manavadhikar
From : Arun Kumar
Vice President
Peoples' Union For Civil Liberties(PUCL)
Bihar State Unit
Member, National Executive Committee
Indian Journalists Union (IJU)
President
The Times Of India Newspaper Employees Union
e-mail:rights.arun@gmail.com
mobile : 94306 19508
Dear Sir,
On the basis of my two decade long expeience as a journalist and human
rights activist in a turbulent state like Bihar I would like to
suggest that so far as creation of an independent watchdog body to
probe public comlaints against the police for serious misconduct is
concerned there should be absolutely no induction of police officers
and bureaurcrats - be it serving or retired - in this commission. It
is because in general such officials tend to protect the erring
policemen. It should be consisting of more and more honest high court
judges- serving or retired, advocates, academicians, civil society
organisation activists (not the NGO functionaries receiving grants
from either the government or from the foreign donor agencies) -
having impeccable record.
On the other hand I would favour inclusion of experienced and honest
bureaucrats and police officials as well as member of the police
constabulary in the body dealing with the redressal of grievances
from the police officers and constabulary. It would be helpful in
taking advantage of their experiences as a serving police man and
bureaucrat.
But the two bodies must be working seperately otherwise it would be
coming into each other's way as the nature of the two bodies would be
different one.
With Thanks and Regards.
--
Arun Kumar
Friday, September 22, 2006
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Tribals of 191 villages of the two districts of Shahbad division enraged at being deprived of basic amenities turn to Maoism
By Arun Kumar
Rohtas Garh (Rohtas) : Tribals of 191 villages of the two districts of Rohtas and Kaimur in Bihar, located in the foothills of the Vindhya mountain ranges enraged at being deprived of basic amenities like drinking water, primary education and medicare turn to Maoism.
They have been unjustly deprived from firewood, fodder, small timber and minor forest produce like tendu leaves, mahua, chiraunji etc by forst, police and civil administration officials in contravention of National Forest Policy provisions here.
About 149 villages under 16 panchayats of Kaimur district and 42 villages under 5 panchayats of Rohtas district are inhabited by Kharwar, Cheron, Oraon, Ho, Kol, Munda, Dhangar and Benga tribes.
A classified report sent to the police headquarters in Patna by Shahabad DIG, Umesh Kumar Singh speaks volumes about the plight of these tribals. The report which contains a detailed survey of these villages, says that a drought like situation prevailing there for the past three years coupled with absence of alternative irrigation facilities even after 58 years of Independence has led to repeated crop failure. Even check dams for utilising water from waterfalls have not been created in these areas.
The report also focusses on the absence of of job-generating schemes such as Food for Work programme in these villages. Referring to the absence of even basic medicare facilities in these villages, the report says even the block hospitals have become non-functional.
The survey, appended with the classified report, says except for Sikandarpur, Ulha, Lutru Tola and Sidhanpura villages under Mahmadpur panchayat of Rohtas, electricity has not reached the remaining 187 villages of the two districts.
There are mostly primary schools in these tribal villages but teachers posted there seldom visit the schools as the villages are located in dense forest areas made inaccesssible in the absence of roads.
"With the closure of all cement factories - other than the Kalyanpur Cement Factory at Banjari which resumed its operation recently - the area does not have any other industry to generate employment for these tribals" says Shanti Oraon of Harahiya village while talking to this human rights activist.
Kariman Oraon Haraiyadih village said "Local police and forest guards take away even the mahua fruits collected by the tribals. All the government employees exploit us>"
The DIG report while referring to these problems states that the villagersare scared and fed up with the local police, forest guards, mukhiyas and government employees and view them as their enemies. The CPI (Maoist) leadeship exploit these tribals to woo them to their their ideology thus turning the area into a breeding ground for Left extremism says the report while suggesting initiation of development schemes to check the trend.
Suffering from perpetual water scarcity, the villages in Rohtas and Kaimur districts have been oozing out Maoists in frustration.
The Tirhut DIG report would be considered as an eye-opener to the advocates of liberalisation and globalisation sans pro-poor
schemes.
(The Report was also carried in the Patna edition of The Times Of India, June 24,2005 issue as the writer is associated with the paper as a journalist. Otherwise a noted human rights activist, Kumar is professionaly a journalist too.)
Rohtas Garh (Rohtas) : Tribals of 191 villages of the two districts of Rohtas and Kaimur in Bihar, located in the foothills of the Vindhya mountain ranges enraged at being deprived of basic amenities like drinking water, primary education and medicare turn to Maoism.
They have been unjustly deprived from firewood, fodder, small timber and minor forest produce like tendu leaves, mahua, chiraunji etc by forst, police and civil administration officials in contravention of National Forest Policy provisions here.
About 149 villages under 16 panchayats of Kaimur district and 42 villages under 5 panchayats of Rohtas district are inhabited by Kharwar, Cheron, Oraon, Ho, Kol, Munda, Dhangar and Benga tribes.
A classified report sent to the police headquarters in Patna by Shahabad DIG, Umesh Kumar Singh speaks volumes about the plight of these tribals. The report which contains a detailed survey of these villages, says that a drought like situation prevailing there for the past three years coupled with absence of alternative irrigation facilities even after 58 years of Independence has led to repeated crop failure. Even check dams for utilising water from waterfalls have not been created in these areas.
The report also focusses on the absence of of job-generating schemes such as Food for Work programme in these villages. Referring to the absence of even basic medicare facilities in these villages, the report says even the block hospitals have become non-functional.
The survey, appended with the classified report, says except for Sikandarpur, Ulha, Lutru Tola and Sidhanpura villages under Mahmadpur panchayat of Rohtas, electricity has not reached the remaining 187 villages of the two districts.
There are mostly primary schools in these tribal villages but teachers posted there seldom visit the schools as the villages are located in dense forest areas made inaccesssible in the absence of roads.
"With the closure of all cement factories - other than the Kalyanpur Cement Factory at Banjari which resumed its operation recently - the area does not have any other industry to generate employment for these tribals" says Shanti Oraon of Harahiya village while talking to this human rights activist.
Kariman Oraon Haraiyadih village said "Local police and forest guards take away even the mahua fruits collected by the tribals. All the government employees exploit us>"
The DIG report while referring to these problems states that the villagersare scared and fed up with the local police, forest guards, mukhiyas and government employees and view them as their enemies. The CPI (Maoist) leadeship exploit these tribals to woo them to their their ideology thus turning the area into a breeding ground for Left extremism says the report while suggesting initiation of development schemes to check the trend.
Suffering from perpetual water scarcity, the villages in Rohtas and Kaimur districts have been oozing out Maoists in frustration.
The Tirhut DIG report would be considered as an eye-opener to the advocates of liberalisation and globalisation sans pro-poor
schemes.
(The Report was also carried in the Patna edition of The Times Of India, June 24,2005 issue as the writer is associated with the paper as a journalist. Otherwise a noted human rights activist, Kumar is professionaly a journalist too.)
Punishment for malafide prosecution : Arun
PATNA (BIHAR) : Noted human rights activist of Bihar, vice president of Bihar state chapter of eminent human rights body Peoples' Union For Civil Liberties and chief editor of Hindi-English bilingual Manavadhikar magazine, Arun Kumar demanded provision for strictest punishment to the erring cops in the law book to check rampant cases of "malafide prosecution" by the police officials.
He was addressing a gathering of human rights activists, lawyers, retired bureaucrats, former police officers and NGO functionaries having an experience in dealing with the Problems associated with policing which met here at Patna on July 1 (Saturday) at Nalanda Open University auditorium under the joint auspices of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) to discuss police reforms in Bihar.
Kumar emphaised that no officer from the IAS and IPS cadres should be kept in the national and state human rights commissions and such other bodies which deal with charges against the police. Also, while dealing with cases against police officials, the prevalent practice of seeking reports from higher police officials should be stopped forthwith.
Noted human rights activist Kumar further explained his point by saying that these higher officials of the IAS and IPS cadres as a rule tend to defend and shield their subordinates due to various considerations.
Kumar demanded that the rights bodies or the other bodies dealing with charges against the police must send their inquiry teams on the spot to probe whether the charges against the police official concerned are correct and these bodies should in no way depend on the official reply of the police higher-ups as is the practice today said Manavadhikar chief editor.
(Kumar is Vice president of Bihar state chapter of Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and is asociated with The Times Of India, Patna Edition as professional journalist. He also brings out a Hindi-English bilingual magazine dedicated to the cause of human rights from Bihar.)
He was addressing a gathering of human rights activists, lawyers, retired bureaucrats, former police officers and NGO functionaries having an experience in dealing with the Problems associated with policing which met here at Patna on July 1 (Saturday) at Nalanda Open University auditorium under the joint auspices of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) to discuss police reforms in Bihar.
Kumar emphaised that no officer from the IAS and IPS cadres should be kept in the national and state human rights commissions and such other bodies which deal with charges against the police. Also, while dealing with cases against police officials, the prevalent practice of seeking reports from higher police officials should be stopped forthwith.
Noted human rights activist Kumar further explained his point by saying that these higher officials of the IAS and IPS cadres as a rule tend to defend and shield their subordinates due to various considerations.
Kumar demanded that the rights bodies or the other bodies dealing with charges against the police must send their inquiry teams on the spot to probe whether the charges against the police official concerned are correct and these bodies should in no way depend on the official reply of the police higher-ups as is the practice today said Manavadhikar chief editor.
(Kumar is Vice president of Bihar state chapter of Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and is asociated with The Times Of India, Patna Edition as professional journalist. He also brings out a Hindi-English bilingual magazine dedicated to the cause of human rights from Bihar.)
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Displaced Dalits Awaits Compensation
Displaced Dalits Awaits Compensation
By Arun Kumar
When the entire world is discussing the Narmada bachao Andolan (NBA) fame activist, Medha Patkar's fast at the Indian capital city of New Delhi I would like to stress that in India not only the displaced oustees of the Narmda Dam are those who are not rehabilitated. Non-rehabilitation could be said to be as a rule whether rehabilitation an exception. Almost all the oustees of "development" projects in India - be it irrigation and hydro projects, factories or otherwise are as a rule not rehabilitated.
In the Indian state of Bihar, known as a turbulent state- for its being Maoist infested and for unrest in rural and urban areas - poorer section of the society are the most vulnerable one. Not only the dalits and extremely backwards but also those economically deprived sections of the backward and upper caste sections of the society - be it Hindu or the Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and whatever it may be - religion and caste no bar - belong to the same deprived sections.
Many poeople who are not aware of the problems of India at its grass roots would not believe that compensation amount for the displaced persons, mostly dalits, who were thrown out of their dwellings way back in the year 1980 were not paid even after 25 years.
The affected lot were the ousted from their dwellings after the state government took over their plots to set up the Sitamarhi Industrial Area in the year 1980. It was despite a court order for payment of compensation amount which was passed in the year 1993.
Such crimes are manifestation of inhuman and apathetic approach of the government machinery towards problems of the commion man. Law courts of Bihar or for that matter even any part of India have a plenty of long pending cases which relates to the suffering of the workmen at the hands of corporate citizen, a large number of them die before the case is decided. All such cases relates to illegal retrenchment of workers, blatant and brazen violation of labour laws, violation of human rights. One would wonder that even the non-journalist employees of The Times Of India newspaper group which boasts of its being the "World's largest daily" are not being paid their due wages prescribed by the Manisana Singh Wage Board since April 1998. This is the reality at the grass roots in the Indian Republic of Bihar.
(Arun Kumar is Vice President, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Bihar State unit and also associated as national executive committee member with the Indian Journalists Union. He is president of The Times Of India Newspaper Employees' Union, Patna.)
By Arun Kumar
When the entire world is discussing the Narmada bachao Andolan (NBA) fame activist, Medha Patkar's fast at the Indian capital city of New Delhi I would like to stress that in India not only the displaced oustees of the Narmda Dam are those who are not rehabilitated. Non-rehabilitation could be said to be as a rule whether rehabilitation an exception. Almost all the oustees of "development" projects in India - be it irrigation and hydro projects, factories or otherwise are as a rule not rehabilitated.
In the Indian state of Bihar, known as a turbulent state- for its being Maoist infested and for unrest in rural and urban areas - poorer section of the society are the most vulnerable one. Not only the dalits and extremely backwards but also those economically deprived sections of the backward and upper caste sections of the society - be it Hindu or the Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and whatever it may be - religion and caste no bar - belong to the same deprived sections.
Many poeople who are not aware of the problems of India at its grass roots would not believe that compensation amount for the displaced persons, mostly dalits, who were thrown out of their dwellings way back in the year 1980 were not paid even after 25 years.
The affected lot were the ousted from their dwellings after the state government took over their plots to set up the Sitamarhi Industrial Area in the year 1980. It was despite a court order for payment of compensation amount which was passed in the year 1993.
Such crimes are manifestation of inhuman and apathetic approach of the government machinery towards problems of the commion man. Law courts of Bihar or for that matter even any part of India have a plenty of long pending cases which relates to the suffering of the workmen at the hands of corporate citizen, a large number of them die before the case is decided. All such cases relates to illegal retrenchment of workers, blatant and brazen violation of labour laws, violation of human rights. One would wonder that even the non-journalist employees of The Times Of India newspaper group which boasts of its being the "World's largest daily" are not being paid their due wages prescribed by the Manisana Singh Wage Board since April 1998. This is the reality at the grass roots in the Indian Republic of Bihar.
(Arun Kumar is Vice President, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Bihar State unit and also associated as national executive committee member with the Indian Journalists Union. He is president of The Times Of India Newspaper Employees' Union, Patna.)
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