Give us land, give us water
'Zameen do ya jail do'
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Tens of thousands of impoverished Indians arrived in the national capital on Sunday ending a monthlong march to draw attention to the plight of those dispossessed of their land by recent economic development. An estimated 27,000 protesters waved flags and chanted "Give us land, give us water," as they marched in long, orderly lines to central New Delhi where they plan to hold a massive protest Monday.The demonstrators, who marched some 185 miles from the central city of Gwalior, say they have not only been left behind in the wake of India's recent economic boom, but have suffered directly from the growth, with many forced from their land to make way for government-backed economic projects.
"We don't have food, land or water. We are going to Delhi to get this," Rasi Ram, one of the marchers in New Delhi, told the CNN-IBN news channel.
India is trying to attract foreign investment to spur its economy and help develop its largely backward infrastructure. To that end, it has set up Special Economic Zones, where companies get tax breaks to set up business and factories.
But critics say farmers are often forced from their land or cheated on its value when an area is designated for these projects.
In West Bengal state,four government supporters died in an explosion, a day after an activist who opposes the land grabs was shot dead by supporters of the governing Communist Party of India (Marxist), said Raj Kanojia, the state's inspector general of police.Farmers in the Nandigram area in West Bengal fiercely resisted efforts by authorities to force land sales at cheap rates to build a shipyard and a petrochemical plant. The government officially abandoned the plan to acquire 22,000 acres of land in Nandigram in March, but the violence has continued.
Those who support the farmers say the communists were killed when a bomb they were building prematurely exploded, while party officials say they were attacked to avenge the death of the activist.It's not only economic developments that have forced the poor from their lands. Some say India's vague property laws and endemic corruption allow them to be strong-armed off their land by powerful local landowners.
"When these landowners see that someone strong is coming up to fight for his land rights they get them murdered," Vishwas Prasad, a marcher told the NDTV news channel.
Raju Thomas to me, palashc
show details 8:34 am (9 hours ago)
Dear Mr. Biswas,
Thank you for your regular messages on Dalits. I read
them with great interest.
Hindu Americans have built nearly a 1000 Hindu temples
in the US, many of them being multi-billion dollar
monstrous-sized temples. Hindu Brahmin priests
routinely come to the US to serve these temples. Are
Dalits allowed to enter these highly visible Hindu
temples in the US? Do you know the situation
regarding Dalit entry? Are there many Dalits in the
US or are they all upper caste Hindus only?
Best wishes.
Raju
Raju George C. Thomas
Visiting US Fulbright Professor
Faculty of the Political Sciences
Jove Ilica 165, Belgrade University
11000 Belgrade, Serbia Montenegro
http://www.lexingtonbooks.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0739105175
http://www.marquette.edu/polisci/Thomas.htm
From: KMGuru
It is obvious that stupidity knows no bounds...whether one calls Harijana to a socially and culturally deprived group of people - or not, they are still deprived. All Gandhi did was to acknowledge the issue and try to uplift them.
While doing so, Gandhi, a non-technologist thought Indians can get by going back to the stone age or more accurately the bronze age.
Even today, a lot of Gandhians feel that way, that is why no technology deal was made with USA and hence, India can not get it from any source including Russia! But China can.
And without technology, the masses suffer, not the rich.
The government said on Monday it would set up a special panel on land reforms after thousands of poor and landless people converged on the capital to press for land rights. An estimated 27,000 people from across India gathered in New Delhi after marching 600 kilometres (370 miles) from the central city of Gwalior to demand land reforms. The panel would look into "all land related issues, including land reforms", the government said in a statement. The expert committee would make recommendations on land policies, judicial reforms and speedier disposal of court cases related to land disputes, and submit them to another council headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Organisers of the protest march, who were prevented by police from moving to the Parliament building earlier in the day, welcomed the announcement.
"Our demands have been met. We are fully satisfied, now that the rural development minister came here and made the announcement," said Bharat Bhushan Thakur, a member of protest organising group Ekta Parishad, or Unity Forum.
"These measures will clear the hurdles in giving land to poor people. We are now ready to go back," Thakur said, after thousands of people waving green and white flags spent a day at a dusty ground with no shade from the sun.
Seven people died of fatigue or illness during the trek, which began on October 2 - the day India celebrates Gandhi's birthday.
The protestors had demanded that the government introduce iron-clad legislation on holdings, deeds and tenancy rights - replacing the current system where ownership can easily be taken by the rich and powerful. The march has been the biggest show of anger yet over the problem of land grabbing in India, where poor farmers are being pushed off their land by both government and private developers.
"Many people here have been displaced many times over - first because of mining, then because of dams. They have nowhere to go," march organiser Puthan Vithal Rajgopal said.
A government plan to set up tax-friendly special economic zones across thousands of acres of farmland in a bid to lure overseas corporations has led to sometimes violent protests over displacement in at least two states.
"It is nothing but land grabbing," Rajgopal said. The Indian economy is expanding at around nine percent a year, with services and manufacturing clocking double digit growth.
But the farm sector is being left far behind and activists are increasingly pointing at a widening gap between the rich few and the hundreds of millions of poor.
"Our fight is for land, forests and water. Our slogan is 'give us land, or give us jail,'" said participant Sanjay Kumar.
Minerals can attract big FDI if export is allowed
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Policy/Minerals_can_attract_big_FDI_if_export_is_allowed/articleshow/2498003.cms
NEW DELHI: The National Mineral Policy (NMP), to be discussed by the Union Cabinet soon, will have the potential to attract $1.25 billion (about Rs 5,000 crore) as FDI in the next five years, but the government will have to allow export of minerals, including iron ore, to ensure the same.
