[1149] in peace2
an urgent situation in West Bengal, India (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (The perpetual skew line)
Mon Oct 22 12:52:33 2001
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 12:51:35 -0400 (EDT)
From: The perpetual skew line <paladin@lillith.mit.edu>
To: peace-list@mit.edu
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From a good friend of mine, who is working in India right now.
There is little direct action individual US Citizens can do, but if you
are an Indian citizen at large, you should definitely see this, and may be
interested in taking action. Please forward to appropriate lists.
Eric
...
To all the lives that have been and will be destroyed by the plane
crashes, rains of fire and biological warfare these past weeks, let me
first offer my sympathies. But in a time when all our eyes are turned to
the bombs being dropped on Kabul, let us not forget that on this planet,
there are still millions of lives being destroyed that the news networks
will not cover. Without diminishing our attentions from the U.S./Afghan
war, I ask that we do not forget the invisible sectors of our population:
the poor, the homeless, the hungry. And while the images of starving and
crippled children in Afghanistan are powerful, do not forget those in your
own hometown, who you can more directly help. It is in the name of a group
of these invisible people that I write you today. On September 22, 2001,
the government of West Bengal, India started a large-scale eviction
project of the slums along the banks of a canal (the Tully Nullah) off the
River Ganges. To date, thousands of people have been displaced, and the
project is not yet half over. These people lived in shanties and lean
-to’s with tin or tarp roofs. The ”canal” at their front door is no better
than an open sewer. They lived as hawkers, servants, rickshaw drivers,
etc. By most standards, they had nothing. Now, even that has been taken
away. The official reason is to build a branch of the Metro on top of the
sewage -laden canal. This in and of itself is not a smart idea, even for
the middle class market it is being built for. So in an attempt to remodel
Calcutta, we have a poorly designed Metro branch, and thousands of people
displaced without rehabilitation. All we are asking for is rehabilitation.
If the government is going to take away the homes of people with voter and
ration cards, and legitimate addresses in a country that can boast of
being the world’s largest democracy, they can at least give the voters new
places to live. It doesn’t take much – a few multi story flats on a much
smaller plot of land will suffice to provide homes of similar size to the
ones these people live in. For those of you wondering why this case is
more important than the many that happen all over the world like this on a
regular basis, I can answer in two ways. In terms of human loss, it is the
same, but one must pick a place to start the protest. In terms of future
implications, if this “eviction” succeeds, the government of West Bengal
plans on using this as a model for future evictions all over Calcutta,
basically sweeping the poor from one settlement to another until they
leave the city, or die. Is that any way to raise a family? As Indian
Citizens or NRI’S, I ask that you take 2 minutes of your time to forward
the following letter on to Buddhadeb Bhattacharia (prsecycm@wb.nic.in),
the Chief Minister of West Bengal. Please send this entire e-mail to other
people who may be interested, and sign and forward this by the end of
November 2001. The Indian community abroad should know what their
government is doing at home. Your word holds a lot of weight with the
government here. As, other, concerned citizens of this world, your letter
on this regard will also add pressure. This type of tragedy cannot go on
if the world is watching. If you have more time, please, compose a letter
or your own to send. Thank you for your time, and your help in spreading
the word.
Yours in peace,
Susama Agarwala
Hon. Buddhadeb Bhattacharia
Chief Minster
Calcutta, West Bengal
Dear Sir,
I am writing you concerning the evictions along the Tully Nuallah in
Kolkata. Thousands of people have been and will be forcibly removed from
their homes in the name of urban development and city beautification.
This is a tragedy. The fact that they are not being given another place
to resettle is an outrage. You claim that these people are leaving “voluntarily.”
Why then was there a need of military and police presence at the time
of evictions? And if these people could leave “voluntarily,” why would
they stay for years in those wretched conditions?
These evictees were part of your voter base. Your government has given
them ration cards, has taken their taxes, has received their vote. And
now you remove them and tell them to find a different place on their
own? If they had the ability to find a different place, would they have
chosen to stay in the filth and disease found along the Tully Nullah’s
banks? And is this how you treat citizens in the world’s largest democracy,
as the head of a “left wing” government?
Give the evictees a place to resettle so they may send their children
to school, so they may raise their families, so they may retain their
dignity. What you are doing there is wrong. What you are doing there
cannot be tolerated. What you are doing there must be stopped.
Sincerely,
Sign here
--
Susama agarwala
susama@onebox.com - email
(630) 536-2702 x1729 - voicemail/fax
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