was very illuminating. Radha explained that SEZ was the key instrument for furthering the imperialist policy of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation. She went through India’s SEZ Act explaining what it entails and how it is paving the way for the multi-national corporations to acquire prime agricultural land to set up enclaves where they are free to do virtually what ever they want. In these enclaves, Radha explained, the multi-nationals would be exempt from abiding by India’s laws, exempt from paying taxes to the states of India. These zones are in actual fact states within a state. These SEZs come at a very heavy price for the poor of India. She explained that people’s land is being taken off them, often at very much reduced price. Many times the poor get no compensation at all due to the absence of land title deeds. Radha explained that people of India are putting up a resistance and are fighting back against forced displacement. The massive spread SEZ is not just happening in India it was taking place all over the developing world and is causing untold misery to millions and millions of People.

The second speaker was G N Siababa, Secretary of the Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (People’s Movement against Displacement and for Development) in India. Siababa explained that creation of SEZ is just one policy giving rise to people displacement. There are in fact a whole range of other policies that are having exactly the same effect. He mentioned the building of huge number of dams, which will displace thousands of villages and countless number of people. The promises of compensation made to people are all empty, as experienced by the displaced people resulting from the Narmada dam. Siababa mentioned the urban beautification schemes and building of theme parks, for the enjoyment of the rich. This essentially means bulldozing tens of thousands of city slum dwellers to beyond the far extremities of the city borders. Then there are the infrastructure projects of building highways, railways, air and sea ports destroying towns and villages in its path. Siababa talked about the creation of an industrial belt for chemical producing industries along the eastern coast line. This is set to destroy the marine life in the region due to pumping of chemical wastes and devastation of the entire fishing communities that currently reside near the sea, stretching over thousands of miles. Siababa talked about the newest threat to the people and that is the involvements of the corporates in the retail sector. This is going to destroy millions of small businesses and shops, which provides for the extended family system in India. Corporates such as Reliance are moving into the retail trade in a big way which will hit employment in that sector.

Siababa spent some time talking about the peoples’ resistance to the land grab and their displacement. The most prominent example of the resistance was that in Nandigram, West Bengal, where people have resisted the government’s forced acquisition of their land for setting up a petrochemical complex an Indonesian concern. This was a historic struggle waged by the heroic people of Nandigram against violent character of the WB government. In the face of attacks by the armed hired hoodlums of the CPM, the people of Nandigram carried on their resistance struggle under the banner of the Bhumi Ucchhed Protorodh Committee. The resistance to the land grab was so strong, with many lives lost; the government had to abandon the project. This model of resistances has been adopted in many other parts of India. In Orissa the state government has proposed a site for a Mega Steel plant of the Korean company, POSCO. People there are putting up a brave fight to save their land. Having learned from Nandigram they are digging up roads and destroying communication lines to prevent and hinder the work on the project. Siababa said that people of Singur successfully drove out Tata and his proposed small car factory. He further pointed out that for decades Tatas have been unsuccessful in completing any major new project due to the fierce resistance by the people.

Due to the shortage of time the meeting had to be ended rather quickly but not before a number of people had pledged their support to build the Campaign in the London area. The Campaign Against Land Grab and Forced Displacement of People UK welcomes suggestions, initiatives and programmes by other groups and organisations to take the campaign further. Please contact us at antilandgrab@ymail.com for more information about the campaign or if you wish to organise something in your area.

Fighting Injustice in Polepally SEZ

Polepally’s 1,000 acres of despair

Villagers displaced by the Polepally SEZ protest against the unfair treatment meted out to them during a hunger strike in Jadcherla mandal.

by V K Rakesh Reddy

When moves to set up the Polepally special economic zone began five years ago, natives of three Telangana villa-ges rejoiced. The proposed project on roughly 1,000 acres of land offered hopes of a decent livelihood for the residents of Mehboobnagar district’s Polepally, Mudi-reddypalli and Gundlagadda Tanda — a chunk of them marginal farmers or labourers and all of them poor. Yes, their soil lent itself best to agriculture — their traditional occupation — but the industries that were to come up were agro-based. Or so they were told. Thus, it wasn’t just aspiring entrepreneurs who were ecstatic.

That was in 2003. Today, the mood is one of despair. The project, which gained momentum by 2005, has displaced over 350 families, wiping out livelihoods of the largely dalit, adivasi and SC/ST populace. Few of them anymore own the land in which they once toiled. And the worst of the fallouts is suici-des. This, when the government has sold off most of the land for Rs 1 crore per acre.

Significantly, Mehboobnagar is only some 100 km from the state capital of Hyderabad, but the district has the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of labour migration. The Polepally SEZ in Jadcherla mandal was supposed to help improve things. Ironically, the move to promote industrialisation has accentuated the agony of its people. A controversial December 2006 amendment that empowers the government to reclaim “alienated” land for “public purposes” has yanked off the last sliver of hope that its folks had on prospering through the SEZ project.

“My husband died right here of a heart attack, as soon as he heard that our lands were being taken over by the government,” says middle-aged Narsamma. “We were supposed to give a part of the land as dowry to a boy who had agreed to wed my daughter. He now refuses to marry her…. We don’t even have enough land to bury him.”

Some 47 people have committed suicide; a local Telugu newspaper claims to have verified 25 such deaths. The government, though, chooses to term them as natural deaths.

Initially, after land acquisition began in 2003, several local farmers became labourers in their own plots, as the companies under construction offered them work as daily wagers. But this dried up once construction was completed. Today, the only way out for them is to find work elsewhere.

But it’s agro-based firms here, right? No. The “Green Industrial Park”, as it is named, is home to bulk-drug industries. There’s little that can benefit the farming community.

Right from the word go, activists say, they were suspicious of the acquisition process carried out by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation. The project area was said to be 1,000 acres, while government figures put it at only 969. “To begin with, many farmers didn’t know exactly how much land they were tilling,” says senior CPI leader K Ramakrishna, an ex-journalist now working on the Polepally problem. “That changed when the government estimated the land to be acquired as per the ‘new measurements’. It conjured up additional 280 acres in which the farmers were tilling not really knowing if it was their property. And that was later acquired.”

“We never wanted to give away our land, but we had no option,” shrugs Jaipalli Sayanna. “The government had decided everything for us. We came to know of our fate only the night before the acquisition started.” Sayanna says he has lost his two acres of his land, and got Rs 18,000 an acre. Yes, Rs 18,000, in contrast to the Rs 5 lakh the government paid for each acre it took away for the Hyderabad International Airport at Shashabad, not too far from Polepally. As for Polepally’s best patta lands, the figure was Rs 85,000 an acre.

Piquantly for the present Congress-led state government, these villagers were gifted much of their land by Indira Gandhi, when she was Prime Minister in the 1970s. Completely dependent on farming, they earned, at the best of times, around Rs 10,000 a year after their food requirements.

Their plight today has CPI state secretary K Narayana fuming. “It is the poorest of the poor who get assigned lands. But the government says it’s not bound to give any compensation for reassuming them, and thus it’s being considerate paying some cash.”

Narayana, who visited Polepally even as its SEZ-affected people have taken up a hunger strike, backs up his ire with precedence from the state’s legal history. “In fact, in a case (LAO Chevella Vs Mekala Pandu), the Andhra Pradesh High Court has clearly stated: An assignee of government land is in no way inferior to any other owner of land and hence, cannot be discriminated against in the matter of compensation in land acquisition.”

Lawyer K Balagopal, an AP Human Rights Forum founder-member who is crusading for the villagers, says: “Apart from the court orders, a pertinent state GO mandates payment of basic market value which, as fixed by the LAO (in this case) is Rs 24,000 besides a solatium of 30 per cent. While the correct figure, according to the GO, is Rs 32,000, the government decided on a princely Rs 18,000.” But the government has sold most of the land at Rs 1 crore per acre.

Worse, many haven’t got even this money. “I have received only Rs 9,000 an acre,” says septuagenarian Sandayya. He is still lucky. For there are many who have signed on vouchers of Rs 9,000 an acre, but effectively got not a penny. Many paid middlemen and peons sums ranging from Rs 100–500 at government offices at various times. As if this was not enough, the government arrested many of the farmers who agitated against the project, and slapped cases on them.

“These already poor farmers forked out money for bail and spent money in the courts before the cases were lifted by the government after six months, in an act it termed an ‘agreement’ with the farmers,” says Sujata Surapalli, an activist from Hyderabad. “Such pacts usually mean goodies for the poor, but they are being harassed.”

It’s not as if political leaders are ignoring Polepally. It’s not just the local MLA and MP, even Chiranjeevi has visited the place. The flamboyant actor-turned-politician promised works amounting to Rs 1.2 crore for the construction of community halls and a school building. In a sad twist of sorts, that’s probably the only permanent construction, as the people of Polepally themselves still have no houses to live in!

Fouling the waters

The Polepally “Green Industrial Park”, ironically, doesn’t serve any purpose that is green. A case in point is what it has done to Rajapuram Vagu — which flows right next to the zone and maintains the water table.

This stream is one of the most important water sources for the Dindi reservoir in Dindi mandal of Nalgonda district. The population is mainly Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who are completely dependent on agriculture. The command area of Rajapuram Vagu and Dindi reservoir is over 28,000 acres.

But Rajapuram Vagu’s waters are being fouled by effluents from the bulk-drug units, putting at risk the entire command area and the lives of thousands of people. The possible damage is best understood if one looks at the paper mill at Bhadrachalam, next to the Goda-vari. Its effluents have polluted the ground water for miles in this paddy-producing region. The farmers adjoining Rajapuram Vagu and the Dindi reservoir are at the same risk.

Moreover, all these people should be considered as project-affected persons (PAPs). But the government has not identified even one PAP in the area surrounding Polepally SEZ, though there are as many as 150 to 200 PAP families in that area alone.

Waiting for the last rites

At 75, Sandayya doesn’t ask much of life. The Polepally SEZ has shattered the life of this scrawny, doddering man, his impoverished family has been forced to scatter. Sandayya’s only prayer now is that his son must come back to perform his last rites. “Indiramma (Indira Gandhi) gave me two acres of land, it was our only source of earning. I cultivated jowar in it and it was enough to sustain my family,” he trails off.

Sandayya’s son, Mogalaiah had, along with his wife, left the village in search of a job for a place none of his family or friends seemed to know. It was Mogalaiah who used to till the two acres, but now there’s no land for him. So, an uneducated Mogalaiah had to migrate. He left behind his daughter and a son. There’s been no word since then.

Sandayya’s daughter Maisamma is clueless too. “Sometimes, you even doubt whether they are alive,” she says, adding her attempts to marry off her daughter have been futile. “Everybody wants some land as dowry. I can’t afford to eat every day. How can I afford dowry?”

Lakshmi, the elder of Sandayya’s grand-children, all of 13, has turned a cattle-herder of the asami (landlord) to earn some money for the family’s daily food. The old man says he wants to work so that he can send Lakshmi to school. But his age doesn’t allow him.

Stories like this are commonplace here. The displaced have not been given any jobs in spite of the state’s promise of one job per family displaced by the industries. These are people who were downtrodden for generations except for a brief period of self-reliance when they got land for cultivation. Now even that little has been taken away from them, denying them their right to live in peace if not prosperity.

rakeshvk@epmltd.com

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Reproduced from http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Polepallys+1,000+acres+of+despair&artid=eaTwsNxBcFM=

The Farmer SEZ No!
By Appu Esthose Suresh and Payam S.

The Indian state has been thrown into a panic by agitating farmers who have declared war against the Special Economic Zones in States across the country. Facing lathicharges and bullets, the farmers have been coming out on the streets to protest the acquisition of fertile farmland and block the proposal that the Governments are convinced will generate massive employment and increase India’s GDP growth by two per cent.

At stake are 150,000 hectares of mostly fertile land. The farmers are rallying around local groups and organisations in what many describe as a fight to the finish. The proposal to establish 513 SEZs is now seen to be an invasion of corporate greed. [Of these, only 250 have been notified.]

A farmer participating in one agitation just recently in Jhajjar, Haryana, told Covert, “One of our relatives has been paid compensation, but now the money is over. He bought mobile phones and other gadgets for the house and paid off the debts. He did not know how to invest and now he is a pauper without any means of livelihood. Money is not enough. How will we live without our land?”

Last year, the bloodbath in Nandigram that killed 11 farmers protesting against the acquisition of land for a proposed chemical hub being set up under a SEZ proposal, was national news. This in turn led to a re-look at the whole SEZ policy. In Maharashtra, the locals are blocking the setting up of a Special Economic Zone by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries. In Uttar Pradesh, farmers are protesting against land being acquired for Anil Ambani’s Dadri project. In Haryana, Manesar, people are blocking the acquisition of land for yet another Mukesh Ambani SEZ project. In Punjab, farmers are up in arms against the forcible acquisition of farmland for an international airport and a thermal power plant. In Chhattisgarh, farmers are fighting against the acquisition of land for a Tata Steel plant. In Lanjigarh, Orissa, farmers are struggling against the transfer of land for a bauxite mining and alumina plant. Similar massive protests are currently on near Puri in Orissa against the acquisition of large tracts of land for a university, for a SEZ by the Tatas in Gopalpur, and for a nuclear power plant at Patisonepur in Ganjam. Officials admit quietly that a new struggle is emerging every day, with the large acquisitions under SEZ triggering off new as well as intensifying old protests.

Inept handling by the concerned Governments have made matters worse. Nandigram is a case in point. As is now Maharashtra, where the Reliance-promoted Maha Mumbai SEZ at Raigad has run into trouble. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh assured the State Assembly that there would not be forcible land acquisition. Later, Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act was invoked, preventing the farmer from transferring or selling the land. Reliance, however, was given special permission to acquire land privately. This resulted in a single window option for the farmer who is now receiving less than the market value for the land: Rs 10 lakhs as against Rs 13 lakhs per acre. The result is that Reliance has been able to acquire 1,559 hectares of land, in what is a 14,000-hectare project. The State Government has opted out, with the confrontation now being between the farmers and the private company. Ulka Mahajan of Sarvahara Jan Andolan, active in the area, said that several FIRs have been filed against the company for acquiring land fraudulently. Litigation will further slow the project, which is still at “acquiring the land” stage.

Although the highest compensation package in the country is offered at Jhajjar, Haryana, Rs 22 lakhs per acre, the farmers are refusing to sell the land. Captain Satvir S. Gulia who is mobilising the farmers against this SEZ told Covert, “They have been able to purchase less than 35% of the land so far. Even this would not have been possible if the Government had remained out of the project. Firstly, they fooled the rest of the country by saying it was barren land. Then they kept talking about using the Land Acquisition Act. The farmers are feeling very insecure.”

The proposed SEZ in Andhra Pradesh, the Industrial Corridor, is now assuming the dimensions of a major confrontation between poor fishermen and the Government. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekhar Reddy issued a Government order — GO 34 — for the formation of the corridor shortly after coming to power. The coastal corridor will cover nine districts, including Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, East and West Godavary, Guntur, Prakasham and Nellore districts. This is fertile paddy land. Social activist Saraswathi Kavula, working with the tribals and Dalits who will be displaced if this project goes through, told Covert, “The total rice produced here is over 9,601,045 tonnes. If the corridor is formed, the state will lose 67,64,203 tonnes.” Other crops produced here include bajra, maize, black gram, coconut, sugarcane, cashew nut, turmeric.

The agitation against GO 34 is gaining strength. Fishermen are particularly worried about the adverse impact of the SEZ on marine life, already at risk because of the chemical industries that have been constructed in the area. The project is expected to displace close to 15 million farmers, eight million fishermen and another four million farm labourers. Mangrove forests are being destroyed for setting up industries and a port along the coastline. The movement is being led by the Committee Against Formation of Industrial Coastal Corridor. Activists said that the battle against the acquisition of the land has already begun, and the State will find it difficult to develop the SEZ.

A well-known researcher on SEZ, Aseem Srivastava said, “The most undesirable outcome of this scheme is that it has plunged the country into a state of civil war.” In Orissa, the police is camping in schools to counter anti-SEZ movements. Leaders of the movement in Kakinada said they had lost count of the number of times they had confronted the police. It is estimated that 114,000 farming households and an additional 82,000 farm-worker families dependent on the farms, will be displaced under the SEZ. Experts have circulated figures registering a loss of Rs 212 crores per year for these farming families. This does not include the loss inherent in the demise of local rural economies. The promise of rehabilitation is not accepted by the farmer; he knows that 75% of the 40 million Adivasis and Dalits who lost their land to industrialisation since 1950 have not been rehabilitated.

The development of SEZs is being held up because of the agitation in all States. Government officials say that the few that have started operating under the SEZ Act 2005, have already registered a massive investment running into several thousand-crores and have employed over a million persons. They point out that the response from both within India and abroad has been “overwhelming” and the list of SEZ developers includes large companies like Nokia, Wipro, Motorola, Apache, Mahindra World and others. They claim that of the 513 formal approvals given till date, at least 177 are for sector specific and multi-product SEZs that include manufacture of textiles, leather footwear, gems and jewellery, electronics hardware. However, officials admit that the development of the large Special Economic Zones is held up and the acquisition of land has been “extremely slow”. Despite the back channel support given by Governments to companies [such as Reliance in Maharashtra] people’s resistance is proving to be a difficult hurdle.

The FDI investment pattern over the past four years contains the reasons for this “overwhelming” response. FDI investment in the real estate sector has shot up from 4.5% [$2.70 billion] to 26% [$ 8 billion] in 2006-2007. An ASSOCHAM study on the “Future of Real Estate Investment in India” pointed out that the real estate market offers maximum returns to investors and is set to touch a $60 billion market size by 2010. The study maintained that SEZ is the new destination for real estate investors, and 50% of the total SEZ projects are developed by real estate developers. Also, the international investors are showing keen interest in establishing their presence over domestic real estate business. The Indian SEZ has become a natural choice for foreign investors since the Chinese real estate market has reached its saturation and they prefer to invest in freehold lands available in India. International investors like Royal Indian Raj International, Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs, Emmar Properties, Pegasus Realty, Citigroup Property Investors, Lee Kim Tah Holdings, Salim Group, Morgan Stanley, GE Commercial Finance Real Estate are learnt to have finalised plans worth US $6.33 billions for India.

In Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, the State allegedly colluded with the private players. District revenue officials told the illiterate farmers that their land had been notified under the Land Acquisition Act. Later they were approached by the real estate agents offering just slightly better compensation, and thereby forcing them to sell their lands. Rajesh Kakinada who is leading the agitation here told Covert, “45% of the land is acquired in this manner. The State machinery worked in favour of the real estate sharks. They even went to the extent of using brute police force against those who were resisting.”

Adding to the anger of the farmers are reports that those who lost their land have since been unable to make ends meet. Some of the farmers who were displaced by the Pollepally SEZ in Andhra Pradesh told Covert they were now working as construction labourers within the zone. Many of them spoke of harassment at the hands of supervisors, maintaining they were being made to work for more than 12 hours. Reports that 42 farmers who lost their land to SEZs have died since, have not been effectively countered by the State machinery. Displacement and rehabilitation, experts fear, will be a major issue that will add to agrarian unrest as a result of the SEZ policy. This, they point out, is also one of the main factors behind the current agitations, as the farmers do not want to be sacrificed at the altar of development.

The Government has been unable to intervene effectively to dispel these fears, and the frequent firing by State police forces on agitating farmers has added to the apprehensions and made the resistance stronger.

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Reproduced from http://www.covert.co.in/appu.htm

Raigad votes against SEZ in referendum

The Hindu Newspaper

Mumbai, Sept. 22 A majority of people in the 22 villages in Raigad district have voted against the SEZ in the referendum process which was held on Sunday, claimed Mr N.D. Patil, senior leader of Peasants and Workers Party of India, who is spearheading the agitation.

The State Government is likely to announce the result of the referendum in next 15 days.

The promoters of Maha Mumbai SEZ, which includes promoters of Reliance Industries Ltd, want to set up 10,000 hectares SEZ in the district. SEZ is expected to attract an investment of nearly Rs 40,000 crore and generate 20 lakh jobs. Mr Patil said that although the Maharashtra Government has undertaken the referendum process, it is not necessary that the report would be tabled any time in the near future.

“When under pressure, the State Government acts in a circular manner.

“The report could be further handed over to a committee, which will take the further circuitous route,” he said.

Mr Patil said that the people of the district do not want SEZ and no amount of compensation from the corporate houses and government will change their view about selling their land.

A senior official in the industries department said that in the eventuality of referendum going against the promoters of the SEZ, the land acquisition process for the other mega projects and SEZs in the State will suffer.

“We will not be mute spectators; we are also prepared for a court battle,” Mr Patil said.

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Reproduced from http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/09/23/stories/2008092352471000.htm

Singur symbolised farmers’ victory
by Kuldip Nayar

October 7, 2008 will be a red-letter day in the annals of India or for that matter the world. The Tatas, a leader of the capitalist system, were defeated by the proletariat — a hundred odd farmers. There was a lot of politics and a lot of betrayal even by the Marxists who were supposed to be a standard-bearer in the fight by the people. What was seen at Singur, a hamlet in West Bengal, was against the ideal of a welfare state. It was a new interpretation of dialectical materialism. When it comes to greed there is no difference between the yogi and the commissar. The CPI[M] has given yet another blow to the ideology of communism. This was inevitable because the Marxists joined hands with the capitalists. Politics apart, the triumph by the farmers over the Tatas was historic. It was an unequal fight. Still David killed Goliath. The resourceful corporate leader Ratan Tata, supported by the West Bengal Government and the CPI[M] cadre, was on the one side and the 100-odd farmers on the other. The Tatas were bent upon setting up a factory to produce the cheap car Nano. The farmers were equally firm in their resolve not to surrender their land. The have-nots won and the haves lost.

The villain of the piece was West Bengal’s Marxist Government. Its obsession to industrialise the State led the Government to acquire a large tract of land in one of the most irrigated areas giving four to five crops. The purpose given out for acquiring the land was “public interest”. But the land was given to the Tatas at a throwaway price in easy instalments. Farmers close to the CPI[M] gave away their land. Was it discipline or fear? You should guess. The rest of the farmers, who were against the Government diktat, were beaten in full view of television cameras. The Government imposed Section 144 for over two months and built a compound wall around the factory. More and more farmers caved in. In the end, not more than 100-odd farmers were left in the fray. State Governor Gopal Gandhi intervened and an agreement was signed. It meant returning to the farmers some land, only 400 acres from the 1,100 acres the Tatas had already occupied. They said “no” and the West Bengal Government also went back on its word. There is a lesson for the corporate sector in this: stay away from cultivable land. Unfortunately, the pendulum swung all the way, from left to right. Narendra Modi was Ratan Tata’s refuge. The latter says he got better terms. The Gujaratis who have not questioned Modi’s involvement in ethnic cleansing in the State dare not ask about the terms offered to the Tatas. Over the years, Gujarat’s people have changed. Their values, unlike those of Mahatma Gandhi who was born in the state, have come to acquire a material, selfish touch. Modi considers Gujarat his fiefdom and rules the State ruthlessly.

Singur has set an example which cultivators all over the world, serving their masters, would like to emulate. I do not see something similar taking place in Pakistan. With landlords having hundreds of thousands of acres of land at their disposal and treating the cultivators as their serfs, even a semblance of challenge is crushed. Government is party to this because the rulers themselves are big landlords. Can Pakistan ever have land reforms? Now that democracy has begun to bloom, will feudalism be challenged one day? President Asif Ali Zardari who talks about democracy in every conversation should realise that democracy means giving power to the people. How can he or the political parties discuss the rights of the common man when they themselves possess thousands of acres of land without ever thinking of reforms? They are the vested interests that do not fit into the requirement of a democracy. In a way, this explains why Pakistan loses democracy so easily. People have very little stake. Leaders of political parties, when confronted by popular uprisings, have surrendered power to the armed forces. They have preferred the military rule to the abolition of feudalism. Religious orders have gained ground because the few families — once their number was 26 — protect their wasteful standard of living by pawning liberty to the fauj. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto won the election on the plank of roti, kapda aur makan. So did Mrs Indira Gandhi when the slogan of Garibi Hatao brought her to power resoundingly. Both failed when it came to the implementation. Slogans of progress do not mean progress.

Kuldip Nayar is an author and human rights activist

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Reproduced from http://www.covert.co.in/kuldeep.htm