Indian Newsletter on Farmers’ Displacement and Resistance

Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty/The Hindu

This is a newsletter from the International Campaign Against Forced Displacement and SEZ (Issue 4 October/November 2008) To subscribe, click here.

Campaign Against Land Grab and Forced Displacement of People

Editorial

The current global financial crisis in the form of a credit-crunch is part of the regular boom and bust that humanity has been experiencing since the inception of capitalism. In Britain, Gordon Brown, when new Labour first took power in 1997, promised an end to this cycle of boom and bust with his “careful” management of the economy. Yet his economic management over a decade delivered the worst economic crisis in UK of our lives. According to some of the economic commentators it is the worst crisis capitalism has faced since the 1920’s. This crisis will be used to consolidate capitalism and expand its global control over emerging and other third world countries.

The net effect of the crisis will be the expansion of globalization and the consolidation of the multinationals and their control over the world’s resources, including land and energy Read More ….

Report on the Public Meeting in London (Lucas Arms pub)

Sunday 12th October 2008

Another successful public meeting was held in London following the earlier launch of the campaign in Birmingham. The meeting was attended by a number of people including councilor for Kensington and Chelsea Mr. M. Lasharie who chairs the Third World Solidarity Network and Arman Riazi of the ILPS. Read More ….

Seized: The 2008 landgrab for food and financial security

Today’s food and financial crises have, in tandem, triggered a new global land grab. On the one hand, “food insecure” governments that rely on imports to feed their people are snatching up vast areas of farmland abroad for their own offshore food production. On the other hand, food corporations and private investors, hungry for profits in the midst of the deepening financial crisis, see investment in foreign farmland as an important new source of revenue. As a result, fertile agricultural land is becoming increasingly privatised and concentrated. If left unchecked, this global land grab could spell the end of small-scale farming, and rural livelihoods, in numerous places around the world. Read More …..

Comptroller and Auditor General of India indicts SEZ policy

In major finding, the Comptroller and Auditor General reported to Parliament earlier this year that a key objective of the SEZ policy, — augmenting real exports — has not only been defeated, but the policy had further resulted in revenue losses of hundreds of crores (tens of millions) of rupees. Read More …..

Fighting Injustice in Polepally SEZ

Polepally’s 1,000 acres of despair

Villagers displaced by the Polepalli SEZ protest against the unfair treatment meted out to them during a hunger strike in Jadcherla mandal. When moves to set up the Polepally special economic zone began five years ago, natives of three Telangana villa-ges rejoiced. The proposed project on roughly 1,000 acres of land offered hopes of a decent livelihood for the residents of Mehboobnagar district’s Polepally, Mudi-reddypalli and Gundlagadda Tanda — a chunk of them marginal farmers or labourers and all of them poor. Yes, their soil lent itself best to agriculture — their traditional occupation — but the industries that were to come up were agro-based. Or so they were told. Thus, it wasn’t just aspiring entrepreneurs who were ecstatic. Read More ……

The Farmer SEZ No!

By Appu Esthose Suresh and Payam S.

The Indian state has been thrown into a panic by agitating farmers who have declared war against the Special Economic Zones in States across the country. Facing lathicharges and bullets, the farmers have been coming out on the streets to protest the acquisition of fertile farmland and block the proposal that the Governments are convinced will generate massive employment and increase India’s GDP growth by two per cent. Read More …..

Raigad votes against SEZ in referendum

The Hindu Newspaper

Mumbai, Sept. 22 A majority of people in the 22 villages in Raigad district have voted against the SEZ in the referendum process which was held on Sunday, claimed Mr N.D. Patil, senior leader of Peasants and Workers Party of India, who is spearheading the agitation. Read More …..

Buddhadev Reneges on Promises to Singur Peasants to Appease Tatas

Singur is back to square one. Soon after an agreement was reached between the Trinamul Congress (TMC) and the state government on September 7 for the return of land to “unwilling” peasants inside and outside the project area, Tata Motors adamantly announced its reluctance to part with any land. Whereas the state goovernment has renewed its effort to sell a “new and improved” package of compensation. Read More …..

India’s Combative Anti-Displacement Movement

by David Pugh

I recently spent three weeks gathering information about the anti-displacement movement in India. As a guest of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (People’s Movement against Displacement and for Development), I traveled across central and eastern India visiting the sites of proposed industrial and mining projects, Special Economic Zones, and real estate developments. I spoke with hundreds of villagers who are threatened with displacement and with many dedicated activists who are helping to organize the people’s resistance. Read More …..

Unravelling the Gujarat SEZ model

Recently the Supreme Court ordered a stay on one of the largest special economic zones (SEZs) in the country. The stay order on the Mundra SEZ in Gujarat’s Kutch district came in response to a public interest litigation, which raised several social and environmental issues. Read More …..

Direct to people

Local referendums on business projects are slowly gaining traction across the world, especially on land use issues pertaining to ‘eminent domain’. A Singur parallel, very stark in tone and similarities—delays over issues on land allocation and land use; a restive, angry and divided community; grandstanding political parties; and a bewildered corporate entity on a prestigious greenfield project—is being played out in Gyongyos, a small town on the outskirts of Budapest in Hungary. Read More …..

Brave New India – Interview of Arundhati Roy

ARUNDHATI ROY is the celebrated author of The God of Small Things, winner of the prestigious Booker Prize. The New York Times calls her “India’s most impassioned critic of globalization and American influence.” She is the winner of the 2002 Lannan Award for Cultural Freedom. Her latest books are The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile, with David Barsamian, and An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire. DAVID BARSAMIAN interviewed her in New Delhi on December 29, 2007. David Barsamian is the producer of Alternative Radio, based in Boulder, Colorado. Read More …..

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. Read More …..

Statement by CPJC on the NHRC’s Salwa Judum report

Since 2005 the Chhattisgarh government has claimed that the Salwa Judum is a “peaceful people’s movement”, that “the villagers are never forced to join the camps”. They claimed that no minors were appointed as SPOs. It also resisted any independent enquiry, saying “There is no failure on part of state of Chhattisgarh and therefore independent investigation is uncalled for and unwarranted.” The NHRC investigation into Salwa Judum which was carried out on the orders of the Supreme Court found that this claim by the Chhattisgarh government regarding Salwa Judum was patently false. Read More …..

PUCL’s Letter to NHRC on Media Management of Report on Salwa Judum

This is specifically to draw your attention to the misleading Media Reports appearing in a section of the Press (both at the National & Regional Level) misinterpreting the nature and content of the NHRC Report on Salwa Judum submitted to the Supreme Court of India. More at Read More …..

Updated Appeal on Orissa Arrests 20th Aug

The people of Orissa have been facing worst kind of atrocities at present as the state violence is coupled with corporate violence resulting in large-scale displacement and destitution.. The people everywhere in Orissa are resisting tooth and nail the planned forcible displacement of people. Read More ….