MAHARASHTRA MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES ON STRIKE

COOPERATIVES IN MAHARASHTRA

MAHARASHTRA: CONVENTION AGAINST TERRORISM AND CORRUPTION

Mahendra Singh

THE Mumbai units of the CPI (M) and CPI organised a Convention against Terrorism and Corruption at Chhabidas Lalubhai High School Hall, Dadar, on July 22. Held in the background of the July 13 serial terror blasts in Mumbai and the countrywide anti-corruption campaign initiated by the Left parties, the convention received good response from the people belonging to various walks of life, who packed the hall to capacity, listened to speeches with rapt attention and applauded repeatedly.

Sitaram Yechury, member of the CPI (M) Polit Bureau, and Balchandra Kango, Maharashtra state secretary of the CPI, were the main speakers at the convention while CPI (M) state secretary Ashok Dhawale chaired it. Those on the dais, apart from the main speakers and the chairman, included CPI (M) Central Committee member K L Bajaj, CPI (M) Maharashtra secretariat members Mahendra Singh Narsayya Adam, Mariam Dhawale, J P Gavit and Rajaram Ozare, and CPI leaders Prakash Reddy, Narayan Ghagre and Prakash Narvekar.

Prakash Reddy, secretary of the CPI’s Mumbai unit, made the introductory speech, welcomed the main speakers and the other participants, explained the background and the objective of the convention, and flayed the Maharashtra and the union government for repeated terror attacks and corruption scams.

The proceedings commenced with homage to those killed in the July 13 terror attacks. In his hard hitting speech, Ashok Dhawale flayed the Maharashtra state government for its negligence and non-implementation of the measures announced to prevent terror attacks in the aftermath of the November 26, 2008 terrorist acts. He came down heavily on the UPA government for the spate of giant corruption scams. Dwelling on the involvement of various parties in various scams, he said that it was only the Left whose leaders were clean and who consistently raised their voice against corruption. Dhawale reminded the convention that it was Sitaram Yechury who had first exposed the telecom scam.

Narayan Ghagre, CPI Maharashtra’s joint secretary, referred to the all-pervasiveness of corruption and its growing size, calling it a loot on the people. He also came down heavily on purveyors of the communal worldview and the hate ideology, and held them responsible for the terror attacks.

Mahendra Singh, the CPI (M)’s Mumbai secretary, congratulated the citizens of Mumbai for foiling the game plan of the terrorists, giving a rebuff to the BJP, SS and MNS, and maintaining peace and social amity. He emphasised that the US imperialist policy of imposing its hegemony on the world and the fundamentalist ideology of hate were the root cause of terror attacks today. He warned that the UPA government’s policy of blindly supporting the US imperialists would make India more vulnerable to terror attacks. He also pointed out the nature and limitations of the anti-corruption campaign of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, urging upon the participants to popularise the Left viewpoint on the issue.

Bhalchandra Kango congratulated the Mumbai units of the CPI (M) and CPI for organising the convention. Referring to Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev brand agitation, he said that it is the supporters of the same neo-liberal policies, which were the root cause of the current spate of corruption scams, who were behind these people. Elaborating the demands of the anti-corruption campaign of the Left parties, he said that it was an illusion to hope that corruption would be eliminated by merely enacting a Lokpal legislation. Even though an effective Lokpal legislation is necessary, corruption cannot be effectively fought without a people’s struggle. He came down heavily on Raj Thackeray for his statement that terror attacks would continue until migrant inflow was prohibited.

In his 45 minutes of lucid and enlightening speech, punctuated with heavy knocks at the UPA government as well as the BJP-SS combine, Sitaram Yechury dealt with the causes of continuing terror attacks and all-pervasive corruption. Corruption, he said, was not new to India; it has a tradition. He narrated a short ancient story in this regard. What was new, he pointed out, was the huge amount of money involved in the latest corruption scams, a product of the politician-bureaucrat-businessman nexus. He called it a plunder of the people’s resources and pointed out how numerous welfare measures could be implemented with the money that was involved in the telecom scam. He tore apart the argument that various controls were at the root of corruption and proved with facts and figures that corruption blossomed in the aftermath of the introduction of neo-liberal reforms. He traced the history of the Lokpal Bill and strongly criticised the Congress for its opposition to inclusion of the prime minister in the ambit of the Lokpal Bill. He elaborated the demands of the Left parties’ anti-corruption campaign and said that an effective Lokpal Act and a return to the country of the black money stashed abroad was not enough. We also need a judicial commission to curb corruption in the higher echelons of the judiciary; electoral reforms including introduction of the proportional representation system is also necessary. Turning to the terror issue, Yechury said the US imperialist policy of imposing its hegemony all over the world was the root cause of the terror attacks. He said that the US state terrorism and fundamentalist terror feed each other. He came down very hardly on the UPA government’s policy of making India a subordinate strategic ally of the USA. This, he said, is bound to make India all the more vulnerable to fundamentalist terror. He exhorted the audience to take the message of the convention to the masses and advance the cause of building a new and stronger India.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

MAHARASHTRA: CPI (M) SCORES VICTORIES IN RURAL POLLS

Ashok Dhawale

IN the elections to several gram panchayats (GPs) held on June 26, 2011 in the Adivasi belt of Nashik, Thane and Nandurbar districts, the CPI (M) won a clear majority in 107 GPs --- 60 in Nashik, 42 in Thane and 5 in Nandurbar. The party not only retained most of the GPs that it had held earlier, but also won more than 30 new ones, wresting them from its opponents like the Congress, NCP, BJP and Shiv Sena, all of whom had ganged up to put up common panels against the CPI(M) in many parts of Nashik and Thane districts. In several other GPs which the party could not win in the above three districts, it nevertheless won a considerable number of GP seats.

Particularly good results were achieved in Surgana, Kalwan and Tryambakeshwar tehsils of Nashik district, in Dahanu, Talasari, Jawhar, Vikramgad and Wada tehsils of Thane district and in Shahada tehsil of Nandurbar district. In a common feature in both Nashik and Thane districts, disruptive elements that had been expelled from the party recently were completely routed, and the Red Flag was victorious even in the villages of most of their so-called leaders.

The significance of these victories was that they were won in an adverse political situation, in the wake of the defeat of the Left in West Bengal and Kerala a month and a half ago. This defeat was utilised to the fullest not only by the print and electronic media in Maharashtra to berate and slander the Left, but also directly by our opponents in all the above three districts in the election campaign. However, thousands of CPI (M) activists successfully combated this motivated propaganda and worked hard to ensure these victories against all odds. These victories will stand the party in good stead for the statewide Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections due in March 2012.

In Nashik District: In Nashik district, the CPI (M) won 60 GPs and over 500 seats; 15 GPs were wrested from the opposition. In Surgana tehsil, all the 58 GPs went to the polls. The CPI (M) won 36 GPs by a clear majority, bagging 294 of the 532 total GP seats in the tehsil, leaving the combined opposition with only 22 GPs and 238 seats. In Surgana, the party won all the 28 GPs that it had won earlier and wrested 8 new GPs from the combined opposition. In Tryambakeshwar tehsil, the party won 11 GPs, 3 more than last time, and over 100 seats. In Kalwan tehsil it won 10 GPs. It won a couple of GPs in Peth and Dindori tehsils also.

In Thane District: In Thane district, the CPI (M) won 42 GPs and 431 seats; 19 GPs were wrested from the opposition. Of the 12 GPs that went to the polls In Talasari tehsil, the CPI (M) retained 9 of the 10 GPs held earlier by big majorities. Here the CPI (M) won 107 seats, the BJP won 25 and the NCP just 8. In Dahanu tehsil, the CPI (M) won a total of 105 seats. It retained 4 of the 5 GPs held earlier and wrested 6 new GPs from the NCP. In Jawhar tehsil, it won 60 seats, retained 4 of the 5 GPs held earlier and wrested 3 new ones. In Vikramgad tehsil, it won 64 seats, retained 5 of the 6 GPs held earlier and wrested 4 new GPs. In Wada tehsil, it won 60 seats, retained 1 of the 3 GPs held earlier and wrested 6 new ones. In the weaker Shahapur, Palghar and Mokhada tehsils, the CPI (M) won 35 seats.

In Nandurbar district: In Nandurbar district, the CPI (M) won 5 GPs --- 4 in Shahada tehsil and 1 in Taloda tehsil. It won a number of seats in many GPs in the above two tehsils and also in Akkalkuwa tehsil.

On June 12, in the election to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) of Surgana tehsil in Nashik district, CPI (M) and AIKS candidates swept the polls by winning 15 out of the 16 seats.

On June 26, in another election to the Hamaal Mapadi (headload workers) constituency in the Parbhani APMC, the CPI (M) scored a significant victory over its opponents and a rebel candidate.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

MAHARASHTRA: FARMERS TAKE THE BULL BY HORNS

Uday Narkar

THE company under the name Indiabulls is virtually a bull let loose in the china shop of super profits. The aim of the company, founded by some Indians in collaboration with a few foreigners, is to loot the Indians. The company has begun an enterprise to earn super profits by trampling the rights and livelihood of workers, farmers and agricultural workers. The governments, both at the centre and in the state of Maharashtra, have been more than benign towards the company's deeds of commission and omission. Peasants and agricultural workers in the Nashik district of Maharashtra have risen spontaneously against the oppression of this company. The police have happily come ahead to protect the vested interests of this company: 105 villagers, along with their woman sarpanch (president of village panchayat), Saralatai Sanap, were incarcerated in the Nashik jail.

To protest this oppression, thousands of farmers of the village Gulwanch and the surrounding villages came together and formed a ‘Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti’ (Farmers’ Struggle Committee). They organised a march to the Nashik Collectorate in which farmers and agricultural workers participated in thousands. The march was led by CPI(M) state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale, secretariat member Dr D L Karad, former CPI(M) MLA Jiva Pandu Gavit, AIAWU joint secretary Kumar Shiralkar, AIKS state secretary Kisan Gujar, former High Court judge Justice Kolse-Patil, Haribhau Tambe, Haribhau Shinde, Advocate Ugale, Deshmukh and others. The agitation originated in the Sinnar taluq of Nashik is likely to spread to the others parts of the district and beyond into the districts of Dhule, Nandurbar and Amaravati because the ambitious Indiabulls company is very much eager to spread its tentacles to other areas.

GENESIS OF INDIABULLS

Two young men from Delhi, Samir Gehlot and Rajiv Rattan jointly took over, in 1999, a defunct finance company and started trading in shares under its auspices. One Saurabh Mittal joined them in a few months. It was the first share broking company in the country that traded on the internet. They started, in January 2000, a company called “Indiaulls Financial Services.” L N Mittal and Harish Fabiani supplied capital to the company in June the same year. The company started a subsidiary, Indiabulls Securities, towards the end of 2000. By 2003, they had opened their offices in many cities in the country. Their internet broking trade grew in geometric proportions. The Indiabulls Financial Services introduced its shares in the market for a price of Rs 19 per share. The company also entered the consumer loan market and poured huge funds into it.

Realising that low aim is a crime, the company started looking for greener pastures. The government of Maharashtra was inviting any number of bulls to ransack the desolate lands of the closed textile mills of Mumbai. No surprise that this bull was drawn to it. It formed a company, Indiabulls Properties Private Limited, to purchase textile mill land that is being auctioned. The National Textile Corporation (NTC) has a lot of land which belongs to the mills that it has taken over. It decided to auction 11 acres of Jupiter Mills in Lower Parel area of the metropolis. By the way, the Lower Parel, which prided itself as a working class district for ages, is now fast becoming a swanky township. The workers, who gave glory to the city of Mumbai, are being thrown, bag and baggage, into oblivion in the neo-liberal India. It is the same area where Mukesh Ambani of the Reliance has constructed his 28-storey palace. Anyway, the Indiabulls purchased these 11 acres of the Jupiter Mills in auction. The company lost no time to enter the lucrative business of the real estate. It formed the Indiabulls Real Estate Company Pvt Ltd which bought the land of the Elphinstone Mill as well, that belonged to the same NTC. The Indiabulls paid a huge amount of Rs 2,150 crore to grab the land of the Bharat and Poddar Mills. Well, they were not doing anything out of the ordinary. The business of buying land on the pretext of development and then selling it for super profits is rampant all over the country. The Indiabulls are just following the suit. Well, not exactly. It is actually one of those who are leading the pack. The company has purchased 2.4 million sq ft in the last three months alone (supposedly for development)! It has acquired not less than 6 crore sq ft of prime land so far.

DEVELOPING LAND: AT WHO’S COST?

What, however, is their idea of developing land? It is simply to level down all existing structures and build in their place monstrous malls, ugly palaces for the equally obscene rich and five-star hotels --- actually black-holes where black money is sucked in. All these are further embellished with designer gardens, Olympic-style swimming pools and multiplexes. Their advertisements promise no less than American dream-world amidst the squalor of migrant populace. The Indiabulls have been displaying the ad, ad nauseum, of their paradise constructed at Gurgaon near Delhi. The Indiabulls walks an extra mile to welcome the ministers, highly placed bureaucrats, mafia dons and sundry capitalists who have all amassed huge amounts of money by dodging tax authorities in creative ways. These people don’t have to go to Swiss banks to seek tax havens now. Moreover, the Indiabulls readily supplies loans to those who deal in developed properties too.

The central government’s policies of privatisation and liberalisation come in handy to the ones like the Indiabulls who are looking to make quick bucks. The government detests putting any controls on these companies. It also becomes generous enough to dole them out huge tax concessions. The companies thus amass wealth on an unprecedented scale. As if this were not enough, the government has come forward to award a special economic zone (SEZ) to this company. The Indiabulls is thus grabbing agricultural land to promote their SEZs. It has already announced the selling price of such land --- from Rs 2,500 to 20,000 per sq ft. These are the prices before the land was developed. It is anybody’s guess what the actual price of the developed land will be.

One need not guess who the buyers of this land would be. The Adarsh scam has already revealed who these super rich are. Just cast a glance at the people who are displacing those who have built Mumbai by their toil: Morgan Stanley (yes, you are right, the infamous American thug company), Bloomberg, Bain, Marsh – Mclennan, Deloitte, Reliance, Birla, NDTV, Yes Bank etc. These are the elite customers who are buying land from the Indiabulls.

BULL ADDS TO ITS (MUSCLE) POWER

In 2007 the company opened a new venture: Indiabulls Power. It decided to install two thermal power plants, one each in Nashik and Amaravati districts, totalling 5400 MW of electricity. The Indiabulls Power company entered the share market in September 2009. After having purchased land in the metros of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, it has now turned to the hinterlands of Maharashtra. It set its eyes on the fertile land in Sinnar taluq of Nashik district. It identified 2,500 acres of agricultural land from village Gulvanchi; 900 acres of this land is reserved for its power plant. It tried to trap farmers with attractive words such as construction of a ‘golden corridor’ connecting Delhi – Mumbai – Nashik for the sole benefit of the farmers! The trap will further extend to engulf the farmers of Dhule, Nandurbar and Amaravati districts.

The Indiabulls is supposedly operating on two terrains --- an industrial region and an investment region. But it has now become as clear as sunlight that this company is not established to either bring in industrial development to the region or create jobs. The Maharashtra government has loyally pursued the same neo-liberal policy of deindustrialisation and, to use Professor Utsa Patnaik’s words, “job-loss growth.” We are all too aware as to how the land is being given away to capitalists for a pittance. The union government is out to disinvest to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore in the public sector. This is the solemn promise given by our finance minister to the capitalists in his budget speech. More than 31,000 small scale industries are closed in Maharashtra and 1,60,000 workers have lost their jobs. Rubbing salt into their wounds, the state government has submitted 233 SEZ proposals to the central government. The latter has sanctioned 143 and has readily notified 63 SEZs.

The Congress-NCP government in the state is no fool to truthfully explain to farmers the implications of the SEZ. Cultivation of land is the sole source of livelihood for farmers. Land is the only source of employment for the rural population. Apart from farmers, the livelihood of rural workers depends on agriculture only. Not only that; the livelihood of village craftsmen and petty traders too is organically attached to farming activity. It is more than obvious that productivity of land should be enhanced if the life of this populace is to be improved. Rural development is in all respects connected to the uses of land and water. In rural areas employment can be generated only on the basis scientific and equitable, people oriented watershed development strategy. Adequate supply of drinking water, roads, sewage, sanitary facilities, education and public health are the indices of real human development. It is imperative for a government to invest in these.

It is also incumbent on a government to facilitate decentralised industrialisation by encouraging small-scale industries. For this, the villagers should be taken into confidence and plan accordingly. The planned and proper development cannot come about unless people’s participation is ensured.

RENEGING ON PROMISES

The state of Maharashtra was formed in 1960 as a result of the people’s successful agitation for the united linguistic state. The first steps that the early administration took were substantially in consonance with the people’s developmental aspirations. The concept behind establishing the Maharashtra State Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) was to achieve such decentralised industrial development. However, the objectives of MIDC underwent drastic changes in the wake of the onslaught of imperialist globalisation. The shadows of finance capital started blackening the industrial horizons of the state. The MIDC shamelessly started consorting with finance capital like that of Indiabulls. The MIDC thus, at the behest of the Indiabulls, buys land from farmers for meagre Rs 2 lakh an acre and earns thirty crores by selling it to the Bulls. The Bulls, in their turn, ‘develop’ that land and charge about Rs 2 crore per acre from the prospective buyers. The MIDC lied to the farmers saying that it needs this land to establish small scale industries which would ensure employment for them. The ‘political touts’ of the bourgeois parties saw to it that the farmers did not see through these lies. The gullible farmers lost the land that would give them at least roti for generations together. They lost land and did not get jobs. The Bull expelled the tiller from their land into a virtually no man’s land! Now they had nowhere to go. The SEZ has pushed the villages of Gulwanch and Musalgaon into an enclosure, hanging in a limbo. Now the railway ministry is acquiring land to lay a new railway track solely for the Indiabulls.

One used to read, as a child, a slogan on the train compartments: ‘Indian Railways – People’s Property.’ Well, no more in the era of imperialist globalisation. Railways and electricity are in fact infrastructural facilities essential for development. The policy of investing in these from the government treasury, adopted precisely after independence, was given a go bye in the nineties. Privatisation became the buzzword. Monopoly capital was allowed to enter the sector of power generation. It is true that the private capital has always been given concession by the railways for cheap transport. Even so, the railways helped a great deal to strengthen the public sector. Now the central government has taken upon itself the task of providing the rail services for power generation of the Indiabulls. The government of Maharashtra has taken the responsibility of acquiring land from Sinnar, Niphad and Nashik taluqs for laying railway tracks. For its thermal power project, the Bulls have managed a too willing central government to sign a contract to supply coal at a cheap price. The Water Resource Department at Nashik has already granted the use of water for the project and the Nashik Municipal Corporation is giving away its waste water. The company has already pocketed all the necessary no-objection certificates (NOCs). How has the company managed to get this done so quickly? Raising such a question is an affront to the integrity of the corrupt administration!

GROWING STRENGTH OF THE BULLS

The Indiabulls are also constructing a 1,350 MW power plant (phase I) in Amaravati district. The Bulls are the biggest private sector company who have bought machinery for power generation from Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd (BHEL). There are about 4,000 workers working on the plants at Sinnar and Amaravati. Since both the plants fall within SEZ areas, no labour laws are applicable. Worker get neither minimum wages nor any welfare benefits. They have no right to form their trade union. Although the workers are Indian citizens, they do not have civil rights on a piece of land that falls within the sovereignty of India. Farmers might have owned in the past the land that the Bulls now lord over. But by the virtue of the ownership of the Bulls, it has become a ‘foreign’ territory. And which are the companies that have been given contracts to supply machinery? They are Gannon Dunkerley, L&T, ABB and Areva. The last named is the apple of the government of India’s eye. It is to sell untested nuclear reactors for the Jaitapur power plant, the biggest nuclear plant in the world. The Indiabulls will sell its electricity thus generated. The profit, at the rate of one rupee per unit, that the company will earn in the year 2013-14 will be a whopping 60 crore US dollars. Anybody is free to buy this costly electricity. But Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company has already given a guarantee that it will take the responsibility of distributing it.

Indiabulls Power Limited Company has applied to Maharashtra Electricity Controlling Authority for a distribution license. It has asked for permission to distribute electricity in the suburbs of Mumbai. What the company says in the application is very revealing:

Indiabulls Power Ltd (IPL) is a front ranking company of the Indiabulls Group looking after power industry. The company is indexed at both NSE and BSE. The company is developing two thermal power projects of a total 5400 MW capacity at Nashik and Amaravati. The Indiabulls Group has shown, several times, its skill in erecting industries and executing projects. With a substantial investment in immovable properties, infrastructure and power and a long experience of providing financial and other services to petty customers, the company is capable of facing the challenge in Mumbai.....

This clearly shows that Indiabulls is not a power generating company. It has not provided a single proof of exhibiting a skill of erecting an industry and executing a project. It is a company of financial agents. It has not contributed, anywhere in the world, to the people’s welfare by generating even one MW of electricity. They are a group of thugs, looting gullible people in the free market, in the garb of gentlemen. The anti-people governments, in the state and at the centre, are protecting their interests and giving them a free hand to grab the sources of livelihood of thousands of farmers and workers. The Bulls are allowed to roam unhindered in search of super profits, ignoring efficient public sector power industry (The seven thermal power plants in Maharashtra are under public sector undertaking) and the proven skill and knowledge of technicians, engineers and workers. Moreover, the government is unleashing repression to thwart popular agitation for asserting democratic rights. One wonders whether we are living in a sovereign, independent country or in a banana republic under imperial dominion. Indiabulls is a glaring example of how big finance capital in India is joining hands with imperialist capital. Take a look at the list of the friends of Indiabulls.

FRIENDS OF INDIABULLS

The total number of shares that Indiabulls group possesses is 202.30 crores. Out of them, 118.50 crores, i.e. 58.58 per cent, belong to the Indiabulls Real Estate. Financial institutions and banks own 1.64 crore (0.81 per cent), foreign institutional investors own 22.19 crore (10.97 per cent) and foreign speculative capital investors own 26.27 crore (12.99 per cent). The finance and loans are provided to the Indiabulls by 20 nationalised banks as well as 9 Indian and foreign banks, mutual funds, provident funds, pension funds and insurance companies.

The meaning of all this is more than clear. Indiabulls is completely tied to international finance capital. The very nature of finance capital is to make quick bucks in speculative investment. The shareholders of Indiabulls do not have an iota of interest in promoting the welfare of Indian farmers, farm labourers, workers, artisans or small traders. On the contrary, they are anxious to rob people’s livelihood and natural resources of our country. Indiabulls are working as a promoter of the vagrant free market.

PEASANTS RISE IN UNISON

It is against this backdrop that the peasants and labourers, workers and artisans, men and women have risen to protect the source of their livelihood. The struggle waged by the farmers of Sinnar is not a small one. It is a struggle against the powerful owners of finance capital. It is a struggle against neo-colonisation being imposed on Indian peoples by imperialism. It is a struggle against the anti-people and pro-big bourgeoisie, Indian and foreign, policies of the government of India. This is a struggle in the interests of all toiling people. It is struggle to defend independence and sovereignty of India. The fighting villagers are determined to take this struggle to other areas, to the districts of Dhule, Nandurbar, Amaravati and beyond.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

MAHARASHTRA AIKS MOBILISES ONE LAKH PEASANTS FOR INCLUSION OF RURAL POOR IN BPL LISTS

Ashok Dhawale

AFTER the major statewide struggle for implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), which was led by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) in Maharashtra in January-February 2011 and which mobilised over one lakh peasants (see report in People’s Democracy, March 21-27, 2011), another big statewide struggle led by the AIKS recently was for the inclusion of names of the poor in the BPL (Below Poverty Line) lists. This is another burning issue facing the rural poor in Maharashtra. Hence this struggle also evoked massive response and once again, over one lakh peasants came out on the streets.

BURNING ISSUE OF RURAL POOR

It is a notorious fact that BPL surveys have been fraudulent, often excluding the poor and including the rich in the BPL lists. For this reason, the 2002 BPL survey, which eventually came into force in 2006, was challenged in the Supreme Court. In the Writ Petition (Civil) No 196 of 2001, People’s Union of Civil Liberties versus Union of India & others, the Supreme Court ruled on February 14, 2006 that provision will be made to allow new names to be added and ineligible names deleted from the BPL list 2002 on a continuous basis during the period that the list will be applicable.

The Maharashtra state government issued a government resolution dated August 27, 2010 that laid down the procedure for implementing this decision of the Supreme Court. The first appeal by an individual who wished to be included in the BPL list is to be made to the tehsildar who will inquire into its merit and will decide whether to accept or reject the appeal. If the appeal is rejected, the second appeal is to be made to the District Collector.

However, in line with the thoroughly anti-people, neo-liberal policies of the UPA-2 central government, the state government said that there would be no increase in the total number of BPL beneficiaries that have been arbitrarily decided by the Planning Commission. If new deserving entrants are to be admitted into the BPL lists, the same number of relatively better-off people will have to be excluded.

POVERTY IN MAHARASHTRA

According to the official figures, poverty in Maharashtra as per the revised official estimate of the Suresh Tendulkar committee for 2004-05 is 38.1 per cent, which is one per cent more than the national average of 37.2 per cent. The state ranks fourth highest in poverty in the country --- after Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. This revised estimate itself is faulty and unacceptable if we consider the Arjun Sengupta committee findings, but that is another story.

Poverty in rural Maharashtra increased from 34.6 per cent in 1997, to 35.7 per cent in 2002, to 47.9 per cent in 2004-05, as per the revised estimate. This means that nearly half of rural Maharashtra is poor! Similarly, poverty in urban Maharashtra rose from 8.8 per cent in 1997, to 18.2 per cent in 2002, to 25.6 per cent in 2004-05, as per the revised estimate.

However, in the year 2010, of the total 215.95 lakh ration cards in Maharashtra, the number and percentage of various categories were as follows, according to the Economic Survey of Maharashtra, 2010-11: Antyodaya – 23.40 lakh (10.8 per cent), BPL – 43.75 lakh (20.3 per cent), Annapurna – 0.86 lakh (0.4 per cent), APL – 138.40 lakh (64.1 per cent), White – 9.54 lakh (4.4 per cent). This means that Antyodaya + BPL categories together came to just 31.1 per cent (67.15 lakh cards), which is much less than even the official poverty estimates.

According to the provisional figures of the 2011 Census, Maharashtra has a total population of 11.24 crore, ranking second in all states in India after Uttar Pradesh. Even considering the fraudulent poverty estimate of 38.1 per cent, 4.28 crore people are below the poverty line!

Hence, apart from the campaign for inclusion in the present BPL lists, there has to be a big struggle to increase the total quantum of the people under BPL, using realistic criteria in the new and dubious BPL census that is about to begin. Also, there has to be a struggle for the universalisation of the public distribution system and expansion of the doorstep ration scheme to ensure genuine food security. Along with this, the struggle for remunerative prices to the peasantry based on the cost of production has to be intensified.

SPONTANEOUS RESPONSE

It was with this basic position that the AIKS began the struggle. After holding tehsil-level workshops to explain the issue and the modus operandi of the struggle, hundreds of activists of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha began a campaign of going to the rural poor, village to village. They filled up the BPL appeal forms as per the format given by the state government. Massive rallies of the rural poor on the tehsil offices across the state were held to submit these appeal forms to the government authorities. The struggle began from the Akole tehsil of Ahmednagar district and then spread to several other districts in the state.

The AIKS state council gave a call for statewide demonstrations on this issue on May 9 to submit the BPL appeal forms. This struggle elicited spontaneous response from the rural poor. Over one lakh poor peasants, agricultural labourers, unorganised rural workers and artisans took part in 35 tehsil-level demonstrations in 14 districts, and over one lakh BPL appeal forms were submitted to the tehsildars. In Thane district, the struggle was jointly led by the AIKS, AIDWA and DYFI. The AIDWA in Ahmednagar district and the SFI in Pune district actively helped in the campaign. The local media gave excellent coverage to the rallies.

The district-wise total mobilisation figures in this struggle were as follows: Thane – 33,000, Nashik – 31,000, Ahmednagar – 23,500, Pune – 16,000, Kolhapur – 3,500, Nanded – 3,000, Parbhani – 1,500, Beed – 1,000, Yavatmal – 500, Amravati – 350, Satara – 350, Sangli – 350, Solapur – 200, Hingoli – 200, Total – 1,14,450.

Some of the largest and most impressive rallies in this struggle on the BPL issue were as follows: Akole, district Ahmednagar – 13,000; Talasari, district Thane – 10,000; Junnar, district Pune – 10,000; Sangamner, district Ahmednagar – 7,000; Jawhar, district Thane – 7,000; Ambegaon, district Pune – 6,000; Kalwan, district Nashik – 5,000; Igatpuri, district Nashik – 5,000; Vikramgad, district Thane – 5,000; Sinnar, district Nashik – 4,000; Rahuri, district Ahmednagar – 3,500; Ichalkaranji, district Kolhapur – 3,500; Kinwat, district Nanded – 3,000; Chandwad, district Nashik – 3,000; Dindori, district Nashik – 3,000; Selu, district Parbhani – 1,500; Ashti, district Beed – 1,000.

Now pressure is being exerted by the AIKS on the tehsildars in the above districts to see to it that the talathis and gram sevaks are sent to the villages to actually conduct the inquiry about the appeal forms that have been submitted, so as to include them in the BPL lists.

Among the AIKS leaders who led the above actions were J P Gavit (former MLA), Rajaram Ozare (MLA), Kisan Gujar, Dr Ajit Nawale, Ratan Budhar, Barkya Mangat, Prin. A B Patil, Arjun Adey, Nanasaheb Pokale, Ramkrishna Shere, Uddhav Poul and Dr Ashok Dhawale (all AIKS state office-bearers), Vasant Dhadga, Savliram Pawar, Irfan Shaikh, Shivram Girandhala, Raja Gahala, Yashwant Ghatal, Subhash Nikam, Adv Natha Shingade, Amol Waghmare, Mahendra Thorat, Somnath Mali, Ashok Pekari, Sadashiv Sable, Sahebrao Ghode, Adv Dnyaneshwar Kakad, Balasaheb Walunj, Jijabai Ushir, Ashabai Jadhav, Devidas Adole, Namdev Rakshe, Hanuman Gunjal and Haribhau Tambe. CITU leaders Dr D L Karad, Ajit Abhyankar, Vasant Pawar, Edward Vartha and Ladak Kharpade, AIDWA leaders Mariam Dhawale, Hemlata Kom, Adv Vasudha Karad and Asha Naikwadi, DYFI leader Sunil Dhanwa and SFI leader Prashant Vidhate also worked for the success of, and addressed, some of these major rallies.

Courtesy: People’s Democracy

MAHARASHTRA: ONE LAKH PEASANTS COURT ARREST IN AIKS STIR ON BURNING AGRARIAN ISSUES

Ashok Dhawale

IT was the largest peasant agitation led by the AIKS in Maharashtra in recent years. For two weeks beginning Republic Day on January 26, 2011 up to February 8, the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha, affiliated to the AIKS, led a massive statewide jail bharo and rasta roko stir on burning agrarian issues, in which around one lakh peasants participated. The call for this stir was given in the 7,000-strong statewide AIKS rally at the Nagpur state assembly on December 15, 2010. Earlier, from November 15-18, over 40,000 peasants under AIKS leadership had held district and tehsil level rallies on the same demands.

VITAL AGRARIAN ISSUES

The prominent agrarian issues that were taken up in this struggle were: peasant suicides due to indebtedness, compensation to crops destroyed due to excessive and unseasonal rainfall, remunerative prices to all crops based on their cost of production, provision of credit to the peasantry at cheap rates, lowering of costs of agricultural inputs, the load shedding and excessive bills of electricity, inclusion of poor peasants and agricultural workers in the below poverty line (BPL) lists, universalisation of the public distribution system (PDS) and expansion of the doorstep ration scheme, vesting of temple lands and pasture lands in the names of the cultivating peasants, opposition to the proposed Jaitapur nuclear plant and the Maharashtra SEZ bill, a comprehensive crop insurance scheme and completion on a war footing of long-pending irrigation projects with proper rehabilitation.

Space does not permit an analysis of the above burning agrarian issues in Maharashtra. Suffice it to say that as per the reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the union home ministry, Maharashtra holds the shameful record of having the largest number (more than 41,000) of peasant suicides out of the nearly 2.5 lakh peasant suicides in the country over the last 15 years. This is a clear result of the neo-liberal and anti-peasant policies of successive Congress-NCP and BJP-Shiv Sena regimes in the state and at the centre. For the last seven years, the union agriculture and food minister has been the NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, who himself hails from Maharashtra! All that he has been interested is the interest of the sugar lobby, IPL cricket and the building of cities for the rich like Lavasa!

Although thousands of peasants were mobilised around the above vital agrarian issues in several districts, the main chunk of participation in this jail bharo stir was on the question of the scandalous implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in Maharashtra. This issue had come to a head in recent weeks with the downright rejection by the state government machinery of thousands of FRA applications of adivasi peasants in many districts.

SCANDALOUS IMPLEMENTATION

As per the status report as on December 31, 2010 on FRA implementation issued by the union ministry of tribal affairs, a total of 3,35,701 individual FRA claims were filed in Maharashtra. Of these, the FRA village committees recommended 2,82,115 claims to the SDO level committees. Of these the SDO level committees cleared only 1,15,914 claims and sent them to the district level committees. Of these again, 1,04,344 claims were accepted and official certificates (but not actual land rights under the revenue department) were given. Of the 3,988 community FRA claims, only 423 were accepted.

This means that the SDO level committees rejected as many as 1,66,201 FRA individual claims and 3,565 FRA community claims. Even so far as the accepted claims were concerned, certificates granting much less land than that being actually cultivated and claimed by the adivasis were given. So far as the non-adivasi traditional forest dwellers were concerned, the draconian requirement of a 75-year (three generations) proof smuggled into the FRA at the last moment dashed their chances of getting any land rights.

One of the main reasons for such en masse rejections of FRA claims has been the illegal and unwarranted interference by the forest department, which has been allowed to run amok by the state government and the bureaucracy. Fully aware of the historical antagonism of the forest department towards tribals for generations together, the FRA had clearly kept the forest department out of the FRA implementation process and had made the tribal affairs department the main nodal agency for FRA implementation.

But on July 18, 2008, the chief forest conservator of Maharashtra state based at Nagpur, issued a 10-page circular laying down the mode of implementation of the FRA in the state. Many of its points flagrantly violated the FRA and its rules. For nearly two years, this circular stayed in force and it was blatantly used to veto thousands of genuine FRA claims.

It was only 20 months later on April 8, 2010, that a state level meeting of the FRA supervisory committee chaired by the then chief secretary, issued another circular generally stating that all circulars and directives of the forest or any other department that ran counter to the decisions of that meeting should be considered null and void. But by that time the damage had already been done. However, this same April 2010 meeting committed another blunder. It directed that all pending FRA claims should be disposed off in two months, by May 2010. The result was that the local bureaucracy hastily rushed through the verification process, and “disposed off” the pending claims by rejecting them outright!

The worst aspect of this whole process was that organisations actually working among the adivasi masses were never taken into confidence at any stage of the FRA implementation. Had that been done, many of these pitfalls could have been averted. But for this, political will - like that shown by the Left Front governments – was required. And it was precisely this political will that was in short supply among the ruling clique in Maharashtra.

MILITANT MASS STRUGGLE

The largest and most militant mass struggle took place in Nashik district, in which over 60,000 peasants courted arrest. In this district, as many as 34,000 of the 51,000 FRA claims had been summarily rejected and this resulted in a mass uproar. The jail bharo stir began here on January 26 with over 15,000 adivasi peasants from Surgana tehsil coming all the way from a distance of over 100 km to court arrest in Nashik city. Subsequently, there were similar court arrest agitations every day up to February 7 in nine different tehsils.

When the first talks with the state government broke down on February 3, the stir in Nashik district was intensified to block highways. At Karanjali in Peth tehsil, over 4,000 peasants blocked the Nashik-Dharampur (Gujarat) highway for 50 hours at a stretch! The Mumbai-Agra national highway was blocked in Chandwad tehsil, and other highways were blocked by thousands of peasants in Surgana and Tryambakeshwar tehsils till February 7.

In Thane district, as a result of earlier huge mass actions on the FRA and other issues, the administration had not yet dared to reject FRA claims wholesale. Even so, over 25,000 peasants from ten tehsils in Thane district courted arrest on January 31, and it was decided to block all highways if the talks with the state government broke down again on February 7.

In Ahmednagar district, the most militant action in this stir took place at Akole on January 29. Here 526 peasants, including 47 women, refused to accept bail and they spent 11 days in four different jails at Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Pune and Nashik. They were led by Dr Ajit Nawale, Eknath Mengal, Raju Gambhire, Namdev Bhangre and others. Another big rally was held in Akole on February 3 to express solidarity with the comrades who were in jail.

In Nandurbar district, over 3,500 peasants and agricultural workers took part in rallies. Around 1,000 to 2,000 peasants each courted arrest in districts like Nanded, Yavatmal, Parbhani, Kolhapur and Pune. The stir was also carried out in districts like Beed, Solapur, Sangli, Buldana, Raigad and Hingoli. In many of these districts, other issues were taken up.

It was as a result of this statewide struggle, especially the widespread and militant peasant actions in Nashik, Thane and Ahmednagar districts, that the state home minister R R Patil invited an AIKS delegation to hold talks in Mumbai on February 7. He was accompanied by the tribal development minister, the state chief secretary, tribal development secretary and other senior officials. The AIKS was represented by its leaders J P Gavit, ex-MLA, Rajaram Ozare, MLA, Lahanu Kom, ex-MP, Kisan Gujar, Irfan Shaikh and Hemant Waghere.

In this meeting the state government agreed as follows: 1) All the rejected FRA claims will be reviewed and all those who have submitted any two proofs as per the FRA will be accepted; 2) Forest land up to the FRA limit of 4 hectares (10 acres) will be given to claimants who have it in their possession; 3) Appeals against rejected claims will be accepted even if they are submitted after the 60 day limit; 4) The unwarranted interference by the forest department will be stopped; 5) All police cases lodged in the course of this agitation will be withdrawn and all arrested peasants will be released.

The next day, February 8, there was an unprecedented 50,000-strong districtwide rally held by the AIKS at Kalwan in Nashik district to announce the results of the talks with the government and to convey the future line of action. Kalwan town had no ground in which to accommodate so many people, so the public meeting was held on the main road itself. Peasants sat on the road over a distance of over one kilometre to listen to the meeting.

The massive Kalwan rally was addressed by AIKS state president J P Gavit, ex-MLA, state vice presidents Dr Ashok Dhawale and Gunaji Gavit, state general secretary Kisan Gujar, state joint secretary Laxman Gaikwad and state council members Irfan Shaikh and Hemant Waghere. It was also addressed by CITU state general secretary Dr D L Karad, AIDWA state vice president Mariam Dhawale and DYFI leader Hemant Patil. It was presided over by AIKS leader Balasaheb Gangurde. The atmosphere at the rally was one of determination to ensure that the state government pledges are actually implemented. If this was not done, it was vowed that the struggle would be resumed and further intensified.

Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org/