[Reader-list] Nonadanga anti-eviction movement :Statement

[asit das]

Date: 30 April 2012
Subject: Nonadanga anti-eviction movement :Statement



Kolkata - Nonadanga anti-eviction movement at
Sanhati<http://sanhati.com/articles/4775/#25>


*Sanhati statement on the fresh police attacks in Nonadanga and the
continued detention of two democratic rights activists*

April 29, 2012

The evicted residents of Nonadanga slums are under continual assault. TMC
musclemen, the law enforcement agencies, property speculators, and KMDA
have joined hands to ensure that the residents can’t resume their normal
lives. Even as the residents, after their heroic resistance to the earlier
phase of eviction, have started reconstructing their dwellings, the KMDA
has moved in to fence off the plot of land.

On April 28, when the KMDA attempted to further close off the entry and
exit points of the wall that they had constructed around the plot, the
people resisted this inhuman move. Then the police attacked them viciously,
beat up and manhandled the evictees and arrested five women and six male
residents of Nonadanga slums and slapped them with a host of charges, three
of which are non-bailable, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The arrested persons are: Pratima Baidya, Minati Sardar, Saraswati Dasi,
Ranjita Baidya, Pratima Baij, Bapi Mandal, Manindra Mandal, Purna Mandal,
Ujjwal Saha, Sona Bar and Rabin Haldar. In fact, during the initial
arrests, a woman with an infant was also detained, but was later released
and thereafter slapped with some charges.

We condemn the brutal police attack and lathicharge on the evicted
residents in Nonadanga on April 28 and demand that the arrested persons be
immediately released. The double standards of the West Bengal government is
becoming increasingly clear through such actions. While the Chief Minister
made claims to the press on
Friday<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Nonadanga-poor-being-incited-CM/articleshow/12903660.cms>that
she was pro-poor and anti-eviction, the police and TMC goons came
charging on Saturday morning
<http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/fresh-trouble-at-nonadanga/991872.html>to
Nonadanga.

We demand that the ongoing State policy of harassment, intimidation and
slow attrition to evict and punish the residents of Nonadanga be
immediately stopped. Moreover, we demand that the residents be suitably
rehabilitated and compensated for being forcibly evicted from their homes.
We also reaffirm our solidarity with the heroic struggle of these
vulnerable and destitute residents.

Meanwhile, we welcome the granting of bail, albeit in a staggered manner,
to all the seven activists, Debolina Chakroborty, Samik Chakrobarty, Manas
Chatterjee, Debjani Ghosh, Siddhartha Gupta, Partho Sarathi Ray, and
Abhijnan Sarkar, who had been detained following the mass arrests during a
peaceful protest against the evictions at Nonadanga. However, the
fabricated cases slapped against these activists are still in place and we
demand that the charges be withdrawn immediately to bring an end to this
harassment of dissenting voices.

Despite the bail related to the Nonadanga case, two of the activists -
Debolina Chakraborty and Abhijnan Sarkar - continue to remain in judicial
custody, having been tagged to old cases, including one under the draconian
UAPA. We feel that the government has taken advantage of the mass arrests
to capture Debolina Chakraborty who is a dedicated grassroots activist and
mass organizer and someone whom the security setup has been attempting to
put behind bars since the days of the Left Front government, but had been
hesitating to do so due to constant public pressure. It also seems that the
police has used this opportunity to continue their harassment of Abhijnan
Sarkar, a media activist and a member of the Sanhati Collective and someone
who has extensively participated in and reported about the people’s
movements shaking up contemporary West Bengal. We urge all civil liberties
organizations and other democratic voices to join us in demanding that both
these activists be immediately released and the cases against them be
withdrawn.

-