People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 11
March 17, 2013
|
Vol. XXXVII
No. 11 March 17, 2013 |
THANE,
CPI(M)
Rally
Attacks Corrupt Nexus Mariam
Dhawale ON
March 4, 2013, a
large and angry rally of thousands of adivasis, led
by the CPI(M), marched to
the Talasari police station and tehsil office in
Thane district, demanding strict
action against the land mafia and its corrupt agents
who were trying to fleece
the poor adivasis of their land. The rally also
demanded immediate withdrawal
of the false cases against CPI(M) activists who have
been fighting against this
corrupt land mafia, and action against the police
officers responsible for
these false cases. TRIBALS
DEPRIVED OF THEIR DUE
RIGHTS As
another basic
demand, the rally insisted that the land of the
absentee landlords and also
forest land which is being tilled for generations by
the adivasis be vested in
the names of the tribals. To ensure that land became
more productive, the rally
demanded immediate irrigation facilities from dams
that had been completed with
funds from the tribal sub-plan, but the water from
which was being denied to
the tribals and was being sent to the urban areas
instead. It is a shameful
fact that only two per cent of the agricultural land
in Thane district is under
irrigation as against the state average of 18 per
cent (which is itself
abysmally low), in spite of the district having some
of the largest water
reservoirs in the state. Well
aware of the anger
of the tribals, the police headquarters had
specially deputed additional superintendent,
Nishandar, to meet the CPI(M) delegation in
Talasari. The tehsildar of Talasari
was also present during the discussion. The
administration and the police were
warned to solve the long-pending land issues at the
earliest and to keep a
strict check on the land mafia and its agents. They
were apprised of the truth
in the numerous false cases registered against
CPI(M) activists. The additional
SP promised to immediately review these cases and
take corrective steps. The
delegation also demanded stern action against all
the accused in cases of
atrocities against women and girl children. The
public meeting
was addressed by Dr Ashok Dhawale, Mahendra Singh, J
P Gavit (former MLA), L B
Dhangar, Lahanu Kom (former MP), Rajaram Ozare
(MLA), Mariam Dhawale, Barkya
Mangat, Edward Vartha, Ratan Budhar and Rasila
Dhodi. Among those in the
delegation were Ladak Kharpade, Hemlata Kom,
Sangeeta Ozare, Shankar Umbarsada,
Radka Kalangada and Rajesh Sadgir. The
rally also gave
a call to make a big success of the Sangharsh
Sandesh Jatha, which was
scheduled to address three public meetings in Thane
district on March 9 --- at
Dahanu, Jawhar and Talasari. Folders about the
jatha, published by the CPI(M)’s
BACKGROUND
OF
LAND
STRUGGLE Taking
advantage of
the illiteracy and backwardness amongst the tribals
during the British rule,
the landlord class usurped the former’s lands in
Dahanu, Talasari, Palghar,
Jawhar and Wada tehsils of Thane district. The
adivasis were forced to work as
bonded labourers on the very lands which they once
owned. It was against this
injustice that the historic Warli Adivasi Revolt was
organised by the united Communist
Party and the Kisan Sabha under the leadership of
Godavari Parulekar and
Shamrao Parulekar in 1945-47. Fearing the wrath of
the tribals who had suffered
immense cruelty and exploitation for decades, the
landlords fled these areas,
and most of them did not return. Today,
these adivasis
and their descendants are in possession of large
chunks of such land and have
been cultivating them for the past 65 years. For
many, this is their only means
of livelihood. The CPI(M) has been organising
regular struggles to get these
lands registered in the names of the tribals, since
they are still in the names
of the absentee landlords who had fled the area long
ago. Thane
district has
a large tribal population. Eight tehsils of the
district have a majority of tribal
population. These tehsils also have large forest
areas. Due to the
sky-rocketing land prices in the neo-liberal era,
land has become a precious
commodity today. The builder lobby, in collaboration
with the land mafia, has
been eyeing this land and has become very active in
Thane district, especially
because of its proximity to Mumbai. In connivance
with the revenue officials,
they are operating a racket to cheat the tribals of
their land. Bogus land
records have been prepared showing some
‘heirs’ of the earlier
landlords. The tribals have absolutely no means of
verifying or challenging any
of these documents. The local land mafia gets in
touch with this ‘heir,’
gets a buyer (probably a builder or contractor) for
this piece of land and
strikes a deal. Then this ‘new owner’ employs the
land mafia to clear his land
of ‘encroachments’ and to erect a fencing along the
boundary of the land he has
purchased. The tribals, who are in actual possession
of the land, are totally
unaware of all these dealings and come to know of
them only when attempts are
made to put up the compound fence and evict them
from their land. In order to
have their own share of the spoils, the police too
jump into the fray and to
protect the criminals. The land mafias belong to
the NCP, BJP or Bahujan
Vikas Aghadi (the notorious outfit known for
forcible eviction of tribals and
usurpation of their land by using muscle power). A RECENT
EXAMPLE OF SURREPTITIOUS
DEALS Kurjhe
is a village
in Talasari tehsil of Thane district. The Kurjhe
gram panchayat, along with
most other gram panchayats in Talasari tehsil, is
led by the CPI(M). During the
gram panchayat elections held recently, the NCP and
BJP used all kinds of
threats and inducements, but they did not succeed.
Here, in one of the padas
(hamlets) called Gavitpada, a surreptitious
land deal of the above mentioned kind took place.
Tribals of Kurjhe village
protested against the takeover of the piece of land
in Gavitpada and broke down
the fence. They did not allow the land mafia, led by
Kiran Dhamode who is the
tehsil president of the NCP, to evict the poor
tribal family there. The
sarpanch and up-sarpanch of the Kurjhe gram
panchayat intervened to protect the
affected tribal families. A fight took place with
injuries to both sides. The
police let off the land ‘dalals’ and slapped false
cases of dacoity and rioting
against the sarpanch, up-sarpanch and 11 other
comrades, including two women.
This triggered an uproar amongst the tribal
community all over Talasari tehsil. During
the last assembly
elections in 2009, the CPI(M) won the Dahanu (ST)
constituency, with Rajaram
Ozare being elected MLA. This seat was earlier held
by the NCP MLA Krishna
Ghoda who is known for shielding corruption in
foodgrains and land deals. The
constituencies were reorganised before the last
assembly elections. The CPI(M),
through tremendous hard work and struggles, won this
seat. The party has been
waging a continuous struggle in Thane district
against the onslaught on the people’s
rights. Hoarders and blackmarketeers of rationed
foodgrains have been exposed. TARGETING
THE
CPI(M)
Unable
to break the
stronghold of the CPI(M), vested interests in Dahanu
and Talasari, led by the
NCP and BJP, have started using the help of the
police force and are lodging
false cases against CPI(M) activists. Blatantly
false cases of murder and
dacoity are being registered, so that bail is not
granted. In
Maharashtra just
as elsewhere in the country, the police force is so
corrupt that they shield
the perpetrators of the crime even in incidents of
atrocities on women and girls.
It was only after prolonged struggles and determined
follow-up by the All India
Democratic Women’s Association and Democratic Youth
Federation of India that
certain cases of atrocities against women could be
registered. In the last
three years, around 100 leading activists of the
CPI(M) have been implicated in
various cases through such false complaints. On
February 27,
2012, a CPI(M) and AIDWA woman tribal activist,
Mathi Ozare from the Vasa
village of Talasari tehsil, was murdered by BJP
goons because she had worked
sincerely for the victory of the CPI(M) in the
just-concluded Zilla Parishad
and Panchayat Samiti elections. She was the 60th
martyr of the communist movement
in Thane district since the famous Adivasi Revolt of
1945, and the first woman
martyr in the district. There had already been a
deep and growing sense of anger
among the tribals against this corrupt NCP-BJP-land
mafia-police nexus, and
this anger erupted after the incident in Kurjhe
village. The large and spirited
rally on March 4 was its result. The rally vowed to
further strengthen the
struggle.
