Thousands March For Right To Food

Undaunted by the heat and the sun, with temperatures reaching 40⁰C, members of the Right to Food and Work Campaign-West Bengal reached Kolkata on April 27 for a deputation to the Food and Supplies Department. Those participating came from the Himalayan foothills of North Bengal, the islands of the Sunderbans, the burning red laterite soil of western West Bengal, the areas bordering Bangladesh and the green plains surrounding the Hooghly. Those in the processions ranged from sex workers to midday meal cooks, agricultural workers to van rickshaw pullers, housewives to members of self-help groups, domestic servants to tea garden workers etc. 

This huge group of over 5,000 people from 16 districts of the State, along with the urban poor of Kolkata, sent a delegation that met the Secretary Food and Supplies Department, Mr Durga Das Goswami and Joint Secretary and Nodal Officer (for the National Food Security Act), Mr Shubra Chakraborty. Their response was as follows:

Measures would be taken by the Department to segregate Government and tea management rations so that the management does not cheat tea garden workers by replacing its food grain component of wages-in-kind with Government rations.

The Department was already considering the Campaign’s demands to give wheat instead of bad quality atta. It was also in the process of issuing a circular to ensure that the five different types of cards are not used unfairly and to stop many poor families being enlisted as RKSY 2 and many better off families being given Antodaya cards. 

The delegation was assured that Vigilance and Monitoring Committees would be formed and made functional soon and representation from Campaign members in these committees would also be ensured.

The officials said that allotment copies of the amount of food grains transferred to each ration dealer would be provided to the members of the campaign. For this purpose, the delegation was asked to give a list of names with phone numbers in every block to whom they would give the allotment copy. Also the SMS system to provide ration card holders with information about their allotments would be re-started.

Issues such as universalization of the rationing system, formation of the Food Commission, bringing all food schemes under the Food Security Rules and providing all ration card holders with 14kgs of food grains, 1.5 kg pulses, 800 ml edible oil and 1 litre kerosene oil at subsidized prices were policy issues which they would forward to their superiors.

While the Department felt that the PoS machine could be used to stop corruption, they agreed to look at the Campaign’s experience in other states and to see that PoS machines and Aadhar cards do not become a means of exclusion.

The delegation was assured that on giving specific experiences, all food grains due to beneficiaries from their past quotas in the rationing system would be immediately disbursed to the beneficiaries;

The participants from 17 districts came to the Subodh Mullick Square in two rallies from Howrah Station, and Sealdah station. Throughout the rallies their main slogan was “Work in every hand and Food in every plate”, interspersed with songs and dances. 

While the original intention was to go to Khadya Bhawan itself, the police stopped the rallies at SM Square, where many participants made speeches in support of the demands while a delegation of 7 people met the Minister’s representatives.

Amongst the participating organisations, who are all members of the Campaign, were Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, Shramajeevi Mahila Samity, Udayani Social Action Forum’s self help group members, TUCC, Swayam’s Nari Suraksha committees, Durbar Disha Griha Paricharika Union, Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee, BMCDM etc.

        
RIGHT TO FOOD AND WORK CAMPAIGN

JANA SANGHATI KENDRA,1 Shibtala Road,Maheswarpur, Badu, Kolkata 700128

What To 'Expect' From The New West Bengal Government

 BY ANURADHA TALWAR

A couple of days after the election, I was asked me to write about what I “expect” from this second term TMC government. Expectations can be both positive and negative. So, what should one write? After puzzling over this for a couple of hours, I have decided to write both — about what we hope for and what we dread from past experience. So here it goes ….

This new Government should, first of all, concentrate on creation of honest ways of earning a living. So far, the only notable job created by them in their last term was through the recruitment of 1.3 lakh young men and women as civic police. As the High Court has rightly observed, the entire process of recruitment smacked of adhocism, nepotism and corruption. MLAs and police officials are rumoured to have made packets from bribes paid by these desperate young men and women. The employment they received was ill paid, irregular and risky, and even worse, morally corrupting. These young people were made to do all the dirty work by regular police – bully innocent people into paying a bribe, demand protection money from illicit liquor dens, stand at cross roads with the traffic police to collect a couple of rupees from each lorry etcetera.

The other job available for young people was to enter the “money market” – to glibly convince people with small savings and big greed to double or triple their money in dubious schemes of chit funds. Many of these young people are now being hounded by those who have lost all their money. Some have been forced into hiding, some have committed suicide, others live in dread of the depositors — not a very good way to build the character of our youth, you will agree.

Then, of course, there was the option of joining a syndicate and extorting money from people — tolabazi — by flexing your political muscle. In Birpara, in North Benga,l they even have a special name for this illegal act, making it almost respectable – they call it GT or Goonda Tax!

If you were too decent or frightened to do all this, there was the last option of working as a migrant worker in Kerala or Tamil Nadu, leaving home and hearth, and using one’s energies to develop another part of our country instead of one’s own neighbourhood.

The TMC, in its last term, excelled in providing doles to people. The closer the election came, the larger became these freebies. The workers of Jessop have been protesting for 5-6 years, wanting re-opening of their factory and steps to stop Ruia, the owner, from stripping their factory. Just a couple of days before the Model Code of Conduct came into force, the State Government declared that it would give Rs 10,000 per month to every worker. No mention has been made of the future of the factory or of protecting its property from stealing and stripping by the owner. Bigger sops — such as shoes and cycles for all school going children (never mind if some of them already had shoes or cycles!) — were also given. Compensation for crop loss due to rain and Cyclone Aila (which took place in 2010) was also distributed just before the elections. The State Government began providing rice and wheat at Rs 2 a kg under the National Food Security Act in February 2016. The implementation of an Act that was passed in 2013 was delayed till just before the election for no compelling reason.

That this strategy was a vote getter is clear from the election results. However, let us now see the new Government spend some money on schemes which are long term and which can have a telling impact on people’s lives and development.

What we need most of all is decent employment. We do not need the Tatas and their like to invest in large-scale industry, with a repeat of Singur, with coercive displacement and minimum job creation. We need investment in agriculture-based industry, in small and medium-scale industry, in tea, in jute, in engineering, where smaller investments create more jobs and where the produce of our own state is well utilised.

We invest lakhs of our tax money in educating young people in Government schools and universities. And then we leave them to a callous job market, with frustration as their future. On the other hand, we need paramedics, vets, paralegal workers, teachers, agricultural expertise etcetera for village people. When 100 days of work has been guaranteed for those willing to do manual labour, let the State Government now guarantee work such as teaching, medical work, veterinary work, agriculture etcetera at minimum wages for our young, educated youth. Let them provide much needed services in rural areas. Why should policing, cheating and extortion be the only means for these bright young people to earn a living?

Another thing that the TMC has excelled in is in turning democracy on its head. The Panchayat Act has provisions for a Gram Sansad meeting with all voters at the booth level that legally gives them the powers twice a year to plan for their village’s development and to check on the Panchayat’s accounts. During the Left Front’s rule, many of these meetings became a farce with false signatures and adjourned meetings. During the TMC’s regime, they have not only remained a farce, they have become a rarity. This upside-down democracy has been accompanied by violence and the use of false cases to intimidate any opposition — a potent mix that was invented by the Left Front and has been perfected by the TMC.

The TMC should atone for its past sins by passing amendments to the Panchayat Act, making these Gram Sansad meetings mandatory monthly affairs without which funds for development will not be passed onto the elected Panchayat. It should also amend the law to make the right to recall a reality — let the voters have the right to call back their representative if he or she does not function properly. Let the voters be true participants in the development of their villages, instead of just pawns whose votes are manipulated once in five years through freebies and fear.

Last but not least, there remain half-finished works from the previous term — a committee for minimum wages for tea workers was formed in 2015. It still has to declare the legal, minimum wage for tea workers. Domestic workers are now a part of the employment for which the State Government must declare a legal minimum wage, but no such wage has been declared. The National Food Security Act (NFSA) remains half done – people in Purulia and temporary or bigha workers living in tea gardens have still not got ration cards. The management of tea gardens is quietly passing off Government-given rations under the NFSA as rations given by the management, and is reducing the “food grains component” of the meagre wages they pay to workers.

Theft of wages under NREGA is reaching gigantic proportions — job card holders are told by the powers–that-be (the political goons in their village) that Rs 5,000 has been deposited in their bank account, without their doing any work at all. The job card holder is asked to withdraw the total amount, keep Rs 500 for himself and give the rest to his political God. The job card holder is happy, as are the political touts in his village. The height of decentralisation of corruption, don’t you think? It is the new Government’s job to stop such corruption.

So, what we want the Government to do has been listed above. But what do we actually expect? Unless some miracle happens, we expect a continuation of extortion by ruling party members at the grass roots, with the ‘let’s get rich quick’ being the main mantra. We expect a continuation of rule through a mix of doles, violence, false cases and fear. We expect apathy and fear amongst common people, with their role in society and politics being limited to voting once in five years and keeping their mouths shut.

Though I am not a great believer in prayer, perhaps we should all pray for a miracle of good governance in the second term of this Government. Only a miracle can change things.

A Bengali version of the article was published at Ei Samay.

'W.Bengal Needs To Move From Adhocism To Food Security Act'

BY ANURADHA TALWAR

Political analysts have almost unanimously said that freebies were a major factor for the Trinamool Congress’s huge win in the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal. Cheap rice for almost everyone, cycles and shoes for school-going children, money for crop damage – all of these added to their votes.

Clearly enthused by this, the state’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Jyotipriya Mullick, has announced that a Ramzan package of chick peas, flour and sugar will be available at a subsidised rate through the public distribution system till June 24. Just in case he was accused of minority appeasement, Mullick followed it up with one more announcement: that there would be a similar package for Durga Puja later this year.

The Ramzan and Durga Puja packages are not the first of their kind. Special food packages have been announced time and again – for festivals or after disasters. The problem with these packages is that they are for short periods of time. Before ration card holders become aware of them, the schemes end. As a result, very few ration card holders actually pick up these special rations. Instead, the rations find their way into the black market with ration shop dealers acting in collusion with some Food Department officials.

Before the National Food Security Act was implemented, rice and wheat rations for Above Poverty Line families were provided in an equally ad hoc and irregular manner, and most of these food grains used to find their way to the black market as the consumer had no idea about the quantity or when rations would be given.

When ration dealers benefit

The ration dealer always reaps extra profits when quantities are broken up into many different categories and prices are not in round numbers. When this happens, consumers get confused and are easily cheated.

While the system has been simplified considerably after the implementation of the National Food Security Act, West Bengal still has five categories of ration cards and ration packages are priced oddly. For instance, in Jangal Mahal, wheat flour packets weighing 750 gm are priced at Rs 2.62 in ration shops. At a time, when it is difficult to find 50 paise or even Re 1 coins, how will customers or ration shop dealers return 38 paise as change?

What succeeds best is a rationing system with just one or two categories of cards and easily remembered and rounded-off prices and quantities.

In his Ramzan package statement, Mullick also said that “the government would continue with Rs 2 per kg rice for all during this period [emphasis added].”

Is this his way of saying that the Rs 2 rice scheme can be withdrawn later?

Under the National Food Security Act, the Centre gives the state government rice at Rs 3 per kg for 6.01 crore people. The state provides a further subsidy of Re 1 per kg and sells the rice for Rs 2 per kg. In addition to this, the state government has two cheap rice schemes under the Rajya Khadya Suraksha Yojana – RKSY 1 and RKSY 2 – which cover an additional 1.7 crore people.
While the entitlements of beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act are legally guaranteed, the extra Re 1 subsidy and the state’s RKSY schemes are part of Bengal’s pre-election largesse. There is no legal assurance to back these up. In fact, there are already reports of pre-election related rations being discontinued (for instance in Ward No 21 of Barasat city in North 24 Parganas.)

After the Trinamool Congress first seized power in the state in 2011, the Food and Supplies Department website of the West Bengal government for many days carried the slogan: Food For All. This was their principal promise to the people.

Streamline rations

If this is indeed what the Mamata Banerjee government wants, it should move away from the adhocism of Ramzan and Durga Puja packages and Rajya Khadya Suraksha Yojanas. The government should instead pass a State Food Security Act that guarantees rice at Rs 2 per kg for all citizens.

Also, if the government is seriously concerned about malnutrition and its impact on people’s health, it should provide subsidised cooking oil and pulses in addition to cheap food grains to improve diets with proteins and fats. This has already been ordered by the Supreme Court for drought-hit areas in the Swaraj Abhiyan case.

The state government should also start taking measures to help farmers produce food. It should ensure that distress sale amongst farmers stops by arranging for doorstep procurement of food grains, pulses and oil seeds at remunerative prices. Without such measures, food production is becoming a loss-making enterprise. Distress migration from our villages to other states and frustration amongst unemployed are becoming major problems.
 
The chief minister and her food and civil supplies minister should remember that the elections are over as is the time for short-term, populist, vote-catching packages. Instead, the government should back up its cheap rice schemes with a Food Security Act, which will ensure food grains, pulses and cooking oil at subsidised prices for all. It should also invest in agriculture and give legal procurement at remunerative prices to farmers to ensure food production.

This article was originally printed at Scroll.in

Government starves NREGA of funds for second year in a row

The last financial year came to an end with 24 states facing a total of Rs 12,483 crore worth of pending payments in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The pending payments amount to over a quarter of the total expenditure incurred on the programme in these states in 2015-16. This situation has arisen due to insufficient transfer of funds from the central government to these states. The shortage of funds in these states – which include all the nine states reeling under drought - has led to millions of workers facing tremendous economic hardships due to long delays in wage payments. As per official calculations – which are a gross underestimation – 58 per cent of the total wages were not paid on time in 2015-16. Even when the workers do get paid, they will not get the compensation which is to be paid in cases of delays in wages.   

The insufficiency of funds also makes a mockery of the central government’s decision to increase the guarantee of work to 150 days a household in 2015-16 in the drought-affected states. Again as per official records, only 7 per cent of the total rural households registered in NREGA in the drought affected states got work for more than 100 days.

Apart from starving the programme of funds, the government is also not fulfilling its promises and making false claims. The Finance Ministry released only Rs 2,000 crore of the additional Rs 5,000 crore it agreed to spend on NREGA if the expenditure on the programme exceeded the allocated budget of Rs 34,699 crore in 2015-16. While announcing an allocation of Rs 38,500 crore for MGNREGA for 2016-17, the Finance Minister claimed that “if it is spent, will be the highest ever expenditure on MGNREA”. But twice in the past the expenditure on the programme has exceeded the allocation for 2016-17; Rs 39,377 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 38,552 crore in 2013-14.   

2015-16 was the second year in a row in which the NDA government capped expenditure on NREGA. By the end of 2014-15 also, nine states were left with pending wages worth Rs 1,203 crore which were made only after these states received funds for 2015-16. The same will happen this year as well; a whopping 30 per cent of the allocation for 2016-17 will be spent just in clearing pending payments from last year. With no commitment of providing additional resources if the expenditure on the programme exceeds Rs 38,500 crore in 2016-7, the under-funding of NREGA is likely to continue this year as well. These facts expose the hollowness of the central government’s claim of delivering a “pro-poor” budget for 2016-17.  

The NREGA is also being undermined by the stagnation of its wages, which are revised by the central government every year. State-wide increase in NREGA wages for 2016-17 range between 0 to 11 per cent, compared with last year’s wages (it is interesting to note that the wage increase of all the eight North Eastern states is less than 4 per cent). In many states, the NREGA wage is even lower than the minimum agricultural wage, thus failing to provide adequate economic security to rural households. For example, the NREGA wage rate of Jharkhand is Rs 45 less than its minimum agricultural wage. The central government has provided no justification for the nominal and differential rates of increase across the country. As payment of wages are now linked with the quantum of work done by them, many workers are paid even less than the paltry NREGA wages; either due to their inability to do the stipulated amount of work or due to errors in the measurement of work done by them.   

The NDA government is killing a programme whose decade-long achievements were recently hailed as a cause for “national pride and celebration” by the Union Minister of Rural Development. By failing to ensure timely work and payment and other entitlements to rural workers (such as unemployment allowance in case of non-availability of work, compensation for delayed wages, worksite facilities and timely redress of grievances), the central government is legally violating the employment guarantee act. It is contributing to the suffering of rural workers and forcing them to either migrate in distress or engage in exploitative employment.

The Right to Food Campaign demands the following:

• Immediate payment of all pending NREGA payments.
• Compensation for delayed payments to be paid automatically along with wages.
• As stated in the Ministry of Rural Development’s Master Circular on NREGA, the 1^st tranche of funds (half of the total person days agreed to in the labour budget) should be released in the month of April.
• A separate allocation to be made for the additional 50 days of employment per household approved for drought-affected states.
• Increase in the NREGA wage rate to a minimum of Rs 250, indexing the wage rate to inflation and transparency in wage revisions
• Time-bound punishment to all persons violating any entitlement of the employment guarantee act through institutionalization of social audits and other grievance redress mechanisms.

We are,

Kavita Srivastava and Dipa Sinha,

Convenors, Steering Committee of Right to Food Campaign

National Networks: Annie Raja, (National Federation for Indian Women), Colin Gonsalves , (Human Right Law Network), Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Anjali Bhardwaj, (National Campaign for People's Right to Information), Madhuresh, Arundhati Dhuru and Ulka Mahajan (National Alliance of People’s Movements), Asha Mishra and Kashinath Chatterjee (Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti), Ashok Bharti (National Conference of Dalit Organizations), Anuradha Talwar, Gautam Modi and Madhuri Krishnaswamy (New Trade Union Initiative), Binayak Sen (People’s Union for Civil Liberties), Subhash Bhatnagar (National Campaign Committee for Unorganized Sector workers), Paul Divakar and Asha Kowtal (National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights), Mira Shiva, Radha Holla and Vandana Prasad (Jan Swasthya Abhiyan), Ranjeet Kumar Verma, Prahlad Ray, Praveen Kumar, Anand Malakar (Rashtriya Viklang Manch), Lali Dhakar, Sarawasti Singh, Shilpa Dey and Radha Raghwal (National Forum for Single Women’s Rights), G V Ramanjaneyulu, Kavita Kuruganthi (Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture), Jashodhara (National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights), Ilango (National Fishworkers Federation), Zasia, Sonam, and Noor Jehan (Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan)

State Representatives: M Kodandram, Rama Melkape, Veena Shatrughana (Andhra Pradesh), Gangabhai and Samir Garg (Chhattisgarh), Abhay Kumar (Karnataka), Suresh Sawant, Mukta Srivastava (Maharashtra), Balram and James Herenj, Gurjeet Singh, Dheeraj (Jharkhand), Ashok Khandelwal, Shyam and Vijay Lakshmi (Rajasthan), Sachin Jain (Madhya Pradesh), Joseph Patelia, Sejal Dand, Neeta Hardikar and (Gujarat), Saito Basumaatary, Raju Narzari, Bondita Acharya and Sunil Kaul (Assam), Rupesh, (Bihar), V Suresh (Tamil Nadu), Bidyut Mohanty Raj Kishore Mishra, (Orissa), Ranjeet Kumar Varma, Bindu Singh, Sabina and Richa (Uttar Pradesh), Amrita Johri, Abdul Shakeel, Vimla, Koninika Ray and Rajender Kumar  (Delhi), Fr Jothi SJ and Mr. Saradindu (West Bengal)

Individual Representatives: Harsh Mander, Manas Ranjan, Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Ankita Aggarwal, Swati Narayan, Ritu Priya and Aditya Shrivastava

State-wide Rally Update

October 4: Number of rallies increase to three

October 5: Rally attacked by ruling party goons at Keshpur

October 6: Mass meeting in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas

October 7: Rally from South 24 Parganas broken up by police

October 7: Agreement signed on Rally’s demand for 20% bonus for tea garden workers

• Closed gardens owned by Duncans visited 
• Deputations to District Magistrates in Purulia, Midnapore, Bankura and North 24 Parganas

On October 4, while the rally in North Bengal that had started its journey from the Assam border continued its campaigning in the tea gardens of the Doars, another rally started from the Orissa border with 20 motorcycles, a pick up van with microphone set and a jeep. There were about 75 people in this rally.

This rally was attacked at Keshpur block on October 5 by goons of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) late in the evening. We received reports from the morning of TMC goons gathering at various places to stop the rally, and we were also told by the villagers who were hosting us, that they had been warned against keeping us in their village for the night. Despite this, after successfully campaigning in Keshpur town, the villagers insisted that the rally come to their areas..

The rally had a police escort with it from the time it entered Keshpur. It headed for Bibekpur village in the neighbouring Anandapur PS At Gameria, a village from which the rally turned off the main road for Bibekpur village, a mob of 150 people, shouting slogans eulogising the TMC and Mamata Banerjee attacked the rally with an improvised bomb. The rally broke into two parts and one motorcycle with three riders was taken off the route by the mob. These three people were told to leave the area immediately by the mob. One of the – an old man of about 55 years – was also slapped. The police helped the rest of the rally bikes and the two vehicles to cross the area. Later the mob on about 25-30 motorcycles chased the rally till it reached Bibekpur village . Entry into the village was blocked by the police jeep and our jeep.

An hour of slogan shouting, calling us “Harmads” ( a word commonly used for CPM goons), followed. An inflammatory speech by a local TMC leader, Tanoy Dandpat, followed , with slogans of “Go Back”. The rallyists began informing the press and senior party leaders of the TMC. They contacted the DM also. Later, the Home Secretary was contacted by friends from Delhi. Within an hour or so, things calmed down.

The villagers who had disappeared into their houses during the terror slowly came out of their houses, brought lights for their guests and made arrangements for their stay. The primary school where the rallyists were to stay was locked up by the goons. Villagers were told that if anyone allowed the rallyists to sleep on their verandahs or in their houses , their houses would be looted the next day.A good dinner which was being cooked all the time the trouble was going on was served and we were helped to our beds. The next day, the villagers kept expressing fear about reprisals after we left. Three to four families from Keshpur reported that their shops had been forcibly shut down because of their involvement with the rally. We therefore went and lodged complaints with OCs of both police stations before leaving the area.

The rally covered an excruciating distance of almost 150 km from Bibekpur in Paschim Midnapore to Purba Khanpur Bamanpara. The roads were terrible, and the motorcyclists , many of whom have never travelled long distance found it exhausting. The journey seemed never-ending especially as a large part of it had to be covered in the dark.

An extra bonus was a tea stop at a village in Burdwan, where the local people began talking to the rallyists. Many were sympathetic and though it was almost 9 o’clock at night, a crowd gathered around. We managed to sell a number of the small booklets we had printed for the campaign

The North Bengal rally travelled through the closed Duncans gardens of Hantapara, Gairganda, Dumchipara, Tulsipara and Lankapara, expressing its solidarity with the starving people of the closed gardens on the 4^th. They held a meeting with men and women from Lankapara tea garden, where they were hosted by the local unit of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, with the local Panchayat from GJM, Dumbar Tamang in the lead.

The rally was received at Birpara by Sunil, Secretary of the Birpara Taxi Union, who also organised snacks for the rallyists. In Chowpati, Birapara there was a street corner meeting. The idea of alternative politics and the demands of tea garden workers were explained in this meeting. After this meeting, the rally travelled through different tea gardens in Birpara, and Dhupguri and reached Champaguri bazar in the evening, where rallyists were again received by the local people and a meeting were organised by the local activists. Nearly 150 people were present in the meeting. Then, in the night, the rally headed for Neyaselli tea garden for the night stay. On October 5, the North Bengal rally covered Chalsa. Here in a public meeting Kiran Kalindi from PPWU and Sushovon Dhar from Osongohito Shromik Songrami Manch explained the demands of the campaign and the idea of alternative politics. 

After this, the rally campaigned in Batabari then Nowera Nudy Tea Gardens, both owned by the Tatas. The latter garden has recently been the site for a clash between workers belonging to the PPWU and some goons from the TMC. The clash was instigated by management to avoid discussion on the workers’ charter of demands the next day. Sixteen people from PPWU have a false case against them at the moment . The rally participants addressed this issue. The rally went around the tea garden and addressed a public meeting in the market. With this public meeting they ended their long journey of about 275 kilometres.

The rally from Orissa border had started from Ainkula in Dantan 1 block at 11:40 a.m. on October 4. On this day the rally campaigned through different blocks like Mohanpur, Dantan-1 and Dantan-2 and addressed public meeting on their way to Kharagpur. The campaign and speeches at Kharagpur evoked much interest. At Kharagpur , they visited seven villages in the area surrounding Changaul.

On October 4, a third rally where the motorcycles had started from the Jharkhand border joined the campaign. The next day, they gave a deputation to the District Magistrate  Purulia, and then proceeded towards Bankura, staying the night at Chhatna. On October 6, they joined rallyists in Bankura to meet the District Magistrate Bankura, while a cultural team performed outside the DM’s office. This rally travelled through extensive areas of Purulia, Bankura and Burdwan districts on October 4,5 and 6. They were pleased to find that people listened to their ideas of alternative politics and people’s rights. Our campaign on the non-implementation of National Food Security Act and NREGA was also well received. They finally met up with the rally from the Orissa border in a small village in Burdwan. The rally was now almost a kilometre long

Ironically despite all the attacks by party goons and the antipathy shown by TMC supporters to the red flags of the rally, the rally on October 6 was hosted at the house and village of the Food Minister Jyotipriya Mullick. His elder brother, Dr. Debopriyo Mullick made all the arrangements and also ensured our security.

On October 7, this huge rally met members of Udayani Social Action Forum at Masagram in Burdwan . A day-long campaign with members of the self-help groups in this area followed. Heavy rain and counting for the by-elections at the BDO office meant they could not make a deputation to the BDO at Pandua as planned earlier.

On October 7, the rally met with resistance from the police who broke up our state-wide campaign at Baruipur. The motorcycle rally was stopped early in the morning by police from the Baruipur Police Station, when they were about to proceed from the place where they had stayed on the night of October 5 at Sashan after a successful day of campaigning at Baruipur.

Motorcycles and the jeep which had the microphone that were being used for the campaign were not even allowed to get on to the road. The excuse given by the police has been that the motorcycle rally did not have “permission”. As far as we know, no such law exists banning motor cycle or other rallies or processions in South 24 Parganas district.

The police threatened to take away the papers of all the motorcycles and the pick-up with microphone that was with the rally. Police also insisted that banners be taken off and that the microphone be removed. All this is illegal and much beyond the powers that the police have.

It should be mentioned that the police, including DGP Police, and all concerned SPs from all districts through which the rally is passing were informed about the route of the rally, number of participants on motor cycles, stoppages, chief places of campaigning and major programmes on September 29, 2015. No information or feedback has been received from the police till date about the illegality of the programme. Also, the programme has been going on for six days without any such information.

On October 6, a rally also started from the Bangladesh border near Hasnabad in North 24 Parganas and travelled to Badu while campaigning on the way. The rally campaigned in Barasat the district headquarters the next day and gave a deputation to the District Magistrate.

It however did not enter the city of Kolkata as previously planned as there was fear that the police would seize their motorcycles as they had done at Baruipur that morning.

Today – on October 8- we are now proceeding towards Krishnanagar in Naida, where all rallies will meet to proceed to Plassey tomorrow for the culmination of the rally.

There has been good news in the meantime. Tea garden workers after completing the rally in their area came for negotiations to Kolkata on October 6 and 7 for their yearly bonus. This was the third round of negotiations.  Progressive Plantation Workers Union and the United Tea Workers Front managed to fight along with other unions for a 20% bonus and late at night the bonus agreement was signed.

Shameless On A Day Of Shame

On February 2, Lajja Diwas, a day of shame, a shameless NREGS Commissioner, Dibyendu Sarkar, was forced to meet about 30 members of the Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, who barged into his office. When hearing complaints about late payment, Mr Sarkar claimed triumphantly that he had almost cleared wages for 2013 -14. When asked whether he would also pay the workers compensation for late payment of wages, he claimed it was not his responsibility because the Centre was causing the delay. He also claimed that Central guidelines absolved him from such responsibility even if the guidelines were against the law.

  

When the activists told him about unpaid wages, he again complained about the lack of central funds. He said that though the National Employment Guarantee Act gives a guarantee of 100 days of work, the Central government had wanted to give only 54% of the labour budget demanded by states. He shamelessly admitted that the Central Government's action was against the law.

In further mockery of NREGA workers, he took no responsibility for the fact that his officials at the block and Panchayat level were refusing to receive applications for further work. He also gave a long explanation about bank accounts, FPOs etc. and blamed banks for delays in transfers to accounts of beneficiaries. Those in the protest found it difficult to understand why bank and Government coordination had still not become possible after 10 years of NREGA.

February 2 is NREGA Diwas, the day in 2006, when after 18 years of struggle all over the country by rural workers unions and other people’s organisations, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed. NREGA Diwas is used by the State and Central Government to flout their acheivements. Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, on the other hand, uses the anniversary and the month of February to highlight the problems being faced by rural workers in this programme.

PBKMS, as part of its programme also met the officials and district magistrates of Purulia, Bankura, South and North 24 Parganas and Nadia district with black badges. Black badges were also given to officials in blocks and Anchals of Paschim Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura, South and North 24 Parganas and Nadia district. There was a special march to Nabbana, the seat of the West Bengal Government, on the February 11.

PBKMS: Ninth State Conference

The Ninth State Conference of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity(PBKMS) will be held on November 23 and 24.

The Samity’s conference is taking place at a time when the situation of agricultural workers is becoming increasingly precarious.  Giving the pretext of economic reforms and development, all Governments in the state and at the centre have over the past three decades supported and pampered the corporate sector. This has led to the frightening situation of increasing pauperisation and landlessness in agriculture, with no alternative employment as jobless growth characterises the manufacturing sector. Agriculture is in a crisis with farmer suicides and distress migration.

To make matters worse, the few facilities that the Government has been willing to give in the past are now in the process of being withdrawn. The very limited 100 days work programme, fruit of a hard struggle for 18 years by PBKMS and other such workers’ organisations, is to be diluted even further. There is no sign of implementation of the National Food Security Act, which despite its imperfections would have provided some relief to agricultural workers.

In addition, various anti-labour measures are being adopted by both the State and Central Governments. Long standing and well accepted labour laws are being diluted; the right to strike is frowned upon; protests and organising by workers meets with attacks; it is becoming increasingly difficult to register trade unions etc.

A general climate of intolerance by the ruling party towards protest prevails in the state. To add to this worsening situation is the fear that political parties for narrow ends will rake up communal feelings.

During the conference, about 350-400 delegates of the PBKMS will spend two days looking at this alarming situation. They will also review their successes and failures in the past three years and will decide on their future strategies and programme.

The Ninth Conference will be held on November 23 and on the morning of November 24 at Maheswarpur Village PO Badu, Kolkata 700128.

The open session of the Ninth Conference will be held at Bharat Sabha Hall, Bow Bazar Street Kolkata from 1p.m. to 4 p.m. on November 24.

In keeping with the support and solidarity that you have always provided to the struggles of agricultural workers, you are requested to join us for the open session. Your presence will encourage us tremendously.

In solidarity

Swapan Ganguly, General Secretary

 

Boost For Our Struggle: W.B. Assembly Moves Unanimous Motion

On November 20, just a day before it was to close, a unanimous resolution was passed by voice vote in the West Bengal Assembly, asking the Central Government to stop dilution of the 100 days work programme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity sees this as a small success of the campaign it has been undertaking. Along with other members of the Osonghotit Khetra Shramik Sangrami Manch (The Struggle Platform of Unorganised Sector Workers- OKSSM), PBKMS has been carrying out a campaign to inform its members and the public at large about the Central Government's measures to dilute MGNREGA. Street corner meetings, public meetings, posters and handbills have formed an important part of this campaign. At the same time deputations have been given to BDOs and DMs of various districts in West Bengal.

As a culmination of this campaign, the PBKMS and other members of OKSSM met the Labour Minister, Mr Moloy Ghatak and the Panchayat and Rural Development Minister, Mr Subroto Mukherjee on November 3.  They also met the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Mr Mohammed Sohrab, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Suryakanta Mishra. We appealed to all of them to get an all-party resolution passed at the Assembly asking the Centre to refrain from diluting MGNREGA. The main points put forward to them were as follows:

· The Central Government's plan to withdraw/dilute MGNREGA in richer areas would mean huge deprivation for the people of West Bengal. If, as rumoured, MGNREGA was limited to the 200 districts (MGNREGA Phase 1 districts) 13 districts in West Bengal would be deprived of MGNREGA benefits.

· The budget allocation for the program has been decreasing in not just nominal but also in real terms over the past few years. From 2009-10 when the MGNREGA budget was 0.6% of our GDP (at factor cost) it halved to 0.3.% of  GDP at factor cost in 2013-14.

· Huge budget cuts have been imposed. Compared to last financial year, till September, there has been nearly 45 per cent reduction in funds released by the Centre to states for NREGA-the sharpest since the inception of the scheme. In West Bengal, the fund release came down to Rs 1782 crore, against Rs 2214 crore in the same period last year.

· The ratio between materials and labour has been reduced from 40:60 to 49:51 for all panchayat works to be maintained at the district level.  With budget allocations constant in money terms, raising wage rates and a larger proportion allocated to material, this will translate into even fewer person days available for workers.

· Instead of taking such negative measures , the Government should concentrate on promoting MGNREGA by correcting anti labour practices such as low wages (wage rates in MGNREGA continue to be less than the agricultural minimum wage declared in West Bengal, thus violating the Minimum Wage Act), delayed payment of wages, non provision of work and unemployment allowance and compensation for late payment of wages.

The resolution in the Assembly was moved by the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Partha Chatterjee, and supported by 11 MLAs including the Leader of the Opposition , Mr Surya Kanta Mishra, before being passed by a voice vote.

In these days when most news for workers is bad news, the small success against the withdrawal of MGNREGA has come as a boost for our union members, especially when all parties have come together above partisan interests for the worker's cause.

Second Day's Visit To Tea Gardens: Procession Of Death Continues

The procession of death remains unabated in the closed tea gardens. We had reported yesterday of 3 persons we had met in Bandapani Tea Gardens (TG) who were near death. Unfortunately, the first news we have got this morning is of the death of Mukesh Goala, one of these three persons. It has induced in all of us a feeling of great helplessness and anger at the injustice of life in the tea estates, where on the one hand owners make huge profits, paying a measly wage of Rs.95 to workers, abandoning gardens with impunity and on the other hand young men like Mukesh Goala die untimely deaths due to hunger and poverty.

The death remains unregistered in any official record and unmarked, part of many such unknown tragedies that take place here every day.

Our second day was spent in Dheklapara Tea Estate. This estate has been closed since 2006. It has been tied up in litigation with the Tea Board as one of the parties. The Tea Board was asked to take over the garden by the High court under Section 16 E of the Tea Act. The Tea Board has after 4-5 years of legal wrangling said it was unable to find a new buyer or run the garden in any other manner. Right now, a group of garden labour owing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress-run the garden selling leaves to a broker. This is done separately in two parts of the garden with the Nirpania division reporting payment of Rs.45 each day to each plucker and a sharing of the profits, while the main division pays Rs.35 per day. There are reports that the labour have recently asked the BDO for permission to allow them to do plantation of new bushes.

Besides plucking, the adults and children from the garden also work in collecting stone and sand from the river, stone breaking, work in a brick field, and at an Army construction site nearby. Earnings range from Rs.100 to Rs.140 per day.

Dheklapara has been the focus of the present Government’s relief efforts. Since December 2012, when it became the focus of attention due to many deaths, as well as threats of suicide by surviving workers, two successful community kitchens catering to about 150 destitute people are being run. Electricity has been given to all people. Water supply has improved. Antodaya rations are given regularly. The FAWLOI and old age pensions are being given with some delays. NREGS works are there though with delays in payment.

Despite the above, we got reports of at least 7 deaths from the three lines to which we had access. (In one line we were stopped from collecting information by rowdies who informed us that they were from the Trinamool Congress)

We also found three persons who were on the verge of death due to hunger. Budu Oraon, (62) has been suffering from low pressure .He fell down about a month ago. The family has kept him in one room. As he is unable to move and is bedridden, he soils himself. Medical aid is needed on an urgent basis in order to save his life.

Rabi Tanti from Beech line died 2 months ago after his FAWLOI (Family Allowance for Workers in Locked Out Industry) was stopped as he had crossed the age of 58. His wife Champa Tanti (59) is now in dire straits. With FAWLOI stopped and a 19 years old son who has no source of income, the family is hungry and Champa is likely to die. Mohan Khariya (57) s/o late Habil wife Surajmani (50). Both he and his wife get food from the community kitchen run under the Sahay scheme.

The above shows the limitation of Government relief efforts even when they are comparatively well run. Dheklapara and other closed gardens need re-opening more than anything. The workers of tea gardens need fair wages- not the paltry Rs.95 that they get presently.

The workers in Dheklapara should be helped to form a cooperative and to run their garden themselves, as many workers want this. Attempts to find an owner have failed and the seeds of self-running are already there- they need to be nurtured with good Government help and proper accountability systems. The tendency of rowdies with political patronage to control people managed processes must be controlled.
Related Read ('The Hindu'): Three Bandapani tea garden wokers bed-ridden: NGOs, trade unions

Food Campaign Team Finds Shocking Conditions At Tea Garden

A 12-member team from the Right to Food and Work Campaign, West Bengal on the first day of their survey of closed tea gardens visited Bandapani, the situation there is grim, to say the least. Twenty-nine deaths have taken place after closure since 13th July 2013. Three other persons are on death row. They are:

Amrit Jhora, aged 23, suffering from malnutrition and barely able to walk. The family has shown him to the National Rural Health Mission clinic being run by an NGO, MANT, for the last one year, but it has not helped. He has to be carried to the NGO’s camp, but this is not always possible. Surprisingly the NGO has not referred him to any other place.  Nanki Soren (aged 60 years) no family, husband has already died. No ration card or any other benefits. Abha Soren a neighbour feeds her occasionally- one meal a day. Mukesh Goala (23 years) suffering from diabetes according to his widowed mother. No earning member in the family.

The garden is not re-opening because it is mired in illegalities. Despite that, the Government has not taken corrective action. The lease given by the State Government has lapsed since 2006, and the ownership of the TG is now in dispute. The present “owner”, M/s Sarada Pleasure and Adventure Ltd, has been operating in the name of the past owner, M/s Alipurduar Enterprises Ltd, who in turn is not legally in possession of the tea garden land. The lapsed lease seems to be in the name of a third party. The disputed ownership is now acting as a problem to get a new owner. The management has also not deposited Provident Fund dues of about Rs.3.1 crores since 2002; electricity bills amounting to Rs.10-14 lakhs are lying unpaid; wages and salaries amounting to Rs.1 crore, gratuity of Rs.1 crore and bonus of Rs. 56 lakhs have not been paid.

The Labour Department and the district magistrate have called several meetings for re-opening, but the owner has not responded. In February 2014, the DM wrote to the Land Reforms and Land Revenue Department asking for lease cancellation. No progress is reported after that.

In the name of domestic work, many able bodied young women have been taken to cities and other places in Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim. One woman was sexually assaulted while at work and was forced to come back from Punjab when she was pregnant . She was taken to Delhi and then Punjab by an agent. Four to five agents seem to have free access to the garden, and they are reported to take away half the salary of the women they put in employment. Despite such problems, within this week, about 3-4 women from Chaibasa line say that they will be forced to leave for Bangalore as they have no other way of surviving in the garden.

The team found gross violation of Supreme Court orders on facilities to be given in closed gardens. While AAY rations are available, FAWLOI (family Allowance for Workers in Locked Out Industry) forms are just being distributed. NREGS works are largely unavailable. Drinking water is a severe problem, with insufficient, highly contaminated water often with worms coming from a Bhutan stream. Medical facilities being provided by an NGO under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) do not meet the NRHM norms, with most medicines having to be bought. Ambulance facilities are unavailable as are good referral services.

The team found stunted children and anaemic adults in the garden population. Most depend on stone collection from the river with an income of Rs.50-100 per day for a living. Many families reported eating only once a day. Huge numbers are migrating or getting trafficked.

 
Before coming to the gardens some members of the team had met the Food Minister, who had informed us of a number of positive measures being taken. The attitude of the Government towards this problem was seen by us as being very encouraging. However, however, our experience tells us that these measures still need more effort to percolate to the affected people.