Lal Salaam at

30,Ideology

Sacrificed!
 

 

Palash Biswas

Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com

Left Rule sustained in West Bengal for Thirty long years!
Lal Salam, comrades!
We remeber all the movements, dreams, aspirations, expectations, challanges and struggle! We do remeber the martyres of Ideology!

It was on June 21, 1977 that 64-year-old London-educated communist Jyoti Basu took oath as chief minister of West Bengal, heralding the birth of a government that has gone on to win one election after another and seemed invincible until the recent mass protests against land acquisition.

CPI-M leaders say more than 13,00,000 acres of land have been distributed among poor and landless people since 1977. In a state where about 83 percent of agricultural land is with the poor and marginalised farmers, the programme still continues.

But with Chief Minister Bhattacharya - who makes no bones talking about the “mistakes" of militant trade unionism - pledging to industrialise West Bengal in a big way, many of the poor are wondering if it will be at their cost.

This has already led to violence in places like Singur and Nandigram, which are trying to find a prominent place on West Bengal"s industrial map.

Where is your Ideology, comrades! Left Rule has survived, alright. What about your ideology. Left parties have sacrificed Ideology for Urbanisation and Industrialisation. Eviction Rural India epicentre happens to be the Left Ruled West Bengal, which is ruled by a set of Neo capitalists speaking Marxist language and working on the dictates from Washington, as New delhi does! What is the difference between New delhi and Kolkata?  We saw enough blood during Tebhaga and naxalbari. Once again we see Blood spilling all over Bengal! Countrywide. Well, the Left has adopted a different kind of fascism! It is Bengali Brahminical Communalism aligned with Hindu zionist Imperialism with goals to achieve for shining Sensex Super Power Hindu Nation and Brand buddha! It is glasnost and pretroica together to kill the communist movement in India annihilating indigenous Economic, social and cultural order,evicting Rural India from its roots and ensuring Post Modern Manusmriti to run the Global Order as Washington Wants!

 
“It will be neither legal nor practical to return the land to the farmers who don’t want to give their land. First there is a Supreme Court order which does not allow this, secondly even if we do so, the project will be in jeopardy. And so far as increasing compensation is concerned, what I can say is that if we do it at Singur, you will have to do it everywhere,” Nirupam Sen said.

 West Bengal cannot afford to lose Tata Motors" small car project in Singur buckling under opposition protests, Industry Minister Nirupam Sen said here Tuesday.

“It would be a Himalayan blunder if we would let it go from our state. This kind of opportunity does not come very often. And when it has come we have to capitalise the opportunity for the benefit of our state," Sen said during an interactive session on the developmental aspects of Bengal organised by Prabha Khaitan Foundation.Stating his government"s stand on surging industrialisation in the state, he criticised the main opposition party Trinamool Congress" anti-land acquisition movement and its demand of return of the land to the farmers.

Waht do you say?

With two days to go before the Left Front celebrates its 30th year in power in Bengal, Mr Jyoti Basu today observed that the Front had failed to achieve success in employment generation, healthcare facility and eradication of illiteracy. He invited the media to his Salt Lake residence to give his account of the Left’s achievements and failures in 30 years. Though he dished out some statistics to project the success of seven successive Left governments, the nonagenarian, who will turn 94 in July, toed the CPI-M line. “The licence Raj imposed by the Centre is over. In the next three years we need to reach the number one position in industrialisation. Agriculture cannot provide jobs to the 3.3 million registered unemployed youths in the state. We need industries, big and small. The present government is working towards that end”.
Trinamul chief Miss Mamata Banerjee declared that her party will observe kalanka divas (condemnation day) on 21 June. “We will assemble on Mayo Road near Gandhiji’s statue to voice our protest against 30 years of misrule,’’ she said.
Interestingly, the movement at Singur continued even after the a wall came up around the small car factory site leading to violent clashes between the supporters of the committee and the police, as the former tried to storm the site. However, a contingent of police has been deployed near the factory site to prevent violence. Around 200 agitators rallied in various villages in Singur brandishing crude weapons like swords and axes. They chanted anti-government and anti-Tata slogans.

Terming clashes between farmers and police in West Bengal over a special economic zone (SEZ) as nothing less than a war, leading social activist Medha Patkar Tuesday advocated a ‘militant approach" in peoples" struggles against forcible land acquisition for industry.

Referring to the police action in Nandigram area where 14 people were killed on March 14 while protesting the move to acquire farmlands for an SEZ, Patkar said: ‘The situation remains serious. It is nothing less than war… it is comparable to the Iraq war or Gujarat"s communal violence of 2002.

‘We people cannot protest in the old ways anymore. While I cannot give a call to take arms, but the need for a militant approach is felt," she said.

Patkar was addressing a daylong ‘all-India convention against atrocities on the people of Nandigram and against SEZs" here.The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) convenor reminded the audience that when she launched the fight for the rights of those affected by the Sardar Sarovar dam project on the Narmada river in the 1980s, a majority of people had questioned her, but now the same issue has come back to haunt the nation.

‘It is fundamentally a question of transfer of resources without taking the consent of the people who depend on those resources," said Patkar.

Justice (retired) Rajendra Sachar reminded the audience that when Patkar was holding protests against the displacement of the Narmada-affected people without proper resettlement and rehabilitation, leaders of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) - which leads West Bengal"s ruling Left front- had turned up to support her.

‘However, when she went to West Bengal (to speak for people of Nandigram), they used the kind of language one would not employ even against enemies," said the veteran rights activist.

‘When they are setting up industries after shooting at people, for whom are they setting up the industries?" Sachar asked, and called on all to join the ‘battle for Hindustan, battle for the dispossessed".

‘Marx would be turning in his grave now that a party named after him says that we need capitalists for the cause of socialism," he added.

In a message read out at the convention, filmmaker Aparna Sen noted that the struggle was still on in Nandigram, adding, ‘Hats off to the people."

Sumit Chakravartty, editor of Mainstream journal, questioned the government claim that SEZs will generate jobs and push exports. Criticising tax breaks and incentives for SEZ developers, he said: ‘Concessions for small and medium units might be considered but you are giving concessions to the Ambanis and the Tatas - to big capitalists."

Lashing out at the West Bengal government for alleged atrocities on those protesting land acquisition in Nandigram as well as in Singur for a Tata project, Chakravartty said: ‘Goons are running the show in West Bengal.

‘I am not saying that all (in the Left Front) are like that, but goons surely are calling the shots. As a Leftist I hang my head in shame after what happened to womenfolk in Nandigram," said the noted commentator.

Prakash N. Shah of the Ahmedabad-based Movement for Secular Democracy (MSD) saw a land scam in the making in the SEZ policy. ‘The land is being given away, for reasons latent to us but patent to them," he said.

He stressed that the debate over SEZs was not about industry versus agriculture, but ‘agriculture and corporate capitalism".

At the end of the convention, the participants - comprising activists, jurists, lawyers, educationists and others from across the country - passed a resolution expressing concern over the trend of acquiring land for SEZs.

 While politicians battle out the pros and cons of the current Special Economic Zones in the pipeline they might do well to look down the road to South 24 Parganas and learn a few lessons from the state’s first SEZ. The industrial zone at Falta lies in a shambles with only half the units in production. With large areas deserted and in disrepair, the state’s first stab at SEZs looks more post-apocalyptic than the brave new world of industrialisation people are being promised.
Of the 186 units, more than half have either closed or are laying off staff, leaving many workers destitute. It is claimed a large tract of land acquired for the unit is still not being used despite the project first being mooted ~ initially as an Export Processing Zone ~ more than two decades ago.
In addition, there are still farmers whose land was acquired for the SEZ who are waiting to receive the price of their land after 23 years.
Owners of some of the units say the problem is a lack of infrastructure within the zone. Local political leaders claim the original industrialists fled after reaping the benefits of tax exemption.
Well, it is not Nadigram or singur only. The war goes on everywhere. MamTa Bannerjee has decalred Tea war from North Bengal. And you should have seen the TV clippings from Asanasol.What happened in Purushottampur?
Around 2,000 of Mr Roy’s fellow residents in Purusottampur near Burnpur have joined together to battle the government machinery. The protests have been going on for more than a fortnight and so far 102 villagers have been put in police custody.
Arrests have been made on charges of causing inconvenience to a government project, attacking policemen and senior administrative officials and flouting Calcutta High Court strictures. Despite severe police action on 17 June, the villagers have vowed not to “sacrifice” their land. They are demanding either job in recompense or the value of their land.
Members of Hirapur, Nakrasonta and Kuilapur villages, which also fall within the area earmarked for the plant’s much-awaited modernisation and expansion plan, agreed to a package of Rs 13 lakh per acre. But Purusottampur’s farmers were only offered Rs 5.5 lakh per acre, which they say is too little. The protest is causing a headache for IISCO as Purusottampur contains 240 acres of the 305 acres required.
The plant has been attempting ~ and failing ~ to acquire the land since January this year with Purusottampur vehemently protesting against the bid. The land acquisition was proposed as early as 1984 but the bid was kept in abeyance until Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh flagged off IISCO’s modernisation and expansion package worth Rs 9,500 crore on 24 December 2006. The project is scheduled to be completed by September 2009.
Purusottampur villagers have formed a Land Loser’s Committee determined to combat the acquisition bid.

31 YEARS OF CPM MISRULE AS SEEN BY ANY IMPARTIAL PERSON

CPM and its allies have been ruling WB for 31 years. Here is the results.

EDUCATION FAIL
TRANSPORTATION FAIL
EMPLOYMENT MALE CPM GOONDA
FEMALE WOMEN TRAFICKING / PROSTITUTION
REST INDEFINITE EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE
REST IT/BPO (INDEPENDENT OF CPM )
SANITARY FAIL WORST SEWER SYSTEM IN INDIA/ WORLD
HEALTH FAIL HOSPITALS ARE DEATH CHAMBERS
DENGUE/ AIDS NO CURE
COST OF
GOODS BEYOND COMMON PEOPLE

ELECTRICITY FAIL- NO ELECTRICITY IN VILLAGE

THEY FAIL IN ALL SUBJECTS BUT THEY PASSED IN TALL TALKING FROM
BADA, BAIMAN AND HIS ASSOCIATED THUGS AND ILLITERATE CADERS
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.discuss.php?clid=6"theme="usrsess=1"id=9950"newsid=160111

West Bengal"s Communist government completes a remarkable 30 long years in office with a dramatic ideological U-turn over promoting industry that has left its legion of supporters stunned.Yet, it has set a world record in being the only communist government to have been democratically elected six times ever after taking power on June 21, 1977 at the head of a coalition of Left-leaning parties that capitalised on the mood following former prime minister Indira Gandhi"s emergency rule in India.A divided opposition has been unable to unseat the nine-party Left Front in election after election. But with protests breaking out over the government"s decision to take over farmland to build industry, West Bengal is witnessing, perhaps for the first time, an anti-Left sentiment that is unprecedented.

Surprisingly, many leftwing sympathisers have turned critics. Sheikh Rafiq of Nandigram is one such person.Rafiq, who grew up worshipping the brand of communism advocated by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), is now a rebel with a cause. The 34-year-old minces no words while slamming the party, which he says has gained such heights because faceless millions like him faithfully watered it.

With Nandigram already simmering over the proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ) envisioned by reformist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Rafiq is an indicator of the shape of things to come.

“We will die but not give up an inch of land," Rafiq said. “For 30 years we supported CPI-M, voted them to power and now the treacherous behemoth that we created is trying to swallow us."

On March 14, Rafiq was punished as policemen and armed cadres of CPI-M stormed Nandigram and killed over a dozen protestors who were opposing takeover of farmland for industry.

CNN-IBN has joined hands with The Telegraph to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Left Front rule in West Bengal through a number of special stories Lal Salaam at 30, an opinion poll and a panel discussion on the various facets and developments that have taken place under the Left Front rule since 1977.  CNN-IBN and The Telegraph alliance will entail exercising the editorial and marketing synergies between the organisations. The publication will carry regular stories reflecting the mood of the people as revealed through the opinion poll and special debate conducted by CNN-IBN.As part of the celebration, the channel will air a one-hour special panel discussion and opinion poll results on the Left front governance on 21 June at 9:30 pm.

The opinion poll and special debate being conducted as a part of the series are aimed at providing an analysis of the state"s Left Front administration. The panel discussion, held in Kolkata will reveal the findings of the opinion poll conducted by AC Nielsen on various aspects of the Left Front regime in West Bengal that has persisted, for the last three decades. The poll attempts to answer questions relating to the state government"s performance.

“To complete 30 years of rule in a single state is by no means a small feat. Lal Salaam at 30 is our recognition of this milestone while simultaneously analysing the corollary of the same," said CNN-IBN and IBN 7 editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai.
 

A TRAGEDY OF ERRORS
- An evolution gone wrong 
Dipankar Dasgupta
The author is former professor of economics, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta
 
 
The state of West Bengal is rent apart now by a controversy that does not promise any easy resolution. A deep divide exists between the warring groups and bridging the gap will be as illusive an exercise as discovering the Darwinian missing link.

It is hardly surprising that the Darwin analogy suggests itself in this context. For Darwin was concerned with a theory of evolution. And whether the parties involved in the raging civil war appreciate this fact or not, industrial revival in West Bengal cannot be treated as the construction of a bare superstructure adorning a primarily agrarian society. We are concerned here with the inescapable fact that only a fraction of the eight-crore-strong population of this state can survive on the basis of agriculture. A solid development of industry is a sine qua non for protecting the state from transforming itself into an economic wasteland. Any such development, however, is a process of evolution, involving fundamental changes in ways of life.

In the past, we have discussed in these columns the reasons why agriculture received primacy in the policies followed by the Left when it assumed power. The economic objectives that underlay its agricultural policies, however, have been fulfilled to a large extent insofar as productivity is concerned. If the state has to improve its per capita state domestic product further, as well as retain a healthy growth rate and a meaningful employment scenario, then the scope of economic activities needs to be expanded.

It is not too difficult to appreciate the thrust of the argument posed so far. Indeed, even the so-called opposition camp keeps harping on the theme of West Bengal’s much-needed industrialization. But there are errors that both parties are committing.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070620/asp/opinion/story_7940539.asp
 

Singur is bracing to face violence similar in nature to what has ripped apart Nandigram, thanks to the agitating Singur Krishi Jami Bachao Committee backed by the Trinamool Congress. Following a rally comprising men and women brandishing weapons, members of the committee declared that they not only refuse to accept the compensation package but also plan to storm the wall demarcating the land acquired for the Tata Motors small car project.

“We are gearing up for battle and will try to storm the Tata’s wall. Yesterday’s rally was organised to show the kind of support we have. We are not prepared to accept the compensation package offered by the government if alternate arrangement to give us land is not made,” said Becha Manna, convenor of the committee.
 
A series of meetings were arranged by the committee today at various villages in Singur, including Bajemelia, Gopalnagar, Khaserbheri and other areas. The leaders discussed future strategies.

NDA leaders raise Nandigram issue before President

New Delh: A three-member delegation led by NDA Convenor George Fernandes called on President A P J Abdul Kalam and apprised him of the latest development in Nandigram in West Bengal where the left front cadre in police uniform fired on the innocent villagers from the adjoining Khejuri area.Later talking to UNI, the Trinamool Congress leader and a member of the delegation Dinesh Trivedi said the farmers of Nandigram were opposing the forceful land acquisation of the State Government for the setting up of the Tata"s small car project.He said the President lert an ear to their grievances and expressed deep anguish over the recent development.

Mr Digvijay Singh of the JD(U) was the third member of the NDA delegation.

Singur package hype fizzles out, The Statesman reports:

 The much-touted alternative compensation package for the landlosers in Singur, termed as the “best package in the country” turned out to be a mere repetition of what the state government has been saying for the past few months with the state commerce and industry minister, Mr Nirupam Sen, offering nothing more than re-skilling and placement to the affected families. At the same time, he ruled out any possibility of returning the acquired land citing “legal and practical impediments” or paying additional compensation to the farmers. Later, Mr Sen, said it would have been a ‘Himalayan blunder’ if the proposed small car project in Singur had been relocated or derailed due to the ongoing protests.
“This would have resulted in huge losses for the state as lot of other major investment projects might have backed off,” he said.
Mr Sen’s alternative package (he himself refrained from using the word ‘alternative’) came as a complete rebuttal to what had transpired in the meeting between the former chief minister, Mr Jyoti Basu and Miss Mamata Banerjee. Mr Basu had since then changed his stand, agreeing to Mr Sen’s argument that the land cannot be returned to the farmers.
Mr Sen’s package included ITI training for increasing employability in the Tata Motors plant or ancillary unit, catering, tailoring, computer skills, masonry and driving and community development works like roads, drainage and construction of toilets. WBIDC was still trying to address the problems of those who have no alternative to earning their livelihood from land. “Mr Basu felt it was the best package and hence he said so. You should judge whether anything new is being offered. I do not know whether such a package is being offered anywhere in the country even before the production has begun,” said Mr Sen when asked about the uniqueness of the package.
Asked whether the unwilling farmers would be happy with his ‘new’ package the minister said: “The state government makes no distinction between willing and unwilling farmers in case of land acquisition. What about those farmers who have accepted the compensation cheques?”
Interestingly, the chief minister and Mr Sen had once harped on the number of farmers giving consent to acquisition while justifying the setting of the Tata Motors factory at Singur despite local resistance. Mr Sen also rebutted Mr Basu on charges that land excess to what is required had been acquired in Singur. He said, that the capacity of Tata Motors required 1400 acres while the state government has given a little more than 950 acres for the project.
He also refused to draw parallel between the compensation packages offered by DLF and JSW steel. “Every business proposition has its own economics. It is their prerogative. But my concern is the people of my state and to ensure that they are not affected by the project,” he added.
Mr Sen chose to remain silent on how much the training were costing the state exchequer.
 
Nandigram a ticking time bomb?
 
 
NANDIGRAM: It could happen tomorrow, the day after, over the weekend, or even tonight as you sleep. And when it happens, more blood will probably flow than on March 14, when Nandigram, a backward block in East Midnapore, suddenly transformed into a national symbol of protests over land acquisition.

Police and even local level leaders see in the daily skirmishes a portent of things to come. This is just the build-up, the flash of lightning before the big storm. The 2,000-odd CPM supporters, driven out of their homes in January after the first clashes, are desperate to return home.

Equally desperate are the Bhumi Uchchhed Pratiriodh Committee (BUPC) supporters to stop the CPM men in their tracks. And the police are under strict orders — a fallout of their March 14 firing that left 14 dead — to be restrained.

The result is a huge stockpiling of arms. Clear boundary lines have been drawn, with pockets controlled by BUPC and CPM. For all practical purposes, the Talpati canal is the line of control.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Nandigram_a_ticking_time_bomb/articleshow/2134962.cms

 West Bengal should emerge as a frontrunner in industry in the next few years in tandem with its position in agriculture to solve its unemployment problem, communist patriarch Jyoti Basu said yesterday. West Bengal should emerge as a frontrunner in industry in the next few years in tandem with its position in agriculture to solve its unemployment problem, communist patriarch Jyoti Basu said Tuesday.

The number of the educated unemployed has increased with the rise in literacy levels in the state to 70 percent in the recent years, Basu told a press conference at his residence Indira Bhavan in Salt Lake to mark the completion of 30 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal.

Basu, who was the chief minister of the Left Front government for 24 years, said the unemployment level stood at 4 million when he left office. It is still at the level of 3.3 million and the administration needs to take note of the menace. He suggested setting up of more industries to reach the top position in the country in the next few years like the success in the agriculture production in the state.
The nonagenarian leader said the state should strive not to acquire agricultural land for industrial projects.He cited the example of Jindal Steel plant at Salboni, which is being set up on non-agricultural land.

Even if agricultural land was taken it should be followed by a compensation package prepared by the state, he said.Basu lauded the compensation package prepared by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen and said, ‘It is the best in India."

The veteran leader asked the opposition to be responsible in its activities. ‘By pulling down the boundary of the Tata Motors small car project and inciting violence, development cannot take place," he said.

‘Mamata (Banerjee) is on the wrong track," he said, referring to the Trinamool Congress chief"s protest programmes.

‘Nandigram carnage was to subjugate land protesters’, another Statesman Report:

KOLKATA, June 19: The Nandigram carnage of 14 March was not an accident but a contrived and pre-determined operation to quell dissent and subjugate the people who had opposed the proposal of the state government to acquire land, submitted Mr Sakti Nath Mukherjee before the Division Bench of the Chief Justice, Mr SS Nijjar and Mr Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose of Calcutta High Court today. He was making a submission on behalf of the High Court Bar Association and the Incorporated Law Society
On 14 March about 3,000 armed policemen and the additional SP had surrounded the Nandigram area. They were waiting for an order from the authorities to start the operation. On the previous day the home secretary had made a Press statement saying that the government had directed the police to enter the Nandigram area for restoration of trust and confidence of the people. These facts, Mr Mukherjee said, established that the incident of 14 March was a pre-determined police operation. Democracy, he said, permits dissent and disputes and even permits the anti-thesis to operate within itself. Democracy with the constitutional scheme containing fundamental rights cannot permit the State or its agencies to take police action for the purpose of compelling people to agree to its proposal for acquisition of land.
Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees a fundamental right to life and personal liberty and declares that a person cannot be deprived of his life and personal liberty except in accordance with the procedure established by law. The deprivation must be according to procedure and the procedure must be prescribed not by the executive but by law. Such law must be a positive enactment of the legislature and not an administrative rule. Answering a query from the court Mr Mukherjee stated that a Public Interest Litigation was radically different from ordinary adverserial writ proceedings. In a PIL a petitioner is merely an informant who has come to espouse a cause of those who cannot approach the court to ventilate their grievances. Such proceedings are not governed by the ordinary rules of procedure applicable to writ petitions. A PIL is in the nature of a cooperative endeavour on the part of those who approach the court on behalf of the persons affected. The State is required to be a participant in such a cooperative endeavour. The State cannot oppose the endeavour of the court to administer justice and provide relief to those who are in need of it.. For such purpose the court can call upon any authority to assist it. The court is not bound by any procedural rule relating to collection of evidence. Mr Mukherjee will resume his argument tomorrow.

Two kidnapped
Tension prevailed in Nandigram after two supporters of the BUPC were kidnapped allegedly by CPI-M activists when a meeting was in progress at Tekhali police camp. At least six rounds were fired by supporters of both the warring factions. Meanwhile, the state home secretary, Mr PR Ray, today admitted that there were “outsiders” in Nandigram but the presence of Maoists was yet to be proved.

Kanu Sanyal, one of the founders of India"s Maoist movement, lists the positives and negatives of Left rule in West Bengal as he sees it.

“The CPI-M did good work only in its first five years of power and never after that. Actually, the CPI-M or even the CPI (Communist Party of India) do not believe in total land reforms," said the reclusive Naxalite who has re-entered active politics after farmers" protests in Singur.Bhattacharya asserts that he is still a communist “but I now believe more in democracy… But I am not practising communism here any more, what I am doing is (fostering) capitalism".

It is difficult to believe in these times that it was only a year ago that the Left Front won a whopping 235 assembly seats, riding on the image of the suave Bhattacharya and his brand of industry-wooing liberal communism.Said noted economist Aviroop Sarkar: “The chief minister is on the right track so far as his impetus on industry is concerned. But the manner in which he proceeded has inherent loopholes. I think the Singur deal was not too profitable as the huge subsidy rolled out for the Tatas is not economically beneficial in long run."

Though the communists in Bengal have often been blamed for driving away industry from the state, the corporates are less uncharitable now.

Said Rumela Das, a housewife in south Kolkata: “We voted for the Left despite its failures because there is no credible opposition in this state. Despite all their arrogance, they offered us a stable government.

Clashes over Posco trigger migration in Orissa
 
JAGATSINGHPUR: Hundreds are leaving Orissa"s Jagatsinghpur district in search of work following clashes between supporters and opponents of South Korean steel giant Posco"s proposed plant. Many of the poor in the area feel that development work in the region has come to a standstill due to the continuing clashes between villagers over the setting up of the mega plant in the district.

“We have no choice but to leave in search of jobs," said Sukant Behera, 35, of Dhinikia village.

“If we stay on, there is no guarantee we will get any work here. Besides, we have to support either the protestors or supporters. If we support one group the other group will become angry," said Behera.

Behera and seven of his friends were waiting at a bus stand to go to Andhra Pradesh to work as labourers.

Posco, one of the world"s biggest steel-makers, signed a deal with the Orissa government in June 2005 to set up a steel plant near Paradeep by 2016 with an investment of $12 billion. Those who oppose the project claim that it will affect over 20,000 people from around 15 nearby villages, not only displacing them but also ruining the betel leaf farming that is their main source of livelihood.
Protestors have erected nine wooden entry gates to prevent government officials from entering their villages. Similarly, protestors have ostracised 40 families for backing the steel plant. Eight families who supported the plant have left their villages after repeated threats, alleged Samantray.

Mainstream, Vol XLV No 26

On Poverty, Food Inadequacy and Hunger in West Bengal
by D. Bandyopadhyay

Tuesday 19 June 2007

The National Sample Survey Organisation of the Government of India published a report entitled “Perceived Adequacy of Food Consumption in Indian Households 2004-2005”. This is based on NSS 61st Round, July 2004-June 2005. This report has made some damaging disclosures regarding non-availability of food to the rural households throughout the year in various States of the country. It has made a very short and pithy analysis of the food availability status of different States.

It has observed: “The percentage of rural household not getting enough food every day in some months of the year was the highest in West Bengal (10.6 per cent) followed by Orissa (4.8 per cent) and the least affected by food inadequacy were Haryana and Rajasthan. The proportion of those households who did not get enough food every day in any month of the year was highest in the State of Assam (3.6 per cent) followed by Orissa and West Bengal (1.3 per cent each).” If we get the two figures together—of food inadequacy in some months of the year and every day in every month of the year—West Bengal’s will be the highest with 12 per cent of the rural households

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