OtherIndia.org

On the morning of 20th April, some aurvival ration was being carried in a jeep by a member of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram to one of the re-habilitated villages by VCA as part of Right to Food Campaign in Bastar region, which were displaced by Salwa Judum attacks in Chhattisgarh.

“Since the ration is being carried on free distribution basis to the villagers and not on commercial, it is directly taken to VCA for documentation, but if you insist I’ll ask them to bring you the receipt right away. Moreover, the SP and Collector have already sealed positively on our written application on informing the same.” said the Campaign Co-ordinator Kopa Kunjam on being questioned regarding the receipt.

In spite of admitting that, the Inspector seized ration of 1200kg of rice, 50lr. of edible oil and a bag of salt on the SP’s order on phone. The receipt was brought within 2 hours of being stopped, while the ration was anyway seized and the Campaign Co-ordinator was told to go to the Civil Court of Bijapur Dist. in order to release the goods.

Next day the Town Police did not submit the Case Diary to the Civil Court by violating the orders on excuse of the ‘investigation is in process.’  Nevertheless, the jeep was released on submitting the legal documents to the Court, but the ration was not, in spite of the receipt.

On Wednesday, when the Ashram members went to the Civil Court, the Court Magistrate, Ramjeevan Devangan turned up only in the 2nd half of the working day, fully drunk with a bottle of alcohol in the pocket of his jeans. He kept claiming me to be supporting the Naxalites. He told me regarding his own children, and asked about my Hindi, my marital status, invited me at his place and nearly everything that was out-of-context. Moreover, when the Town Inspector entered the room to out-of-court influence the judge, he directed that the ration was going to the Naxalites, on which the Magistrate howled telling that he would not sign anything in interest of Himanshu Kumar , the head of VCA, claiming him and the Ashram to be helping the Naxalites. All this and his drunkardness made it hopeless for the Ashram members to expect him to sign the application in order to get the ration released from the Police custody, which eventually he did not sign.

Evidence has it, that in the year of 2008, on the recommendation of NHRC, after a fact finding action-play, the Supreme Court had ordered the State Government of Chhatisgarh to make necessary amendments to the tribes for the loss incurred in any forms due to Naxalite and Salwa Judum attacks. On this, Home Secretary of Chhatisgarh sent an order letter to the Collector of Bijapur and Dantewada and to the DGP of Chhatisgarh to take care of the following factors:

1 Providing safe rehabilitation, for which District Rehabilitation Committee should be formed and the Collector should prepare proposals and plans for rehabilitation and should send them to the State level Rehabilitation Committee.
2.Monetary compensation on the loss of property of the tribals by the Naxalite and Salwa Judum attacks.
3.The accommodation of Security forces should be taken care of by the Police Officers and that they should not be put up in schools or Ashrams(Residential Schools, many of which are presently occupied by Security forces).
4.Relief Camps should have food, health and sanitation facilities.
5.Any complaints regarding food facilities should be investigated by un-timely visits.
6.A monthly review should be carried out of the above stated factors of which the monthly report should be sent and also ensured, to the Home Ministry.

None of the interrogative letters sent in context to the above stated factors from the VCA on the basis of RTI Act has received a reply. VCA has been independently re-habilitating the villages, by sending search groups to border lines of Andhra Pradesh and around, without any Government initiatives. Not only this, the District Government has been a witness to many such activities of VCA, in spite of which the Town Police stopped the ration transport process, claiming it to be a help for the Naxalites, just so that the ration does not reach the tribals who have re-habilitated in their own villages.

Attaching such strings to the bigger picture, the question arises if the Dist. Police is just a puppet in the hands of the State Government to bring hindrances to the acts of help for the re-habilitated villages, so that the inmates of same disheartedly go back to where they fled to from the Salwa Judum and the Security forces’ attacks, which can create room for carrying out mining activities for MOUs of national and international companies like Essar, Tata. If such is the case, it may provide a lot of monetary accumulation to the State Government, but a definite loss of land properties and belongingness to the actual owners of the land of the Bastar region.

Veronica Kalpana Gautam, Journo-internee,
VCA, Chhatisgarh