[Reader-list] PUDR STATEMENT ON POLICE ATTACK ON POOR SLUM DWELLERS IN KOLKATA

[asit das]

*
*

*Statement from PUDR - Condemn Attack on Nonadanga slum dwellers by West
Bengal Police in Kolkata*

10.04.2012

PUDR strongly condemns the violent demolition of the Nonadanga slums on
March 30th in Kolkata, and the subsequent police brutality on peaceful
anti-eviction protests followed by the vindictive arrest of activists.

Nonadanga is the area where the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority
(KMDA) has been resettling slum dwellers evicted from various parts of
Kolkata over the past five years under the BSUP (Basic Services to Urban
Poor) scheme of the JNNURM. The resettlement projects have been run by KMDA
and the Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project (KEIP) jointly.
Preliminary reports indicate that slum residents also include refugees from
Singur and Nandigram, as well as people displaced by Cyclone Aila. So, by
no stretch of logic are these slum-dwellers ‘encroachers’ as claimed by the
state government. In fact, the land in Nonadanga is very close to a prime
city location and the present drive to clear the space by the Trinamool
government is the first step towards its plans of handing over this land to
real estate companies for ‘beautification and development’.

The brutality of the State police force in dealing with peaceful
demonstrations, openly captured by television crews, needs to be strongly
condemned. Such as the lathi-charge on the protest rally by slum residents
on April 4, that left many injured, including a pregnant woman, Rekha
Patra, and a 3 year old child, Joy Paswan. On April 8, a peaceful sit-in
demonstration by the residents and activists was broken up by the police
despite them having prior permission from the authorities. The police have
resorted to mass intimidation of slum dwellers and other protesters along
with arrests of activists opposing the demolition. 7 activists of whom 2
are women have been charged under sections 353 (assault on public servant),
332 (voluntarily causing hurt to public servant), 141 (unlawful assembly),
143 (punishment), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (common
objective of disruption) of the IPC and are in police custody till the 12th
of April.

PUDR notes with concern that this demolition, attacks and arrests come in a
continuum of a worsening democratic rights situation in West Bengal.
Another alarming phenomenon is the bringing out of the ‘Maoist’ bogey to
define all democratic movements as if that gives the state unmitigated
rights to disregard the law and crush people’s movements and aspirations
with armed might.

Condemning the blanket ban announced by the State Government on all
protests on this issue throughout the state, PUDR demands:

* That the eviction drive be stopped,
* The immediate and unconditional release of all arrested activists and the
withdrawal of false charges against them,
* That the demolished slum be rebuilt with proper facilities in the same
spot
* That the guilty Police officials be punished, and
* That the Government stop attacking the fundamental right of people to
voice their protest against injustices.

*
Signed
Preeti Chauhan & Paramjeet Singh, Secretaries PUDR*

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 8:18 PM, Arati Chokshi <aratichokshi at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/release-dr-partho-sarothi-ray-and-others-nonadanga/
>
>
>
> http://www.change.org/petitions/chief-minister-government-of-west-bengal-india-release-activists-arrested-for-protesting-nonadanga-evictions#
>
>
> Arati
>
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 1:32 PM, Arati Chokshi <aratichokshi at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Please sign the on-line petition for those arrested in Kolkatta on the
>> Nonadanga slum eviction issue.We are also trying to get
>> name and number of specific officials for sms and calling campaign to
>> demand physical safety and well being of all those arrested.
>>
>> Arati
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Apr 8, 2012 at 5:20 PM, Arati Chokshi <aratichokshi at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Please check the link..
>>> I have just returned from Kolkatta and spoke to many activists who
>>> shared about Nonadanga slum clearance. Many of you might know Partho Ray -
>>> Sanhati link says that he has been arrested with 80 others.
>>>
>>> Arati
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>> From: NAPM India <napmindia at napm-india.org>
>>> Date: Sun, Apr 8, 2012 at 4:49 PM
>>> Subject: Demonstrators protesting against slum evictions arrested during
>>> protest meeting in Kolkata
>>> To:
>>>
>>>
>>> *New Delhi, April 8 :* NAPM condemns the high-handedness of the Kolkata
>>> police and ongoing slum evictions in Nonadanga. Earlier last month nearly
>>> 3,000 hawkers were evicted on EM bypass in the name of four laning of the
>>> EM bypass. Actions like this are not expected from a government which won
>>> the mandate precisely on its anti displacement stance. We do hope the
>>> government will immediately release the arrested activists, slum dwellers
>>> and restore the livelihood of all those evicted and put halt to any further
>>> eviction in the name of development.
>>> **
>>>
>>> *Read on the details as received from Sanhati
>>> http://sanhati.com/articles/4775/
>>> *
>>>
>>> *April 8, 2012 : **Demonstrators protesting against slum evictions
>>> arrested during protest meeting in Kolkata
>>> *
>>>
>>> *Message received from activists in Laal Bazaar Police Station *: 69
>>> people including many women and children were arrested today morning around
>>> 1130 am while the meeting was continuing peacefully. Sanhati members Samik,
>>> Parag, Abhijnan and Partho have been arrested along with many other
>>> activists. Peoples spirits are high. The movement will go on.
>>>
>>> Earlier : a day long sit-in demonstration to protest against Nonadanga
>>> slum demolition and forcible eviction, started at Ruby junction around 10am.
>>>
>>> For the last one week, the evicted people are staying in an open field
>>> under the scorching sun and the blinding rain, facing police repression,
>>> but have refused to move away.
>>>
>>> [image: 1.JPG] <http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/1.JPG>[image:
>>> 2.JPG] <http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/2.JPG>[image:
>>> 3.JPG] <http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/3.JPG>[image:
>>> 4.JPG] <http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/4.JPG>
>>>
>>> *********
>>>
>>> *7 April 2012*
>>>
>>> *Letter to CM from residents of Nonadanga*
>>> *Translated by Riten Mitra*
>>>
>>> Dear Sir,
>>>
>>> We are a total of about 150 households and Nonadanga grounds has been
>>> our home for quite some time. Some of us have been here for the last two
>>> years, some six. There is another colony consisting of about 100 families,
>>> with an estimated mean population of about seven to eight hundred. We had
>>> all come to stay here from different parts of West Bengal. For the last 34
>>> years, we have been victims of severe deprivation, working as cheap labor
>>> and trying hard to make ends meet in times of scarcity. Now we are to be
>>> ousted again. Where shall we go from here?
>>>
>>> It is your government that replaced the old one for one, Tapasi Mallik.
>>> Then how could you drive away seven to eight hundred families at one go ?
>>> If we were just one or two households, like in the past, the shock would
>>> have been less. Are we to understand that the land which was deemed useless
>>> by the government, for the last 50 to 60 years, is now suddenly required ?
>>>
>>> We are a group of helpless poor who have reached the limits of
>>> desperation. We appeal to you for the last time with the hope that you can
>>> come here and see our daily living conditions for yourself. If Didi could
>>> rush to the scene for one Tapashi Mallik, then she could surely hear the
>>> voices of 800 poor people and come here to see us. We look forward to
>>> seeing her. We hope that she comes and sees us.
>>>
>>> Yours respectfully,
>>>
>>> Nonadanga Majdur Palli
>>> Thana-Tiljala
>>> South 24 Parganas
>>>
>>> *Appendix*
>>>
>>> [1] Click to read the original letter in Bengali<http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/nonadanga_letter_march2012>
>>> [2] Click to see a protest poster in English<http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/nonadanga_poster>
>>>
>>> ##########
>>>
>>> *Report of brutal lathicharge on protest by evicted slum-dwellers*
>>> by Partho Sarathi Ray
>>>
>>> 5 April 2012
>>>
>>> *Video : Clash at Ruby More*
>>>
>>> On 4th April, the Kolkata police conducted a brutal lathicharge on a
>>> peaceful protest rally of slum dwellers who have been evicted over the
>>> past one week from their hutments in Nonadanga<http://sanhati.com/tweet/4756/>in south Kolkata. Nonadanga is the area where slum dwellers evicted from
>>> various canal banks of Kolkata are being resettled over the past five years
>>> under the BSUP (Basic Services to Urban Poor) scheme of JNNURM. The
>>> resettlement projects have been run by KMDA (Kolkata Metropolitan
>>> Development Authority) and KEIP (Kolkata Environmental Improvement Project)
>>> who own the land in the area, although no basic services or amenities for
>>> the families sent to this area, such as schools or health services were
>>> provided. Nonadanga also became a place where many other families, escaping
>>> the ravages of hurricane Aila, or failed crops and indebtedness in their
>>> villages, came and settled. They had to pay Rs 5000 to Rs 10000 to the
>>> local CPI(M) or Trinamool Congress bosses, in order to be allowed to build
>>> hutments on the vacant land lying around. It is these people who are being
>>> evicted now, their shanties demolished and burnt down by KMDA and the
>>> police, as they are being labeled as “encroachers”. The real reason behind
>>> this is that the land in Nonadanga, very close to a major intersection on
>>> the E M Bypass, is a prime target of real estate developers, and these
>>> “encroachers” have to be removed in order to make this land available for
>>> “beautification”.
>>>
>>> Last week the KMDA, went on a demolition drive, in spite of an appeal by
>>> the slum dwellers to the urban development minister Firhad Hakeem. The
>>> latter openly stated that all “illegal” settlers would be evicted. Around
>>> 200 shanties were bulldozed, and all belongings of these families were
>>> destroyed. Since then, around 150 families are staying out in the open, in
>>> the scorching sun, and their only means of sustenance is a public kitchen
>>> being run by some Leftist youth and political organizations which have come
>>> forward in solidarity with the slum dwellers. Yesterday, the evicted people
>>> had tried to take out a rally towards the E M Bypass road, but the police
>>> first prevented them from reaching the road, and then lathicharged. The
>>> rally, consisting of many women and children, was broken up in this brutal
>>> manner and many people have been injured. Women were beaten up mercilessly
>>> by male police. A pregnant woman named Rita Patra was injured and has been
>>> hospitalized. A 3 year old child Joy Paswan has had his head fractured by a
>>> police lathi. Many activists who were in the march were also beaten up in a
>>> targeted manner. However, the slum dwellers have not shifted from their
>>> demand of proper rehabilitation and compensation and would be marching to
>>> the office of the urban development minister today.
>>>
>>> The government of *“maa, mati, manush”* of Mamata Banerjee has shown
>>> its true colours, evicting the *“manush”* from the *“mati”* and beating
>>> up the *“maa”*, all in order to hand over the commons land of Kolkata
>>> to the corporate land sharks in the best traditions set up by the previous
>>> CPI(M)-led government.
>>>
>>>
>>> *National Alliance of People’s Movements
>>> *
>>>
>>> *Central Coordination Office : *6/6, Jangpura B, Mathura Road, New
>>> Delhi 110014 Phone : 011 - 2437 4535 Mobile : 09818411417
>>>
>>> *
>>> *
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>>
>