In this issue: Highlights of the People’s National Convention Against Nuclear Energy Thissur: Violent clashes between protestors and police over NGIL Plant No Note for Vote: Anti - Nuclear activist Myllapali Polisu wins Sarpanch elections in Kovvada
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 6 1st August 2013
Shocking Apathy: NAPM fact Finding Report on Bihar Midday Meal Tragedy
NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS
Footprints
BILAL KHAN
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he Mid-Day Meal (MDM) tragedy, in which 25 innocent children died and 30 other suffered critically, occurred at Dharmsati Navsirjid Primary School, Gandaman district Chapra of Bihar on July 16, 2013. The National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) decided to carry out an independent investigation, through a four member team including Santosh Upadhyay, Manilal, Mahendra Kumar and Arvind Yadav. The fact- finding team covered all aspects of the mishap, visiting the site of incident, interacting with the parents of victims, meeting local villagers, approaching the administration and the police. They visited Patna Medical College and Hospital (P.M.C.H) where the children were being treated. They also visited burial sites of the children, 7-8 feet away from the school at different locations. The team registered some startling statements made by the parents of the victims. According to one statement, the children were strictly compelled by the Principal, Meena Devi, to eat the spicy meal despite protestations. Parent Shambu Mishra said, “My daughter told me the food was spicy that day”, and stated that the Principal disregarded the childrens’ strong objections. Another parent, Harendra Mishra, informed the team that around 7080 children had shifted there from another school nearby that did not provide the mandatory khichdi and cost of uniform. Parents of all the 220 children enrolled at that school
to the West of the village, had complained to the administration but no action had been taken. Hence, 7080 children shifted to the Dharsati Navsirjid Primary School. Mishra added, “If that school had taken action, this mishap would never have struck my home”. He said that the Collector, Block Development Officer (B.D.O) and Sub- Divisional Officer (S.D.O) had personally distributed cheques worth Rs. 2 lakhs after the tragedy. He alleged, “This is not a mishap. It is a well planned conspiracy.” Victim Minta Kumari stated that her cousin Soni Kumari had been “beaten and forced to eat”. Kumari Basanti, whose younger sister died in the tragedy, said that when she was visiting the market that day, her younger sister Rita beckoned her to the school and showed, “Madam standing with a stick”. Her younger sister told her, “The food is too spicy but our teachers beat us if we don’t eat”. Basanti also said that she saw children falling to the g r o u n d , a n d t h e “madam” (Principal), when asked, said that they were just playing. Basanti recalled how the children started having stomach ache, vomited and subsequently died. The administrative functionaries refused to reply to NAPM’s queries, arguing that it would affect the investigation process. The team was also prevented from seeing the children admitted to P.M.C.H on the grounds that it would put mental pressure on the children. The team members sensed fear in the victims
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FOOTPRINTS
CONTENTS Cover Story: NAPM REPORT ON MIDDAY MEAL TRAGEDY NAPM’s investigating team complete their investigations and release report on the Midday Meal Tragedy
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NGIL Plant in Kerala: Agitations against the Nitta Gelatin Company, Thrissur turned violent leaving almost 70 injured
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People’s National Convention Against Nuclear Energy: Highlights
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Chutkha Nuclear Plant Public Hearing Cancelled Second Time: The MP government refuses to give any reasons for the postponement
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No Note for Vote Triumphs! Nuclear activist Mylapalli Polisu wins Sarpanch elections in Kovvada, Andhra Pradesh
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Updates and Events
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Editorial
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and their parents. The Superintendent of Police (SP) declined to give them his permission - mandatory for visiting the victims- saying he was too busy to do so. The Head of Department, Sanjata Roy Choudhry, told the team that the children are out of danger, and expressed annoyance at the media. Upon investigation, the team found the school infrastructure highly inadequate. It did not have its own building and was conducted in a community house with one room
and a corridor surrounded by trees and farmland, also frequented as a rest- house by the villagers. The school lacked numerous basic facilities. The NAPM team concluded that if strict action had been taken on earlier reports about MDM in the area, this tragedy could have been averted. They also noted that it was not just a mistake, but a conspiracy. They observed that the Government machinery failed to cope with the situation, the doctors in the hospital misbehaved with the helpless parents, and no one carried out their responsibility honestly. The team held that the government would try to curtail all its flaws in this regard, and hence a government- formed Special Investigation Team would serve no purpose. The team concluded with the following recommendations:
Bihar Government- formed Equal Education System Commission (Mukund Dubey Committee) recommendations should be implemented.
The teaching staff should not be engaged in non-teaching work.
An independent, accountable body should be established to ensure proper implementation of MDM scheme.
Every school should have basic health facilities.
Vigilance teams at the school and local levels should be given more power and complete accountability.
Other administrative functionaries, including the Education Department, should be given certain responsibilities.
All those responsible for this mishap should be booked for murder.
Investigation must be carried out by the CBI.
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VOL 1 ISSUE 6
Another Bhopal in Making : NGIL Plant in Kerala Agrima Gupta
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he agitation against the Nitta Gelatin India Ltd (NGIL) Company in Kathikudam, a village in Thrissur District of Kerala, turned violent resulting in injuries to some 70 persons, including eight policemen, on Sunday (21st July). The NGIL Action Council had declared on Sunday morning that it would remove the company’s illegally laid effluent discharge pipes to the Chalakudy River. About 750 police personnel were posted in the area. The pipes are also said to be laid through a private citizen’s land without his consent and through the Panchayat land against the order of the Panchayat. The activists took out a rally around 3 p.m. to the area where the pipes were located but the police blocked the activists. The protesters turned violent when they were returning to the ‘Samara pandal’ near the factory. The activists ran in confusion as the police resorted to lathi charge. Tension gripped the area when the activists, including women, sustained injuries in the clashes. The police allegedly entered the houses of protesters, attacked and arrested even housewives and children. The injured were admitted to various hospitals in Angamaly and Chalakudy seeking medical help, while some of them were rushed to ICU with more serious injuries. Home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan asked director-general of police K.S. Balasubramaniam to probe the incident, in quick response to the lathi charge. Following the police lathi charge during the agitation, the district collector, M. S. Jaya, had also issued stop memo to the company for two days which was later extended further. On 29th and 30th May local people saw dead fish turning up along the banks of Chalakudy River. The NGIL Action Council had alleged that discharge of toxic industrial waste by NGIL along the banks of the Chalakudy River was behind the fish-kills. But
these allegations were out and out refused by NGIL. The company allegedly uses per day 6290200 litres of water from the Chalakudy river, 130 tons of crushed animal bones, 1,20,000 liters of hydrochloric acid, and 20 tons of lime. It also uses ferric chloride, alum, caustic soda and other unknown chemicals. More than sixty tons of effluents are produced when the bones are washed in the water and hydrochloric acid, as per official records. The company discharges large quantity of toxic effluents in the river, which is the main source of drinking water and cultivation in the nearby areas. The sludges formed from the waste that’s pumped out are distributed as fertiliser to farmers in nearby villages. The people of this village live in fear that the huge tanks, storing 30 lakhs litres of hydrochloric acid, may burst one day, making the tragedy similar to that happened in Bhopal in 1984. The huge profit from the company operations goes to the Japanese counterparts of the company, the Nitta Gelatin Inc and Mitsubishi Corporation. This struggle between the activists and the locals with the company has been on for almost 30 years now.The locals have been facing huge health impacts on their lives. During the past 10 years more than 60 people have died of cancer and asthma, bronchitis and skin diseases are spreading in the area. NGIL is a joint venture of Kerala Industrial Development Corporation and the Japanese Company, Nitta Gelatin Co. set in 1975, starting production in 1979 The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) demands that the Kerala Government, heading to people's struggle, immediately shut down the NGIL plant at Kathikudam. It also demands the state government to initiate long term measures for treatment of land and water, compensate people for loss of livelihood and health and take action against the officials who ordered brutal lathi charge on the
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gathering on the 21st of July which was incidentally inaugurated by Prof. Sara Joseph, Congress MLA T.N. Pratapan, who is fully supporting the struggle, Vilayoty Venugopal (convener Plachimata struggle) and attended by many others. Given the current circumstances we have all the reason to believe that
FOOTPRINTS
NGIL IS AN IMPENDING DISASTER just like Bhopal Gas tragedy in 1984, both plants belonging to the same era. Victims of Bhopal tragedy are yet to get justice even after nearly three decades and we must all unite to stop any such tragedy at Kathikudam.
People’s National Convention Against Nuclear Energy
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ndia has a long history of impassioned anti-nuclear activism, and has seen right since the inception of India’s nuclear programme the emergence of numerous grassroots movements against nuclear reactors, uranium mines and other nuclear activity. People from Koodankulam and Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu), Jaitapur and Tarapur (Maharashtra), Mithi Virdi and Kakrapar (Gujarat), Hyderabad and Kovvada (Andhra Pradesh), Gorakhpur (Haryana), Chutka (Madhya Pradesh), Haripur (West Bengal), Rawatbhata (Rajasthan), Jadugoda (Jharkhand) and Kaiga (Karnataka) among others, have been part of relentless struggles against existing or proposed nuclear power projects which have threatened the wellbeing of their communities. Such movements have scored many significant victories, but the peaceful protests have often also been met with callousness and brutal repression by the powers that be. In a show of solidarity, to share their stories and their vision for a safe and more sustainable energy future, and to draw out a plan for collective action, representatives of these anti-nuclear movements came together in Ahmedabad on 25th July for the People’s National Convention Against Nuclear Energy. At the convention, a joint charter of demands was released. The charter urges the government to stop turning a blind-eye to the very obvious short-comings of India's nuclear energy programme, acknowledge that there are serious and legitimate concerns about the hazards of nuclear power, and allow open
and democratic debate on nuclear energy and its alternatives. It calls for a moratorium on all proposed nuclear reactor projects in India, and expresses the need for the constitution of a citizens’ commission to examine the appropriateness, desirability, safety, environmental soundness, costs and long-term problems posed by nuclear power generation. Calling the existing process of environmental impact assessment for nuclear projects unacceptable, the charter advocates the conduct of mandatory public hearings and the full disclosure of all pertinent facts related to the project in particular and nuclear energy in general to the local population, without whose approval the project should not receive clearance. Other demands include bringing in stronger legislation to replace the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, and amendments to the Nuclear (Civil Liability) Act, 2010 which will maximise the transparency of functioning and public accountability of the nuclear programme and ensure absolute liability of suppliers; and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal all charges of sedition and other false allegations against people protesting against nuclear projects. The charter states, "it is imperative to prepare a comprehensive alternative energy policy based on principles of equity, environmental sustainability and affordability, and on conventional and non-conventional energy resources...The nuclear energy fuel cycle is too important a matter to be left only in the hands of scientists, bureaucrats, industrialists and politicians."
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VOL 1 ISSUE 6
Chutkha Nuclear Plant Public Hearing Cancelled Second Time Agrima Gupta
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he Madhya Pradesh government is facing enormous resistance over a proposed nuclear power station in the tribaldominated Chutka village of Mandala district. The Public Hearing due on the 31st of July was postponed indefinitely for the second time (first being on the 21st of May). The authorities refuse to state the reasons for its postponement but the popular notion is that, with the people protesting and the elections round the corner, the government wishes to avoid violence or any untoward situation. The 1,400 MW plant (two units of 700 MW each) is planned over 497.73 hectares (of which 67.70 hectares will be for the residential colony of the NPCIL employees) in Narayanganj tehsil, roughly 400 km east of Bhopal by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Company. The three villages which are proposed under the evacuation plan are Chutka, Tatighat and Kunda. They are predominantly populated by the Gond tribe, who’s main occupation in growing lentils, corn, maize, mustard and staple Gond millets like Kodo (Palspalum scrolaiculatum) and Kutki (Panicum sumatrense). District Magistrate and Collector Lokesh Jatav has said that at least 3,500 jobs will be created for locals and that the administration is trying to identify trades in which 1,000 youth can be trained. Also, residential complex of NPCIL employees will create a demand for local farmers. A number of people participating in the agitation have already lost their homes once to the Bargi Dam on the river Narmada in 1984 and have faced the negatives of displace-
ment. NAPM member and peace activist, Sandeep Pandey says that there are two main issues with the nuclear power project coming up in the area. The first is the local issue of displacement. The people believe that land is permanent and cannot be replaced by contract jobs or cash compensations. They’d rather die than be separated from their land. The second issue is the larger issue which debates that a nuclear power plant is not the only viable option to generate power. The risk involved is huge and has been realized world over. There are other possible options to generate power and the government should explore these. Moreover, the area which is selected falls under seismic zone 3, a high damage risk area. The Chutka Parmanu Sangharsh Samiti (formed in August 2009) has been protesting and trying to put forward the adversities this multi crore nuclear power project can cause. They are supported in their efforts by the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), the CPIML (KN Ramachandran group) and the CPI. According to the draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) report the cost of the nuclear project is expected to be around Rs.16,550 crore.
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FOOTPRINTS
No Vote for Note Meghna
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he widespread practice of cash- for- vote in rural India is a bane to democracy and to numerous people’s struggles across the country. A silver lining, however, was seen in July in the village of Kovvada, in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. The people of Jeeru Kovvada are currently fighting the construction of a nuclear power plant under India’s civil nuclear agreement with the United States. Recently held Sarpanch elections here were fraught with corruption and bribery. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) backed the candidate most likely to bend in its favour and reportedly spent Rs. 15- 20 lakhs in campaigning, through their representative Venkata Ramesh. Pradesh Congress Committee members and State authorities did their best to manipulate the elections, and hundreds of cases of liquor were brought into the village to help the people make up their minds. Yet, the candidate who won with more than a thousand votes was Mylapalli Polisu- the man who spearheaded the relay hunger strike against nuclear power in his village in December 2012. As in the case of Kovvada, more and more of the rural poor today are left with no choice but to fight against their government for their right to have a home and a livelihood, and they need the support and guidance of impassioned local leadership for this. Without the voice of local, elected authority speaking up within the system and working in their favour, people’s movements against the establishment across the country would be greatly crippled. In this situation, the deeply entrenched practice of cash- for- vote in Panchayat election is a massive hindrance to popular struggles in numerous villages, districts and states of India.
The Indian establishment today is making wanton use of antiquated laws like the Land Acquisition Act and exploitative policies like the SEZ policy to pursue its ambitious plans of foreign- invested development and nuclear power. While development in principle is much needed, it is chronically skewed in present- day India. Thousands still await rehabilitation after having been evacuated decades ago for the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project, and government assurances are not something the people are willing to accept in exchange for acquisition of home ad farmland in the name of development. Nuclear power has been a bone of contention in the country for years, especially since the authorities never seem to have satisfactory responses to queries about nuclear waste disposal. In the case of the Kovvada nuclear
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) backed the candidate most likely to bend in its favour and reportedly spent Rs. 1520 lakhs in campaigning...hundreds of cases of liquor were brought into the village to help the people make up their minds.
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- Success in Kovvada Majumdar
Under Polisu the people have been on a relay hunger strike against it for over seven months now...NAPM hails Polisu’s victory as one of the initial, more prominent victories of their “No vote for note” campaign. power plant, five villages have been marked “project affected” by the state government and almost 8, 000 people (1, 983 families) face displacement. Under Polisu - the NAPM campaign leader for the cause in Kovvada the people have been on a relay hunger strike against it for over seven months now. Polisu’s victory was one against a number of odds. NAPM Andhra Pradesh State convenor Saraswati Kavula reported that even the District Collector had come in and made an attempt to stall the declaration of results. The results were declared at 9:00 pm, after the Election Commission stepped in on account of a complaint lodged by NAPM. NAPM hails this as one of the initial, more prominent victories of their “No vote for note” campaign spearheaded in 2009. According to Kavula, when the people elect a leader based
on bribes offered instead of merit, they forego the right to hold the leaders accountable and question their decisions. “Everything depends on the people understanding their role as voters”, she says, “The core of Democracy is the people’s ability to elect good leaders and participate in governance. Sadly, leaders have gotten the people used to the concept of cash, food, liquor or gifts for votes”. Kavula spoke about a similar victory in Mandal, where the Independent candidate who had worked long and hard against pollution of the nearby river had been elected as Sarpanch, defeating a party- backed opponent who had spent around Rs. 2 crores in campaigning, putting it in sharp contrast against the village of Kathrapali, whose people were not even aware that a public hearing to discuss displacement had taken place in the village- their Sarpanch, elected by bribe and backed by interested authorities, had given his consent on paper behind closed doors. “We are trying to educate the people in this regard”, says Kavula, “What needs to be understood is that corruption in elections will soon translate into corruption for against the people in policy. Change is slowly taking place, and has started with the places already grappling with such issues”.
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FOOTPRINTS
Updates and Events Kudankulam update n 29th July, the Madras High Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to comply with the Supreme Court order and withdraw criminal cases against antiKundankulam Nuclear Power Plant protestors. A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice R K Agrawal and Justice M Satyanarayana also dismissed two public interest litigations, seeking to comply with the directions given by the Supreme Court, challenging clearance given by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
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Mandal-Bechraji SIR: Meeting ministers unfruitful Public meeting and consultation to be held on 2nd Aug n the meeting held on 30th July 2013, in Gandhinagar between 4 leaders from the anti-SIR movement and 4 ministers of the Govt.of Gujarat, the latter categorically refused to entertain the demand for withdrawal of the SIR notification. They only said that the farmers can, if they so wished for now, continue with their agricultural operations. If the farmers wished, in the future (34 years hence), they could demand the SIR, till which time the area would be declared as an agriculture zone. This went against what the CM had promised in the meeting with movement leaders on 10th July, 2013.
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This proposition is not acceptable to the movement and to the people. The next round of planning will take place on 2nd August 2013 in village Vasna at 3 pm to share the news and analysis with the people and to plan for the future. Contact: Lalji Desai - 9727589344 Sagar Rabari - 9409307693
NBA: Round Table Sharing on 3rd Aug, New Delhi Narmada Bachao Andolan is organising a Round Table Sharing on Narmada Valley: River and Life Today Date & time: August 3rd at 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm Venue: Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development 14-A, Vishnu Digamber Marg, Rouse Avenue Lane, New Delhi Telefax: +91 11 23236440, 23236387 Contact: 09212587159, 09818905316
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VOL 1 ISSUE 6
EDITORIAL Reposing Faith in People's Politics
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wo significant incidents have happened in the past two weeks- firstly the election, as Sarpanch, of leader of the anti- nuclear movement in Kovada, Andhra Pradesh, and secondly, a thunderous rejection to the mining proposal of Vedanta in Niyamagiri hills by nine Gram Sabhas of Dongaria Kondhs. These incidents reiterate the fact that given a chance, the people can decide their future and can play a dominant role in the development planning process. The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Indian Constitution were extremely significant and intended to decentralise power to the bottom level. However, it has been constantly bypassed at every step of planning and the Planning Commission continues to prepare and approve plans and plan expenditure at both the Union and State level.
trading or bribery of MLAs and MPs by the government to gain majority in Assemblies or Parliament. The menace of cash- for- votes is prevalent at all levels and campaigns like Melkulpu aims at voter education and awareness of the existing laws and provisions to a section of the masses.
This must change. There are many who use occupation of the Panchayats by dominant castes, ethnic or religious groups or their inability to understand the complexities of governance and administration as an excuse, but the fact remains that people know best what is in their interest, as shown in both the cases. The necessary faith and will and support can empower these bodies to take decisions which are not only in their interest, but also in wider interest.
In this regard, the two judgements on participation of people with criminal background are a significant development. The interpretation is bound to be misused by parties in power against the opposition- as witnessed during the Emergency- but that alone cannot be the reason for having murders and rapists sitting in the sacred halls of Parliament. As a democracy we have to evolve ways to counter the menace of money and muscle in elections and for that necessary reforms must be carried forward. But overall, the implementation of the 73rd and 74th amendment provisions in Gram Sabha and Basti Sabha will go a long way in empowering the people and making them a participant in development process.
The Melkulpu (No Note for Vote) campaign launched by NAPM in Andhra Pradesh doesn't hold village folk as primarily responsible for this menace. It is the political parties and business interests which are guiding such phenomenon as is seen in instances of horse
Influence of money is having a corrupting influence on the electoral and democratic processes, thus calling for wider political and electoral reforms, some of which don't even need a constitutional amendment since Election Commission of India can take those steps within the current framework. Recent admission by some political leaders of having spent way beyond the prescribed limit in elections demands exemplary action from ECI but nothing has been done yet.
FOOTPRINTS Editorial Team Meghna Majumdar Agrima Gupta Surabhi Aggarwal Stephanie Samuel Madhuresh Kumar
FOOTPRINTS is an NAPM initiative
National Alliance of People’s Movements
towards providing our friends and
(NAPM) started as a process in 1992
supporters updated news of NAPM’s and its associates activities, analytical articles, views and interviews. The newsletter runs on a fortnightly basis and is issued on the 1st and 16th each month. We encourage you to send in press releases, photographs, articles, situation updates to be featured in Footprints. Movement of India, NAPM’s English magazine, will continue as before.
amidst the Ayodhya backlash and globalization spree and took a definite shape in 1996 after a long national tour of 15 states by senior activists. It is an alliance progressive people’s organisations and movements, who while retaining their autonomous identities, are working together to bring the struggle for primacy of rights of communities over natural resources, conservation and governance, de-centralised democratic development and towards a just, sustainable and egalitarian society in the true spirit of globalism.
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We stand against corporate globalisation, communalism and religious fundamentalism, patriarchy, casteism, untouchability and discrimination of all kinds. We believe an alliance emerging out of such a process with shared ideology and diverse strategies can give rise to a strong social, political force and a national People's movement. In its quest for a larger alliance, beyond the people’s movements, NAPM also reaches out to integrate various civil society organisations and individuals working towards similar goals.