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| Lalgarh Lesson for Intellectuals, Naxals and the State |
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Intellectuals concerned with issues of people have been under attack in recent years in different states. The Karnataka Government had prepared a list of teachers of colleges, editors of newspapers and some NGOs alleging them to be close to the Naxals in the State because of their involvement in the anti-communal struggle. A group of them including Girish Karnad, Professor Govind Rao, Dr Sridhar and a host others were arrested in 2003 when they had gone to participate in a rally in support of the Supreme Court decision to maintain neutrality at the Bababudan Giri shrine in Chikmagalur when the saffron forces were attempting to communalise the Sufi shrine. In fact, it was the Congress Government headed by S.M. Krishna, the present Foreign Minister of the country, that was in power then. The allegation against Binayak Sen was similar. He was dubbed as a sympathiser of the Naxalites and kept in jail for more than a year without trail. Now you have the West Bengal Government. Days after some members of civil society went to Lalgarh to broker peace, the police have lodged a general complaint against film-maker Aparna Sen, dramatist Shaonli Mitra, poet Joy Goswami and others with breaking Section 144 while entering the villages. Gopal Menon, the documentary film producer from Karnataka, was put behind bars for filming police and Army atrocities. Police said reports submitted to the government suggested that some of the Maoists had accompanied the intellectuals during their Lalgarh trip and the intellectuals are in nexus with the Maoists to destabilise the State. When the intellectuals were asked of the nexus, they claimed total ignorance..
The state has various kinds of intellectuals. There is a group of committed intellectuals the state makes use of to further its vested interests. They are no threat to the safety and security of the state. Since independence, most intellectuals have not risen above petty party politics. They are intimate with Ministers and bureaucrats and some of them enjoy considerable perks for their unstinted support to the government in power. They are intellectuals of the establishment. They are most willing to do the biddings of the party in power and tune their thinking to the party in power. On the other hand, the state has problems with intellectuals committed to the cause of the people. Wherever there are radical and extremist groups, there is much deprivation of basic rights, and disregard by the state to the basic issues of livelihood. Those States or areas that have become Maoist or Naxalite targets continue to lie at the bottom of the human development index and at the top of the world corruption index. The ultimate consequence of the State's brazen looting of funds meant for development is obviously violence. The radical or extremist movements have their roots in impoverished socio-economic conditions increased by the inaction of the state. Who can deny that the anger of the masses against massive state terror, underdevelopment and corruption is not valid? By pinpointing the root cause of violence, of course, intellectuals are not supporting violence. They are only performing their role and responsibilities to society by highlighting the apathy and the inaction of the state. If the intellectuals do not condemn the colonial stance of those elected to govern us and who are thus doing their people a great disservice, why should they exist? All said and done, the primary task of the intellectual community is to announce and denounce. While they are expected to voice the concerns of those who are voiceless, it is their responsibility to pinpoint institutions and structures responsible for the discrimination and oppression of the poor.
Given the wide and increasing gap between the rich and the poor, the country should expect from intellectuals to be committed to the cause of nation-building by understanding the socio-economic reality of the people.. India does not need "ivory tower intellectuals" or "state intellectuals". The country is in need of "organic intellectuals"—committed to the cause of the people and respond to the challenges that affect the poor and the marginalised. That is exactly what the states resist. They prefer "ivory tower intellectuals" who could restrict their lives to the campus of their universities or the four walls of the classrooms. Intellectual activists, like the ones in Bengal, threaten the State and make those in power insecure. Those intellectuals whom the State had alleged of subverting the state had gone to Lalgarh to get first hand information of what is taking place in the area.. They were merely doing their duties when they alleged that the security forces were torturing women and children. The group had met agitating tribal leaders as well as the common people in some villages during their visit to the affected zone. After being shocked by the intensity of the violence both by the state and the Maoists, they had made a very sincere appeal to both Maoists and the administration to lay down arms and to begin a dialogue. The common people were not getting food and water and were caught in the cross-fire between the Maoists and the police. The group had made it clear that they do not believe in the politics of violence and counter-violence where ordinary citizens become victims.
Taking an equidistance from both the state and the extreme elements of the state, it is the responsibility of intellectuals to stand by the people. Whenever there are extremist elements controlling the lives of the people, there is the state terror by the police where women are molested and children are harmed. People have to live without food and water for days. Security forces loot and torture innocent citizens. Intellectuals would be failing in their duty if they do not express deep concern at the ongoing violence and massive police action. State violence in the name of law and order only leads to another round of blood-letting and a spiral of renewed violence, tragedy and injustice. The two kinds of violence only feed and aggravate each other. Whenever there is state operation, it normally hits civilian life and social safety of people living in sub-human conditions. Public services and social opportunity worsens by unremitting police atrocities.
It is important and necessary therefore to understand that violence is an expression of frustration with a failed State and deserves only condemnation in a democracy. People in remote areas of the country are unhappy with the administration but not all of them may support the Maoists or the Naxalites. Most of them are victims of fear. Instead of counter-violence, why doesn't the government implement a comprehen-sive development programme to end the misery of the people? While the Dalits and tribals have been denied their livelihood in the name of 'forest protection', the timber and land mafia have been allowed to run free by conniving with local administrators. The natural resources of the indigenous people have been allowed to be robbed pushing them to the extremes of poverty and helplessness. The government's efforts in ameliorating poverty are not wholehearted. Given the nature of the market economy, governments to a large extent are in support of traders, businessmen, multinational corporations and the industrialists. People are becoming more and more aware of it. To end the extremist problem for good, governments may have to give up their commitment to neo-liberalism. Violence could only increase if resources are transferred from the people to corporates. At this juncture to initiate peace, States should arrange for adequate relief to the inhabitants of the disturbed areas, restore law and order and start long-term development programmes with special emphasis on their socio-economic needs. Confidence-building measures like land reforms, development of local industries and entrepreneurship have to be initiated among those adversely affected by the current economic policies of the governments in power to avoid violence and further bloodshed. n
Dr (Fr.) Ambrose Pinto S.J. is the Principal of St Joseph's College, Bangalore.
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| Eye opening facts on the health of the workers |
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A joint study report of Associated Chamber of Commerce & Industries of India and Price Water House Coopers reveals that working situation is being filled up with increasing numbers of cases of pressure, tension, and deepration because of Globalisation process. It is a threat to labour power in India. The workers are exploited in such a way and to save their own jobs they have becoming victims of hypertension, blood pressure and diabetics. The diseased workers of the age group from 35- 60 in India are shown that is not observed in other countries. Lack of treatment facilities the issue is becoming more serious. 6.5 corers workers were reported as hypertension victims in 2008 and this figure may go up 20 corers within 2015.. 53% of death incidents have been occurring because of these diseases. The figure of death due to these diseases would be 60% and 66% in 2015 and 2020 respectively.
The study report reveals that country suffered a loss of 9 corers dollars during 2005- 2008 because of untimely death due the said diseases and this loss may go up to 16 corers dollars within 2009 – 2015. The report also corroborates that 3% of GDP is being spent in India for health and treatment facilities where as it is 9% in average for rest of the world.
Why these two establishments felt for conducting such kind of study or who are behind them?
The situation as described above is not unaware for the workers and the community, even the workers who died in Gujrat after boozing toxic wine they were also aware of the same, whatever happened in the name of globalisation, main purpose was to seize the rights related to the jobs, all those facilities and welfare provisions related that availed by the workers after a prolong struggle. 92% of workers never enjoyed such facilities and welfare schemes as they work in unorganised informal sectors. But there was possibility that workers of this sector could develop their struggle referring such facilities and welfare schemes as model created by the workers themselves. All the workers of organised sector may not have the said data but they have been experiencing the same fact after 1991. After 1991 provisions of all these facilities and welfare provisions were withdrawn or curtailed. It was not possible by the MNCs TNCs & big companies to retrench the workers in India as and when they desired but informalisaion of employment occurred randomly ignoring labour acts. Many industries and trade closed down their establishment because of government policies. Economist Mr. Amit Bhaduri says that the workers of the closed industries have been compelled to do any thing to live somehow with the earnings whatever they earn in a day, like one third and fifty percent food selling hawkers are retrenched workers in Ahmedabad and Kolkata respectively. The unacceptable situation after retrenchments compelled the workers and its whole family members for committing suicide and increasing numbers of occurring of mental disorder have become daily story of news paper.
The reason behind the farmers' suicide in Andhra Pradesh is bank loan and major part of the loan amount was spent on by the farmers for their treatment purposes. It means a crisis of earnings and at the same lack of treatment facilities (withdrew of such facilities) in government hospitals. So in this situation the workers sufferings due to hypertension, high blood pressure and diabetes is not unexpected, so, there is no reason to be worried by the said establishments who conducted the study.
But there are many reasons to be worried for us when we see that ASOCHEM & PWHC have conducted the study to increase more private or private foreign joint investment in health and treatment sector. The recent rail and economic budget of India indicate the emphasis by the government is given in same direction as desired by the two establishments.
But increasing private or foreign investment in health & treatment sectors may not be the solution to address the health issues related to inhuman working conditions.. The hospitals that already built up acquiring government's costly land against throwaway price or receiving free of cost will not be for the workers like many other hospitals already in existence never been for them.. Most of the lands are acquired and getting exemption on tax and duties in the name of Medical Research and treatment for the poor and BPL listed people etc but there is undeclared prohibition to get entry into those hospitals by the workers and poor. NGOs working on CSR may be very happy but it woud not be wiser for them to start advocacy for those establishments seeing the crocodile's tears.
Samit Kumar Carr
Secretary General,
Occupational Safety & Health Association of Jharkhand
09431372228, 09955704590
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| In Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh 26 policemen, including SP, killed by Naxals |
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In one of their deadliest attacks since the government named CPI-Maoist as a terror outfit last month, Leftwing ultras killed at least 23 policemen in an ambush in a forested stretch of Chhattisgarh Sunday. "A contingent of the District Force (DF) and Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) drove into a booby trap laid by Maoists in a thickly forested area in Rajnandgaon district, in which 23 jawans were killed," Girdhari Nayak, additional director general of police, told. Rajnandgaon District Superintendent of Police Binod Kumar Choubey was among the injured. While the officials refused to comment on his condition, a top official on condition of anonymity said he was killed and a formal confirmation was awaited. This would be the first time in an over three-decade-old Maoist militancy in Chhattisgarh that an official of the superintendent of police rank was killed by the radical Leftists. The attack took place in the Manpur belt, some 200 km from here, in the district bordering Maharashtra. Insurgents had killed two DF personnel in a separate incident in the same area this morning. All top officials, including Chhattisgarh police chief Vishwaranjan, rushed to the site of the attack. The strike has shaken up the police force in the state which has been battling Maoist insurgency since the 1980s. Chief Minister Raman Singh cancelled his trip to Nagpur scheduled for Sunday afternoon and asked the home department to send choppers to rescue the injured policemen. July 12th, 2009 IANS CRPF rushes 600 personnel for combing ops in Rajnandgaon The CRPF on Sunday rushed 600 of its men to the ambush site in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh where 26 security personnel, including a top police officer, were killed in a twin attack by Maoists. The troops, belonging to Rajnandgaon-based 188th battalion of the force and equipped with mine detection kits and rescue equipment, were rushed to the spot to start combing operations against the banned Maoists militants. "A battalion strength (around 1,000 men) of the force is being sent to the spot for starting combing operations and sanitizing the area. Six companies (comprising 600 men) have been sent initially," a senior CRPF officer said. Twenty-six police personnel, including Superintendent of Police V K Choubey, were killed when Maoists ambushed a team, led by the slain officer, while it was en route to a police camp at Madanpara where the militants had killed two security men this morning. The Station House Officer (SHO) of the Madanpara police station area, near the ambush site, was also killed in the attack, official sources said. Additional reinforcements and communication equipment will also be sent as the CRPF troops will set up a temporary camp there, sources added. Bureau Report
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| Indian Economy: 2039 an affluent society in one generation |
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Slightly more than two years ago, the worst recession since the Great Depression, set in, notwithstanding all the claims from big-wigs of economic science that the days of ups and downs were long past. It was recalled that similar claim was made on October 15, 1929 when one of the tallest economists of America, Irving Fisher of the Yale University, declared that stock prices had reached "what looks like a permanently high plateau." Just a fortnight after this claim, Wall Street went down, taking the entire world, except the Soviet Union, with it. It took the world economy 25 years to return to the 1929-level. Thanks to Keynes, the myth of rational market was given up.
This myth was resurrected from the oblivion towards the last quarter of the 20th century by Thatcher and Reagan regimes under their mentor, Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago. Friedman, to quote Justin Fox (whose recently published book The Myth of the Rational Market is being widely discussed), "never believed markets were perfectly rational, but ... they were more rational than governments."
This thinking came to inform the Washington Consensus that became the basis of globalization, sought to be thrust on the world at large by the USA and institutions and economists, aligned to it. Propagandists like Thomas L. Friedman pontificated that the world had no alternative but to fall in line. In our country, the economic mess created by V. P. Singh-Chandrashekhar governments, created conditions for Washington Consensus-based economic reforms to be launched and carried forward during the Narasimha Rao regime. The role of the government was curtailed, public sector undertakings came to be fully or partially privatized, the removal of social inequalities and regional imbalances no longer remained priority for the government, welfare measures were frowned upon, and even health and education sectors were being left at the disposal of market forces and subjected to profit maximization. Nehruvian strategy of development came to be derided and the government's hands were tied by bringing in the wisdom of Arthur Laffer, embodied in the Laffer curve and zero deficit financing. Labour was to be disciplined by giving employers unrestrained power of hiring and firing. SEZ was to be kept totally out of the purview of labour laws and trade union activities.
The collapse of this scheme began on June 12, 2007 when Bear Stearns fell to the ground and with this came a chain of companies declaring bankruptcy and downing their shutters. This process continues unabated. The latest is General Motors. Millions of workers have lost their jobs and more are going to lose in the days to come.
Only the economies of two countries, India and China, continue to march forward though at a slower pace. As far as India is concerned, its plight is better than most countries of the world because it did not give up the Nehruvian strategy totally, as was underlined by the Congress president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi while speaking at a function organized by the Hindustan Times. It was due to her insistence that NREGA, rural loan waiver scheme and other welfare measures have not only been launched but have also been expanding despite opposition from economists like Kaushik Basu and Raguram G. Rajan. Economic Survey 2008-09, just released highlights this.
The rate of economic growth came down in 2008-09 to 6.7 per cent from the average of 8.8 per cent achieved during 2003-042007-08, yet, looking at the plight of most countries of the world, it is quite impressive. Despite this deceleration investment continues to be buoyant as is indicated by the fact that "The ratio of fixed investment to GDP consequently increased to 32.2 per cent of GDP in 2008-09 from 31.6 per cent in 2007-08. This reflects the resilience of Indian enterprise, in the face of a massive increase in global uncertainty and risk aversion and freezing of highly developed financial markets."
Fortunately, food grains production did not suffer any major decline in 2008-09. It was 229.9 million tonnes as against 230.8 and 217.3 million tonnes in 2007-08 and 2006-07 respectively. Index of industrial production grew only at 2.6 percent as against 8.5 per cent in the previous year. The situation as regards electricity generation too was not a happy one as its rate of generation declined from 6.3 per cent to 2.7 per cent. Inflation continued to cause worries. The 52-week average inflation, based on wholesale price index, rose from 4.7 to 8.4 per cent. If one takes into account consumer prices, the rate of inflation was higher. Both exports and imports declined largely because of recession in trade partners. Government's foreign exchange reserves declined. The budgetary position showed deficits. Gross fiscal deficit came to 6.2 per cent as against 2.7 per cent in the previous year. The revenue deficit rose to 4.6 per cent as compared to 1.1 per cent a year earlier.
Economic Survey 2008-09 expresses some kind of fatalism and helplessness when it says: "The global financial meltdown and consequent economic recession in developed economies have clearly been major factor in India's economic slowdown. Given the origin and dimension of the crisis in the advanced countries, which some have called the worst since the Great Depression; every developing country has suffered to a varying degree. No country, including India, remained immune to the global economic shock."
Obviously, this is not in accordance with traditional nationalist thinking as embodied in the documents of the Congress and the governments-led by Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Had these leaders been around, they would have explored the possibility of decoupling from the US economy by reviving NAM and persuading China, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and so on. Did not they reject the theories of the "learned" economists from the West, aimed at discouraging India from industrialization and setting up public sector undertakings? Exploring the possibility of "decoupling" needs to be seriously pursued notwithstanding the efforts by the Survey to pour cold water on it. So long as Indian economy remains subjected to FIIs and hot money wandering in search of quick profits, it will continue to experience violent ups and downs.
The Survey has underlined the importance of inclusive growth and highlighted some of the ongoing programmes. This is, in fact, accepting the line pursued by Nehru and Indira Gandhi and rejecting the nonsense like 'moral hazard', 'no free lunch', and 'encouraging idleness' through NREGA. In fact, our democracy based on adult franchise is a big restraint that discourages toeing the line of economists like Basu, Rajan and others, deriving their wisdom from neo-liberalism. Yet they have not retreated as is clear from the basket of policy prescriptions, put forth in the Survey. These include: "Reform of Petroleum (LPG, kerosene), fertilizer and food subsidies... Limit LPG subsidy to a maximum of 6-8 cylinders per annum per household. Phase out Kerosene supply-subsidy by ensuring that every rural household (without electricity and LPG connection) has a solar cooker and solar lantern." "Revitalize the disinvestment program and plan to generate at least Rs. 25,000 crore per year. Complete the process of selling 5-10 per cent equity in previously identified profit making non-navratnas. List all unlisted public sector enterprises and sell a minimum of 10 per cent equity to the public. Auction all loss making PSUs that cannot be revived. For those in which net worth is zero, allow negative bidding in the form of debt write-off." "lift the remaining ban on futures contracts to restore price discovery and price risk-management." "Retrenchment of workers: At present prior permission of Government as per Chapter V-B of Industrial Dispute Act is needed for this purpose. This needs to be removed with simultaneous increase in compensation from the present 15 days wages for every year of service." "Factories Act needs to be amended to increase workweek to 60 hours (from 48 hours) and daily limit to meet seasonal demand through overtime."
In spite of continuously increasing economic growth rate, India ranks 132nd from the point of human development. As many as 125 nations have more per capita GDP and 126 have greater life expectancy at birth. We have more adult illiteracy rate than 147 countries of the world. The Survey admits that malnutrition continues to be a big problem. "Malnutrition , as measured by underweight children below 3 years , constituting 45.9 per cent ... has still remained much higher. ... Poor feeding practices in infancy and early childhood, resulting in malnutrition contribute to impaired cognitive and social development, poor school performance, and reduced productivity in later life. ... While per capita consumption of cereals has declined, the share of non-cereals in food consumption has not grown to compensate for the decline in cereal availability." It is needless to add that this exposes the claim that mere high rates of economic growth are sufficient to lift people above poverty line. The infatuation with economic growth must be given up and development objective needs to be pursued.
A recently published study "India 2039an affluent society in one generation" emphasizes that India's wealth gap is sure to threaten its growth. To quote Financial Times (June 24): "India needs to curb a concentration of wealth greater than that seen in Brazil and Russia or risk becoming hostage to a corporate oligarchy that will depress the rapid economic growth." The group that has authored the Survey does not seem bothered about because of their obsession with carrying forward the discredited Washington Consensus.
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| Why so much attention on the siege of Lalgarh but not on Dantewada and Bijapur in Chhattisgarh and Latehar in Jharkhand |
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While so much attention has been focused on the siege of Lalgarh, and there is much joy in India's urban English-speaking militarist middle class at the supposedly succeeding police and paramilitary action there, just why doesn't anyone dare to talk about the utter failure of the State against the Naxals in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand?
Where is all the machoism and the bravura in the media and the middle classes at the hopelessly one-sided war that wages on in these states? Since January this year, I have driven hours upon hours through the two states, through the most heavily Naxal-dominated areas -- the south Bastar districts of Dantewada and Bijapur in Chhattisgarh and Latehar in Jharkhand.
And the State? The Police? Non-existent. Zilch. I was in Latehar on April 22, the day the Naxals called a statewide bandh to protest the killing of five innocent villagers by CRPF. I was on the road for TEN hours and I saw not a SINGLE policeman, forget about a patrol. Just hours later, some 200 Naxals swooped down on a rural railway station and held an entire train hostage for four hours! And the State? Not a single policeman dared to enter the station.
Every time I travel in these two states, I am warned by police officers that I am doing so at my risk and that I shouldn't expect any help from them should I run into trouble. On January 26 this year, during the "Black Day" called by the Naxals, I traveled on a road in south Chhattisgarh that had never before been seized by Naxals. This time, it was. Except for one brave police officers who oversaw clearing of boulders placed by Naxals on the roads, all other police officers sat holed inside their stations.
Then, of course, is the issue of the Naxals themselves. The question that no one is asking is: just why is Mr Chidambaram and everyone else so exercised about Maoists seizing power in Lalgarh? Anyone who works in the field knows that the police and the State cannot enter many parts of the country. Until very recently, half of Bihar was like that. Large chunks of Uttar Pradesh are like that. I would like to see the police enter areas in Mumbai that are totally ruled by the underworld.
So why isn't the Indian media, the middle class, Mr. Chidambaram, the Prime Minister interested in reoccupying the badlands of UP and Bihar?
The answer is simple. In Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and also West Bengal lie hidden some of the best deposits of natural resources. The Indian middle class doesn't give a damn how many millions of people are uprooted from their villages in order to secure their natural resources. The corporate media that represents the narrow interests of the Indian industry is totally in favour of claiming such resources, even if it means employing the most brutal and repressive violence.
You need to travel to such regions, Dr. Aravindan, to see who is the victim and who is the perpetrator. The state is overwhelmingly the brute perpetrator there. Every part of the system -- the executive, the judiciary, the politicians -- are badly compromised. The indigenous people are the victims, but we brand them all as Naxals.
So just how long do you think India will be able to sustain this oppression of the people who, instead of being seen as citizens of India deserving of social justice, are brutalized and condemned as violent criminals?
Let me remind you of what is happening in the US. Right from Barack Obama to even top military generals and CIA chiefs have admitted that the brutal US campaign in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have not made America safer. Instead, they now openly say, the American militarism has increased the threat from terrorism.
I am reminded of a cartoon I saw years ago. As his angry mother glares at him, a boy of perhaps six years in age explains his confusion as to why his younger brother, sitting besides him on the floor, was crying himself hoarse. "I just don't know why he is crying as I eat my apple," the kid told his mother, pointing at his younger sibling. "He was also crying when I was eating his apple."
We, Mr. Chekkutty, have for far too long been eating every one's apples. But, well, I think now the disadvantaged are no more as helpless as they once were.
I don't support the Naxals either. But there is no way that I can support the state, when, through people like Mr. Chidambaram, all it does is push the agenda of the rapacious capitalists who kill, maim, torture and enslave just so to trespass and illegally annex land that has for centuries belonged to the people who have lived on it.
If India's middle class doesn't wake up to this truth, the battle can only get grimmer and more violent.
Ajit Sahi
Editor
Tehelka
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| Comptroller and Auditor General detects loss of revenue worth Rs 407 cr to Jharkhand govt |
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The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has detected huge loss of revenue worth Rs 407 crore to the Jharkhand government due to loss of rent, royalty, fees etc in the mining department. The CAG, whose report was tabled in Parliament on Friday, also points to gross financial mismanagement in different government schemes. According to the report, the department has accepted the loss worth Rs 203 crore. The CAG conducted test checks of the records of the three district mining offices between June 2007 and March 2008, in which it was found that 27.73 lakh metric tonne of coal was removed and despatched during 2005-06 and 2006-07 by six collieries according to the monthly returns submitted by them. "The monthly returns of lessees were required to be scrutinised and verified by the mining officer with annual grade notification of coal issued by the Coal Controller which was not done. Non-verification of the grades of coal resulted in short levy of royalty amount to Rs 9.99 crore," says the report. The report has also mentioned about loss of revenue due to downgrading of iron ore. Under the provisions of Mineral Transit Pass Regulations, 1976, if a lessee declared the mineral to be of inferior grade, he would have to produce a test certificate to that effect from the state geological laboratory, Hazaribagh and in case the lessee fails to furnish the test certificate within 60 days of the dispatch of mineral, it would be presumed that the dispatches have been of highest grade. However, the test check of records of the district mining office Chaibasa revealed that iron ore of higher grade was extracted from the leased area on which royalty was paid by the lessees till some time. After that, they started paying royalty at a lower rate treating it of a lower grade on the basis of a certificate of analysis of iron ore issued by a private institution. This resulted in a loss of revenue of Rs 32 lakh. Similar losses were also brought to light by the CAG, due to illegal mining.
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| Naxal-backed tribals in Koraput district on Tuesday forcibly reoccupied lands that non-tribals and other outsiders had cheated them of many years ago |
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Naxal-backed tribals in Orissa's Koraput district on Tuesday forcibly reoccupied lands that non-tribals, local businessmen and other outsiders had cheated them of many years ago. About 200 tribals, with red bandana-like pieces of cloth on their heads and wrists, marched into the rain-soaked agricultural fields in Koraput's Narayanpatna block, 560 km southwest of Bhubaneswar, and started tilling them. Another group of 150 tribals, armed with swords, spears and other sharp-edged weapons stood guard.
The area of land occupied by the tribals could not be ascertained. Everyone was too scared to speak as Koraput is the heart of Naxal territory in Orissa. HT had first reported (Koraput headed the Lalgarh way on June 22) how the district administration is practically non-existent in some parts of this remote district and how local villagers now take their complaints and grievances to the Maoists. A land loser, who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said: "The Maoists killed nine security personnel on June 18. When the police cannot defend themselves, how can they protect us?"
On June 18, the Maoists had completely cut off Narayanpatna block from the rest of the state by felling trees on the highways leading into it. They then killed nine personnel of the Orissa Special Strike Force, the elite anti-Naxal commando force, by triggering a powerful landmine when they approached the area to remove these felled trees. When contacted, Koraput district Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar told HT: "No FIR has been lodged (about the occupation of land). So, the police cannot do anything. Anyway, it's a civil dispute and will be handled by the revenue department."
Narayanpatna block development officer BDO BM Bhuyan switched off his mobile phone as soon as HT asked him about the takeover of land on Tuesday. The modus operandi of this land grab is simple. When HT had visited the district in June, Madhusudan Pondu, 72, of Balipeta village in the Narayanpatna block, had said: "They came and hoisted red flags on our agricultural lands, signalling the end of our possession over it."
The "movement" by tribals to forcibly reoccupy land that was historically theirs is being spearheaded by Chasi Muliya Adivasi Sangha (Tribal Farmers' Association, better known by its acronym CMAS), which is allegedly backed by the Maoists. According to Srikant (he uses only one name), the state convener of CMAS, tribal land cannot be transferred or sold to non-tribals without government permission under the law.
The government has no records of how much tribal land has been sold or transferred to non-tribals. "But traders, businessmen and non-tribal outsiders have taken over nearly thousands of acres in Narayanpatna and (in neighbouring) Bandhugaon blocks over the last few decades. The government did nothing; hence, we have launched this agitation," he said.
While that is true, the Orissa government has at last woken up to the issue. Over the last fortnight, state revenue minister SN Patro has repeated several times that land taken away illegally from tribals would soon be restored to them. His department is in the process of setting up camp-courts in Koraput and some neighbouring districts to implement this promise, but the Naxals have clearly beaten the government to it.
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