Another police-people protest witnessed in India. First it was Nandigram and Singur and now Asansol. Villagers rebelled trying to stop takeover of plots acquired 18 years ago.

The root cause of the problem is the acquisition of the 240 acres of non-farm land, for modernizing the IISCO Steel Plant (ISP). The villagers rue that they did not get enough compensation in return for their lands. And now they are fighting for a bigger compensation and a job in the plant for each of the 350 families.

The villagers lost their case in Calcutta High Court last week, and the same requires them to vacate the land, but they are not ready to give up their land, as they feel dissatisfied with the compensation as well as the verdict. As the verdict came, the administration required the villagers to empty the lands and when the villagers didn’t follow suite, they were expecting police action.

An 850 policemen and women marched to the land. The protesters numbering 1000 including men, women and children were too much for the police force to handle. The situation soon worsened as protesters including men, women and children clashed with the police. Women and children formed a human protective shield around the men. But, the brutality of the police was again witnessed when they dragged women protesters to waiting buses. Lathi-charge left a dozen villagers injured. Deputy magistrate Soumya Bhattacharya was injured when protesters stoned the police. The police arrested 80 men and 46 women. As the news spread, the Congress and Trinamul activists ransacked police station demanding the release of those villagers put behind bars.

Later on, the villagers charged the police with molesting their protesting women. Despite this, the villagers have vowed to continue their agitation till their demands are paid heed to. The Asansol administration has clamped Section 144 to prevent crowding at the village.

For the lack of money, the steel plant couldn’t start modernization earlier. But, with the Rs 10,000-crore package announced by the Prime Minister, the project sprang back to life. The state Government started paying the compensation money to the villagers last year, which the Congress as well as the land losers claim to be insufficient. The Congress asserts that ISP offered a compensation package of over Rs 13 lakh an acre, but the state government has paid only Rs 5.6 lakh an acre to the villagers.

However, the Jindals have offered to provide jobs to land-losers at the site of their planned Salboni steel plant.

Singur, Nandigram and now Asansol are burning on the issue of acquiring agricultural lands for proposed factories. The stubborn attitude of the government and politicization of the issue is only adding to the violence. There is every possibility that this police-public conflict would engulf the entire nation. Government must initiate talks with the aggrieved people to decide proper compensation and resettlement packages for the displaced. We need industrialization to save people from poverty and unemployment but not at the cost of their lives and willingness.

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Via: The Telegraph