Volume 4 Issue 8 Intensify movement against Modi’s Land Acquisition Bill 12th April -2015 West Bengal: Party launches protest against suicide of potato farmers More than 20 potato farmers have already committed suicide in the state this season and the number is feared to go up further. Whereas it is customary for farmers to desire a good harvest, in West Bengal it is a good harvest that has proved to be a curse to the farmers, thanks to the government’s policies which have resulted in farmers not getting a price for their potatoes. After the latest incident of farmer suicide in Rangta village in Garbeta block of West Midnapur district, party state committee members Comrade Shibu Giri and Comrade Tarun Manna visited the spot for an investigation. It was revealed that the deceased farmer had taken 30 bighas of land on lease, at the rate of Rs 1000 per acre, for sowing potatoes. He had borrowed both from a local usurer as well as the Punjab National Bank a total sum of five and a half lakh rupees to meet expenses towards seeds, fertilisers and associated costs. However, despite an excellent harvest, he could not sell his crop and he took his life to escape from the debt. It was a clear case of suicide by a desperate farmer entangled in indebtedness but the shameless state government has put it down to ‘family problems’. The West Bengal State Committee has condemned the state government’s attempt to hush up the real cause of farmers’ suicides by resorting to deception and called for a state-wide agitation on the following demands: 1) The state government must immediately buy potatoes from farmers at a rate of Rs 800 per quintal, 2) Bank loans of affected peasants must be waived and fresh loans arranged for them to cover the losses, 3) Families of farmers who have committed suicide must be given proper compensation by the government. CONTENTS Intensify movement against Modi’s Land Acquisition Bill Odisha protests against Land Acquisition Bill West Bengal: Party launches protest against suicide of potato farmers Write off loans of devastated peasant families Condemn fake encounter killings in AP and Telangana Chhattisgarh: Anganwadi workers unite for just demands Condemn the rape of three women by army jawans in Assam Denounce extension of AFSPA in more districts of Arunachal Pradesh West Bengal: AIKKS demands action against wild elephant attacks in Midnapur villages Modi’s threat Resist Maharashtra government’s food fundamentalism Condemn the arrest of Com Khalida Jarrar w w w. c p i m l . i n C-141, Sainik Nagar, New Delhi – 110059, Phone – (011) 25332343 Email: [email protected], [email protected] Website: www.cpiml.in RED STAR Online Weekly Volume – 4 Issue – 8 12 April 2015 5th April -2015 01 Intensify movement against Modi’s Land Acquisition Bill A glance through the Land Acquisition Bill initiated by the Modi government shall show that, if the 2013 Land Acquisition Act adopted by the parliament was also a move for transferring agricultural land to foreign and domestic corporate forces and land mafias with some conditions attached to it, the present bill is a blatant move aimed at large scale land acquisition, doing away all restrictions of the 2013 Act. This move against peasant interests and whatever food security this country has is justified by alleging that all those who oppose it are indulging in a conspiracy to undermine farmers’ interests! In the two days’ BJP national executive meeting at Bengaluru the prime minister claimed that his government is working for the poor! But contrary to this claim, the Rajya Sabha was prorogued and the Land Acquisition ordinance re-issued before it lapsed on 5th April, in spite of increasing resistance to it from the vast majority of the peasants and other oppressed masses. What was the emergency to prorogue Rajya Sabha and to impose an Ordinance as done in emergency conditions? It is to please the corporate forces who actually financed Modi’s election campaign. If the 2013 Act fully supported by BJP then stipulated consent of 70-80% of affected families, the present ordinance has added a new section (10A) increasing the number in the special category that are exempt from such consent requirements — industrial corridors and infrastructure projects, including projects under public-private-partnership. If the earlier law required a social impact assessment and review by an expert group and defined a bar on the acquisition of multi-crop agricultural land, now it is removed. If the earlier Act allowed return of the acquired land if the award had been made five or more years prior to the coming into force of the 2013 law (i.e. any award passed on or before January 1, 2009) provided either compensation had not been paid or physical possession had not been taken, this provision is also reversed now. As a result, the amount of land that can be now acquired for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor alone is estimated to be a whopping 17.5% of our agricultural land in that region. In this situation, the peasantry and the progressive forces who are opposed to corporate-mafia raj has only one option before them: oppose the adoption of this bill and even if it is adopted by the parliament or is going to be imposed through re-issuing ordinances, come out onto the streets and intensify the struggle to have it revoked. This is exactly what is happening all over the country. After the CC of CPI(ML) Red Star gave a call to launch a countrywide movement against the Land Acquisition Bill from 8th to 15th April, all party committees have been actively involved in it. There are reports of campaigns, effigy burnings, public meetings etc. from many places. Intensify movement against Modi’s Land Acquisition Bill A militant protest demonstration against the Land Acquisition Bill was held before the Aska Tahasil Office in Ganjam District of Odisha. On 8th April activists of CPI(ML) Red Star and Basti Surakshya Mancha burnt an effigy of corporate dalal Narendra Modi and a copy of the Land Acquisition Bill 2015 in Bhubaneswar. 5th April -2015 02 Write off loans of devastated peasant families There are reports of peasant suicides from practically all states, especially from the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, where the recent untimely rain, hail storm and even floods have destroyed or harmed the wheat, potato and other crops seriously. All these peasant families had taken loans from banks and usurers; and the fear of what will happen to their family if the loans are not repaid is driving them to suicide. Vast majority of these peasant families are in acute distress. The central and state governments are trying to belittle the seriousness of this question by announcing some subsidies and sops. What is required is the writing off of all bank loans and help in repaying loans taken from the usurers. It is the case in UP, Punjab and all other affected states. Let us raise this demand and mobilize the peasants for it. Condemn fake encounter killings in AP and Telangana The undivided Andhra Pradesh and present AP and Telangana police are notorious for hundreds of fake encounter killings. Most of them were committed in the name of exterminating Maoists, and the vast majority of those killed were dalits, adivasis, agricultural workers and poor peasants in general, or workers in the urban areas. The latest incidents in AP and Telegana show that in these states the heinous culture of fake encounter killings by the police force continues unabated. The mass killing of five alleged SIMI men in Telangana on April on the plea that they had been trying to escape from custody has already been proved to be an unprovoked and cold-blooded murder of undertrials. According to the police, the incident occurred on a busy highway in the middle of the morning when the prisoners were being taken from Warangal jail to a Hyderabad court. According to IGP Warangal, Naveen Chand, the police convoy of three vehicles made an unscheduled halt at the request of under-trial prisoner, Vikaruddin Ahmed. With his handcuffs off, Vikaruddin allegedly snatched an AK 56 rifle from Reserve Sub-Inspector, Uday Bhaskar and the remaining four prisoners, Mohd. Zakir, Mohd. Hanif, Sayed Amjad, and Izhar Khan pounced on two other policemen. In retaliation, the other policemen, 17 in all, shot all five dead inside the van. However, photographs of the slain men showing that they were handcuffed to the car seat when shot have already come up on the media giving the lie to the police statement of ‘attempted escape’ and ‘attack on policemen’. This murder is another example of the growing communalization and fascisization of the state. On the same day, 20 labourers – mostly adivasis from Tamil Nadu – were gunned down by the police in Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor district. The police claimed that the slain men were smugglers of red sanders -- a rare wood with huge demand in the international market – and that the police had opened fire after coming under attack by the smugglers in Seshachalam forest in two places within a radius of one kilometer. This police story too has been proved to be nothing but a sinister lie, and the 20 workers were actually barbarously killed by the police not in self-defence and certainly not on the spot but after being taken into custody and being brutally beaten up on the previous day. An eye witness has asserted that 7 of the 20 killed were picked up by the AP police from a running bus on the AP-Tamil Nadu border. Landless tribals from Tamil Nadu are lured by smugglers into cutting trees. The labourers are not aware of the risks they have to face and are made to believe that cutting trees is a petty crime Thus there are numerous cases of this type in the AP-Tami Nadu border areas, where hundreds of poor adivasi-dalit workers are compelled to cut wood in forests by a powerful mafia engaged in a multi-crore business and enjoying political support. When caught by the police they are subjected to rigorous imprisonment and sometimes even killed. More than two thousand are now perishing in jails. Instead of taking action against the king-pins, the police are engaged in killing and torturing these hapless labourers. The AP, Telengana and Tamil Nadu committees of CPI(ML) Red Star have severely condemned these killings and demanded stringent action against those responsible for the genocide. The CPI(ML) Red Star calls on all democratic forces to come out against these mass killings in the name of fake encounters. 12th April -2015 03 Chhattisgarh: Anganwadi workers unite for just demands The indefinite strike by the Anganwadi Union (Chhattisgarh Anganbadi Karyakarta Evam Sahayika Sangh) was called off on 31st March by the office bearers of the union without taking the workers and assistants into confidence. The office bearers claimed to have faced threats from the state government. Condemning the withdrawal of the strike, thousands of Anganwadi workers and assistants demonstrated at Budha Talab, Raipur, against the decision of the Anganwadi Union and the stance of the Chhattisgarh government. Based on a unanimous decision by all the Anganwadi workers and assistants present at the protest area, a 15-member organizing committee was formed. The committee met on 5th April at Raipur and, vowing to carry forward the movement, outlined the next immediate steps. Anganwadi workers had been on indefinite strike from 20th March. During this period three phases of talks were held between the Anganwadi Union and the state government but the government merely went on making false assurances instead of fulfilling the demands. Last year too when the Anganwadi workers had gone on strike, similar assurances had been given in the secretary level talks, but no decision on the demands was taken. The state government provides a meagre sum of Rs. 1000 to Anganwadi workers and Rs. 500 to assistants as monthly wages, and that too not always on time. Anganwadi workers and assistants are employed in more than twenty state government-run schemes. Even in the scorching days of summer they are forced to work from 9.00am to 3.00pm in rooms not fitted with fans. Many a time, the union has written to the related departments requesting that Anganwadi schools be run from 8.00am to 12.00pm like the other government-run schools but no attention has been given to this demand. The state government repeatedly neglected the genuine demands of the union against which an indefinite strike was organized, but instead of solving the demands the government ordered to call off the strike and issued an ultimatum to the strikers to resume duties on or before 3rd April and threatened to dismiss the workers and assistants. Pragatisheel Anganwadi Karyakarta Evam Sahayika Sangh, affiliated to Trade Union Centre of India (TUCI), condemns this anti-people order and calls all the Anganwadi workers and assistants of the state to join hands against the oppression of the state government and take forward this struggle with more vigor and force. Condemn the rape of three women by army jawans in Assam The rape of three women, including a minor, by army jawans in Assam on April 6 has once again brought to the fore the barbarity of the military and caused women and men in the state to erupt in rage. According to police reports, a team of 8 jawans raped three women, of whom one was only 13, at Khorsim Athor village in Aanjukpani in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district on Monday. On Monday night, the patrolling jawans reached the village, picked up the child and took her to the neighbouring jungle. When the girl’s mother and a relative followed them into the jungle, they came upon the jawans raping the child. Before they could do anything, the jawans pounced on them and raped them too. Villagers lodged an FIR at the Dokmoka police station on Wednesday and produced the three rape survivors before the police. Deployment of the army in the two hill districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao, on the pretext of carrying on operations against militant outfits, have long been condemned by all democratic sections of society. The rape of the three village women demands a mighty protest against army deployment in all the Northeastern states and the severest punishment to the guilty jawans. 12th April -2015 04 Denounce extension of AFSPA in more districts of Arunachal Pradesh Even as the army has again revealed its true colours in the incident of the rape of three women in Assam, the notorious Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has been extended to 12 more districts of Arunachal Pradesh – all bordering Assam. Even the Arunachal chief minister Nabam Tuki has taken a strong exception to this decision of the Centre and asked it to urgently review the decision taken “unilaterally” by the latter. The chief minister has declared that the 12 districts brought within the purview of AFSPA are absolutely peaceful and expressed his concern over the imposition of AFSPA in fresh areas, well aware that people’s simmering wrath against this draconian Act and the military crimes it inevitably brings in its wake may erupt anytime West Bengal: AIKKS demands action against wild elephant attacks in Midnapur villages Two villagers were killed by an attack of wild elephants on 8th April in Kadamdiha village of West Midnapur district of West Bengal. Nepal Lohar, another villager was also injured. Budhari Mahato (62) died in Midnapur Medical College Hospital while Sulekha Mahato died on the spot following the attack and subsequent rampage by a group of elephants. All India Krantikari Kisan Sabha (AIKKS) leaders immediately rushed to the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) with the villagers, demanding compensation and protection against such attacks which are becoming increasingly common in the area. Initially DFO Arnab Sengupta was reluctant to assure compensation for the families of the deceased. However, after a heated discussion with the villagers Modi’s threat The dictatorial character of the Modi government once again surfaced when Modi himself addressed a meeting with the senior judges of the country and warned them not to capitulate to ‘five star activists’. It is becoming amply clear day by day that the government wants dictatorial power in its hands to curb the rights of the people in favour of the corporates and mafias to plunder the resources of the country. The Prime Minister’s open threat to the judiciary clearly shows that the ruling classes of the country are passing through a severe crisis which they want to overcome by rejecting even a liberal democratic atmosphere and resorting to fascistic tendencies. Quite naturally Modi’s speech has faced sharp criticism from the judiciary itself, which indicates an intensification of the contradictions among the bourgeois institutions of the country. the Forest Department announced compensation of 2.5 lakhs rupees each for the families of Budhari Mahato and Sulekha Mahato. The DFO also declared that the cost of the treatment of Nepal Lohar would be borne by the department. AIKKS has put forward another demand of emergency medical facilities along with ambulance etc. in the block office, which the DFO has assured to consider. Resist Maharashtra government’s food fundamentalism Banning of cow and bull slaughter in Maharashtra by BJP government is a vicious act against the secular India concept. Answering a question from the Mumbai High Court, the state Advocate General had said that this was the first step to ban slaughter of other animals like goat. This statement had triggered a furore with apprehensions looming large that the government intended to impose vegetarianism on all people of the state. However, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis later said that the Advocate General’s words had been misinterpreted and the government has no plans to ban slaughter of animals other than cow and bull. It is evident that the ban on beef in particular – selling or possessing beef in Maharashtra can now lead to a 5-year jail term or fine of Rs 10,000 – is a direct encroachment on the food habits of some people and is intended to target certain communities. All democratic and secular forces and individuals should join hands to resist the process of growing communalism in Maharashtra and other parts of the country. 12th April -2015 05 Indian labourers on strike in Bahrain returned home Workers of Hertel MSL Construction Co. in Bahrain, who were on strike since April 1 against the poor living conditions of the labour camp in Askar were returned home this week. They were on strike from 01.04.2015, against bad living conditions of the newly shifted labour camp in Askar. The management agreed to send them back to India, in a meeting held on 07.04.2015. There were more than 200 Indian workers (mostly from Kerala) in who had to use only 10 bathrooms and consume rotten food. The workers brought this to the management’s attention many a time, but in vain. Keralite workers had paid Rs. 25,000/- to an agent in Ernakulam District to get this job at a low salary of BD-80/-. Workers from Bihar had paid Rs-50,000/- to the agent in their state and BD-80/- to a storekeeper in the same company. But when they came to work in Bahrain they realized what was in store for them. Apart from dreadful living conditions, they were forced to do 4 hours overtime work almost every day but were never paid overtime wages. They were told by their agents that they would be required to do painting jobs at construction sites, but were made to do all kinds of odd and demeaning jobs. Finally they went on strike. Expat social workers intervened in the issue and the management accepted the workers’ demand to go back home and paid the pending salary and entitlements as well as their air fare. Condemn the arrest of Com Khalida Jarrar The arrest of Palestinian Legislative Council member and PB member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Com Khalida Jarrar by Zionist occupation forces, is be a desperate attempt to suppress her activity and prominent national role in defending the rights of the Palestinian people, the prisoners and their struggle. Her arrest has come in the midst of wide campaigns against mass killing, torture of Palestine fighters and masses and is an endeavor to suppress the increasing exposure of the plans and crimes of the occupation. The arrest of MP Khalida Jarrar, along with the arrests of MPs Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan Barghouti and many members of the Change and Reform Bloc, once again confirms that the Zionist state does not respect any immunity or agreements. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has urged a quick response to these arrests targeting various sectors of the Palestinian people through immediately ending security coordination and all forms of political and economic relationship with the occupation state, and rebuilding the Palestinian national strategy on the basis of the overall conflict with the enemy. The Bahrain Progressive Forum has also condemned the arrest of this leading fighter for the Palestinians’ legitimate right to return, self-determination and establish their independent state on their national territory. It has demanded the immediate release of Com Khalida Jarrar together with Com Ahmed Sa’adat, General Secretary of PFLP and Marwan Bargouti, CC Member of Fatah Party who are now detained in an Israel prison. 12th April -2015 06
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