GJM DYFI CLASH IN SILIGURI – POLICE LATHI CHARGE GJM SUPPORTERS!

Siliguri/Darjeeling: According to reports reaching Darjeeling, the presence of Gorkha Janmukti Cadres and supporters at Darjeeling More, Champasari areas and other parts of Siliguri were resented by CPIM cadres and supporters including their youth wing (DYFI). The CPIM and DYFI stopped GJM supporters from entering Siliguri City and in the melee, the police resorted to lathi charge and mass arrest of GJM supporters.  None of the CPIM and DYFI supporters were arrested. A number of people were said to have been injured. Situation in Siliguri and the adjoining Hill-Plains regions remains under tension. [Rabindra Giri]

Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and the Toy Train

A clip from the  celebrated 1995 National Geographic film – ‘The Great Indian Railway’.

PEOPLE’S PARLIAMENT SLAMS UPA GOVERNMENT: DEMANDS NON-DISPLACING DEVELOPMENT

More than a thousand people from people’s movements from across the country have come together under the banner of Sangharsh. A three day agitation and dharna in front of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar was started on 28th April 2008.

A Jan Sansad (People’s Parliament) was organised today on issues of DISPLACEMENT, LAND ACQUISITION AND R&R. People’s voices on these issues have so far remained on the margins of electoral politics. A much needed platform for dialogue and engagement between people and their elected representatives was
presented today.

More than 45 organisations and movement groups who have either faced displacement or are resisting it, gave testimonies on their struggles, state repression and their vision and perspectives of development without displacement. While people affected by dams built as many as 100 years ago are still without rehabilitation, thousands more are being displaced in the name of SEZs, mining, water and power projects, forest reserves and so on.
Presentations from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa presented cases of unprecedented loot through diversion of Adivasi land and minerals. The stories from slums and the so called unauthorised colonies in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities makes it clear that for the urban poor, labourers, hawkers and small
retailers it is not ‘urban  renewal’ but ‘urban removal’.

The Central Government has brought forth two Bills-The Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2007, purportedly to strike a balance between the need for land for development and protecting the interests of the persons from whom land is statutorily acquired.
Both the Bills will have far reaching impact if enacted. In effect, these Bills sanction displacement and plunder of land and other natural resources from the people for the profit of corporations and private investors. The Land Acquisition Bill allows land to be forcefully acquired in favour of private
companies sneaking private purpose into the definition of “public purpose”. It is more regressive and anti-people than even the original colonial Act! The government pays mere lip service to protecting the rights of those whose lands are acquired. The R&R Bill does not even guarantee basics like land for land
and alternative livelihood based rehabilitation. The issue of urban displacement has been completely sidestepped yet again.

ANTI – DISPLACEMENT DHARNA CONCLUDES IN DELHI – NATIONAL ACTION ANNOUNCED FOR 26TH JUNE

A three day agitation and dharna in front of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar was started on 28th April 2008. People’s representatives from 14 states and from more than 83 different organisations
across the country converged under the banner of Sangharsh. Populations that have been uprooted by dams, power projects, creation of protected forest areas, road projects, SEZ, real estate projects, tourism projects, industrial displacement, etc. from coastal areas, hills, and plains shared their experiences. The dharna ended with a call to local action across the country and a threat to re-converge if the demands are not met.

We launched a joint protest against the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, the Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill, the SEZ Act 2005, the CZM Act, and other draconian anti-people and anti-environmental laws are being built up. The LAA and the R&R Bills will have far reaching impact if enacted. In effect, these
Bills provide an official channel to displace and plunder land and other natural resources from the people for the profit of corporations and private investors. The LAA Bill allows land to be forcefully acquired in favour of private companies sneaking private purpose into the definition of “public purpose”. It is more regressive and anti-people than even the original colonial Act! The government pays mere lip service to protecting the rights of those whose lands are acquired. The R&R Bill does not even guarantee basics like land for land and alternative livelihood based rehabilitation. The issue of urban displacement has been completely sidestepped yet again.

Representatives from Adivasis, Dalits, urban poor, and other communities expressed that these laws threaten their identity, sovereignty & food security. The need to bring all struggles under one banner – Trade unions, Student unions, Tribal mass movements, Dalit movements, Women’s rights movements, Peasants’ struggles to attain food security, Human rights and Democracy was stressed and each organization pledged to continue work in this direction.

We have had consultations in the past two days with Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister of Panchayati Raj Affairs. He has promised that his Ministry will look at the demands of the movements for greater primacy to the local self government bodies in this policy as well as in all development planning. We also had a meeting with Meira Kumar, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment who expressed sympathy with the displaced people – a sizeable number of which are Dalits and Adivasis and she will do whatever she can. Sandeep Dixit who came to the dharna site pledged his support to our demands and said that he will take our demands to the Parliamentary Standing committee on Rural Development which is looking after the two Bills. He also invited the social movements’ representatives to make presentations before the Committee. Today 100 organizations are sending individual letters to Shri Kalyan Singh, Chairman, Standing Committee, informing him of the various kinds of displacement and the existing situation on the ground.

“Nothing but truth” featuring Robin

Requested by Solitude

I am 101 percent Indian: Mani Kumar Subba

By Syed Zarir Hussain, Guwahati, May 1 : Controversial Congress MP from Assam, Mani Kumar Subba, locked in a row over his citizenship, insists that he is an Indian by birth.

“I am 101 percent Indian. I am going to prove this and come out clean on the issue,” the Lok Sabha MP from Assam’s Tezpur parliamentary constituency told IANS.

Subba is in the eye of a storm after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted to the Supreme Court that the MP’s birth certificates were not genuine.

The apex court bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and judges R.V. Raveendran and M.K. Sharma asked Subba to respond after the court reopens after summer vacation in about six weeks from now.

“The court did not say anything in the order and only asked me to respond and I shall do the same accordingly,” Subba said.

GJM supporters arrested in Siliguri

Siliguri (PTI): The city police have arrested supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), who began a hunger-strike to protest against being denied permission to hold a public meeting here, for violating prohibitory orders.

“274 Gorkha supporters, including 177 women, were arrested for violating prohibitory orders,” inspector-in-Charge Siliguri Police Station, Prabhat Chakraborty said.

The 12th battalion of the state armed police and combat commando force took the control of the Hill Cart road and Hospital Road here to prevent GJM supporters from assembling at the Siliguri Court compound where the SDO’s office is located.

Among the arrested was the organisation’s central committee member, Bimal Dorjee.

In the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling — Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, batches of 11 GJM supporters on Thursday went on an indefinite fast.