Release Ajay TG Campaign getting momentum
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Ajay TG has the right to show his films. We have the right to see his films. We strongly protest and condemn the arrest of independent documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist Ajay TG by the Chattisgarh Police. ...
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A different Devdas and Paro in Sudhir Mishra's version
"It'd be shot in the documentary style. The events would all be dramatic recreations of real incidents. I'm planning to apply this format to my film on the life of doctor-activist Binayak Sen, the child specialist in Chhattisgarh who ...
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Under the agreement, HPCL will hold a 74 percent stake and CREDA 26 percent, the oil refining and marketing company said in a release.

The Jatropha seeds produced from the 15,000 hectares of land will be sold exclusively to HPCL, which will in turn produce biodiesel through chemical processes and market the product through its network of retail outlets in Chhattisgarh, HPCL said.

Source CNBC

Film shows how man made problem turned the direction of river leading to Inter-state conflict and how Industrial pollution and big dams has increased problems by disturbing basin ecology and violating the reparian rights. Shot in Bastar region and western Rajnandgaon of Chhattisgarh.

By Tejendra Tamrakar

NMDC Chairman and Managing Director Rana Som said two iron ore deposits had been identified with reserves of 300 million tonnes and 75 million tonnes and the final discussion over the acquisition will be held by the weekend.

Spice Energy officials were travelling and not available for comment. The firm, promoted by a group of individuals, has interests in oil and gas, power and alternative fuels. Sanjay Malhotra, one of the promoters of Spice Energy, has a stake in SpiceJet.

Investments in these mines will be roughly 30 per cent more than in most mines because the quality of ore here requires higher value addition and pelletisation. The investment will be equally shared between NMDC and the Spice group.

Som said the 75-million- tonne deposits, which were privately held, had been fully explored.

"We will make pellets and bring them to India through the Poti port in Georgia on the Black Sea. The project also has rail links," he added.

Industry sources said the project could bring some respite and improve availability of iron ore in the Indian market.

The project could help bridge an anticipated shortage in the light of India's target of a steel capacity of 300 million tonnes by 2020, which would require iron ore reserves of approximately 14 billion tonnes over 30 years. India has proven reserves of 6.311 billion tonnes of the total estimated reserves of 23.588 billion tonnes.

NMDC is a major supplier of iron ore to JSW Steel, Essar Steel, Ispat Industries in the private sector and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) in the public sector. NMDC produces 30 million tonnes of iron ore from its Bailadila mines in Chhattisgarh and Donimalai in Karnataka.

The resurgence of the movement for a separate state of Gorkhaland carved out of West Bengal has revived the debate within political parties on smaller states. In the absence of unanimity, each political party has worked out its own logic for supporting or resisting demands for smaller - or not-so-small - states.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) favours splitting up states, barring a few, for better governance while the Congress party prefers not to have a fixed position on the issue. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is against smaller states per se but its parent, Communist Party of India (CPI), is all for them – barring a few ones. Clearly, political India has no single mind on whether smaller states are good for the country.

The campaign for Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh had the strong backing of the tribals, who felt they were not getting their due from the plainspeople. Those clamouring for Uttaranchal - also mainly a hilly region and home to many tourist and Hindu pilgrimage centres - wanted to get out of the clutches of the mammoth Uttar Pradesh. In 2000, all three states - Uttaranchal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand - were carved respectively out of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. That success only emboldened the feelings of those who say they too need separate states.

Gorkhaland

Gorkhaland is the name given to the area around Darjeeling and the Duars in north West Bengal. Residents of the area, mostly Gorkhas have long demanded a separate state for themselves to preserve their Nepali identity and to improve their socio-economic conditions.

The Gorkhaland movement in the 1980s turned violent amid charges by the Marxists that the Congress was secretly backing the Gorkhas so as to undermine the CPI-M in West Bengal. Its advocates say they are not satisfied with the limited autonomy granted to them. A separate Gorkhaland would be made up mainly of the hilly parts of northern West Bengal, close to Nepal. Its capital would be Darjeeling, a tourist paradise. The CPI-M is fighting the Gorkhaland movement tooth and nail. Splitting West Bengal would mean the party losing an area of its present influence and administrative jurisdiction.

As per report, the iron ore loading at National Mineral Development Corporation’s mines in Chhattisgarh has been badly hit as a result fewer rakes than normal are being moved on the 450 kilometer long Kirandul to Kottavalasa line. Right now, on an average, 8 to 10 rakes are being loaded and moved on the route against 15 to 16 in normal situation.

Mr K Raghuramaiah chairman of Paradip Port Trust said the rains have not stopped operation of the port, but have only slowed it down. He added that "Despite a plethora of problems thrown up by the inclement weather, about 4 to 6 iron ore rakes are being loaded and that many rakes are being used for loading imported coal."

According to the ECoR sources, iron ore loading in Daitari Banspani area and transportation of it to Paradip port for exports too, has been hit as rains have affected normal operation in the mines as well as the port. As many as 13 rakes, earlier loaded with iron ore for exports, have been detained at various points on the route from the mines to the port. The iron ore rakes already in the port are discharging cargo slowly because of the rain. This has also slowed down back-loading of imported coal as the same rakes, which carry iron ore to the port for exports, are used for back loading of imported coal.

Now, the company will be able to complete all legal formalities to get the final mining licence within three months. Ari Dongri has high grade lumpy ore that is suitable for sponge iron production. Iron ore production is expected to be ramped up to 400-600 kilo tones per annum (ktpa) in FY10. The company is currently buying iron ore from private miners at ~Rs 4,000/tonne.

Once the iron ore mine is operational, the cost of mined iron ore will be ~Rs 1,000/tonne, which will generate savings of more than Rs 100 crore in FY10 due to substitution of purchases. During FY09, sponge iron production is expected to increase 17% and margins are likely to improve due to substantial increase in sponge iron and steel prices, while the cost increases will be moderate.

Margins have already expanded, as is evident from the recently announced Q4 FY08 results. The current prices of sponge iron and steel are substantially higher than the average prices during Q4. Hence, margins are likely to be even better in subsequent quarters. The stock trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 4.1x FY09E and 2.5x FY10E. If the savings of Rs 100 crore on account of captive mining of iron ore are factored in, the stock trades at a P/E of 1.7x FY10.

The company is involved in the exploration of wide range of minerals including iron ore, copper, rock phosphate, lime stone, dolomite, gypsum, bentonite, magnesite, diamond, tin, tungsten, graphite, beach sands etc.

Shares of the company declined Rs 13.4, or 4.2%, to trade at Rs 305.95. The total volume of shares traded was 44,533 at the BSE (1.55 p.m., Wednesday).

For the first time in the history of Chhattisgarh, people of three urban local bodies have recalled their chairpersons after a vote, a top election official said.

"As per Section 47 of the Chhattisgarh Municipality Act 1961 through recall votes three chairpersons of an equal number of urban local bodies had lost their seats on Tuesday," Chief Election Commissioner of Chhattisgarh, Dr Sushil Trivedi told reporters.

...The Act says a president can be recalled through a secret ballot if a majority of more than half of the total number of votes of the municipal area casting the vote are against the people's representative, Trivedi said.

...(Trivedi said)...for the first time in the history of Chhattisgarh the people took part in such a recall vote and all the three heads of the respective local bodies lost their seats.

Does anyone have more details? In particular do other municipalities have similar clauses? Has a similar things ever happened elsewhere in India?

In any case, this is great news and ought to be welcomed....The people should not only have the right to elect but also to "un-elect" non-performing leaders and politicians...

New Delhi, June 19: The resurgence of a movement for a separate state of Gorkhaland carved out of West Bengal has revived the debate within political parties on smaller states.

In the absence of unanimity, each political party has worked out its own logic for supporting or resisting demands for smaller -- or not so small -- states.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) favours splitting up states, barring a few, for better governance while the Congress party prefers not to have a fixed position on the issue.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is against smaller states per se. The Communist Party of India (CPI), however, is all for them -- but not in the case of every state.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is against smaller states per se. The Communist Party of India (CPI), however, is all for them -- but not in the case of every state.

The BJP actively campaigned for the new state of Jharkhand because it led to, as was widely known, curbing the influence of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Lalu Prasad who held sway in Bihar.

'The BJP supported the Jharkhand movement to expand their political influence. But the BJP would resist any move to split up Gujarat where it is so powerful,' Rao said.

Senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily added: 'There is no point recklessly dividing states for political expediency. The Congress does not have an ideological stand on the issue.'

But for all practical purposes, the Congress is against the creation of any more smaller states though many within its own ranks are supporting the separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh state.

'Reckless division of states will have a cascading effect and states may eventually end up being divided along caste lines,' Moily warned.

The only ground for slicing up states, according to Moily, could be administrative convenience. But there is no consensus on how big or small a state should be for administrative convenience.

The CPI-M is fighting the Gorkhaland movement tooth and nail. Splitting West Bengal would mean the party losing an area of its present influence and administrative jurisdiction.

CPI-M leaders, however, couch their opposition to Gorkhaland in a different language.

'Creating smaller states on the issue of development would mean undermining linguistic considerations. Similarly, new states formed on the basis of ethnic considerations would mean undermining the economic and administrative viability,' said CPI-M central committee member Nilotpal Basu.

Clearly, political India has no single mind on whether smaller states are good for the country.

The Gorkhaland movement in the 1980?s turned violent amid charges by the Marxists that the Congress was secretly backing the Gorkhas so as to undermine the CPI-M in West Bengal. Its advocates say they are not satisfied with the limited autonomy granted to them.

A separate Gorkhaland would be made up mainly of the hilly parts of northern West Bengal, close to Nepal. Its capital would be Darjeeling, a tourist paradise.

The campaign for Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh had the strong backing of the tribals, who felt they were not getting their due from the plainspeople.

Those clamouring for Uttarakhand -- also mainly a hilly region and home to many tourist and Hindu pilgrimage centres -- wanted to get out of the clutches of the mammoth Uttar Pradesh.

In 2000, all three states -- Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand -- were carved respectively out of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.

That success only emboldened the feelings of those who say they too need separate states.

Both the Central and Maharashtra governments are contending with the demand for a separate state of Vidarbha, constituting the eastern region of Maharashtra with Nagpur as the capital. 'The BJP supports Vidarbha because it is strong in this part of Maharashtra,' said analyst Rao.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati has indicated that Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state of which she is Chief Minister, could be broken into three states -- Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh.

At one time, PMK chief S Ramadoss had called for a separate state in northern Tamil Nadu where his Vanniar community is numerically strong. The DMK and the AIADMK do not want Tamil Nadu to be broken up.

Demands have also been made to separate the Jammu region from Jammu and Kashmir and Coorg from Karnataka.

Between 1947 and 1950, the princely states that existed during the British Raj were politically integrated into the Indian union. Most were merged with existing provinces.

In 1956, the states reorganisation commission appointed by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru reorganised the boundaries of Indian states along linguistic lines following mass protests in many parts of India.

After toying with the idea of a second states reorganisation commission, the ruling Congress has junked it. According to Moily, none of the partners of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) are for it.

But that does not mean the demand for new states will go away. If Telangana comes up, it would be made up of 10 Andhra Pradesh districts. It is a good case in point.

Last month, the movement for a separate state of Telangana suffered a setback when the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) lost out to the Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), both of, which are not for a break-up of Andhra Pradesh, in by-elections to four Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats.

The TRS MPs and MLAs had forced these elections after quitting their seats to protest the Congress' dithering over a separate Telangana. But despite the electoral drubbing, the TRS has vowed not to give up the demand. And many in the Congress and the TDP agree with TRS.

Sources told 'TOI' that officials have prepared an action plan to light up the interior forest areas of five districts — Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kanker and Jagdalpur — with solar power. A Dantewada senior police official said it would take another week to restore power in 5,200 villages after the Maoists blew up two 220-kV high tension towers at Barsur in Dantewada district on June 5.

"Nearly 200 Chhattisgarh state electricity board employees with the help of CRPF battalions and special police are struggling hard to re-erect the towers," Kunta DSP Praful Thakur said. The exercise is proving to be tough in the hilly Bastar terrain where laying power transmission lines and installing towers are time-consuming. Sources said Maoist threat, mining of the area and heavy rains have also hampered the restoration work badly.

The Maoists blasted and uprooted 14 electric poles in Narayanpur district on June 3, snapping power supply to 70 villages. On May 31 last year, Maoists caused a major damage by blowing up three 132 kv HT towers in Narayanpur district and kept the entire Bastar region in darkness for nearly a fortnight.

The latest strike by the Maoists has effectively hit mining operations in Bailadilla, resulting in huge losses to the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).

The NMDC moves the mined ore on the Kothavalasa-Kirandul railway line to Visakhapatnam. Sources said Vizag Steel Plant (VSP) and steel units in Orissa would be facing severe iron ore crunch if the situation continues for a few more days.

"Some 12 to 14 rakes of iron ore goes to VSP every day from Bailadilla," a source said.

Not only the mining industry, businesses, railways and farmers have also suffered heavy losses, sources said. "Civic amenities in some towns were impaired and cellular communication was badly hit," Thakur said.

The Maoists as part of their 'Jan Pituri Saptah' stir against the state were hitting soft targets, an analyst said. The stir ended on Friday.

They killed three cops by triggering a landmine at Durg on June 8 and attacked Bishrampur police station a day earlier.

"The rebels are blowing up power lines, disrupting road and rail communication links and snapping phone lines to deal a blow to the morale of police forces," a senior IPS officer of Dantewada said.

He recalled that the Maoists had targeted telecom towers, power transmission/generation centres, HT towers and railway lines nearly 37 times last year.

"These repeated attacks reveal their intentions clearly. They want to paralyse normal life, sabotage economic activity and dictate terms to the administration," he said.

Here are 11 mins video clips for the friends who are away and missing Chhattisgarh. I Hope you all will enjoy the panorama of Chhattisgarh.

There are four performances in this video:

1. Bharthari Song by Suruj Bai Khande
2. Dewar Song by PoonamVirat
3. Pandvani by Teejanbai and
4. Karma by Shiv Netam

Tejendra Tamrakar

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5597391519875164492]

June 9: Thousands cut short their holidays and scrambled out of the Darjeeling hills today after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha suddenly called an indefinite shutdown from tomorrow and asked tourists to clear out “as soon as possible”.

The 1pm announcement immediately caused a shortage of taxis, forcing men, women and children to climb into jam-packed buses and lorries, some finding room only on bus roofs.

Even Sikkim saw an exodus, its government advising tourists to leave since road links with Siliguri are expected to be snapped once the Morcha bandh starts at 6am tomorrow.

“We have no enmity with tourists, but since we are starting a greater agitation, we request all of you to leave as early as possible,” Ishamani Pakhrin, Morcha office secretary, announced in Bengali at busy Chowk Bazaar, sparking chaos.

“I don’t know what to do,” said a frantic Calcuttan, Aloke Mukherjee, as he hunted for a vehicle.

“This isn’t fair to those of us who have come from faraway places. They should have at least given us one full day to leave,” said Jogesh Kumar from Chhattisgarh.

Although the Morcha mentioned no deadline, the 10,000 tourists in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong knew they had to be out by 6am.

Joginder Sandhu of Chandigarh, who had arrived yesterday and planned to spend a week in Darjeeling and Gangtok, found a cab at 7pm. “The taxis are charging Rs 4,500 today; yesterday we paid only Rs 1,200,” he said.

Jalpaiguri district magistrate R. Ranjit, who has written a book on hill tourism, calculated the loss to the sector. Assuming the number of tourists to be 8,000 on any day during the peak season, he said: “Given the average expenditure of about Rs 1,000 a day per head, the loss would be Rs 80 lakh daily, as I had estimated in 2003-2004 when I researched for the book.”

Hotel owners, who said they were not charging any cancellation fees, grumbled that Morcha president Bimal Gurung had promised not to hurt the industry with his agitation.

Gurung sounded uncompromising today: “We’ll only think of lifting the strike if the Centre calls us for statehood talks. We are not ready to discuss any other issue, and the invitation must come from the Centre, but we are not averse to having the state government at the talks.”

Outside the hills, there would be rail rokos and highway blockades in areas the Morcha considers part of “Gorkhaland”, which include the Terai, Siliguri and the Dooars. These programmes are unlikely to have much impact.

In Siliguri, another struggle began as thousands descended from the hills. Raj Basu, a tour operator, said he had called up at least 20 hotels for his 25 clients who were heading down from Sikkim. “There are no rooms. I’m now calling up my friends and relatives to see if they have extra rooms.”

In case all the tourists can’t get out by 6am tomorrow, the administration would “see what can be done”, Darjeeling DM Rajesh Pandey said.

“We have to do everything to ensure the safe transit of the tourists,” home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said in Calcutta. “The indefinite strike is a grave issue and must be dealt with urgently.” [The Telegraph]

The permit allows Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal to mine 500 acres of land in Jharkhand, according to a statement today on the Ministry of Mines Web site. The eastern state holds 17 percent of India's iron ore reserves.

Land disputes and bureaucratic delays faced by steelmakers in India underscore the growing gap with China, the fastest- growing major economy, and India, the second-fastest. India may have produced 55.5 million metric tons of steel in the year ended March, about a tenth of China's output, according to government estimates.

The ArcelorMittal plant in Jharkhand, announced in October 2005, would have capacity of 12 million tons a year. In 2006 the company announced a similar sized project in neighboring Orissa.

The Indian states Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh account for 70 percent of the nation's coal reserves and 55 percent of its iron ore, according to McKinsey & Co.

Director of the Naya Theatre Company, which he founded in 1959.

Filmography

Bhopal Movie (2008) (pre-production)

The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005) (as Tanveer Habib) .... Bahadur Shah Zafar
... aka Mangal Pandey (India: Hindi title)
... aka Mangal Pandey: The Rising (India: English title)

Mehndi (1998) (as Habib Tanwar)

The Burning Season (1993) .... Raja Sahib

Prahaar: The Final Attack (1991)
... aka The Blow (International: English title)

Hero Hiralal (1988)

Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin (1987) .... Akhtar Baig

Gandhi (1982) (as Habib Tanveer) .... Indian barrister
... aka Richard Attenborough's Film: Gandhi (USA: complete title)

Staying On (1980) (TV) .... Dr Mitra
... aka Great Performances: Staying On (USA: series title)

Foot Path (1953)

Rahi (1953) .... Ramu
... aka The Wayfarer
... aka Two Leaves and a Bud

Charandas Chor (1975) (The Thief Charandas)

Direction Shyam Benegal; Screenplay Shama Zaidi Based on Habib Tanvir's retelling of a famous Rajasthani folk tale. Songs were by Habib Tanvir and most of the dialogues were improvised by the folk artistes.

Charandas Chor

Charandas Chor (Charandas the Thief) is 1975 children's film made by noted director Shyam Benegal, based of the famous play by Habib Tanvir, which itself was an adaptation of a classical Rajasthani folktale by Vijaydan Detha. Lyrics of the film were also by Habib Tanvir.

The film starred, Smita Patil, Lalu Ram, Madanlal and Habib Tanvir.

Synopsis

The film is derived from a classic folk tale, originally narrated by Vijaydan Detha, and interpreted as folk play by Habib Tanvir. The film charts the tumultuous life of a petty thief, Charandas (Lalu Ram), who makes four vows to his Guru, that he would never to eat in a gold plate, never to lead a procession that is in his honour, never to become a king and never to marry a princess, thinking all of them are far out possibilities for him. Later, his guru adds a fifth one - never to tell a lie and sets him of on his life's journey which leads him to a kingdom, where the turn of events make him famous, and eventually he is offered the seat of political power which he has to refuse. Later, the local princess (Smita Patil) gets enchanted by him, and proposes to marry him. This is when his refusal costs him his life. As he is put to death, he illustrates the inherent paradox in human existence, where truthful existence becomes an impossiblilty, for the truthful and the accidentally truthfuls, alike.

Her films on Chhattisgarh:

1. EKTAAL OF METAL & CALY probing on the ancient lost –wax process of metal casting of jhara community of Chattisgarh. Telecast on DD NETWORK AND BHOPAL DOORDARSHAN

2. RAIGARH LAND AND PEOPLE A District tribal and cultural profile of RAIGARH CHHATTISGARH focusing on the marginal people of this region.

3. ANUKAMPAN DOCUMENTARY 65 MINTS on mingling of kathak tradition of Chhattisgarh with local folk forms of Madhya Pradesh and exploitation of tribals here

AWARDS/FESTIVALS FOR ANUKAMPAN

NATIONAL AWARD -PRESIDENT’S SILVER LOTUS –BEST ART CULTURAL FILM

BEST DOCUMENTARY’94 BY BENGAL FILM JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION

INDIAN PANORAMA ’94 INT’L FILM FESTIVAL OF INDIA

INT’L WOMEN DIRECTOR’S FILM FESTIVAL CRETEIL, FRANCE

4. AN ODE TO DEAR SUNITA, a docu-feature FUNDED BY JAN VRIJMAN FUND, IDFA, AMSTERDAM on little girl performers in migrant entertainment groups in chattisgarh who are sold by their parents

FELLOWSHIP AWARDED BY THE GOVT OF INDIA FOR A RESEARCH ON GAMMATH A DYING FOLK FORM OF CHATTISGARH AND MARGINAL PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH IT AND HOW IT CAN BE USED AS A MEDIUM OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION AND DEVELOPMENT.

The company said in a regulatory filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange that the first well is planned to be complete within 15 to 20 days and drilling activities in the block will continue until the completion of all the eight core wells.

Gail also said it is participating in three CBM blocks -- one in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand and two in Chhattisgarh, and core well drilling in the other two blocks is also planned, on which work is expected to start shortly. -- according to CNBC.com

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.

People unequivocally opposed development policies which take displacement as an inevitable eventuality. One demand has emerged from the people's struggles across the country - a decentralised development planning process which ensures 'development' that is truly people centric and bases itself firmly on the
principles of democracy, social justice and equity. Concerns regarding development planning, land acquisition and resettlement and rehabilitation are intrinsically linked with one another and cannot be addressed in isolation. In fact a draft of a 'Comprehensive Legislation on Development Planning, No
Forced Displacement, and Just Rehabilitation' has been prepared based on Article 243, and the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments. In the true spirit of democracy, gram sabhas and municipalities are proposed to be empowered with the right to formulate district and metropolitan level development plans.

Raising their voices against the Special Economic Zone Act 2005, the people's movements demanded that governments and different political parties should stop behaving like brokers of corporations and big companies. The groups and activists also demanded withdrawal of the proposed Coastal Zone Management(CZM) plan and Special Tourism Zone (STZ) projects.

"In an election year Congress and UPA will do well if they side with the people and not the corporate land grabbers. The Indian masses will not tolerate a government that has sold India to private companies and corporates in the form of SEZs, urban renewal and industrialisation", said Gautam Bandhopadhyay
of Nadi Ghati Morcha. "The government is selling off water, forests and other natural resources. People have been treated as oustees and displaced. We will not tolerate the denial of our rights anymore; we will not allow another inch of land to be snatched from us", said Vimalbhai of Matu Jan Sangathan.

पंचायत और ग्रामीण विकास विभाग के अनुसार राज्य के सोलह पुराने जिलों में से फिलहाल पन्द्रह जिलों में यह योजना चल रही है, जहां आठ हजार 822 ग्राम पंचायतों में 28 लाख 45 हजार 372 परिवारों का पंजीयन कर इन सभी परिवारों को रोजगार कार्ड दिए जा चुके हैं। इस कार्ड के आधार पर रोजगार की मांग करने वाले ग्रामीणों को सर्वोच्च प्राथमिकता के साथ स्थानीय ग्राम पंचायत द्वारा रोजगार देने की व्यवस्था की जा रही है। आगामी एक अप्रेल से शुरू हो रहे नये वित्तीय वर्ष 2008-09 में दुर्ग जिले को भी इस योजना में शामिल कर लिया जाएगा। इसके लिए वहां सभी तैयारियां तेजी से चल रही है। दुर्ग जिले में इस योजना के लिए ग्राम पंचायतों के माध्यम से अब तक दो लाख 05 हजार परिवारों का पंजीयन किया जा चुका है। इन्हें मिलाकर अगले वित्तीय वर्ष में इस योजना के लिए पंजीकृत परिवारों की संख्या 30 लाख 50 हजार से अधिक हो जाएगी। वर्तमान में योजना के तहत तीस हजार 653 निर्माण कार्य चल रहे है, जिनमें औसतन 13 लाख ग्रामीणों को प्रतिदिन रोजगार मिल रहा है।

योजना के लिए उपलब्ध एक हजार 417 करोड़ 62 लाख रूपए के आवंटन में से एक हजार 175 करोड़ 55 लाख रूपए खर्च किए जा चुके हैं। पिछले महीने तक की स्थिति में बिलासपुर जिले में उपलब्ध 234 करोड़ रूपए के आवंटन में से 231 करोड़ 76 लाख रूपए, सरगुजा जिले में 178 करोड़ 40 लाख रूपए मे ंसे 134 करोड़ 35 लाख रूपए, रायगढ़ जिले में 133 करोड़ 66 लाख रूपए से 87 करोड़ रूपए, और बस्तर (जगदलपुर) जिले में 110 करोड़ 93 लाख रूपए से 101 करोड़ रूपए खर्च किए गए हैं। राजनांदगांव जिले में इस दौरान 111 करोड़ 18 लाख रूपए के उपलब्ध आवंटन से विभिन्न रोजगार मूलक कार्यों पर 85 करोड़ रूपए, कबीरधाम (कवर्धा) जिले में 102 करोड़ 60 लाख रूपए के आवंटन में से 59 करोड़ रूपए, रायपुर जिले में 86 करोड़ 77 लाख रूपए की उपलब्ध राशि से 72 करोड़ 25 लाख रूपए, उत्तर बस्तर (कांकेर) जिले में 90 करोड़ 81 लाख रूपए के उपलब्ध आवंटन में से 85 करोड़ 87 लाख रूपए, धमतरी जिले में 65 करोड़ 27 लाख रूपए की उपलब्ध राशि से 62 करोड़ 87 लाख रूपए, जशपुर जिले में 68 करोड़ 30 लाख रूपए में से 55 करोड़ 15 लाख रूपए, कोरिया जिले में 50 करोड़ 45 लाख रूपए में से 41 करोड़ 60 लाख, कोरबा जिले में 35 करोड़ 87 लाख रूपए में से 34 करोड़ 60 लाख, दक्षिण बस्तर (दंतेवाड़ा) जिले में 59 करोड़ 48 लाख रूपए में से 57 करोड़ 38 लाख रूपए और जांजगीर-चाम्पा जिले में 43 करोड़ 08 लाख रूपए में से 32 करोड़ 10 लाख रूपए पिछले माह तक खर्च किए जा चुके हैं।

यह भी उल्लेखनीय है कि विगत दो फरवरी को राष्ट्रीय ग्रामीण रोजगार गारंटी योजना के दो वर्ष पूर्ण हो चुके हैं। चालू वर्ष के स्वीकृत 65 हजार 641 कार्यों को मिलाकर राज्य में इस योजना के तहत दो वर्ष में एक लाख से अधिक विभिन्न प्रकार के रोजगार मूलक कार्य मंजूर किए जा चुके हैं, जिन पर एक हजार 585 करोड़ 38 लाख रूपए की धनराशि खर्च की गयी है। इनमें सबसे ज्यादा 24 हजार 418 कार्य ग्रामीण सड़क नेटवर्क के लिए मंजूर किए गए थे। जल संरक्षण और पानी रोकने के लिए विभिन्न प्रकार के 11 हजार  327 कार्य भी विगम दो वर्ष में इस योजना के तहत मंजूर किए गए। इसके अलावा भूमि विकास और भूमि समतलीकरण के 32 हजार 552, अनुसूचित जातियों और जनजातियों की जमीनों पर सिंचाई सुविधा उपलब्ध कराने के लिए नौ हजार 421, परम्परागत जल निकायों के नवीनीकरण के संबंधित 9140, लघु सिंचाई योजनाओं के तीन हजार 112 और बाढ़ नियंत्रण और सुरक्षा से संबंधित 634 कार्य भी पिछले दो वर्ष में मंजूर किए गए।

The state’s Adivasis are being treated like marionettes, as political, corporate and state-security interests seek to gain access to their land.

by Shubhranshu Choudhary

In early 2005, on a visit to Chhattisgarh, people kept telling me, “Tata is coming, something strange is going to happen.” It was not clear what exactly this obtuse prediction meant. But those vague murmurs turned to rumbles within just a few months. By June 2005, there was talk of a “spontaneous uprising” taking place against the Maoists. We were told that because the state’s Maoists had banned the collection of tendu leaves, used in bidi production, the people were in the process of “revolting”. It might have been an odd coincidence, but it was during that same month that two private companies, Tata and Essar, each signed memorandums of understanding with the Chhattisgarh government to set up massive steel projects in the state’s iron-rich Bastar District.

According to newspaper reports, people were gathering and marching from village to village, in an attempt to garner support against the Maoists. Local media accounts called it the start of another jan jagran abhiyan, a people’s-awakening movement. Despite the evidence of armed people taking part in these gatherings, newspapers were continuing to refer to what was taking place as a “peace movement”. Chief Minister Raman Singh and ‘supercop’ K P S Gill, Chhattisgarh’s former security adviser and the man who suppressed the Punjab insurgency, even went so far as to call the whole ordeal a Gandhian experiment.

Within days, the tone of the headlines had changed. While hearing about Maoist attacks on the Jan Jagran Abhiyan meetings, we suddenly also heard about villagers pouring into roadside camps that had been set up by the state – purportedly due to “fear of Maoist attacks”. By December, more than 15,000 people were living in those camps. By that time, the ‘movement’ had also been rechristened salwa judum, and local Congress party leader Mahendra Karma had taken up its leadership. Karma claimed that Salwa Judum meant ‘Peace March’ in the dialect of the Gond Adivasis, though some academics have said that a more accurate translation would be ‘Purification Hunt’.

That December, a report by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties included a damning accusation: that the Salwa Judum was not a spontaneous movement at all, but rather a government-sponsored programme. A report by the Communist Party of India (CPI) also stated that the Salwa Judum had been torching houses and killing people who refused to join them. Nonetheless, the local newspapers continued to describe what was going on as a spontaneous, peaceful people’s movement. Sitting in Delhi, it was certainly difficult to discern what was actually taking place.

Scorched-earth policy

Maoists, also called Naxalites, have been working to create a parallel power system in the Adivasi villages of the Bastar area for the past three decades. Starting very recently, however, a new phenomenon has been becoming increasingly clear. The traditional Adivasi leadership, whose authority was threatened by the new Maoist-created leadership (called sanghams), was making up the backbone of the Salwa Judum. Mahendra Karma himself came from an elite Adivasi family.

While visiting Dantewada District, also known as South Bastar, in February 2006, it became amply clear that it was in fact Salwa Judum members who were forcing people to move to the refugee camps – quite the opposite of what was being reported in the papers. In the camps I spoke with terrified people, many of whom backed up the findings of the CPI report: Salwa Judum members were going from village to village, forcing people to join with them. If the villagers refused to do so, they burnt their houses, even killing many who resisted. Nearly everyone in the camps told me that they wanted to go back home, but were too afraid of retaliation by the Salwa Judum. The state administration, meanwhile, was maintaining a familiar line: the people were remaining in the camps due to fear of the Maoists, and that they would go back once the Maoists were eliminated.

During a subsequent trip to Dantewada, the District Collector of Dantewada provided an official document called “Work Plan for People’s Jan Jagran Abhiyan 2005”. The pamphlet included a large number of details about the government’s support and plan to take the movement to new areas, but the mere presence of this literature led to a still more puzzling question: How could the government make a work plan for a ‘spontaneous’ people’s movement?

The ‘payback’ from the authorities for trying to do independent journalism seemed to be encapsulated in the experience of Kamlesh Painkra, an Adivasi journalist who had written in a local newspaper about the arson and killings by the Salwa Judum. Since doing so, he had lost his job; his brother, a teacher, had been thrown in jail on charges of being a Maoist supporter; and the rest of his family was living as refugees. Was what Kamlesh wrote true? Unfortunately, there was no time to investigate.

The strategy of systematically driving people into roadside camps actually has a name in English – “strategic hamleting”. Evidently, the same tactic had been tried in many other parts of the world during attempts to cut off guerrilla links to the populace. The same strategy had apparently been tried in Mizoram and Nagaland during the 1960s, but was a dismal failure. Instead of isolating the rebels, the killing of innocent villagers in aerial bombings and the forced eviction from their traditional villages engendered hostility towards the state, and generated more support for the rebel cause. Meanwhile, all of the police officers who were challenged denied that they were engaged in any ‘strategic hamleting’ whatsoever.

I tried to visit some of the villages that were said to have been razed by the Salwa Judum. But the roads to these villages were being blocked by the police and ‘Special Police Officers’, or SPOs, a shadowy group of civilians that the government had started recruiting for the Salwa Judum. Each member received a regular ‘salary’ of INR 1500. As such, no local would agree to accompany reporters to any burned-down village.

Eventually, however, two students from an Adivasi hostel in the state capital of Raipur, 500 km away, agreed to take me to their own village. They knew of an alternate route, where neither the police nor the SPOs would be waiting. After a long trek, we reached their village and witnessed the mayhem. People told us of repeated attacks by the Salwa Judum: They want us to leave the village and come to the camps. We ran away as soon as we saw them, but some of us were caught. By now, they have either been killed or been taken to the camps. These people were almost completely cut off from the outside world, and we saw sick patients who were unable to seek medical care for fear of the Salwa Judum. “We travel 80 km to get salt and oil,” said one elder. “We send old women and children to shops. We are frightened of the Salwa Judum: if they see us in the market, they will kill us.”

It was at this exact time that the Maoists publicly released a recording of an alleged conversation between the police chief of Bijapur, formerly part of Dantewada, and his subordinate. The police chief was reportedly heard saying, “Tell people that the state is giving three lakh rupees to those villages that join Salwa Judum. And if they do not do so, their villages will be burnt.” Later on in the same tape, the police chief orders, “And if you see any journalists, just kill them.” The government dismissed the tape as bogus, but some senior police officers later confirmed its authenticity, though off the record. Certainly, the government did not order any enquiry.

Tendu cover-up

During another visit to Dantewada, I came upon a group of fleeing villagers from Santoshpur, in neighbouring Bijapur District. They told us that members of both the Salwa Judum and the police had killed 12 people in their village. “Other than one, the other 11 had no connection whatsoever with the Maoists,” said one angrily. Families were also getting divided in this dirty war. One mother said, “My older son, who is now an SPO, came to kill my younger son, who is with the Maoists.” After our news reports become public, the state government ordered an enquiry into several of these and related events. But that probe merely found the culprits to be “unidentified people in uniform” –nothing but a veiled reference to Naxalites.

Still, a picture of what was actually happening was slowly emerging. We met a remarkable policeman who had been appointed to protect one of the camps. He claimed that his unit had killed 65 people during the previous three months, and his revelations were stark: “We do not know the language of the Adivasis. We accompany Salwa Judum to the villages. As soon as villagers see us, they run away. We kill whoever we get hold of. We are killing them like goats, like chickens, like ants, on orders from higher ups.” Here was a man clearly in turmoil amidst the state-mandated violence. “Please write about it,” he said. “I know I will be called for an enquiry, but I will tell my senior officers, ‘This is wrong, please stop it’.”

Running away has indeed become a widespread phenomenon in these affected areas of Chhattisgarh. We heard about terrified people leaving their villages in hordes, heading to neighbouring states. Though Chhattisgarh officials deny any such migration, the forest department of Andhra Pradesh has started burning the temporary houses of the displaced Adivasi camps. The High Court of Andhra Pradesh has recently ordered a stay on these forced evictions.

Sunil Kumar, a newspaper editor in Raipur, implies that there was much more to the current phase of anti-Maoist fighting than met the eye. “If you look at the timing of the start of Salwa Judum, it is not only the time of the MOUs with Tata and Essar, but it is also the time when an Adivasi was appointed the home minister of Chhattisgarh,” Kumar noted. “Salwa Judum is conceived and executed in the police headquarters. They knew it would result in bloodshed, and that is the reason they got an Adivasi appointed as home minister.” Following this intriguing correlation, there were other journalists who confirmed that they had received their initial tips on the start of the ‘spontaneous’ people’s movement from police sources. Thereafter, press notes continued to emanate from the fax numbers of police stations.

Few journalists seem to have managed, or bothered, to get to the bottom of the story. N R K Pillay is a veteran journalist based in Bastar who has tried. He says: “The so-called revolt against the Maoists in June 2005 was a combination of drought, a systematic siphoning of subsidised grain, and the rumour spread by a close associate of Mahendra Karma that Maoists have banned tendu-leaf collection. But the Maoists were merely demanding a better rate for the tendu leaf, and had never banned the collection.”

Qualms about tendu leaves notwithstanding, the industrialisation of Chhattisgarh continues apace. Chitranjan Bakshi, of the CPI, who led the first fact-finding team to investigate the Salwa Judum in September 2005, recalls intimations of a larger process afoot from the very beginning. “We wrote a letter to the prime minister but got no reply. Our national leaders raised it with Sonia Gandhi, but she remains unmoved. I wonder if it is the pressure of the companies who are going to gain at the end, when these Adivasis are pushed out of their lands.” Some CPI members have now gone to court with a list of 548 murders, 99 rapes and more than 3000 burnt houses, which they say were all perpetrated by the Salwa Judum. No police complaint was registered regarding a single one of these incidents.

Meanwhile, the work plan for 2006 handed out by the Dantewada District Collector said that Essar had been helping the state government to put up the roadside camps. The head of the state Planning Commission has announced that the government is now planning to turn these ‘temporary’ camps into permanent villages. Today, 59,000 people are said to be living in these camps. The government has now halted all provision for health, education and subsidised foodgrain in the original villages, on the deceptively simple explanation that all of the people are now living in the camps.

But even greater injustice lies in the fuzzy math behind these camps. The total population of this area was estimated at around 350,000. If 59,000 people are now living in the camps, then what has happened to the additional three lakh? Many may have fled outright, while many others are remaining in their villages – but both of these groups are currently almost entirely outside of the purview of the government.

Chhattisgarh is unique for the raising of the Salwa Judum as a vigilante force by the state to counter the rise of the Maoists – an attempt to pit locals against locals, and to absolve the authorities of the responsibilities of law and order. But if that much is clear, much else is not. Is this, after all is said and done, an attempt to get large companies access to mineral-rich areas that inconveniently happen to be inhabited by Adivasis? Is the Salwa Judum merely a strategy to fight Maoists, or it is it in truth the phenomenon that everyone was warning about three years ago, when they wondered, Tata is coming, what strange things are going to happen?