APPEAL FOR ACTION
The 10th December Carnage Kolkata
Eviction on Human Rights Day
Dulal Das, 48, a cart puller committed
suicide hours before the eviction
On 10th December 2002 when the world
was observing International Human Rights Day the West Bengal Government
was brutally evicting 4000 families. Beliaghata eviction will be remembered
as 10th December carnage. This incidence will be marked as a monumental
mistake in the history of West Bengal. Till date none of the 4,000
families have been provided any alternative accommodation.
In early eighties it was the same
Left-Front government in West Bengal that had provided alternative site
to the same inhabitants at the Beliaghata canal side. The dispossessed
residents have their names in the electoral roles and ration cards as proof
of residence.
This was a joint operation executed
by Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority
and the State Irrigation Department. The state administration and the opposition
both were involved in this barbaric act. These elite projects have been
supported by Asian Development Bank, which has made thousands homeless
in the city.
Days before eviction Rapid Action
Force were marching each day armed with sophisticated weapons threatening
the inhabitants to leave the locality. On 10th December heavy police
force with bulldozers arrived. First the residents specifically women
resisted the eviction, but as they were busy arguing against eviction
with the authorities a mysterious fire broke out within the locality,
the residents believe that this was the handy work of authorities so that
all their belongings are gutted down and they would need less efforts to
crush the belongings through bulldozers.
The eviction operation began at
8 a.m. on Tuesday, 10th December 2002. It was reported that
hours before the evictions a cart puller, Dulal Das, 48, had committed
suicide. Sima Das, a nine year old girl, told The Statesman reporter, "Government
people came and threatened me that they would shoot us if we won't leave
the house". After the entire operation was over Beliaghata canal
resembled a crematorium ground on Human Rights Day".
Following are the excerpts from
the Kolkata newspapers:
The Statesmen, Kolkata, 11th Dec
2002 Sima Das a nine-year-old girl child lost her father seven months before
the Beliaghata eviction that had taken place in Kolkata-city. Their mother
left the home days after her father died. Sima was living alone with her
four younger sisters and a two-year-old brother at Beliaghata Canal side.
Sima's elder sister was working as domestic help and the house owner would
rarely allow her to visit their sisters' home...
Just a day before the eviction at
Beliaghata Canal, Sima gave her account to The Statesmen reporter, "Government
people came with a coupon, they took my thumb impression and threatened
me that they would shoot us if we won't leave the house".
There were around 4000 families
who had rendered homeless and undergone similar pain, anguish and separated
from family members after the Beliaghata eviction. These inhabitants were
residing along two-kilometer stretch starting from Orange Sura down to
Ghaznavi Bridge.
The Telegraph, Kolkata, 12th Dec
2002 "Our own political masters have cheated us, they've exploited us for
decades as assured vote bank. We had cast false votes, threatened voters
with guns and bombs and forced them to vote in their favor and also sustained
injuries in return, but when the residents at Beliaghata needed them most,
the political leaders 've deserted us". - An angry Communist Party worker
at Beliaghta canal.
The Times of India, 11th Dec
2002 Hours before the demolition a cart-puller Dulal Das (48), committed
suicide. His wife Lakshmi said, he ended his life because he couldn't bear
the tension to find a suitable shelter, for his nine-member family.
Mayor of Kolkatta, Subrata Mukherjee,
"This is undoubtedly an achievement. This place was a breeding ground of
all sorts of diseases and crime. Kolkata Municipal Corporation KMC will
take up a beautification drive along the evicted stretch of the canal."
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This report is prepared on behalf
of National Forum for Housing Rights India. The Forum is a network of independent
organizations in the country on housing rights front that campaigns against
the practice of forced evictions and advocates the provision of residential
land to the working class population in urban centers.
Following are the list of network
organizations:
Campaign for Housing And Tenure
Rights (CHATRI)
Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) Sannihita
Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) Ashray
Adhikar Abhiyan
New Delhi
Human Rights Law Network
New Delhi Sajha Manch
New Delhi India Centre for Human
Rights & Law Mumbai
(Maharashtra)
Nivar Hakk Suraksha Samiti (NHSS)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) Committee
for Right to Housing (CRH)
Mumbai (Maharashtra) Chennai Slum
Dwellers Rights Movement
Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
Pennurimai Iyakkam
Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) Manabadhikar
Suraksha Moncha (MASUM)
Howrah (West Benga)l Human
Rights Law Network
Kolkata (West Bengal)
Ucchhed Birodhi Jukta Mancha
Kolkata (West Bengal) Jan
Sanhati Kendra
Kolkata (West Bengal) Lawyers
for Human
Rights International (LHRI)
Chandigarh ( Punjab)
Jan Sangarsh Manch JSM
Ahemdabad ( Gujarat)
LAXMI
Lucknow ( Uttar Pradesh)
Vigyan
Foundation
Lucknow ( Uttar Pradesh)
Ankur Yuwa Chetana Shivir
Lucknow ( Uttar Pradesh)
People's Vigilance Committee on Human
Rights
Varanasi ( Uttar Pradesh)
Chattisgarh
Voluntary Health Association
Raipur (Chattisgarh)
Chattisgarh Action Research Centre
Raipur (Chattisgarh) Chattisgarh
Yuva Samaj
Raipur ( Chattisgarh) Muskan
Bhopal ( Madhya Pradesh)
People's Research Society
Bhopal ( Madhya Pradesh) Samwad
Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) Jan Vikas
Kendra
Indore ( Madhya Pradesh)
Jhugghi Basti Sangarsh Morcha
Indore ( Madhya Pradesh)
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Appeal for Action
We appeal to the national, international
human rights bodies and financial institutions to respond immediately to
West Bengal government against this barbaric act.
The West Bengal state should abide
by international and national laws which makes mandatory to any evictees
for an alternative provision. Such policies and provisions are consistently
practiced in all other states in India.
The Forum recommends the readers
to send large number of protest letters through emails and faxes on Human
Rights Day to the following addresses.
Budhadev Bhattacharya
Chief Minister,
Govt. of West Bengal.
Writers' Buildings, Kolkata-1
Fax :- 91-33-2214 5480
Tel: 91 33 214 5555
Email: cm@wb.gov.in;
cpimwb@cal3.vsnl.net.in; prsecycm@wb.nic.in
Ashok Bhattacharya
Minister In-charge of Urban Affairs
&
Urban Development
Municipal Affairs Department,
Govt. of West Bengal.
Writers' Buildings,
Kolkata-1
Tel:91 33 214 5497
Fax : 91-33-2214 3853
Email: cpimwb@cal3.vsnl.net.in;
micma@wb.gov.in
Amalendu Roy
Minister In charge of Irrigation
& Water Ways
Tel: 91 33 214 3612
Fax: 91 33 321 5210
Subrata Mukherjee
Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Tel: 91 33 244 7519
Fax: 91 33 2442578
Email: cmcmayor@vsnl.net
The President
pressecy@alpha.nic.in;
pressecy@sansad.nic.in.
The Prime Minister
pmosb@pmo.nic.in
The National Human Rights Commission
chairnhrc@nic.in; nhrc@ren.nic.in.
Please email a copy of the protest
letter to National Forum for Housing
Rights on
rajeevjohn@vsnl.com
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National Forum for Housing Rights,
Campaign Secratariat Office: C/o
Deenbandhu, 3 Usha
Nagar Main, Anapurna road, Indore
- 452009, Madhya
Pradesh, Tel: 0731 278888, 2788340
website:
www.nfhr.org
