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Hindustan Times
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Bruised and battered in police action, protesting teachers revive sit-in agitation
Kolkata, Barely 12 hours after jobless teachers found themselves at the receiving end of alleged police excesses as retaliation to laying siege to Bikash Bhavan, the West Bengal education department headquarters in Salt Lake, the protestors were back to ground zero on Friday, raising slogans in favour of their demand for 'reinstatement of jobs with dignity'. Many of the protestors had their heads and limbs bandaged, bearing testimony to the police baton-charge on them the previous evening. The gates of Bikash Bhavan, which also houses the office of Education Minister Bratya Basu, were locked by the authorities. On the previous day, those locks were broken by the agitators to enter the sprawling complex, forcing government employees to remain stuck inside till late evening, a move that led to the clashes between the teachers and the police. The agitators, teachers and non-teaching staff who claim they are 'untainted and deserving' in the murky school jobs scam, demanded that the state government take legal steps to reinstate them in the jobs they lost following a Supreme Court order last month. They also refused to write the exams for fresh recruitment, the process of which has to be completed by December by an Apex court order. The protesting teachers, numbering over a thousand, remained in a sit-in on the city thoroughfare outside the Bikash Bhavan premises and shouted slogans, while a large posse of police personnel stood on guard. Slogans such as "Nyajya chakri rakhbo, rajpathe thakbo " or 'Lojja lojja ' were heard. Several of those injured on Thursday also raised their voices in unison. Sitting on a makeshift podium, Dilip Ghosh, a wounded teacher who hailed from Purba Medinipur district, was watching his colleagues protest. Ghosh, who was taken to a hospital after sustaining serious leg and back injuries during the police action on May 13 night, insisted on coming back to the venue of protest, but he was barely able to speak. A fellow teacher Suman Das narrated to PTI how Ghosh was cornered as police swung into action and a RAF member hit him with a baton injuring him. "As police herded us from inside the compound to the road outside and ordered to vacate the premises within five minutes, we took him outside holding him by the arms and legs and took him to the hospital in a taxi," Das, a teacher of same district, told PTI. Suman Biswas, another teacher with a bandaged forehead, said as he refused to leave the premises unless Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visits them and holds talks. He said he was punched by a constable who also pushed him. "After primary treatment, I returned to the venue. We will not enter the compound this time. We cannot be bodily lifted from the road. Let them open fire this time," he said. Donning traditional attires, a five-member group of Santhals, reached the spot pledging solidarity with the protestors and condemning the police action, as the teachers chanted: 'Bhata chai na, chakri chai .' Personnel of RAF, police force stood in full riot gear before the main entrance of Bikash Bhavan turning the area into a fortress. Some of the protesters approached them, asking them to understand their situation. "Why don't you appreciate our situation? Don't you have children, elderly parents at home? Why are you behaving in this way? Please allow us to go inside. There are women, at least allow them to use the washroom in Bikash Bhavan," some of the teachers were seen telling the police personnel. But the personnel in uniform looked on silently, those pleas falling on deaf ears. One of them told PTI: "We are only doing our duty. We cannot do anything on our own.'
Indian Express
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
His govt facing heat from tribals, Himanta visits Sonapur to calm the nerves
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Wednesday visited a site in Sonapur where an eviction exercise last September turned violent leaving two people dead and many more injured. He was at the site to inspect the area, which the state government has now chosen as a site to relocate the Assam Police's 10th Battalion from its current site in Guwahati. On September 9 last year, the Assam government had conducted an eviction drive in Kachutali village in the Sonapur revenue circle – where most of the residents are Bengali Muslims –on the grounds that the area in which they had built the houses was under the notified tribal belt of South Kamrup. Under Assam's land regulations the sale and purchase, lease, settlement in notified tribal belts and blocks is restricted to 'Protected Classes' which includes Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Santhals, tea tribes and Gorkhas. During the course of the eviction drive, the district administration had cleared 1,050 bighas of land and around 650 families had been displaced. While tribal groups in the area had hailed the eviction, they now find themselves opposing the government's move to set up a police battalion there. The plan had first come to light in March this year, when Finance Minister Ajanta Neog presented the state government's budget for the current financial year. Announcing this decision, she had said: 'This will provide a safety net to the tribal people from encroachment of their land in that tribal belt. Additionally, this will give an opportunity to the government to develop a world-class central business district with modern infrastructure,' the minister had said During his visit to the site Wednesday, Sarma said that setting up the battalion in the site would 'keep it secure from future encroachments.' He also claimed that the government would use 'not more than 100 bighas' of the over 1,000 bighas of land in which evictions were cleared for the battalion. 'Because this is tribal belt and block land, we think that the land should either be given to landless tribals or that it should be used to set up some project that will benefit the tribal people here, like a university, a medical college, or even a museum on tribal culture. Our people will not be benefitted in any way by a security establishment here. We know because there are already so many security establishments which have been set up here and the people have not benefited from them. Instead, tribal land is only going to decrease because of this,' said Manik Ronghang, president of the Tribal People's Confederation Dimoria, referring to existing Air Force Station, SSB CRPF and ITBP campuses in Sonapur. Echoing the appeal for alternative uses of the land, Bodo Kachari Youth Students' Union Jiten Mahilary, said, 'We had been demanding that the land be freed from encroachment but now this move is like the government itself encroaching that tribal land. The police battalion is already there in Guwahati. If it shifts here, what is going to happen to that land?' In apparent response to such concerns, Sarma told reporters Wednesday that the government would try to work towards such initiatives on the land remaining after the construction of the battalion but that 'we will first secure the land and once the battalion comes, the land will be properly secured'. In the meantime, some of the families whose homes had been destroyed in the demolition continue to live in the area, either in tarpaulin sheet structures or in a nearby mosque. 'The chief minister came today and told us to leave so we don't have any options anymore. We will have to leave but we don't have anywhere to go because we are landless,' said Harun Rashed, whose family continues to live in a tarpaulin structure there.
The Hindu
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Days after HC order, Adivasi body insists it will go ahead with its symbolic hunt
Days after the Jharkhand High Court directed the State government to enforce the Central government's orders prohibiting non-vegetarian food, harming animals, and excessive tourism on the Jain pilgrimage site of Parasnath Hill, Marang Buru Sanvta Susaar Baisi (MBSSB), a local Santhal association, insisted that it will go ahead with its traditional hunting ritual next week on the hill, which is of religious significance to the Adivasi community as well. MBSSB president and local BJP leader Sikander Hembrom explained the cultural and historic significance of the tradition. 'Our ritual has been going on for centuries. We will go ahead with the symbolic hunting ritual on May 12,' he told The Hindu. The ritual is a symbolic hunt arranged in the forests of the Marang Buru, where Santhal people spend a night hunting and then gather for a two-day tribal assembly in a nearby village to settle community-level issues. The hunt is largely symbolic and does not include killing animals. Centre's prohibition Mr. Hembrom's assertion comes days after a Bench of the Jharkhand High Court ordered the State government to increase the deployment of home guards on the hill to enforce the orders of the Union Environment Ministry, which had notified it as a special eco-sensitive zone in 2019 besides prohibiting certain activities in and around the area through an office memorandum. The memorandum had also put a stay on the State government's plans to turn the area into a location for religious eco-tourism, which had faced backlash from the Jain community across the country. At the time, tension had sparked between the Santhals and the Jain pilgrims, with Mr. Hembrom arguing that their culture and worshipping rights on the hill was under attack. He said the ritual has been held on the hill routinely and never required any permission from the district administration. 'We will proceed as usual. There will only be tensions if there is any attempt to stop us. We have never made fun of Jain rituals or pilgrims, we have never stopped their worship on the hills. Why are they attacking our culture?' he said. With the hunt scheduled next week, Superintendent of Police, Giridih, told The Hindu that they are yet to receive any inputs on any possible adverse event. 'But we are monitoring the situation,' he said. The dispute between the Jain and Adivasi communities over worshipping rights on the Parasnath hill or Marang Buru has been going on for more than a century, according to historical records. The 1911 Census had recorded this dispute by mentioning a suit filed by a Swetambar Jain sect, which had reached the Privy Council. The latter, though, established the customary rights of Adivasis. Repeated requests Over the last few years, the MBSSB has written several times to the Centre and the State governments, alleging there has been a concerted effort from members of the Jain community to file similarly-worded complaints on the PM Jan Shikayat portal, denying the existence of the Marang Buru ritual and that 'non-Jains' had 'illegally' established worship practices on the hill. The High Court order had come on May 2 on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Ahmedabad-based 'Jyot', which describes itself as an organisation with the aim of 'spreading the nectar of knowledge' and 'helping an individual enrich their thoughts'. The NGO, started in 2009 by Jainacharya Yugbhushansuriji, said in its petition that it protects religious rights across the country, adding that the Parasnath was as important to Jains as Ayodhya was to Hindus. It noted it has collected over 7 lakh signatures to 'protect the sanctity of the Hill'. While the State government argued that the petition was a disguised attempt by the NGO to restrict the Adivasi customs and rituals, its lawyers opposed the submission and said the organisation did not intend to do that. The court agreed and had issued the directions to implement the Centre's orders and asked the State government to increase deployment of home guards to enforce the order. The court is expected to hear the matter again in July for compliance of its directions.
