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- #India – More mines, fewer schools in former Maoist stronghold (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Bridge the Gap , Bring the Change
30 Jun 2013 1 Comment
in Advocacy, Announcements, Disability, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Press Release, Prison Tags: Business, Human Rights, India, Jharkhand, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, Noamundi, Saranda, Saranda Forest, Steel, TATA STEEL
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25 Nov 2012 7 Comments
in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Prison Tags: Adivasi, First Information Report, Holi, India, Jharkhand, Jojo Hatting, Munda, Noamundi, TATA STEEL
A note sent by Xavier Dias, before they surrendered, to let the world know the details of the case
Noamundi prior to the arrival of mining was a 100% ‘Ho’ Adivasi territory. Today Tatas have a large township with massive mechanised mining including processing plants.
In 1991 on the festival of Holi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi) a rowdy group of TISCO employees molested a team of Adivasi women labourers on the construction site of the Companies Sports Stadium. The women had joined their hands and told these drunken workers that as their Baa Parob (festival of spring) was not yet performed in their village they cannot join them in the Holi celebrations. According to Ho tradition unless the village head priest Duri performs the Baa puja villagers under his jurisdiction cannot participate in similar festivals elsewhere. It’s a sacrilege. The TISCO workers forced themselves on the women and by applying colour on their breast and genitals molested them.
They all came from Noamundi Basti the original village from where Noamundi gets its name. When the late Gagan Suren, the Munda (Adivasi village chief), of the village came to know of it, he approached the TISCO management and demanded that a case be registered against the workers. TISCO refused and as the Police too come under their control, the Police station refused to accept the FIR (First Information Report) of the Munda.
One of the sub colonies of Noamundi Township, JoJo Hatting comes under the jurisdiction of the Mundi of Noamundi Basti in this case Gagan Suren. Under the power the Munda had then he ask all the workers and their families to quit Jojo Hatting. TISCO found itself saddled with about a hundred refugee families at their door step. TISCO soon relented and asked the Police to file a case. Immediately the TISCO sponsored union affiliated to the central trade union of the Congress Party (INTUC) threatened that if a case is filed, they would go on strike. It should be noted here that this was the first time in the history of this union that they gave such an ultimatum to the management.
In the meanwhile, anger spread among the Ho people. At that time the All Jharkhand Student Union (AJSU) was strong in that area. AJSU supported the demands of the Munda.
On the other side of Noamundi in a different area lies the TISCO Palletising Plant or P Plant as known locally. It was constructed on grabbed lands of the surrounding villages, the main one being Moodhi village. The sacred graves and sacred groves till today rest within the walls of the P Plant and ever since the villagers have been demanding compensation. Seeing their relatives of Noamundi basti under attack and agitating, the villagers of Moodhi village decided to support them by opening another agitation front against TISCO. They locked the P Plant with the workers in and refused entry to the next shift of workers. Hundreds surrounded the P Plant and kept its gates locked for days.
TISCO was hereby being challenged by Adivasis who they consider as sheep to be slaughtered. They could not take it. Their security men (private security force) opened fire on the Adivasis at the P Plant. This act itself let to a big problem for TISCO as they cannot open fire on a crowd. So they got the Police to issue a statement that it was the Police who fired the shots.
As usual in those times the Police issued different criminal cases against the villagers and AJSU activist. As the P Plant gate is adjacent to the railway line TISCO got the Railways to file their case against the same accused.
This group of accused, about fifteen in number, is today reduced to seven persons. The rest all have died much before their time. They are today the unsung heroes of Jharkhand. Their wives and children are till date suffering due to the sacrifice of their breadwinners.
Since 1991, all the accused activists have been on bail (after surrendering and going to jail then!) and they have been attending all court dates for the last two decades.
In 2010 the lawyer handling the case gives up practice to join the Abhijeet Steel Company. He abandoned the case without handing it over to another lawyer. As a result the court has issued an arrest warrant against all the surviving activists. As we were not informed of this warrant, the court converted it into a ‘Kudkhi’ warrant or seizure of properties of the accused.
I am writing this note a day before we all surrender before the Magistrate. In accordance with fair judicial procedure, he should revive our bail. But we are apprehending that he will send us all into judicial custody or jail in order to harass us and threaten the ongoing agitation against the TATA STEEL expansion of their mines in Noamundi. This is the best way the Jharkhand state can appease Tatas at this stage. In the past we have experienced that such repression only goes to strengthen our resolve and movement. Thanks to TATA STEEL
Written by Xavier Dias on 22nd November 2012
(along with the surviving accused including: John Barjo, Basudev Devgum, Moso Munda, Rajaram Tanti and Indu Laguri)
02 Oct 2012 2 Comments
in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights Tags: Government, India, Jharkhand, Jharkhand High Court, Noamundi, Supreme Court, Value-added tax, VAT
TUESDAY, 02 OCTOBER 2012 16:49PNS | RANCHI
State owned power generating company Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited (TVNL) that is into a joint venture with EMTA has been allotted land for developing Badam coal blocks in Hazaribag district.
TUESDAY, 02 OCTOBER 2012 16:49PNS | RANCHI
About 11.92 acre of GM land would be given to the company at `40.13 lakh on renewable lease of 30 years. The Cabinet also released 19.59 acres of land at Noamundi for railway siding at West Singhbum district.
Informing about the decision taken by the Cabinet on Monday, Cabinet Secretary NN Pandey said that Value Added Tax (VAT) on PDS kerosene had been lowered form presently 5 per cent to 2 per cent. “Besides this the Cabinet also decided to up VAT from present 14 per cent to 20 per cent on tobacco products,” he said.
To deal with shortage of doctors in the State, the Government has raised retirement age of the medicos working in ESIC hospitals in Jharkhand. Now onwards, the doctors would attain retirement at the age of 65 years instead of 60 years. The Cabinet also approved Jharkhand Municipal Election guideline. It would set rules for election, provisions of operation and polling booths for the urban local bodies.
453 villages left out of the electrification by the RITES and also under RGGVY scheme would be electrified through the JSEB. The Cabinet has approved `91.58 crore for the purpose. 72 gazetted and non- gazetted posts have been created in the Jharkhand High Court besides few others to take forward the e-court project, emphasised by the Supreme Court and the Center for computerisation exercise. It will cost `12.53 lakh annually.
18 May 2012 1 Comment
in Advocacy, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Central Reserve Police Force, CRPF, Jairam Ramesh, job card, job cards, mahatma gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Noamundi, Sarandë, travel, vacation, Village, Villagers (band)
Jaideep Deogharia, TNN | May 18, 2012,
Apart from Cherwalor, five other villages like Kododih, Dharnadiri, Jumbaiburu, Belyatu (chingri) and Hojomdih are also non-existent on the administrative map. These villages are neither included in Noamundi block nor in Manoharpur. Consequently, the villagers are deprived of all possible government schemes and projects. The villagers do not have BPL or ration cards nor do they have the job card of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
None of them have been included on the voters’ list and no villager has ever exercised their franchise. To top it all, this time when Union rural development minister Jairam Rameshannounced the Saranda Action Plan, these six villages were once again left out.
The district administration asked Noamundi BDO Ajay Tirkey to conduct a survey of these villages and submit a report to the deputy commissioner. Talking to TOI, Tirkey admitted that the six villages in Saranda were non-existent till date. “A detailed survey report has been submitted to the DC and we expect these villages will be considered under the action plan,” he said.
Villagers in Jambaiburu have been provided with MGNREGA job cards. Interestingly, the state code, category code and registration number are mentioned there but not the district code, block code and panchayat code. Tupra Surin of Jambaiburu said, “My village comprises nearly 28 families and recently they have been enrolled for jobs under the MGNREGA. We are not sure whom to contact for a job because when we approached government officials of Noamundi, they told us that our village doesn’t come under their jurisdiction,” he added. The village doesn’t have a school or any facility for ration.
After Patras Nag of Cherwalor was picked up by security forces, the CRPF arranged outreach programmes to give away sewing machines and utensils to the villagers. Though the villagers accepted some of the gifts and dividends, later they boycotted such camps to express their anger. “My husband used to work in the mines and was never absent from duty. Once when he was grazing cattle, he was picked up by security forces and sent to jail,” said Gurbari Nag citing the reason for her decision to boycott the goods distribution camp of the CRPF in Thalkobad organized in February this year.