Topic started by mandoose (@ cache-blr.ernet.in) on Fri Nov 9 11:14:29 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
Hi,
I am forwarding a mail from Ucchhed
Birodhi Jukta Mancha. Please go through it and respond..
Dear friends,
Many of you had received an appeal early in September
about the impending mass evictions of thousands of
poor families in and around Kolkata (Calcutta), West
Bengal. Thanks to everyone who had written to the
state government against this gross human rights
violation and demanding rehabilitation measures. Your
support has been dear to us.
We are writing to you now about what happened since.
For those who did not receive the earlier letter, the
background is also given here. We are writing to you
with the hope that considering the gravity of the
situation, you will reiterate and strengthen your
support to the thousands who have already been victims
of this anti-poor development policy of the government
and are spending their days in a difficult situation
as rehabilitation has been denied to them. Your
support is needed further to protect the fundamental
right to life and livelihood of the millions who are
going to face the bulldozers very soon.
The West Bengal government has taken up a huge project
to evict all poor settlers -- officially called
illegal encroachers -- and street hawkers from the
city and its suburbs, in order make it more
"developed" and "investor friendly". As the first
step, it announced that the 20,000-odd people from the
banks of the Tolly's Nullah (Adiganga canal) would be
evicted. The ostensible purpose for this eviction was
twofold: dredging the canal under Ganga Action Plan
Phase II, and extending the Metro Railway from
Tollygunge to Garia in the south.
The government has planned eviction of other canalside
settlers, too, under the ADB-sponsored Calcutta
Environment Improvement Project. In that project it
has incorporated a component for rehabilitation under
pressure from the international financial institution,
but completely denied it in the Tolly's Nullah
project, which is funded by the Union and the state
governments on a 75:25 basis. Of late though, the
state urban development minister has declared through
the media that even in areas under the ADB project,
only those who have "legal deeds" will be
rehabilitated, thus violating the original
understanding that all settlers -- registered or
unregistered -- would get rehabilitation.
On September 8, 2001, the West Bengal government
announced that the first leg of evictions along
Tolly's Nullah from Garia station to Kudghat would
begin on September 22. On September 25, it published
an advertisement in the city dailies claiming that the
"encroachers" had left "voluntarily", to "cooperate
with the development work".
Nothing can be farther from the truth. The people were
forced to flee, terrorised by the police and rapid
action force personnel deployed in unprecedented
numbers from September 14. These personnel went door
to door forcing people to accept an unsigned,
unstamped "token", which they said could be redeemed
later for Rs 2,000 which the government had kindly
agreed to dole out as "shifting cost". Many refused to accept such an incredible compensation and were
threatened and beaten.
On September 22, the eviction drive between Garia
station and Garia bus stand involved severe human
rights violations. In many areas, everyone including
children, the aged and women faced abuse, kicks, blows
and sticks. Boiling rice pots were upturned. Among the
seriously injured were an elderly woman named Sunity
Barui, as well as 16-year-old schoolboy Indrajit
Sarkar. Top police and administrative officials,
includintendent of police and district magistrate of
South 24-Parganas district led the operation.
The second leg of the operation between Garia bus
stand and Kudghat on September 25 was even more
brutal. Armed personnel entered the huts of those who
did not move even after seeing the terror unleashed
earlier and forced them to dismantle their own homes.
There were even complaints of the personnel urinating
on beds to evict people. A large number of women who
held on to the last were beaten black and blue.
In these two day's operations, a total of 1,150
families have been evicted, according to official
figures. Most of them had nowhere to go, an began
living in the open amid the rubble with their
children, elders and sick members.
From September 26, the Ucchhed Birodhi Jukta Mancha, a
forum of various mass organisations that has been
spearheading the struggle of the `development
refugees' for rehabilitation, set up a community
kitchen at Garia. Heavy rains began rom 30 September.
Amid this calamity, the police attacked again on
October 2, Gandhi's birthday. They demolished the
community kitchen and tore away even the small
plastic-sheet rain shelters that had been set up for
the homeless destitutes. Three women, Malati Ghosh,
Rekha Das and Kalpana sen and a man, Arun
Bhattacharya, were arrested as they offered peaceful
resistance.
The officer-in-charge of the Jadavpur police station
said publicly that the police had orders "from the
top" and that the community kitchen was considered as
a place of "potentially dangerous assembly".
The people, however, could not be cowed down. The
community kitchen was resumed at the same spot a day
after and a new one was set up in another area. Faced
with public criticism, the urban development minister
said it was not proper for the police to have
demolished the community kitchen. However, the
authorities tried a new game. They fenced off the
Garia kitchen by barbed wire on October 20, making it
inaccessible for the people. After the activists
threatened a fast unto death, the irrigation minister,whose department owns the land, agreed to keep a small
opening through the fencing.
The government, meanwhile, has been speaking in
different voices. Three partners of the ruling Left
Front, the RSP, CPI and Forward Bloc, have publicly
demanded rehabilitation for the oustees. However, the
urban development minister, belonging to the CPI(M),
had ruled out rehabilitation initially. Later, he
announced that only 100 families would be selected by
"lottery" for rehabilitation on a government plot
earmarked for low-income-group housing. The following
day, he said they would have to "buy" the plots at the
usual LIG price. After that, there is a total silence.
Even the food and clothes for the homeless promised by the state relief department was not given. The Ucchhed
Birodhi Jukta Mancha and its sympathisers have been
pooling their resources and raising public donations
to run the community kitchen. Women's organisations
and individuals came together to distribute new
clothes to children during the Durga Puja festival.
Please voice your concern immediately to Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee, chief minister of West Bengal, Writers'
Buildings, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, e-mail:
prsecycm@wb.nic.in
We would be grateful if you send us a copy, and of
course, your messages of support, advice, criticism and queries to
sengautam@hotmail.com,
soma1kunal@caltiger.com or
ndutta@cal2.vsnl.net.in
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