VVJVA - India

Singur to Lalgarh via Nandigram

Rising Flames of People’s Anger against Displacement, Destitution and State Terror

by Amit Bhattacharyya

After the historic Nandigram struggle, it is now the turn of Lalgarh. If Singur faced the initial experience of defeat, Nandigram could legitimately take pride in her experience of victory in course of her long and bloody struggle against the oppressive anti-people West Bengal government, the ruling CPI (M)-sponsored hermads (goons) and police brutality. From the historical point of view, Nandigram elevated the struggle against displacement and the State-sponsored land-grab designs to a qualitatively higher level. It showed a path that, although rooted in the anti-colonial struggle of the 1940s, was new and had elements from which the struggling people of other regions could learn. And Nandigram had already found a rightful leading place in the history of just struggles in our country. The Lalgarh struggle started in a somewhat different context and so has many new features attached to it.

Dhinkia under virtual seige

Press release

A team comprising Dr. B.D. Sharma former Commissioner for scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, K.N. Pandit, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikash Andolan, Chakradhar Haibru, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Manch, Kalinganagar, B.P. Rakshit, Peoples Democratic Front of India and Ajay, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan visited the proposed POSCO site. The team intended to work out the facts finding and situation prevailing in the proposed POSCO steel plant site in the district Jagatsinghpur, Orissa covering 12 village of 3 Gram Panchayat namely Gadkujang, Nuagaon & Dhenkia.

Fact-finding Report on Forced Displacement in Jharkhand

An all India fact finding team comprising of six democratic rights organizations visited districts of Gumla, Palamau, Lathehar, East Singhbhum and Saraikela-Kharsewan between the 3rd and 4th October 2008. The objective was to look into issues and experiences related to displacement occurring as a result of projects undertaken in the name of development and growth. These included hydel power and irrigation projects, firing range and steel plants owned by TATAs, Jindal, Bhushan Abhijeet and Essar group of companies. The specific issues addressed by the team included the very process by which both the government and corporate houses went about informing the affected public, the question of compensation for the land acquired or in the process of being acquired, rehabilitation of people, etc.

Statement of the Fact-Finding teams that Visited Jamia Nagar

The Place of the Alleged ‘Encounter’ of the Police

(A team of teachers, students, civil rights activists and intellectuals visited the site of the alleged encounter of the police with the ‘terrorists’ as claimed by them, on the 24^th September 2008. The team comprised of Prof. Siddique Hassan, Deputy Amir Jamat-e-Islami Hind, SAR Geelani, Reader, Zakir Hussein College, Delhi University, Dr. Waqar Anwar, Jamat-e-Islami Hind, Dr. SQR Ilyas, Editor, Afkar-e-Milli, Suvojit Bagchi, Journalist, Anil Chamaria, Journalist, Dr. Karen Gabriel, Reader, St. Stephens, DU, Rona Wilson, Secretary (Public Relations), Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, Mahtab Alam, Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Banojyotsna Lahiri (JNU), Vanessa Chisti (JNU) and Sumati Panikkar, Independent Researcher)

Fact-finding on Kandhamal Carnage in Orissa

A fact finding committee of 16 human rights activists from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Orissa toured the violence affected parts of Kandhamal district during the last 2 days to ascertain the factual details and the background concerning the wide spread events of arson, looting and murder aimed at the Christian people.

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