Agenda Stop Dalit Mobilisation!

Palash Biswas

Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com

Pl Read :
http://www.ambedkar.org/Babasaheb/postambedkar.htm

Nimitz to leave Indian waters on Thursday and the Capitalist Marxists of India is set to implement its agenda to stop Dalit Mobilisation in India.They were successful to kill the Dalit movement with Partition of India. Pdt. Jawahar lal Nehru, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy and the Brhmin politicians and officials succeeded to annihilate the base of the Pre Independence National dalit ionist Hindu US Imperialism. NO SEZ movement showcased the Dalit Muslim Tribal Unity unprecedented in Independent India heralding latest phase of National dalit Movement.

Thus, the Leftists have come ahead! As they serve the US interests protesting US Imperialism, in the same manner they plan to kill the much wanted mobilisation advocating quota, reservation and Sacchar Committee recommendation. The Marxists of India are well expert in the language of betrayal. they did not escalate trhe protest of Nimitz nationwide. Now they sopeak spordiacly all about Dalits. But, in fact. Left ruled states deprive the Dalits, Muslims and Tribals the most!Although the dalits have wrested significant gains in various domains of social life during the last five decades, the relative gulf between them and non-dalits seems to have remained the same if not actually increased. On the other hand the emerging world order signified by the process of globalisation is bound to change the grammar of oppressed peoples’ struggles all over the world. The dalits too, therefore will have to wage now and in future a revolutionary struggle at one and the same time on two fronts marked by the caste and the class. In line with this need, the author is offering to us a critical review of Ambedkar’s heritage quite similar to Buddha’s bold and creative review offered by Ambedkar himself in his own hands.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, which anchored in waters off this city on July 2, will depart tomorrow.The USS Pinckney, which also anchored off Chennai port, will leave along with the Nimitz at 10 am tomorrow, said sources in the US consulate here.The ships are headed back to the Gulf.The arrival of Nimitz in Indian waters sparked protests by the Left and other political parties and environmentalists, who claimed the warship posed a radiation hazard.The Left called the Central government "spineless" for allowing the warship "stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people" to anchor in Indian waters.The Left also staged a protest outside Chennai port on July 2 during which demonstrators burnt a model of the ship with the American flag on it.

Yesterday, hundreds of Muslims, including women in burqas, protested outside the port and demanded that the ship should leave Indian waters immediately.

Members of Nimitz's crew visited the city and spent time doing community work at various places.

Meanwhile,The West Bengal Estates Acquisition
(Amendment) Bill, 2007, which aimed at detecting land held
clandestinely by big landowners, was passed in the state
assembly today.
Land Reforms Minister Abdur Rezzak Molla informed the
House that the amendment was necessary as power of officers,
specially empowered by the state government to correct the
record-of-rights suo motu under sub section 2 (a) of West
Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953, was due to expire on
November three this year. According to Molla, the state government had been noting
that the section had become an important instrument for
counteracting evasion of ceiling by unscrupulous owners.
Besides, it was necessary to give effect to the orders of
different courts for starting the proceedings afresh after
removal of old entries. He said that it had been felt necessary to amend
sub-section (2a) of section 44 of the act, by way of extending
the power to revise any entry in the record-of-rights suo motu
by the specially empowered officers for a further period of 10
years.

Meanwhile, After asserting for decades that only class matters, Indian communists are finally organising the poorest of the poor, the Dalits in particular, along caste lines.Leaders of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) say there is growing realisation that caste cannot be ignored in the political arena.

However, by the end of 1947, P.C. Joshi found his line challenged by the radical faction of the CPI. This claimed that the freedom that India had obtained was false — “Ye Azaadi Jhoota Hai”, the slogan went — and asked that the party declare an all-out war against the government of India. The radicals were led by B.T. Ranadive, who saw in the imminent victory of the Chinese communists a model for himself and his comrades. A peasant struggle was already on in Hyderabad, against the feudal regime of the Nizam — why not use that as a springboard for the Indian revolution?

On February 28, 1948 — four weeks after Gandhi’s murder — the CPI leadership met in Calcutta, and confirmed that the revolutionary line would prevail. Joshi was replaced as general secretary by Ranadive, who declared that the Indian government was a lackey of imperialism, and would be overthrown by armed struggle. Party members were ordered to foment strikes and protests to further the cause of the revolution-in-the-making. Bulletins and posters were issued urging the people to rise up and “set fire to the whole of Bengal”, to “destroy the Congress Government”, and move “forward to unprecedented mass struggles. Forward to storm the Congress Bastilles”.

The government, naturally, came down hard. Some fifty thousand party members and sympathizers were arrested. These arrests forestalled Ranadive’s plans to crystallize strikes in the major industrial cities of Bombay and Calcutta. It took some more time to restore order in Hyderabad, where a recalcitrant Nizam was refusing to join the Indian Union, egged on by militant Islamists (known as ‘Razakars’), who were making common cause with their local communists. But in September 1948, the Indian army moved into Hyderabad; slowly, over a period of two years, the areas where the communists had been active were brought back under the control of the state.

In recounting these events, Indian intellectuals in general, and Indian historians in particular, are notoriously one-sided. When speaking of the RSS threat, they mince no words — as indeed they should not. But when speaking of the failed communist insurrection, they choose to focus instead on the “massive state repression”. But what was the Indian state supposed to do when faced with this armed challenge to its authority? Sit back and allow Ranadive and his men to move into power in New Delhi? The state reacted the only way it could. And its actions were legitimate; behind them was the support of the broad masses of the people. As it happened, the legitimacy of the state was tested and confirmed in the general elections of 1952, won resoundingly by Nehru’s Congress, and in which the now-reconciled Communist Party of India was also a contestant.

'Caste is a social reality whether we agree or not. It is important that the Dalit question is addressed earnestly (by communists),' said CPI's deputy leader D. Raja, a Rajya Sabha MP and the country's most senior Left leader of Dalit origin.

'It is imperative that the communists should strengthen class struggle in a comprehensive way,' Raja told IANS.

A senior CPI-M leader who did want to be identified by name admitted that his party was increasingly networking with Dalits as a community, which forms 16 percent of India's population and which is overwhelmingly poor and destitute.

'Earlier we had a doctrinaire position on this, like some algebra problem,' the leader said. 'Caste is a reality. It is part of our social structure. You have to deal with it.

'Dalits themselves see the value of Dalit mobilisation. They see themselves as Dalits first. That is why the appeal of Dalit groups has increased. The Left has to take this into account.'

The analysis opens up with an examination of post-Ambedkar dalit movement. In the process it covers the spectrum of dalit politics beginning with Dadasaheb Gaikwad and ending with the Kanshiram phenomenon of our days encompassing in between all the RPI splits and schisms together with the rise and fall of the Dalit Panthers. It demonstrates how the petty-bourgeoisie outlook, the middle class cultural norms governing the leadership life-styles, the over-reliance on the electoral politics, the tailist pursuit of power devoid of real mass contact and the absence of any class agenda compelled the parochial leadership of all sorts to set up one-dimensional icons characterising Ambedkar as the maker of the Indian Constitution, provider of the present order, a Bodhisatva, a constitutionalist, a messiah, a saviour, an SC leader, a liberal democrat, a staunch anticommunist, a reformist allergic to revolutions of whatever kind and thus, in a nutshell as the bourgeoisie liberal democrat par excellence. Barring Dadasaheb Gaikwad and the movement of the Dalit Panthers for a while post-Ambedkar leadership failed to pay any attention to the material aspects of life and mystified the problems of dalits. To take one example, while political power was a means for Ambedkar, it appears to be the end for Kanshiram. The analysis also does not fail to note the cultural failure of dalits to transcend the boundaries of sanskritisation and therefore, the gross neglect of the issues of gender justice and inequality by the dalit elite.

In recent times, the CPI-M and other Left groups have organised seminars and meetings on the Dalit question and also held huge demonstrations that have drawn large numbers of Dalits, once derisively known as 'untouchables'. For a long time since its formation in 1925, the CPI - one of the oldest communist parties in the world - refused to pay heed to the caste divides saying that caste identity would get suppressed by class struggle.The Dalits occupy the bottom heap in caste-ridden Indian society. Upper castes have traditionally tormented and tortured them, producing a cruel system that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has compared with apartheid.Economically too, the Dalits are the worst off, often doing menial jobs no one else wants. Over the decades, they did join the Left groups in large numbers. But the Left saw them as peasants, as workers, as poor - not as Dalits.Although discrimination against Dalits has waned in urban areas, it is a reality in rural areas across the country.

The steady growth of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and caste-based parties such as Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in northern India robbed the Left of a lot of their support base. Naturally, the CPI and CPI-M began looking at caste with a fresh perspective.

The CPI-M leader, who is a member of the party's Central Committee, however, accused the CPI and the radical Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) of having become 'casteist' in places like Bihar.

'Caste has to be understood in the context of the cross-cutting reality,' the leader said. 'There are now conscious efforts to enter Dalit politics. But CPI and CPI-ML are espousing caste identity at the cost of class differences. In a way they have reversed the old dogma.'

Raja pointed out that the caste divide was unique to Indian society and that much of what Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar preached was close to communist ideas on issues such as state control of industry and banks.

One more significant trend in the dalit movement has its source in the policy of reservations in services of the State. Apart from the central and State governments, the large number of public sector undertakings that were floated by them, and other institutions established and promoted with public money, also came to be the State, attracting the constitutional provisions regarding reservations for the SCs and STs in services. The dalits in these sectors represented the collective investment and achievements of the dalit community, as reservations were the only hope for them to secure material well being. Although, they found themselves catapulted to modern sectors of economy, they found there were newer traps already in place, which clearly communicated the caste code for the modern organisations. The dalits had to conform their behaviour to this code for their survival. It reflected all the familiar prejudices against them. Their experience of the blatant violations of these provisions generally manifested in terms of backlogs in filling reservation posts, denial of promotions and general discriminatory treatment meted out in postings, transfers and other aspects of organisational life. The trade unions and management associations would not address their woes because they involved a contradiction between the interests of dalits and non-dalits. Thus were born the SC/ST associations. Even after their countrywide proliferation, these associations do not have any locus standi with managements except for the ritualistic interviews during the annual visits of parliamentary committees on the welfare of SCs and STs.

K. Elangovan, a former student leader at the Jawaharlal Nehru University here and who served in the CPI for years, feels the communists are unlikely to make much headway despite their newfound understanding of the Indian social system.

'There was a time when communist parties dubbed caste consciousness as false consciousness,' Elangovan told IANS from Chennai, where he is now a lawyer. 'The cadres never had an answer to caste question. It happened to me personally.'

The CPI-M leader admitted there were dangers in caste empowerment.

'There will be no immediate benefits for us in the short run,' he said. And we have to figure out this question as we go along. For now, we are only organising the Dalits, no other caste.'

Red star over India: Danger of manuvadi marxists further enslaving starving Dalits

http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/may_a2006/editorial.htm
COMRADE AYYANKALI, ADDRESS WITHHELD
There is a spectre in the air. The spectre of savarna Brahminical manuvadi maoism. From the heights of Himalayas in Nepal to the beaches of Kanyakumari, the manuvadi maoists are busy peddling a spurious drug called “marxism-leninism-maoism” even as their Hindu nazi terrorist jatwalas are getting nightmares and start trembling — unnecessarily — and the oppressed Dalits get caught in the crossfire.

It was not so long ago when the former Brahmin naxalite Kanu Sanyal plagiarised Mao’s “Human Report” as “Terai report” and fooled an entire generation. Today, the same gentleman blames the late Charu Majumdar for everything and dubs all armed struggle as terrorist. It was only yesterday when another upper caste Reddy maoist, called Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, set up the People’s War Group, only to later decry the importance of armed struggle by acting in an unreleased Telugu movie which is still lying in the cans.

Indeed, revisionism and betrayal, thy name is verily manuvadi marxism.

The betrayals of the Telangana armed struggle by savarna marxist leaders like Rajeshwara Rao, Sundarayya and Basavapunniah are all well known. So is the Marathi Brahmin, S.A. Dange’s offer to the British to be a police spy within the CPI. Why blame Chitpavan Brahmin nazi Savarkar alone? When there are Brahmin communists like Dange, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, where is the need for fascists?

DANGE’S BULLSHIT BOOK
Not many may remember how the corrupt manuvadi marxist Dange left only around Rs. 70 crore (when he died) for his daughter, Roza Deshpande, who was named after Rosa Luxembourg, the German Jewish “communist revolutionary”. Not many may remember the great founder-chairman of India’s Communist Party, Dange, wrote a bullshit book saying that the entire wisdom of Karl Marx is derived from the vaidik Vedanta. For writing this nonsense, he was expelled from the party itself. Such is the treachery of these manuvadi marxists.

Not many may know that Dange’s daughter, Roza Deshpande, is now close to the Hindu prime terrorist party, RSS.

For India’s Brahminical people there is no permanent party. They have only permanent interests. At that time marxism served their interests and today the RSS is serving them better.

Why should we blame Hindu nazis alone? In any case Hindu nazis are our honest enemies who openly reveal their agenda. Editor V.T. Rajshekar rightly calls them “Sacred Brahmins”. Is it any surprise that as Hindu nazis mature politically, they will start mouthing “secular” dialogues to fool the people? The antics of yet another Brahmin marxist called E.M.S. Namboodiripad, the “Modern Shankara” of Kerala, has already been amply exposed and documented several times in Dalit Voice. (V.T. Rajshekar, How Marx Failed in Hindu India? DSA-1988).

NEPAL DEVELOPMENT
After such a dubious record, vaidik maoists like Pusphakamal Dahal alias Prachanda, Ramakrishna of the CPI (Maoist), Vara Vara Rao of PWG etc. have once again donned revolutionary make-up and greasepaint to mouth maoist slogans to befool yet another generation.

It looks the Nepali Brahmin, Prachanda, may prove successful in capturing political power in Nepal. He seems to be grooming his daughter and son to take over the leadership of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) by ensuring that they receive the luxury of some bad bourgeoise education which is denied to other cadres. Those who questioned his behaviour have already been kicked out of the party in the finest tradition of manuvadi marxist “democratic” centralism. Surely Prachanda may not be aware of the dynastic succession in North Korea — where power passed from Kim-II Sung to his son Kim Jong-II.

Whether it is Telugu Brahmin Vara Vara Rao trying to persecuteDalits like Kalyan Rao and Gaddar or the Nepali Brahmin, Prachanda, the great Brahminical manuvadi maoist mega-mockery continues unabated without any break.

HATE ENGLISH MANIA
The script is the same. Desperately, our oppressed Dalit and Adivasi cadre —brainwashed with a crude rustic mixture of vernacular mother tongue mania and manuvadi “marxism-leninism-maoism” —continue to kill other Dalits if they don’t support so-called Peoples’ War, under the direction of English-Devabhaasha-educated savarna socialists and Brahminical manuvadi maoist superheroes of the all-knowing all-mighty savarna central committee and savarna politbureau.

According to such savarna manuvadi maoists India may be a subcontinent of several nationalities. But if any sensible Dalit ever dares to suggest that the English Devabhaasha should be taught and promoted among the cadres, since the Indian subcontinent is made up of several nationalities, the entire Brahminical central committee is likely to throw him or her out of the party for trying to promote a colonial-imperialist-neo-imperialist language. Note how Hindu nazi terrorists also call the English language as colonial and macaulayist?

TALK SWADESHI DRINK VIDESHI
Of course all savarna manuvadi politbureau big shots send their kids only to savarna Christian-run convents to master that very hated colonial-imperialist-neo-imperialist Devabhasha called the English language. It hardly matters if the savarna manuvadi politbureau big shots think, speak and draft all party documents and publish them first, precisely in that hated “colonial-imperialist-neo-colonial” Devabhasha called English.

In hating English, both Hindu nazi terrorists and manuvadi marxists have a secret understanding. But they all talk swadeshi but drink only videshi.

Those innocent Dalits who read a report that Hindu terrorist leader Togadia sends his kids to an English medium Christian convent in a toilet paper called the Indian Express may like to know that savarna maoists also educate their kids in such schools. Such is the unity in diversity.

The determination of our unthinking, brainwashed Dalit-Bahujan-adivasis to remain brainwashed forever in their mother tongue mania seem to be poised for further growth.

Nothing has changed. Nothing will ever change in this “wonder that is India”. Brainwashed Dalit and Adivasi maoists continue to fall to police bullets in Chattisgarh and Jharkhand when they are not killing fellow Dalits who have been terrorised by the savarna police and Hindu nazis to join Salva Judum — some class struggle and peoples war indeed.

CASTE IDENTITY
Such savarna Brahminical manuvadi maoists will never, ever acknowledge that caste is not merely superstructure. They will do everything possible to deny that caste has an ethnic Negroid-Dravidian component. They will never learn from history that even seven decades of East European-style state capitalism failed to destroy any ethnic identity. They will continue to mechanically parrot the line that class means the economic class and nothing else. Such Brahminical manuvadi maoist fellows will never agree that the Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi population is exploited only on the basis of caste and not the classical economic class.

Savarna socialist Lohia in one of his honest moments had agreed that in India, “caste is class”. Brahmin revisionist Chaturanan Mishra had also said that “if communists had understood class, they would have ruled India”.

Police intelligence reports and journalistic accounts have documented that our manuvadi maoists deliberately and consciously engineered caste-clashes to further their “peoples war”. But these very manuvadi maoists will never openly acknowledge that “caste is indeed class”. They will never agree that a “poor” Brahmin is more likely to cherish his “caste identity” so as to shore up his self-esteem in the face of poverty and to marry off his daughter to a Brahmin, rather than uniting with Dalits and develop “class consciousness”.

In India, the fact is that there is only caste consciousness — which will always be deliberately obscured and hidden by our modern manuvadi marxists. They will never, ever agree that caste and ethnic identity is the base and not merely “superstructure” which is the result of prevailing economic realities. Manuvadi maoists care two hoots even if educated and economically better off Dalits also are discriminated against.

NO BRAHMIN CAN BE REVOLUTIONARY
According to such manuvadi maoists, Dalit-Bahujans who comprise the vast majority of India’s population is not an internal semi-colony which is exploited by the rich and middle class savarnas. Dalits, Backward Castes and Adivasis are not oppressed nationalities, according to Brahminical manuvadi maoists.

These maoist paries will never launch an all-India caste war, will never cut off the “sacred thread” of Brahmins, will never economically boycott savarna business which discriminate against Dalits, will never demolish savarna temples or reject and ridicule Brahminical Hinduism like Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy or Dr. Ambedkar did. Such manuvadi maoist parties will never try to divide the Indian Army on the caste lines or launch upper caste annihilation.

Brahmins and savarnas can never be revolutionary. How can they be revolutionary when they will be the ones who stand to lose their social and economic privileges? That is why manuvadi EMS and Dange betrayed revolutionary marxism. That is precisely why the Brahmin Prachanda is ensuring that his kids get bourgeoisie education while cadres’ kids fight and get killed in Peoples’ War.

Today, China is supporting King Gyanendra. So also India’s Hindu nazis. Both are not supporting the savarna maoists of Nepal.

PRACHANDA’S STRATEGY

Govt forms 16 member Dalit commission

In Nepal,The government has formed a new 16 member National Dalit Commission for the period of two years. Earlier, the government had appointed Bhagwat Biswasi as the chairman of the commission.

The new members of the Dalit commission which is there to work for the rights and welfare of the Dalit people include Santoshi BK from Rolpa, Durgi Pawan from Dhanusa, Khadga Bahadur Basyal from Surkhet, Bangali Hajara Paswan from Bara, Karna Bahadur Chunar from Rupandehi, Hom Khati from Dolakha, Sharada Swarnakar from Dang, Bikram Ram from Bara. The remaining are member secretaries. nepalnews.com July 04 07

‘Protect witnesses in cases of atrocities against Dalits’

Bangalore: The acquittal of all the accused in the Kambalapalli massacre in which seven Dalits were burnt to death is not an exception. The Karnataka State Commission for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes has found that the accused in 98 per cent of cases of atrocities against Dalits were allowed to go scot-free. The reason: witnesses do not turn up for fear of being attacked.

This was disclosed by commission Chairman Nehru C. Olekar at a press conference here on Tuesday after a meeting with representatives of various Dalit organisations. The commission sought their views on the condition of the people from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the jurisdiction of the Bangalore Zilla Panchayat.

Mr. Olekar said the commission would recommend to the Government to provide security to witnesses. However, around 10 per cent of complaints of atrocities were found to be false. There were around 500 cases of atrocities pending in each district.

Strangely, the commission had hardly come across cases of Dalits being ostracised. Three such cases had been reported in the State, including two in Kolar district.

He said 446 atrocity cases were reported in five years in Bangalore Rural district. The taluk-wise break up is: Channapatna - 32, Devanahalli - 44, Doddballapur - 22, Hoskote - 133, Kanakapura - 88, Magadi - 47, Nelamangala - 143 and Ramanagaram - 43.

Confirmation

Mr. Olekar said the commission had taken up the case of confirmation of the services of municipal cleaners (pourakarmikas) in the State with the Legislature Committee on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The working conditions of the municipal cleaners in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (around 8,000) were so bad that they were paid just Rs. 1,200 a month, whereas their counterparts in the Gulbarga City Corporation were paid Rs. 4,900. He said the Government would be asked to stop hiring cleaners through contractors. Instead the workers should be paid directly by the civic body.

Regularisation

Another serious problem Dalits were facing in the State was the inordinate delay in the regularisation of unauthorised cultivation by them on government land. Each district had 2,000 to 3,000 such cases that had pending for years.

He said the Government would be asked to regularise such cultivation, barring those on forest land.

Mr. Olekar expressed displeasure over the absence of the Deputy Commissioner of Bangalore Rural district from the meeting. He would write to the Government to take action against the official, he said.

Some Dalit organisations had complained that beneficiaries were not getting subsidies, the Chairman said. The Government would be asked to build one hostel in each of the eight taluks in the district to accommodate post-matric students. The Government would also be asked to remove youths staying in hostels for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who were not students.

The commission would ask the Government to conduct a Statewide survey on the academic performance of students staying in such hostels. This was to refute the criticism that they were enjoying government largesse without improving their academic performance.

Internal quota

Mr. Olekar supported the demand of organisations representing people from the Madiga, Bhovi and Korama communities for internal reservation to prevent a few influential sections among the Dalits from cornering all the benefits.

The Commission had so far visited 12 districts and would be visiting the other districts. It would give its report to the Government before August 20, he said.

Trinamool Congress, Congress stage walk-out

Congress walked out after the Speaker refused to allow a discussion on the BPL list; Trinamool followed suit after its plea for a discussion on an alleged starvation death was turned down

Express News Service

Kolkata, July 03: The members of both the Congress and the Trinamool Congress today staged a walk-out in the Assembly, albeit on different issues.

While the Congress walked out after Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim refused to allow a discussion on the BPL list, the Trinamool Congress boycotted today’s session after the Speaker refused to grant permission for a discussion on an alleged starvation death at Singur. The Trinamool also wanted a statement from chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the alleged murder of Tapasi Malik at Singur. Their plea was down by the Speaker.

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Congress MLA Ajay Dey proposed an adjournment motion and demanded a discussion o n the status of the BPL list prepared by the administration. He alleged that the list which is ready after years is full of errors.

The list excludes the names of many deserving candidates and should therefore be scrapped and a fresh one prepared, Dey demanded.

While the Congress legislator was allowed to read out his motion, Halim didn’t entertain the demand for discussion. Consequently, the Congress walked out.

Later, talking to the press, Congress Legislature Party leader Manas Bhuniya said that the BPL list does not contain the names of the poorest of labourers. “This may deprive many deserving candidates from availing support for health, ration and education. We wanted a discussion on the BPL list and demanded that the existing one be scrapped. We have talked to the ministers concerned in this regard,” Bhuniya said.

The Congress also warned that the absence of the names of many poor workers will keep a large number of people out of the purview of government schemes such as the Indira Awas Yojana.

“The list has not been put up in most panchayats. As a result, most people do not know if their names figure in it or have been omitted,” said a Congress leader.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress members also walked out when the Speaker turned down a discussion on the alleged starvation death of an agricultural labourer in Singur. The Speaker also turned down their request for a statement from the chief minister on the alleged murder of Tapasi Malik.

Trinamool MLA Ashish Banerjee alleged that Shankar Das, a resident of Dobandhi village in Beraberi (in Singur) died on July 2 due to starvation. Banerjee said that Das, a tribal, became jobless when the land where he worked was acquired.

Though the Speaker allowed the motion to be read out, he turned down a request for a discussion on it.

Later talking to the press, leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Partha Chatterjee, said that his party had wanted discussion on the Malik case. Chatterjee alleged that the CBI was being pressurised in various ways and this may influence the ongoing investigation.

He alleged that the starvation death is a consequence of land acquisition at Singur and a discussion should have been allowed on it. “The heavy rains notwithstanding, we were here to take up issues that matter to the people. The Speaker, however, refused to listen to our request,” Chatterjee said.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=244154

The adoption of a draconian law by the Chattisgarh state government to address the Naxalite armed movement and its appointment of a known human rights abuser as security advisor are likely to lead to serious abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. The group said the government should repeal the new Special Public Protection Act, or amend it to conform to international human rights law, and remove the special advisor, K.P.S. Gill, who led the Punjab police at a time of widespread rights violations.

"Chattisgarh has a duty to keep its citizens safe, but it should not resort to draconian laws or abusive officials," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The state and central governments must use lawful methods to counter Naxalite violence."

The Chattisgarh state government’s actions come even as the human rights and humanitarian situation is deteriorating in the 13 Indian states affected by increasing Naxalite attacks. Fifty villagers were abducted by Naxalites in Chattisgarh on April 25.

The Indian government is planning to deploy 11 battalions of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in states affected by Naxalite action, increasing fear

Killers Active, Monsoon as well as State Power!

Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
Killers are active!
Monsoon as well as State Power! Have a deep analysis and ypu would find that Monsoon makes havoc for the underprevileged masses every year and it always boosts the Sesex! Why?The stock market benchmark BSE Sensex today extended gains for the third straight session and closed at a new high of 14,880.24 points on sustained buying by foreign and domestic funds. The Sensex, which also recorded an intra-day record high of 14,906.93 points, shot up by 73.73 points at 14,880.24 on funds buying in heavy-weights led by cement and steel stocks. Similarly, the second wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose 1.75 points to close at 4,359.30, a new closing high. Earlier, it reached an intra-day record high of 4,386.45 points and a low of 4342.
Who happens to be benefitted by the natural calamities after all?
Thus, it is understandable that these calamities do work to help the corporates and market forces
to draw fresh blood from Indian Economy.
All tears happen to be that of Crocodiles! They kill you and they arrange for last rites!
The story of Global Warming is too old. We know all about the environment and save green activities and also something about NGOs! What is the result? Deth and Starvation for the masses.
Thus, it is neither the state power nor the Monsoon which kill you! It is something else.
Just open your eyes, friends! See, Nitiz anchoring in Chennai and Sensex kissing 15,000 mark!
See tha calamities and the Zalwa of so called capitalist development!
Killer monsoon - death toll more than 700. Interestingly, West Bengal emerged as the first state in India to finalize the Request for Proposal (RFP) and to sign the Master Service Agreement (MSA). Kolkata: There seems to be little respite for the city hit by heavy downpour with the weatherman today predicting torrential rainfall in the next 48 hours.Water of anguish and concern continued to flow for the second day today as Kolkata resembled Venice with fresh overnight showers flooding ...
The Revenue Department of the state government has finally given the green signal for the much-delayed Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone (SEZ) promoted by Mukesh Ambani the Reliance Industries Chairman. This proposal will now come up for a final clearance before the Board of Approvals on July 12.The government has already approved the Mukesh Ambani and Anand Jain-led consortium?s three single-product SEZs in the area where the 1,250 hectares Navi Mumbai multi-product zone is also proposed to be set up. The Navi Mumbai SEZ was given in-principle approval earlier. But later the proposal was referred to the Revenue Department as the proposed zone was said to be non-contiguous and a highway passes through it.
All the four Left parties extending outside support to the UPA government at the Centre will reconsider their stand after the elections of the President and Vice-President, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan today said.He told mediapersons in Ranchi that the meeting of the Left parties would be convened to discuss the matter next month.On the other Hand,The Tapasi Malik rape and murder case took a dramatic turn on Tuesday with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) having zeroed in two more influential leaders of CPI (M) at Singur in Hooghly district for involvement in the conspiracy. CBI sources in Kolkata said that following the interrogation of Dutta and Malik, the investigating agency has zeroed in on two other CPI (M) leaders of the region, Balai Sapui and Sunil Sarkar. Meanwhile, the CBI team at Singur has also a recovered a trouser of Debu Malik, which he was wearing during the murder and rape of Tapasi Malik at Singur on December 18, 2006. The CBI officials have also spotted some blood stains on the trouser, although they are not sure as yet whether those blood stains were that of Tapasi. Meanwhile, the state transport minister CPI(M) leader, Subhash Chakraborty said “I feel that there was no requirement for a CBI enquiry on this matter”.
He also gave a clean chit to Dutta and said “Is it believable that a respectable person like Suhrid, who is a responsible zonal committee secretary, can conspire to kill a teenage girl?”
Assailing the CBI for having arrested a CPI(M) leader in connection with the Tapasi Malik murder case, West Bengal Transport Minister Subhash Chakraborty today alleged that the act of the central agency was politically motivated.
"The CBI is doing whatever it likes. Its only intention is to strike at the roots of the Communist party," he told reporters at the state Secretariat.In an obvious criticism of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Mr Chakraborty said it was a blunder to have the case probed by the CBI.The maverick CPI(M) Minister, who is known for his penchant for kicking up controversies argued that it was not believable that a leader of the stature of Dutta would appoint people for murdering a young girl. His comments were, however, in line with his party which had already described Dutta's arrest as an act of 'political conspiracy' against the party.
The party had decided to render all legal assistance to Dutta in fighting the case and launch a campaign against the 'design' among the people.
A mass organisation opposing Singur “land grab” and Nandigram “genocide” under leadership of eminent persons like litterateur Mahasweta Devi and educationist Mr Sunanda Sanyal have been termed as “frontal organisation” of CPI-Maoist by the city police Tuesday. The city police authorities stated in its website-www.kolkatapolice.org- that Sanhati Udyog a “frontal organisation of CPI-Maoist held a rally in front of coffee house on Bankim Chatterjee street near College Square in the city this afternoon. The litterateur responded strongly against such malicious “campaign against” of the city police. She sought an “apology” from city police commissioner Mr Prasun Mukherjee.
“Who gave him (Mr Mukherjee) the rights to say that Sanhati Udyod is a frontal organisation of an extremist group like CPI-Maoist. I will ask the police commissioner to apologise for calling us sympathisers of the extremist outfit,” the litterateur told The Statesman over phone.
It may be mentioned that the litterateur had gone to Singur on 27 September last year to attend a public hearing (gana sunani) organised by Sanhati Udyog, a forum of human rights activists. Social worker Ms Medha Patkar and educationist Mr Sunanda Sanyal had also attended the hearing where more than 3,000 farmers had gathered and expressed their unwillingness to give up land for the small car project.
When asked if she has ever attended any meeting of a frontal organisation of CPI-Maoist, the author replied in the negative. “Even a former magistrate of a court had attended the hearing. The organisation doesn’t have any links with any militant outfit,” she said. Mr Amitdyuti Kumar, joint convener, Sanhati Udyog, said human right activists and several other people from many democratic organisations belong to Sanhati Udyog which has no contacts with the CPI-Maoist. He demanded an apology from the city police authorities for tarnishing the image of Sanhati Udyog.
When contacted Mr Prasun Mukherjee, commissioner of the city police, said that he “doesn’t know” what “exactly” was posted in the website. The deputy commissioner (headquarters) called up this correspondent to tell “the Sanhati Udyog members may be sympathisers of the Maoists but the it would be wrong to brand the organisation as a frontal wing of the CPI-Maoists.”
RE:Intellectuals’ outfits incur Naxalite tag
This was long over due; CPIM and the ruling Junta have used this method for number of times. In the beginning Jamat was declared as Fundamentalist outfit, now Mahasweta Devi is a Naxalite. Wait for so
RE:Intellectuals’ outfits incur Naxalite tag
Hi, what is wrong with the Naxalite tag attached to Medha or Mahasweta ? We are in the age of change, Buddha/Biman praising Bidhan. CPM has got the tag of Ghandism or Soniaism.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=161549
Pl Read:
http://dolr.nic.in/hyperlink/acq.htm
land acquisition act 1894(i) published after the commencement of the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 1967 (1 of 1967), but before the commencement of the Land ...
[PDF] Report on Amendment to Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 1967 was. promulgated. ..... The Act shall be called the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act, ...
lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/182rpt.pdf - Similar pages
Hindu Singur, Nandigram victims meet President Kalam
Hindu, India - 2 Jul 2007
SEEKING JUSTICE: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee with the victims of Singur and Nandigram violence, after meeting President APJ Abdul Kalam in New ...

The continuing violence in Nandigram, West Bengal, resulting in needless death and injury to innocent villagers, has become a cause of great concern to people all over India. Whatever may have been the initial reasons for the start of the conflict it is clear from media reports and eyewitness accounts that the situation now is spinning out of control, resulting in a fratricidal war between different sections of the local population.
It is also evident that over the past several months of agitation and turmoil thousands of ordinary people — of all political hues — are unable to make a livelihood, go about their daily work or even enjoy the basic right to sleep without fear. Women in particular have been severely affected while many children are unable to attend school normally.
There is an urgent need to make all out efforts to restore peace in the area to prevent further loss of life. We, the undersigned, appeal to all those concerned, particularly the central and state governments to ensure that:
Immediate peace talks be initiated between the different factions involved in the violence, if necessary under the aegis of an independent body acceptable to all.
All differences between various factions, including State agencies, are settled in a democratic and responsible manner.
An impartial inquiry conducted into the cause of violence and justice ensured to all those whose human rights have been violated in any form.
Krishna Iyer, Admiral L Ramdas, Lalita Ramdas, M T Vasudevan Nair, K Satchidanandan, Ashok Vajpei, Rajendra Yadav, Timir Basu, Nandita Das.
For further information contact: Satya Sivaraman
Mobile. 9818514952
"Heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over districts of Gangetic West Bengal including Kolkata during the next 48 hours," Regional Meteorological Director G.C. Debnath told reporters here.
The city experienced 300 m.m. rainfall since Monday night as large parts of the metropolis remained inundated.
"The low pressure in North Bay of Bengal has further intensified into a depression and now lies over coastal areas of Bangladesh with its centre 150 km south-east of Kolkata at 8.30 a.m. today," Debnath said.
...

The monsoon has started in rage. Rains and heavier rains along with strong winds are hitting the country everywhere. Monsoon has already claimed hundreds of lives in all directions on the Indian Peninsula.North, South, East, West and Center - news of death due to rains is coming in from every where.The southern states - including Kerala - have reported more than 50 deaths since the beginning of the rainy season.Another 100 plus have lost their lives due to the heavy rains in Western India - in parts of Gujarat and Maharashtra including Mumbai.
Jammu in the North, Kolkata in the East and Chhattisgarh in Central India too have faced heavy downpour. There have been regular reports of deaths due to rains in these regions in the media.
Beyond India, Pakistan and Afghanistan too have faced the brunt of the monsoon this year. Estimates put the total death toll from more than a week of bad weather across the Indian sub-continent to more than 700.Tens of thousands of people have been effected. Many more living in low-lying regions have been shifted to higher ground.
Meanwhile,In accordance with the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of government of India, 100,000 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) enabled e-Kiosks will be set up across the country. Interestingly, West Bengal emerged as the first state in India to finalize the Request for Proposal (RFP) and to sign the Master Service Agreement (MSA). Under the NeGP - announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - implementation of Common Service Centers (CSCs) is the most important of the 4 pillars of the NeGP. According to Sabahat Azim, CEO (Sahaj e-village) of SREI, the initial value of the project is Rs.100 crore. This project aims to positively impact the livelihood opportunities and living standards of rural communities.
Apart from SREI, the 6 contenders for this project in West Bengal were Zoom Developers, Wire & Wireless, Grasso, WEBEL, Reliance, and United Telecom.SREI and the government of West Bengal entered into an agreement for 4 years, with revenue support from the government of Rs.11.49 crore per annum for 4937 CSCs, which will be reviewed after 4 years.
School plays football with Nimitz crew
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 (Chennai):A team of school girls in Chennai played a football match with the crew of the visiting US war ship USS Nimitz on Wednesday. The girls of Monahan School won the match three goals to one. The activity was part of the crew's community service programme.
''A happy and proud moment for us, this was possible only because of our teachers, said Suriya, one of the girls.

The commanding officer of Nimitz Mike Manazir said ''the community service programme was a great way to strengthen ties between India and the US - it was fanstastic''.
Separately a group of hearing impaired children of the CSI School for the Deaf entertained volunteers from the aircraft carrier.

Taking her agitation against land acquisition for SEZs in West Bengal to the Centre, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding abolition of the law on Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Banerjee, who addressed a meeting on the "atrocities" of the Left Front government in West Bengal after she met Singh, said the Prime Minister expressed sympathy for the families of those killed in the anti-SEZ agitation. The Trinamool chief said she demanded abolition of the law on SEZs and scrapping of the 1894 Land Acquisition Act. She alleged that fertile land which has been forcibly taken away from the farmers for the SEZ must be returned.
The Trinamool supremo said that even though the UPA government at the Centre was being supported by the Left, "it must intervene".
"Just because they are supporting UPA at the Centre does not give the CPI(M) a free hand to perpetrate atrocities in West Bengal," Banerjee said.
Later, despite heavy rain, she led a delegation of party workers of Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United) and some "victims of Left atrocities" from Nandigram and Singur towards Parliament. The delegation was stopped in front of the Parliament Street Police Station. The agitators were arrested and later released.
Mamata Banerjee, who had kept away from signing the nomination papers for presidential candidate Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, continues to keep a distance from the opposition alliance.
Banerjee, who arrived in the Capital on Monday to meet the President and the PM to raise the issue of West Bengal government’s land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, showed no similar interest in engaging her NDA partners.
DUTY CALLS
The day Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was sworn in as chief minister of West Bengal, he subordinated his loyalty to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to his duty to the state he leads. It was this sense of duty that drove him to call for a CBI inquiry into the murder of Tapasi Malik in Singur. That inquiry has now pointed accusing fingers at local CPI(M) functionaries. Mr Bhattacharjee has again shown his high calling of duty by saying that this should not deter the CBI from carrying out its appointed role, and that the West Bengal government would in no way interfere with the investigations. This assertion by the chief minister might appear to be overstating the obvious, but it has to be seen in the context of the growing suspicion that the local CPI(M) may have planned the murder. Earlier, in the immediate aftermath of the incident, the assumption had been that the CPI(M) had nothing to do with the death of Tapasi Malik, and therefore the chief minister had ordered the CBI inquiry with some alacrity. The circumstances have now changed dramatically — and disastrously for the CPI(M) — and therefore it is laudable that Mr Bhattacharjee’s position on the CBI inquiry remains unaltered.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070704/asp/opinion/story_8010232.asp

Case for community-led land acquisition
By Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar
As a libertarian, I instinctively dislike forced acquisition of the property of citizens by governments. So I support the farmer agitations in Singur and Nandigram against land acquisition by the West Bengal government for the Tata and Salim groups.
I do so with some reluctance, since I would love to see a re-industrialised West Bengal. But there are good and bad ways of achieving this. The wrong way is for state governments to acquire land by fiat. The right way is to empower farmers to become partners in industrialisation.
The Prime Minister has promised a new, humane displacement policy. This implies, rightly, that the old policy was inhumane. In the holy name of socialism, the government acquired land for any purpose it pleased, public or private, and decided what compensation to give. The abolition of the fundamental right to property in 1976 meant that compensation depended on the whim of politicians, not farmers' rights.
For decades, governments (and corporations) viewed land acquisition as the first step towards industrialisation. Singur and Nandigram now show that this approach is no longer feasible. Today TV cameras cover the iniquity of forced acquisition, and opposition politicians jump into the fray. Hundreds of Special Economic Zones are now planned, many covering thousands of acres. They too will be stymied by violent agitations unless we change our acquisition laws.
http://www.swaminomics.org/articles/20070114.htm

Centre to take Bengal's help in tea gardens` revival
Business Standard, India - 30 Jun 2007
The central government will soon send a proposal to the West Bengal government for setting up a monitoring committee to facilitate the handing over the ...

Bengal govt to promote one million SHGs

KOLKATA, JUL 3 : The West Bengal government aims to promote 1 million self help groups (SHGs) which work for poor rural women in the state.
"The figure has already crossed 6 lakh and we hope to touch 10 lakh by 2010," said state SHG and self-employment minister Rekha Goswami at a seminar organised at Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry by its ladies wing, Pragati.

The promise appears lofty considering the hurdles an SHG faces. "Our problem is that we do not get proper markets to sell. We produce brooms, jute products and also embroidered works," said Raimoni, a Santhal lady and a member of the Purabi Nari Kalyan Samity, a SHG in Kalyani.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=169061
Kalam returns power Bill to West Bengal Assembly
KOLKATA: The Electricity (West Bengal Amendment) Bill 2005, passed by the West Bengal Assembly, has been returned by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam through the Governor for reconsideration and deletion of three clauses, Speaker H.A. Halim said here on Tuesday. The clauses relate to power theft and surcharge for promotion of renewable sources of energy, which had become irrelevant following an amendment in the Central Electricity Act, official sources said.On Tuesday, the Opposition staged a walkout on separate issues and at different stages.
Trinamool Congress MLAs staged a walkout demanding a statement from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on the detention of a local CPI (M) leader in connection with the death of a girl, Tapasi Malik, whose charred body was found at the Tata Motors car manufacturing project site at Singur on December 18 last year. The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the incident. Congress members staged a walkout in protest against the Speaker disallowing an adjournment motion for discussion on preparation of the below poverty level list. They claimed that the list was full of discrepancies. A member of the Socialist Unity Centre of India also walked out on the same issue.

Slogan shouting in West Bengal House
Opposition members raised slogans in the West Bengal Assembly on Monday demanding the inclusion in obituary references of the names of those who died in police firing at Nandigram on March 14 and the teenaged girl Tapasi Malik, whose charred body was found at the site of the upcoming Tata Motors project at Singur on December 18, 2006. Normally obituary references are made to eminent personalities from different walks of life, and sitting and former MLAs, an official of the Speaker’s Secretariat later told The Hindu.A reference was made by Speaker H.A. Halim to eight persons on the first day of the extended budget session. Leaders of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress intend raising the deaths in police firing and the Tapasi Malik issue despite the Speaker’s observation that these matters were sub judice.
SUCI-police clash
Outside the Assembly premises, supporters of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) clashed with the police demanding punishment for those responsible for the “murder” of Tapasi Malik. More than 25 persons were arrested and released later.After the House was adjourned for the day, the Chief Minister informed a meeting of Left Front MLAs that the United Progressive Alliance-Left nominee for President, Pratibha Patil, would meet them on July 13 as part of her campaign. Dr. Bhunia said Ms. Patil would also meet Congress MLAs that day.

Left Faces Critical Choice
Is it credible for the Left to speak out at the national level against neo-liberalism, but practise that very strategy on its home turf? The Left, especially the CPI(M), must decide whether it wants to fight for radical change and socialism, or merely manage capitalism Chinese-style. If it chooses the second option, it will surely get marginalised and go into historic decline.
Praful Bidwai

ingur and Nandigram, two villages in West Bengal, have entered India’s political lexicon with unique iconic significance. Singur, barely 45 km from Kolkata, is where the House of Tatas is building a factory on 997 acres to make cheap Lakhtakia (Rs one lakh) cars. And Nandigram, 160 km from Kolkata, is the site of an ugly, continuing confrontation between the Left Front-ruled state government and peasant farmers over land acquisition.
Four reasons explain why the two villages have become so politically important—not just for West Bengal, but for the whole country. The first raises the question of consent and consensus in designing and promoting industrialisation projects, and in particular, acquiring land under the colonial Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Should the people have a say in determining whether and how they should be separated from their principal source of livelihood, land-based agriculture? Should armed force ever be used to acquire land for industry?
A second issue concerns the special favourable treatment extended by governments to private investors by creating special economic zones (SEZs) as the principal instrument of their strategy for industrial development, which is being promoted with extraordinary zeal.
A third reason is the significance of Singur and Nandigram as sites of the people’s resistance to what they see as predatory projects being thrust down their throats. This resistance has proved as abiding as spontaneous, and in some ways, heroic. Singur and Nandigram will both remain important symbols of mass resistance.
And fourth, there is the issue of the Indian Left’s overall development strategy, which, increasingly seems to embrace a neo-liberal model of capitalism. Is it credible for the Left to speak out at the national level against neo-liberalism, but practise that very strategy on its home turf? Has it learnt any lessons from Singur-Nandigram which will impel a course correction? Or has it altogether given up searching for alternatives to neo-liberalism?
On this last question will hinge the future of the Left, now with its highest-ever parliamentary representation in India, a high moral-political stature, and ability to influence the policies of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA). The choices the Left makes on these questions will prove fateful: will it go the way of, say, Brazilian President Lula (Luis Inazio Da Silva) and embrace neo-liberalism after having been elected to power on the basis of people’s struggles against ‘free-market’ pro-investor policies? Or will it imaginatively forge alternative policies which deepen people’s rights and empower them?
http://www.combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=929&issue_id=34
Incessant rains lashed Kolkata and adjacent districts for the second consecutive day disrupting road and rail traffic. Two persons died today, including one due to snakebite, taking the toll so far in the state to 12. More rains are expected in the state in the next two days. One person was electrocuted today in South 24 Parganas districtThe city recorded 300 mm of rains since Monday night, but there seems to be no respite with the weatherman predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places in Gangetic West Bengal, including Kolkata, in the next 48 hours due to formation of a low pressure area over North East Bay of Bengal. Heavy showers last night compounded the problem, particularly in low-lying areas, and the situation worsened after the skies opened up again this morning. As the Kolkata Municipal Corporation struggled to drain out accumulated water with 20 pumps put to use, people had a trying time as they had to wade through knee to waist deep water. There were few buses on the road, while tram services remained suspended for the second day. A few taxis were seen plying with cabbies fleecing passengers. Rickshawpullers, including hand-drawn ones, also charged exorbitantly for ferrying passengers.
Heavy rains today disrupted normal life in parts of West Bengal, Kerala, Gujarat and Rajasthan while the situation eased in badly-hit Maharashtra even as the toll due to monsoon downpours and floods rose to over 600 since last month. In Gujarat, the authorities kept the Army and the Navy on stand by with the weather office forecasting heavy rains. Patan district received torrential showers since yesterday and the state has accounted for 98 deaths.
Showers battered Thrissur and its suburbs in Kerala in the past two days, claiming three lives and inflicting majors loss to property.
Sirohi and Udaipur districts of Rajasthan were affected by heavy showers throwing life out of gear while other parts of the state, barring Bikaner district, got light to moderate rains.
The situation in Mumbai and several regions of Maharashtra eased after heavy spells of seasonal rains. The temple town of Tribakeshwar in Nasik district, which had received a record spell yesterday, heavy a sigh of relief with the showers relenting.
Monsoon-related incidents have taken the lives of over 600 people in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat and West Bengal since last month.

SEZs for the Rich,Poor to Bear the Brunt
With ‘growth-at-any-cost’ being the sole motto of the Special Economic Zone policy, the cost of this new brand of industrialisation is falling on the marginalised, Indian farmers and tribals. Economist Arun Kumar analyses the phenomenon called SEZs
Arun Kumar
Special Economic Zone (SEZ) policy has taken one more turn with the announcement from the Empowered Group of Ministers (eGOM). The freeze on them is being lifted but several parameters will be changed to accommodate the farmers, tribals and the civil society groups who have been agitating against the SEZs.
From the earlier no limit on the maximum size of the multi-product SEZs now the limit has been set at 5,000 hectares. The state governments are prohibited from acquiring land for the private players and they cannot form a joint venture with a private player unless the latter has the land to offer the project. States can acquire land for their own SEZ provided they take care of the relief and rehabilitation as per the new policy to be announced soon.
Now the SEZs will be required to at least use 50 percent of the land for processing unit as compared to the earlier 35 percent so that the real estate component would be lower. Finally, the export requirement has been made more stringent compared to earlier.
Clearly, the eGOM has steered a middle path between the proponents of the SEZs, the corporate sector and their political supporters and the opponents who wanted SEZs to be scrapped because of their adverse impact on the poor people in the rural areas. This was on the cards since the prime minister had stated that SEZs are an accomplished fact. He implied that there is no going back on the policy and the government would only do some tinkering to accommodate the opponents. Where does this leave the policy and the poor?
http://www.combatlaw.org/information.php?article_id=937&issue_id=34
Asia has made dramatic progress in poverty eradication: UN
New York, July 4 (PTI): Buoyed by rapid economic growth, Asia has made dramatic progress in the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, halving the number of people living on the equivalent of a dollar a day, a just released United Nations report has said. The UN report comes at the midpoint of a 15-year effort to implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of eight key objectives set by the world leaders aimed at eliminating or drastically reducing several social and economic ills. On the negative side, the report finds that Asia went off track for meeting goals in several other areas, including child malnutrition, gender equality and women's empowerment and in the health sector.
No job, equity for Salboni displaced: Jindals
PTI[ WEDNESDAY, JULY 04, 2007 05:00:05 PM]

KOLKATA: The Jindal group has not given any commitment to the West Bengal government on giving equity or employment to people who provide land for a 10-million tonne steel plant it is setting up at Salboni in Purulia district, a minister said on Wednesday.
"They have told the press about giving company shares to land losers or providing employment to a member of their families. This commitment is not part of their agreement with the government. If they do it, may be it will be as corporate social responsibility," Industry Minister Nirupam Sen told reporters at his chamber in the assembly.
After the signing of the agreement for the plant between the Jindal group and the state government on January 11, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said that people who gave their land for the project would be offered equity in the new company, JSW Bengal Steel Ltd, and one member of their families would be given employment.
Sen said the Jindals had agreed to take steps to train eligible members of the displaced families to upgrade their skills and to set up a training institute for this purpose. They also agreed to provide alternative housing to every displaced family.
In reply to a question, Sen said the paid up capital of JSW Bengal Steel is Rs 100 crore and the state government, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation and West Bengal Mineral Development and Marketing Corporation will jointly own 11 per stake in the new company.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Indl_Goods__Svs/Steel/No_job_equity_for_Salboni_displaced_Jindals/articleshow/2175026.cms
Printer friendly page With Banner | Without Banner Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Ministry of Rural Development

RELEASE OF FOOD GRAINS TO HOWRAH DISTRICT OF WEST BENGAL UNDER SGRY
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