OtherIndia.org

On 3rd August evening around 6.30 Kopa Kunjam VCA Rehablitation Coordnator's house was raided by CRPF. They searched his house without any papers of such search and then asked Kopa to show them the way to Dantewada and to come along upto nereby river.When Kopa reached near the river with CRPF group they started beating him with rifle butts and slapped him from all sides.They threatened him to quit VCA immediately. He has gone to Bilaspur to file a complaint against this attack.

 “When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist.”

                                                                            Dom. Helder Camara 

Salwa Judum in halbi means ‘peace gathering.’ The version that government prefers. In gondi it means ‘collective hunting.’  Cruel ironies like these define Bastar and the whole of Chhattisgarh. 

An eighteen-year old intern from Pune witnesses state repression firsthand. 

    As part of my Media and Communication program of SIU, I have been interning with Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, a Gandhian non-profit organization, based in the conflict-zone of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. For the last few years, the Ashram has increasingly raised its voice against state atrocities upon civilians. I have been involved in the projects to rehabilitate villagers who fled as the result of the atrocities afflicted upon them by both warring parties.

ANOTHER CASE OF ARREST FOR VAGUELY DEFINED OFFENCES UNDER THE DRACONIAN CHHATTISGARH SPECIAL PUBLIC SAFETY ACT.

By Sudha Bharadwaj

Pawan Verma was a worker - an expert cook in the Canteen and VIP Guesthouse of the erstwhile L&T Cement, now Ultratech Cement plant at Hirmi, district Raipur, Chhattisgarh. A few years ago, fed up with the anti-worker attitude of the management, he took voluntary retirement and lives in village Hirmi. I have known him ever since I fought cases for his union Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh.Recently he contacted me after it was published in the local newspapers that his daughter Ruchi Verma and her husband Bhola Bagh (both under 30 years of age), and their one-and-a-half year old son had been arrested under Section 8(1) (3) and (5) of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act (CSPSA). It was alleged that a "Naxalite woman" had confessed to the police that she had put up for a short while with the couple. Section 8(1) of the CSPSA is the penalty for being the member of an unlawful organisation, while 8(3) and (5) concern managing or aiding such an organisation..