> (Calcutta)
> Dear friends,
> Many of you had received an appeal early in
> September about the impending mass evictions of
> thousands of poor families in and around Kolkata
> (Calcutta), West Bengal. Thanks to everyone who
> had written to the state government against this
> gross human rights violation and demanding
> rehabilitation measures. Your support has been
> dear to us.
> We are writing to you now about what happened
> since. For those who did not receive the
> earlier letter, the background is also given
> here. We are writing to you with the hope that
> considering the gravity of the situation, you
> will reiterate and strengthen your support to
> the thousands who have already been victims of
> this anti-poor development policy of the
> government and are spending their days in a
> difficult situation as rehabilitation has been
> denied to them. Your support is needed further
> to protect the fundamental right to life and
> livelihood of the millions who are going to face
> the bulldozers very soon.
> The West Bengal government has taken up a huge
> project to evict all poor settlers -- officially
> called illegal encroachers -- and street hawkers
> from the city and its suburbs, in order make it
> more "developed" and "investor friendly". As the
> first step, it announced that the 20,000-odd
> people from the banks of the Tolly's Nullah
> (Adiganga canal) would be evicted. The
> ostensible purpose for this eviction was
> twofold: dredging the canal under Ganga Action
> Plan Phase II, and extending the Metro Railway
> from Tollygunge to Garia in the south.
> The government has planned eviction of other
> canalside settlers, too, under the ADB-sponsored
> Calcutta Environment Improvement Project. In
> that project it has incorporated a component for
> rehabilitation under pressure from the
> international financial institution, but
> completely denied it in the Tolly's Nullah
> project, which is funded by the Union and the
> state governments on a 75:25 basis. Of late
> though, the state urban development minister has
> declared through the media that even in areas
> under the ADB project, only those who have
> "legal deeds" will be rehabilitated, thus
> violating the original understanding that all
> settlers -- registered or unregistered -- would
> get rehabilitation.
> On September 8, 2001, the West Bengal government
> announced that the first leg of evictions along
> Tolly's Nullah from Garia station to Kudghat
> would begin on September 22. On September 25, it
> published an advertisement in the city dailies
> claiming that the "encroachers" had left
> "voluntarily", to "cooperate with the
> development work".
> Nothing can be farther from the truth. The
> people were forced to flee, terrorised by the
> police and rapid action force personnel deployed
> in unprecedented numbers from September
> 14. These personnel went door to door forcing
> people to accept an unsigned, unstamped "token",
> which they said could be redeemed later for Rs
> 2,000 which the government had kindly agreed to
> dole out as "shifting cost". Many refused to
> accept such an incredible compensation and were
> threatened and beaten.
> On September 22, the eviction drive between
> Garia station and Garia bus stand involved
> severe human rights violations. In many areas,
> everyone including children, the aged and women
> faced abuse, kicks, blows and sticks. Boiling
> rice pots were upturned. Among the seriously
> injured were an elderly woman named Sunity
> Barui, as well as 16-year-old schoolboy Indrajit
> Sarkar. Top police and administrative officials,
> includintendent of police and district
> magistrate of South 24-Parganas district led the
> operation.
> The second leg of the operation between Garia
> bus stand and Kudghat on September 25 was even
> more brutal. Armed personnel entered the huts of
> those who did not move even after seeing the
> terror unleashed earlier and forced them to
> dismantle their own homes. There were even
> complaints of the personnel urinating on beds to
> evict people. A large number of women who held
> on to the last were beaten black and blue.
> In these two day's operations, a total of 1,150
> families have been evicted, according to
> official figures. Most of them had nowhere to
> go, an began living in the open amid the rubble
> with their children, elders and sick members.
> From September 26, the Ucchhed Birodhi Jukta
> Mancha, a forum of various mass organisations
> that has been spearheading the struggle of the
> `development refugees' for rehabilitation, set
> up a community kitchen at Garia. Heavy rains
> began rom 30 September.
> Amid this calamity, the police attacked again on
> October 2, Gandhi's birthday. They demolished
> the community kitchen and tore away even the
> small plastic-sheet rain shelters that had been
> set up for the homeless destitutes. Three women,
> Malati Ghosh, Rekha Das and Kalpana sen and a
> man, Arun Bhattacharya, were arrested as they
> offered peaceful resistance.
> The officer-in-charge of the Jadavpur police
> station said publicly that the police had orders
> "from the top" and that the community kitchen
> was considered as a place of "potentially
> dangerous assembly".
> The people, however, could not be cowed
> down. The community kitchen was resumed at the
> same spot a day after and a new one was set up
> in another area. Faced with public criticism,
> the urban development minister said it was not
> proper for the police to have demolished the
> community kitchen. However, the authorities
> tried a new game. They fenced off the Garia
> kitchen by barbed wire on October 20, making it
> inaccessible for the people. After the activists
> threatened a fast unto death, the irrigation
> minister, whose department owns the land, agreed
> to keep a small opening through the fencing.
> The government, meanwhile, has been speaking in
> different voices. Three partners of the ruling
> Left Front, the RSP, CPI and Forward Bloc, have
> publicly demanded rehabilitation for the
> oustees. However, the urban development
> minister, belonging to the CPI(M), had ruled out
> rehabilitation initially. Later, he announced
> that only 100 families would be selected by
> "lottery" for rehabilitation on a government
> plot earmarked for low-income-group housing. The
> following day, he said they would have to "buy"
> the plots at the usual LIG price. After that,
> there is a total silence. Even the food and
> clothes for the homeless promised by the state
> relief department was not given. The Ucchhed
> Birodhi Jukta Mancha and its sympathisers have
> been pooling their resources and raising public
> donations to run the community kitchen. Women's
> organisations and individuals came together to
> distribute new clothes to children during the
> Durga Puja festival.
> Please voice your concern immediately to
> Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,
> chief minister of West Bengal,
> Writers' Buildings,
> Kolkata, West Bengal,
> India,
>
> e-mail:
prsecycm@wb.nic.in > We would be grateful if you send us a copy, and of
> course, your messages of support, advice, criticism
> and queries, to
>
>
sengautam@hotmail.com, >
soma1kunal@caltiger.com or >
ndutta@cal2.vsnl.net.in 
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