24th April, 2015 | TwoCircles.net |http://twocircles.net/2015apr24/1429898674.html
New Delhi: District and state administration in Uttar Pradesh are undemocratically suppressing the people’s voices against the “dangerous developmental projects”, alleged a fact finding team of the Delhi Solidarity Group that recently visited the Sonbhadra district in Uttar Pradesh.
“The expanding industries and industrial pollution has affected the lives of people living in and around Sonbhadra drastically. Massive displacements, denial of jobs in the industries, temporary/ contractual jobs, poor living conditions, excessive migration, and damages to forests, massive deforestation, agricultural fields and properties are some of the damages created to the lives of people living in the area. This has caused huge resentment among poor dalits and adivasis living in the locality,” the fact finding report of The Delhi Solidarity Group said.
“The state and the administration of Sonbhadra district is currently threatened by the strength of people’s movements and is trying to use polarisation and violence as tools to break down or weaken these movements which are otherwise in strong opposition to the mindless development projects,” the Group’s Fact Finding team alleged at a press conference here on Friday.
The exhaustive report highlights two major incidents that happened between February and April 2015. The Delhi Solidarity Group hadsent two fact finding teams to Sonbhadra district in the past three months as more and more attacks are “designed” by the district administration and the state to target the dalits and adivasi communities who are protesting the proposed Kanhar dam and similar resistance movements against acquisition forest land.
About a dozen farmers and several policemen were injured on April 14 and 18 when police used force to evict farmers and activists protesting the building of Kanhar dam for the past five days at the dam site in Sonbhadra dictrict.Earlier also there was an attack on Kaimur Kshetra Mahila Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti leader & other members at Badi village, Sonbhadra on February 6, 2015, the Fact Finding team said.
In Sonbhadra district, there are already nine major thermal power plants of about 9421.7 MW capacity, five coal mining fields 17.087 Metric Tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity, three chemical industries that produces around 55862.3 tonnes/month, a cement Industry that produces around 66,000 tonnes/month of cement, and a lime stone mining field 2,66,666 tonnes of limestone per month. The most important point to note is that the industries are constantly expanding in this area.
According to the report of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on the “Mercury Pollution in Sonbhadra District of Uttar Pradesh and its heath impacts” in October 2012, it was found that most of the drinking water samples that were tested from the area were not found suitable for drinking; the mercury levels in the water, soil, the fish samples and people’s bodies were much higher than the permissible levels and also the traces of lead, arsenic, chromium and fluoride present in the same were much higher than permissible levels. The water samples from the hand pump in Anpara and Chilka Daad contained mercury eight times higher than the permissible limit respectively.
The Kanhar dam project was initially envisaged in the year 1977. The Kanhar Irrigation Project was originally approved by the Central Water Commission in September, 1976. The project is located downstream of the river Pagan with Kanhar near village Sugawan in tehsil Dudhi of district Sonbhadra. The project proposes a 3.003 km earthen dam having a maximum height of 39.90 m from deepest bed level which may be increased to 52.90 m if linked to Rihand reservoir. The project envisages submergence of 4131.5 Ha land which includes parts of Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
The inauguration of the project held on December 5, 2014 was marked by the presence of heavy police force and paramilitary forces which were deployed to guard the construction site on the river bed. “Roads have been blocked by police and it is reported that the entry to the project site is stopped 1.5 km ahead of the construction site. To speed up the work, regular increase of heavy equipment and machinery is in progress,” the report claimed.
Kanhar Bachao Andolan and Kanhar Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti have been protesting the construction of dam.On the April 14, the Ambedkar Jayanti day this year, as the protesters decided to shift the venue of the dharna closer to the site to get the attention of administration and conduct talks with them, the UP PAC opened fire. “As many as 39 persons were injured, out of which 12 were seriously wounded. After this incident, the deployment was increased to about 500-1000 jawans. One Akklu Cherwa – an adivasi from Sundari village – was seriously injured,” the team members informed.
Even after this attack, the people have continued their agitation against the construction and on April 18early morning, when the protesters were resting at the dharna site, the PAC uprooted the dharna pandal and mercilessly beat and chased the villagers up to their villages.
They even entered Bheesur village, vandalized houses, damaged people’s properties, beat them up and injured men and women of the village. And, it was also found that there are criminal cases against 956 villagers just between December 23 and April 18. People who are not injured are arrested and taken in custody for trying to call their relatives, who are admitted to the Dudhi Health Centre.
The Fact Finding team put together by the Delhi Solidarity Group (DSG) comprised Kavita Krishnan, secretary, All India Progressive Women’s Association, Abhishek Srivastava, journalist, Purnima Gupta, Women’s Rights Activist, Debadityo Sinha, environmentalist, Vindhya Bachao Abhiyan and co- petitioner in Kanhar NGT case and Priya Pillai, activist, Mahan Sangarsh Samiti and Greenpeace India. The team was sent to Sonbhadra to assess the current situation at Kanhar dam site, visit the injured people, find facts about the events that happened between April 14 and 18.
It should be mentioned here that this fact finding team, comprising journalists and rights activists was briefly detained by Uttar Pradesh Police on their way to Kanhar in Sonbhadra district, where tribals protesting the proposed dam were fired upon by police earlier.
The people who are protesting displacement from their lands for Kanhar dam project and the forest dwellers from Mahan who are resisting the land acquisition and displacement of forest workers from Mahan forests by the Essar company were also sitting in solidarity with the All India Union for Forest Working People (AIUFWP) in order to highlight the issues of administration and state in denying the people of their rights and livelihood.
These people who were sitting on dharna since past one week were demanding the implementation of FRA, release of Shobha and other women and demanding legal action against the perpetrators as well as administration for their attempt to terrorise the people’s movements and unions demanding peacefully for their rights.
The attack on Shobha Bharati and other women of Kaimur Kshetra Mahila Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti on February 6, 2015 took place at her residence in Badi village, Choupan Police Station in the Sonbhadra district and resulted in immediate arrest of 20 people including Shobha, 18 other women from the KKMMKSS and Ram Gharib (Shobha’s husband).
Formed in 2000, Kaimur Kshetra Mahila Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti mobilised adivasi and dalit communities to reclaim their traditional rights to live and work on forest lands. The women attacked and arrested are members of this group.Shobha, one of them, had also filed a complaint to claim forest land.Shobha and 18 other women are in Mirzapur jail.
Civil society team claimed the recent attacks on the dalit and adivasi women as an “attempt to break their legitimate rights” to protest guaranteed under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. “False cases are being filed against activists and there are biases in dealing with cases pertaining to dalits and adivasis,” they alleged.
It should be noted that the state has used the ‘Maoist rhetoric’ and has arrested a number of innocent adivasis and has attacked unarmed civilians. “The patriarchal state has time and again used its power to disrupt the unity of women and has seen the women’s resistance as the biggest threat,” they further alleged.
“In Sonbhadra, there are several cases of violence and attacks engineered by mostly the upper caste and land mafias against the dalit and adivasi communities who are raising their voices against the injustice and for the implementation of FRA,” the report noted. The team members demanded that such cases of violence and targeted attacks must be immediately handled legally and necessary action be taken to convict the perpetrators of such violence.
The fact finding team urged the state government that the rights of people living in forest areas should be recognized by the state in accordance with the spirit of the FRA and its amendments. It also demanded an independent enquiry on the police firing and violence targeted attack of the adivasis who are resisting the dam construction in Kanhar valley.
Fact Finding Report on Sonbhadra
Original Article on Two Circles Website
