 Albert Ekka Chowk, Ranchi, Jharkhand
Choking off democracy in Jharkhand villages
When politicians get invitations for night-time weddings in Jharkhand's villages, they land up hours earlier, give the newly-wed good wishes and leave. When elections are held in villages, balloting is often held long distances away in areas safe from militants, where few voters are able to go.
And the sarpanch — the village headman — is a paper tiger.
All symbols of democracy are fast withering away from regions hit by insurgency, where panchayats are nearly defunct, politicians mostly keep away, and elections have poor turnouts amidst rebel calls for boycotts.
And from Jharkhand to Manipur, there is widespread resentment among tribals who say their village headmen, given powers under customary laws by British rulers, are out of the governance loop. In a country that has 32 lakh elected representatives of grassroots democracy — the largest such number in the world — all this sets tens of millions aside from the landmark democratic process.
Jharkhand has no panchayat elections due to a court battle involving pro-tribal groups and their opponents over seat quotas. For almost three decades, panchayats here have been administered by junior state government officials.
"The absence of panchayat elections has helped in the mushrooming of touts. Local people have no inducement. This is helping the Maoists," said Gouri Shankar Rath, the additional director-general of Jharkhand Police. "If they are held, government funds will also not be pilfered." But for now, that leaves villagers with no voice in making their roads and schools and dispensaries — especially because government officials won't do it.
"If we could, we would do so much work through the panchayats. The Naxals have no problems with that, they say they will not interfere with that kind of work," said Niyaran Topno, the munda or tribal headman of Digha village in the Saranda Forest. The worst blow to village-level democracy came in Chhattisgarh from Salwa Judum — a massive anti-militant programme that has involved some 50,000 villagers vacating their homes and several being armed into militias.
Politicians in Jharkhand got a new, terrifying reason this March to log out of grassroots democracy. Sunil Mahato, a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP, was killed as Naxalites pretended to garland him during a village football match. "We had to eliminate him only because he has been actively involved in unleashing brutal repression on the revolutionary movement in Jharkhand," Ganapathy, a senior Naxalite leader, said.
More violence is feared against local politicians. Police say local Naxalite commanders are gathering intelligence about politicians believed to have illegal wealth. Posters about them are expected to come up in small towns and district headquarters, a Jharkhand police intelligence official said.
"With the Mahato killing, the aim of the Naxalite was to send the message: they want to finish off democracy from villages," the officer said. Along West Bengal's border with Jharkhand, rebels have killed about 25 senior district level leaders of the Communist Party-Marxist over the past two years. But a senior rebel leader denied that they were engaging in random killings. "We do not kill everyone just because he/she is an MP or a minister," Ganapathy said.
He added: "Real problems of the people can never be addressed by the Parliament and Assemblies, not to speak of solving them. The Parliamentary institutions are not meant for that. They have no real power."
Holding elections is also not easy. "In the last elections, polling agents and election officials did not come to the booths in Saranda Forest, they were afraid," said tribal village head Niyaran Topno, 50. "They called many people to the Orissa border and made them vote there. Who would go there?"
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?id =4e9c0d7e-55a3-4bc6-a560-612a9a848149Indiawounded_Special&&Headline=Choking+o ff+democracy+in+Jharkhand+villages
Ministers doll up houses in impoverished Jharkhand
Ranchi, July 9 (IANS) Economically backward Jharkhand may be struggling to fulfil the basic needs of those 54 percent of its population who live below the poverty line, but ministers are busy blowing up millions on renovating their official homes.
Official estimates say Rs.150 million have been spent on remodelling the houses of the governor, chief minister, cabinet ministers, the state secretariat, circuit house, assembly and legislators' hostels, among others.
The state government has spent Rs.20 million on remodelling the governor's house. Another Rs.4 million will be spent on construction of the kitchen.
Chief minister Madhu Koda's residence, located on Kanke Road, has been given a facelift at a cost of Rs.60 million and now a watchtower and a helipad are under construction.
The house of building and construction minister Enos Ekka has been renovated at a cost of Rs.2 million and a new house is under construction at a cost of Rs.7.6 million. The government has spent Rs.2.5 million on renovating the houses of water and irrigation minister Kamlesh Singh.
Two circuit houses of the state were taken over by the ministers. The first, located near the old Ranchi Jail, was occupied by Bachha Singh when he became the urban development minister five years ago. The house has now been allotted to former chief minister Arjun Munda.
The second circuit house, located near Morabadi ground, was occupied by former chief minister Babulal Marandi. Another circuit house is under construction, at an approximate cost of Rs.400 million.
Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party's state president P.N. Singh said: 'The Madhu Koda government lacks the will to spend public money on development. Development funds are diverted for renovating the buildings. In many cases, the buildings are renovated without following the norms.'
But the ministers justify the renovations.
'When Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar there was an accommodation problem. The previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government should have built more houses for ministers and bureaucrats. Most houses are in bad shape and this is the reason why they are being renovated,' said a minister.
Even as the ministers are busy splurging, in the last seven years one million families have been added to the list of those below poverty line in the state.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1327644.php/Ministers_ doll_up_houses_in_impoverished_Jharkhand
State, Tatas team up for Jharkhand coal
Calcutta, July 8: Tata Metaliks, a subsidiary of Tata Steel, has joined hands with the West Bengal Mineral Development and Trading Corporation to bid for two coal blocks in Jharkhand.
The government body will supply coal to Tata Metalik's pig iron plant in Kharagpur.
The two coal blocks in the West Bokaro district of Jharkhand is reserved under the state quota and will not be handed over to private companies. However, the Bengal government's outfit will face competition from other state agencies.
The role of the Jharkhand government will be keenly watched on the issue. Earlier, it had turned down an iron ore mining lease to the Jindals for a plant in Bengal. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had even taken up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
This time, though, the two coal mines would have to be allocated to other states.
Jharkhand mine secretary Jayshankar Tewari said there was a lot of pressure on the state. "We have six coal blocks and 300 applications pending. So you can imagine," he said.
Bengal has a good deposit of low-ash coal but a rise in demand is forcing the government agency to look outside the state. Earlier, it had agreed to provide coking coal to JSW Steel for its proposed steel plant at Salboni.
It would also have to provide some deposits to Bhushan Steel which has plans for another plant near Asansol.
City-based Tata Metaliks is an early bird investor in the state. It now wants access to coal and iron ore blocks to cut raw material costs.
However, it will be difficult for it to get blocks in neighbouring states for a plant in Bengal .
The West Bengal Mineral Development and Trading Corporation has, thus, come forward to bail out Tata Metaliks.
Apart from Jharkhand, the Tata Steel subsidiary is also exploring states such as Maharashtra , Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
In Orissa, it hopes to benefit from Tata Steel's 6mt plant for which the parent company will get a mining lease soon. Tata Metaliks has withdrawn its application in the state hoping that Orissa will allow Tata Steel to send ore to Kharagpur.
In Maharashtra , the company applied for around 11 iron ore blocks in the Sindhudurg district. The company has bought a plant in the state and hopes to get mining rights soon.
In the last fiscal, Tata Metaliks, the largest pig iron manufacturer in the country, witnessed pressure on its margins because product prices came down while cost of coking coal and iron ore increased. As a result, the backward integration exercise will help in the long run.
The plant in Maharashtra depends on iron ore from market.
The iron ore cost may come down to less than Rs 500 a tonne in case it gets the mine compared with open market prices of Rs 1,800-2,000.
Earlier, Tata Metaliks decided to go ahead with one of its value-addition projects. It is the manufacture of ductile iron pipes in Kharagpur.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070709/asp/business/story_8034395.asp
Four dead in rain-related incidents in Jharkhand
RANCHI: Four persons have died in rain- related incidents in different parts of Jharkhand, which has been pounded by incessant rains for the past two days.
A person was crushed to death and three were injured when a tree fell on an autorickshaw at Harmu Road in Ranchi , which has been experiencing torrential rains since Wednesday night, officials said.
A businessman at Adityapur in Sareikela-Kharswan district was killed when he came in touch with a live electric wire on Thursday while draining out water from his industrial unit.
In another incident, a couple died of snake bite at Tendar village in Gumla district during a downpour early on Thursday morning, police said.
With 1,000 houses in East Singhbhum and Sareikela-Kharswan districts submerged, Deputy Chief Minister Sudhir Mahto has asked authorities to immediately launch relief measures in flood-affected areas.
He said he had asked East Singhbhum's Deputy Commissioner N M Kulkarni to arrange boats, generators and food packets for marooned people in several areas in Mango, Sashtri Nagar, Dimna Road, Hadi-godaon and Bagbeda in Jamshedpur.
Mahto, who travelled to Jamshedpur to monitor relief work there, said he had requested Tata Steel to help in the relief work.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Four_dead_in_rain-related_incidents_in_Jhark hand/articleshow/2182833.cms
New mining policy to provide for royalty rise
NEW DELHI, JULY 9 : The new mining policy, which is slated to be presented in Parliament in the Monsoon session, will see a rise in the mineral royalty to be paid by miners against their respective mining leases. The revision will be on the basis of the price the mineral fetches in the market and will help state governments mop up revenues in tune with the growing demand for minerals, both domestically as well as in the export market.
"For far too long, state governments have been complaining that the royalty being paid by miners is far less compared to the amount that the mineral fetches in the market. This robs the state of revenue," said minister of state for mines T Subbarami Reddy. "Hence, after the new policy comes into effect, the royalty would be on an ad valorem basis and see an upward revision." While the royalties on a number of minerals are already on an ad-valorem basis, minerals like iron ore, copper, bauxite, graphite, lead and limestone do not fall under this category.
The policy, however, ignores another longstanding demand of state governments — to award mining leases on the basis of value addition plans in the state. "The whole country has to be treated as one and one cannot differentiate one against the other on the basis of where value addition is taking place. We have discussed these issues thoroughly and there is no disparity on this issue," Reddy informed.
Asked if the Government is prepared to face opposition from mineral rich states, Reddy said that there would be no opposition, though everybody is free to express their opinions in a democracy. "The steel ministry wants iron ore exports to be banned while we are opposed to it as there is abundant mineral available. Such differences are part of healthy co-existence," he observed.
Mineral-rich states like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Karnataka have been in favour of value addition in the states and a number of mining leases are on hold due to this reason. The Chiria mines in Jharkhand, for example, have become a bone of contention as the state government has favoured Mittal Steel over Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) as the former was planning to set up a greenfield facility in the state. SAIL later announced its willingness to do the same to tilt the scales back in its favour.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/204349.html
Ultras open fire in Jharkhand; security beefed up in Sundargarh
ROURKELA: A group of suspected ultras owing allegiance to the CPI (Maoist) on Friday mid-night unleashed terror at Jharkhand's Manoharpur, close to Orissa border, by opening several rounds of blank fire.
The incident came after a brief lull, at the backyard of Manoharpur railway station, about 20 km east of Jareikela in Orissa. Following the incident, Sundargarh police beefed up security at the vulnerable bordering regions along Saranda forest.
Jharkhand's Chaibasa SP Sudhir Jha told this paper on Saturday that around 20 suspected Maoists fired 50 to 60 rounds in the air, adding, the move smacked of frustration of failure due to intense pressure from security forces.
Quoting eyewitnesses, Jha said the incident occurred around 12.20 am and lasted for 15 minutes. The ultras donned green raincoats and taking advantage of the darkness, retreated towards Kolbhanga forest before security forces could take on them.
Meanwhile, the bid of Jharkhand's Sonua police to seek judicial remand of top-rung female Maoist leader Sobha alias Budhni Marandi on Saturday, received a jolt after a local court adjourned the case to July 12.
Sobha along with her two male aides lodged in Rourkela special jail were recently granted bail by the Orissa High Court, but they could not be freed as the bail conditions were not fulfilled.
Each of the three has to produce two bail guarantors, preferably government employees along with Rs 50,000. A special team of Jharkhand police is camping here to lay their hands on the trio once they get released, sources said.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070707233820& Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0
Old order
Politicians are considered young at 62. Why not babus? And who cares about logic or the young?
This government has shown a marked propensity in re-employing retired bureaucrats in high profile jobs, so it can be argued that the proposal to increase Central service retirement age to 62 (from 60) is simply an extension of this philosophy to the aam sarkari employee. As of March 31, 2001 (the last census), there were 3.9 million Central government employees, with the railways contributing the largest chunk (39 per cent). Legally, any change in the status of Central government employees shouldn't have a fallout in states. But as the Fifth Pay Commission showed, that is not what happens. Plus, there are state-level domino effects as well. The Jharkhand government has raised the retirement age from 58 to 60. So trade unions in Bihar are already agitating for similar treatment. Kerala, it must be noted, is the one state that has bucked the trend of increasing retirement age.
The 1998 hike in retirement age from 58 to 60 in the Central services showed the increases take place because of wrong, illusive reasons (holding off one-time payoffs, for example). Or because of non-reasons. Thus the proposed retirement age of 62 will also be supported by pointing out life expectancy has increased and the retirement age in developed countries is between 62 and 65. But experiences from countries with greying populations that face labour shortages can hardly be extrapolated to India. Nor will invocation of the Fifth Pay Commission (which recommended the increase from 58 to 60) or the Sixth Pay Commission (which may recommend the change to 62) help, since efficiency and productivity-increasing recommendations of these commissions are never implemented.
Most important, and let's be blunt about this, the decision is usually taken by senior government bureaucrats who are about to retire. In serving their own interests, they mess up policy. Which is why arguments about savings on superannuation benefits — around Rs 6,000 crore annually — are flawed. This sum looks more than extra annual salary costs (around Rs 1,500 crore). But it simply transfers the problem for future governments. Because of spillover effects, a retirement age of 62 will eventually cover most of the 20 million government employees (include state, local bodies and PSEs) and an additional 15 million who work for quasi-government institutions. This will crowd out entry of younger employees. That can't be good surely. But it fits with the general political ethos — politicians at 62 are considered sprightly young.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/204290.html
Nine rescued, six still trapped in Jharkhand mine
Six people continued to be trapped in an abandoned coalmine in Jharkhand on Wednesday while rescuers managed to pull out nine miners, police said.
The mishap took place on Tuesday when the roof collapsed in the colliery belonging to the Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) in Murlidih in Dhanbad district, about 230 km from Ranchi.
"Nine people have been rescued and six are believed to be still inside," said Sheetal Oraon, superintendent of police, Dhanbad.
He said rains were hampering the rescue operations.
According to people in the area, 18 people went inside the abandoned mine through a narrow entry. Three were outside and 15 inside when the roof collapsed.
According to BCCL sources, the mine had been closed about 20 years ago but had not been filled leading to local residents still extracting coal illegally.
Illegal mining is rampant in Jharkhand. In the last 10 years, more than 500 people have lost their lives in illegal mining. According to norms, companies should close abandoned mines by filling them with sand bags.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=863bd185-8f36-4e a2-93b2-47298ee2b714&&Headline=9+rescued%2c+6+still+trapped+in+Jharkhand+mine
Here is the Naxalites' jackpot
Deep in the remote hills of Jharkhand, in a region rich with minerals, a sprawling forest is the money-spinning treasury and operational headquarters of India's Naxalite movement.
It is the seemingly unending natural wealth of the 86,000-hectare Saranda Forest that is funding much of the insurgency — tens of crores of rupees are charged in "levy" every year from companies and traders making money here from iron ore, precious minerals and timbre, police say.
The forest is also home to cadres, training bases and the rebels' operational command, according to police and arrested rebels.
"Forests mean minerals, minerals mean money, money means guns, guns mean power," arrested Naxalite ideologue Sushil Roy, the highest ranking Naxalite leader in custody, told his interrogators.
Roy, a 66-year-old former engineer, is a member of the Politburo, the core body of the rebels and a contemporary of Naxal movement founders like Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal.
Yet, even though large parts of Naxalite-held territory in India have slipped out of government control, Roy added: "If we had to walk 1,000 km, we have walked only eight."
It is a journey that began on May 25, 1967 with a peasant uprising in the Naxalbari village of West Bengal, which gave the movement its name.
For decades, several communist militant groups, mainly the Maoist Communist Centre of India and People's War, continued operations in different areas.
In a major turning point for the insurgency, the groups united in September 2004 in the Saranda Forest, followed by a three-month medley of conferences also attended by members of other communist groups from several other countries members of the Revolutionary International Movement, a worldwide communist conglomerate.
Government assessments of Naxal influence vary from 60 districts, according to the rural development ministry, to 160, according to the Home Ministry. India has 600-plus districts.
"The state is unable to solve the problems of its own citizens and socio-economic problems are dealt as issues of law and order. Why do you expect the common man to have faith in the state?" popular Maoist ideologue Gadar told the Hindustan Times.
"Only Maoists are fighting for the poor." Their bureaucracy includes a nine-man Central Military Commission, a four-member Committee for International Affairs which included Roy and publishing and editorial committees.
Investigators say the Naxalites began making Saranda their base in 2000, recently bringing in sophisticated weapons and satellite phones and setting up massive generators to use laptops in the dense forest where villagers fear wild elephants as much as the police and rebels.
It helped the rebels that there was widespread squalor. "The youth cut wood or pluck fruits or dig sweet potatoes. There is so much anger about unemployment," said teacher Menson Gladson Topno, 37, who grew up in Saranda but now lives in the nearby Manoharpur town.
There is no electricity in any village, here, and many people sleep on machans on trees, fearing wild animals. "The Naxals promised the youth up to Rs 3,000 a month. So everyone joined them," Topno said.
Soon, the rebels began earning big money from deep-pocketed industrialists. "On the conservative side, the Naxalites are raising up to Rs 60 crore a year from Jharkhand in levies," said Gouri Shankar Rath, Jharkhand's additional director-general of police.
Most of it is believed to be from Saranda. Roy, the arrested leader, said: "Most of the money received from levies is kept by local and regional committees, and only 20 per cent is sent to the Central Committee."
Down the hierarchy, there are regional bureaus one covering three states and state and area committees. But unification has had its logistical troubles. While the top leadership functions in unison, it has been slightly difficult for the rebels to unit cadres at local levels. Problems of discipline are becoming common. Several zonal commanders amassed wealth from levies and fled. Breakaway groups have also been formed.
"We are aware of some members of the organisation departing from Mao's teachings and oppressing people, sexually exploiting women, and killing innocents," Roy said. "We are trying to stop this."
Next, the Naxalites want to seek supporters in the middle class. "We see that the growing frustration in large sections of the middle class is forcing them to take to streets for their demands," said senior Naxalite leader Ganapathy
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?id=d136a 041-3857-4662-8e47-f86a9fa6fc7Indiawounded_Special&&Headline=Here+is+the+ Naxalites%e2%80%99+jackpot
Father of seven marries widow with eight children
A much-in-love middle-aged man and a widow in Jharkhand married against the wishes of their adult children, some of whom have shaved their heads in protest. Even the knowledge that the man was committing the illegal act of bigamy could not keep them apart.
Jawahar Chaudhary, 45, the father of seven, and Priyanka Devi, 50, the mother of eight, were married last week in Giridih district of Jharkhand.
Jawahar, a resident of Dhaharwa village of Giridih, 190 km from state capital Ranchi, married his beloved against the wishes of his children and wife.
Even Priyanka faced resistance from her children.
'We do not care what people think about us. We love each other and got married to live together. Love has no age bar and no one should oppose our marriage,' said Jawahar. The newly-married couple are facing the ire of the villagers, who have decided to boycott them, according to local media reports.
Priyanka's elder son, who is married, is so unhappy with his mother's marriage that he has shaved his head. 'For me, my mother is dead. I and other male members, including my brothers, got our head shaved. Now we will have no link with our mother,' he said.
Jawahar's children are equally embarrassed. 'The act of my father is shameful. We are feeling humiliated as he got married despite my mother being alive. The woman (Priyanka) married my father for his property,' one of his sons said.
http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070709/59837.htm
Rising to revolt
Society works according to the same principle as nature: it abhors a vacuum. And there are large tracts of India from where the State has either vanished or is in such a state of disrepair that the infrastructure of civil society has to be propped up by others — or hijacked by them. That is the daunting tale of insurgency in India that this paper is tracking in the ongoing series, 'India Besieged'. There is one picture that emerges by scanning the country when it comes to following the thread of insurgency. Whether in Chattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir , Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Nagaland or Manipur, there is no invisible hand or autopilot when it comes to providing people amenities, infrastructure and a living. It is the State's failure to provide all this, and the cynicism that comes with being an 'absentee landlord' that has led to terrorists not only gaining ground but also hearts. Worse still, governments are using insurgencies as an excuse to avoid doing what they should have in the first place.
More than 170 million Indians live under the shadow of militancy. Parallel non-State 'governments' exist across states — Manipur being the 'most failed state' where insurgency rules the roost literally outside the Government of India's line of vision, control or concern. It would be downright silly, if not naive, to expect an abandoned citizenry to still be sympathetic to the authorities of the Indian State, especially when, in many cases, insurgency groups double as NGOs. Certain State policies, such as the Salwa Judum in Chattisgarh that involves arming locals and making them, rather than government forces, fight the Naxals, has actually made matters worse. Despite the government digging its heels in over the matter, what it actually has done is to outsource its job — i.e. protecting people — to the people themselves.
India's vastness provides the State with excuses. But if the state and central governments have indeed decided to continue being the custodians of one nation, they cannot shirk their responsibilities. And as the rising figures of extremism in our own backyard show — not always visible because it doesn't paint the whole picture — the government cannot afford to treat its absence across the country with such nonchalance. There are enough enemies of the State out there to take advantage of this apathy. And they are not necessarily seen as enemies by the people they operate among.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?id=1e1 2407c-05e4-4aec-b9dc-b27f65b429a2Indiawounded_Special&&Headline=Rising+to+revolt
Jharkhand's steady progress in priority health service, India
Though Jharkhand's initial health status indicators could be termed poor compared to other states, its steady progress in nearly all priority health service indicators is impressive, says a World Bank report.
The report- Jharkhand Addressing the Challenge of Inclusive Development--states that notwithstanding the adverse beginning the coverage of reproductive child health (RCH) related services improved during the period 1999-2003.
While the proportion of safe deliveries increased by 9.7 per cent, proportion of institutional deliveries by 7.2 per cent and proportion of pregnant women receiving at least one ante-natal care check up by 14.4 percent, says the report.
Stating that there was an impressive progress in child vaccination, the report praises the "catch up rounds" introduced since 2002-03 had led to a dramatic improvement in child immunisation, vitamin 'A' and iron suplementation.
The immunization coverage, it adds, was now almost 50 per cent compared to the nine percent in 1998/99, a rapid rise recorded in the country for a five-year period.
Happy at the positive remarks in the report Health Minister Bhanu Pratap Sahi says that his department would accelerate all priority areas.
"I have asked all concerned to pursue the department's priorities," Sahi recently said during a visit to Dumka, the second capital city of Jharkhand.
http://www.spiritindia.com/health-care-news-articles-11141.html
The Red Spreads
A historical strategic shift has been engineered by the Maoists and, despite their open declarations of intent and the visible translation of words into deeds, this remains largely unnoticed in the general discourse and, indeed, in large segments of the Indian intelligence and security community. There is a continuing proclivity to view Maoist incidents of violence and disruption as discrete events, demanding no more than specific and localised patterns of Police response.
The 9th Congress of the Maoists, held in the latter half of January and early February 2007, attracted some media comment, but has failed to provoke any sense of particular urgency in India's establishment at the national or state levels, nor have events thereafter been coherently linked with what is known to have been decided at this convention. The discomforting reality, however, is that the Maoists are, as in the past, deadly serious, and their plans and projections have already been moved into the phase of active implementation. If there was any scope for doubt on this count, it should have been convincingly settled by the two-day Maoist blockade across six of the worst affected states on June 26 and 27, 2007. The blockade was organised in protest against the economic policies of the government. Regrettably, far from being recognized as a small taste of catastrophes to come, the blockade evoked a sense of relief in the security leadership, with the top Police official in Jharkhand declaring, "We were expecting major attacks by Maoist rebels, but their reaction has been rather mild."
It is useful to review the 'rather mild' actions of the Maoists during their blockade. The blockade affected wide areas in Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. While urban concentrations remained relatively free of incident, transport links were disrupted virtually across the states, and one estimate puts the direct costs in damage to Railway properties at Rs 400 million. The indirect costs of disruption of services will have been much larger, with the blockade dislocating supply lines from the country's principal mining areas in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The Central Coalfields Limited, for instance, dispatched just 17,500 tonnes of coal by rail on June 26, as against the daily average of 67,000 tonnes. Jharkhand alone is believed to have suffered an economic loss to the tune of Rs 1.5 billion over the two-day blockade. Major acts of violence during the blockade included:
June 26:
Maoists blew up railway tracks and partially destroyed a goods train at Latehar in Jharkhand. Some 20 trains travelling through the state were cancelled.
Dozens of trains were held up after Maoists blew up a stretch of railway tracks in the Dantewada region of Chhattisgarh. Transporters were also forced off the roads in the five districts in the Bastar region.
Maoist cadres set fire to six vehicles in the Dumka area of Jharkhand.
June 28:
Maoists blew up the railway track between Gomia and Dania stations in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand. Trains did not operate on the Coal India Chord (CIC) section touching Dhanbad, affecting the transportation of coal.
Maoists called out the employees of the Coffee Board Research Centre near the port city of Vishakhapatnam , a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) location in Andhra Pradesh, and blew up the Centre. The Maoists also set fire to records of the forest development corporation in the same area.
Maoist cadres stormed a railway station and set fire to the station master's office and rigged the tracks with explosives in a pre-dawn attack at Biramdih Station in Purulia in West Bengal.
The explosive device was, however, subsequently recovered and defused by the Police.
Summarizing these developments, an assessment by the union home ministry on June 28, stated that 20 incidents took place in states affected by Naxalite violence during the two-day economic blockade. 10 incidents pertained to damage to railway property, mainly in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The other incidents related to obstruction of the movement of goods on highways passing through the states. Though the Railways were yet to make a detailed assessment of the losses incurred by it during the blockade, preliminary estimates suggested that this could be about Rs One billion.
Given the scale and lethality of some recent Maoist attacks, the violence witnessed during the blockade would certainly seem 'mild'. The core error of such an assessment, however, is that the Maoist protracted war is simply equated with Maoist violence, and the significance of the widespread disruption of activity across six states in a centrally coordinated programme is not recognized. As Muppala Laxmana Rao @ Ganapathi, the 'general secretary' of the Communist Party of India - Maoist (CPI-Maoist) declared recently, "we use both violent and non-violent forms of struggle."
The Maoists recognize clearly that they have suffered 'tactical reverses' in some states, particularly in Andhra Pradesh, where the counter-insurgency effort spearheaded by the state Police and its elite Greyhounds Force, has squeezed the rebels out of their strongholds, and into neighbouring states. The Maoist leadership has made "an in-depth study of the enemy's counter-revolutionary tactics, plans and methods" and drawn "lessons from these". As a result, "the Party is now more equipped to defeat the enemy's tactics." Ganapathi explains the essence of this tactical readjustment: "A specialised study of the strength and weaknesses of the Indian state is taken up. As you might be aware, even the mightiest enemy will have the weakest points. We have to correctly identify these weak points and deal effective blows so as to achieve victories."
R ecent years have seen the evolution of two major tactical innovations by the Maoists. The first of these was the introduction of swarming attacks, the first of which occurred in Koraput in Orissa, where the district headquarters was overrun by up to a thousand People's War Group (PWG) cadres on February 6, 2004. This was clearly a pattern borrowed from a model that had secured extraordinary successes in Nepal, and has since recurred with increasing frequency. Thus, while year 2004, the year of the introduction of this tactic in India, saw just one such attack, 2005 witnessed three, 2006, nine, and, by the end of June 2007, there had already been at least 12 such attacks. Indeed, in his interview released by the CPI-Maoist on April 24, 2007, Ganapathi boasted, "hundreds of people, and at times even more than a thousand, are involved in the attacks against the enemy as you can see from the recent counter-offensive operations, as in Rani Bodili, Riga, CISF camp in Khasmahal in Bokaro district, and so on in the past one month itself." The most recent of such attacks occurred on June 30, 2007, with simultaneous attacks at the Rajpur Police Station and Baghaila Police Outpost in Bihar's Rohtas district, in which 13 persons, including six policemen, were killed.
The second tactical shift, once again inspired, at least in part by a successful Nepalese model, is the coordinated blockade. Strikes and blockades have long been part of the Maoist tactical handbook, but they have tended to be geographically localised and focused on narrow issues and grievances.
The coordinated blockade across six 'heartland' states--those worst afflicted by Maoist activities--and on broad issues of economic policies, including the SEZs, the "unhindered ruthless exploitation and control by imperialists and the comprador big business houses" and the "loot by rapacious hawks like Tatas, Ruias, Essars, Mittals, Jindals and imperialist MNCs" represents a dramatic transformation.
What is intended here is a systematic widening of the areas of conflict and the Maoist recruitment base, but within a strictly calibrated framework--hence the limited violence during the blockade, and the restriction of the blockade to just six states. Significantly, official sources now confirm Maoist activity, at various levels and intensities, in 182 districts across 16 states (and this is an underestimate; official sources in several states beyond these 16 have already confirmed at least some Maoist activity within their territories). Responding to earlier estimates of 165 districts affected by Maoist activity, Ganapathi had declared, "as far as our influence goes, I should say it is even more than that."
The reason for the self-imposed limits on both violence and geographical spread of the blockade are strategic and are based on a recognition of the unique infirmities of the Indian state and its capacities for response. The numbers of swarming attacks are also deliberated limited as a matter of choice, and do not reflect actual Maoist capacities, which would be significantly greater. The objective of these various operations is to widen the mass base, to 'blood' cadres, and to augmented morale, without carrying the violence and disruption beyond the threshold that would provoke massive and coordinated state response. It is assumed--correctly--that as long as these incidents and episodes remain sporadic and apparently unconnected, the state and its agencies will be tempted to lapse into habitual somnolence soon after each provocation, leaving progressively augmented operational spaces open for the Maoists. There is an underlying recognition, here, that violence beyond a certain level could provoke powerful and coordinated responses which the current Maoist capacities may be insufficient to resist. Recognizing the "tough situation" faced by the Party and its cadres in Andhra Pradesh, for instance, Ganapathi notes, "There is an immediate need to transform a vast area into the war zone so that there is enough room for manoeuvrability for our guerrilla forces." This transformation is the objective of coordinated blockades and the increasing frequency of swarming attacks.
The Maoists are now also increasingly cognizant of the potential for urban mobilisation well beyond their traditional target demographic. Ganapathi notes, "Middle class is terribly affected by such issues as price-rise, insecurity, corruption, unemployment for their children, high cost of education and health-care, threats from real estate mafia, etc. Keeping these in mind, our Party has drawn up plans to mobilise the middle class into struggles on such issues." This third strand will soon be drawn into the web of Maoist activities and strategies, and there is increasing evidence of exponentially rising front organisation activity in a number of urban concentrations.
As in the past, the Maoist perspective is rooted in the context and philosophy of the protracted war. Thus, Ganapathi imposes a timeframe of decades on his war plans:
The next 10 to 20 years will witness massive political and social upheavals… in several states against the onslaught of imperialism, anti-people policies of the Indian ruling classes such as carving out neo-colonial enclaves called SEZs, massive displacement of the poor in both urban and rural areas, against draconian laws, state repression, unemployment, corruption, inflation, neglect of social welfare and so on. Militant confrontation between the people and the state will become a general feature throughout the country…
The Maoist consolidation has already secured unprecedented sway and, "After a long time in the history of the revolutionary communist movement in India since the 1970s, a single directing centre has come into existence... today the revolutionary movement has become further strengthened, has spread to large tracts of the backward countryside, has well-knit Party structures, Army and vast mass base."
The Indian state is yet to recognize the coherence of specific initiatives and actions within the broad framework of the Maoist campaigns and strategy across the country, and unless the unity of purpose and of the underlying rationale is recognized and confronted with an equal, indeed, greater, coherence and lucidity, the creeping malignancy of Maoist subversion will continue to extend itself.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070705&fname=ajaisahni&sid=1&pn=3
IAS Association to deliberate on behaviour of legislators
Ranchi, July. 5 (PTI): The IAS Officers Association, Jharkhand would discuss the "derogatory behaviour" of legislators with government officials at its general body meeting here tomorrow.
"We are extremely distressed to note that derogatory behaviour on part of legislators with government officials is becoming a recurring feature in the state," an association release said today.
Some Members of Parliament and state legislatures publicly "humiliated" Bokaro Deputy Commissioner Sunil Kumar by allegedly levelling unsubstantiated allegations against him, the release signed by the Association's Secretary R S Sharma said.
"While we have the highest respect and regard for legislators and their role in parliamentary democracy, it must be emphasised that any action on their part, which belittles and compromises the dignity of state officials, not only lowers the image of the state, but also creates an environment prejudicial to the whole-hearted participation of the state machinery in development," it said.
The meeting would deliberate and decide on the future course of action, it added.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200707051923.htm
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