ON June 24, the Kandhi Sangharsh Committee, affiliated to the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), organised a militant mass rally and demonstration at Balachaur subdivision of district Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. Over 500 people, including 100 women, belonging to about 80 villages of the subdivision, participated in this rally. Husan Chand Majhot presided over the rally. Inaugurating the rally, CPI(M) state secretariat member Raghunath Singh strongly condemned the central and the state governments for their failure to supply safe and free drinking water to the people of Kandhi, Beet and Changer areas, which are semi-mountainous areas spread over seven districts and are backward in every sphere of life. Raghunath Singh further said that both the Akali-BJP and the Congress governments always neglected these areas, and that the people of these areas have been deprived of their rights to basic facilities like safe drinking water, electricity, employment, health and education since these facilities are far short of the requirements of the people of these areas. The employees serving in various government departments in Kandhi area, who come from other areas, do not want to serve in this area because they are also deprived of basic facilities and face so many difficulties due to lack of basic facilities. Thousands of posts of teachers and other employees in government departments have been lying vacant for years together. Describing the plight of the peasants of these areas, Raghunath Singh said that the crops of the peasants of these areas are destroyed by stray domestic animals or wild animals, and that no protection is provided to the peasants to save their crops from stray and wild animals. Most of the industrial units of these areas have been closed down, rendering thousands of workers jobless. No new industry is being set up to provide employment. While supporting the agitation for free and safe drinking water supply and other demands of the people of these areas, Raghunath Singh said that the CPI(M) would support their agitation wholeheartedly. Addressing the rally, Mahan Singh Rori, senior vice president, and Rana Karan Singh, general secretary of the Kandhi Sangharsh Committee, said that the successive governments of the Congress and the Akali-BJP combine never made any serious and sincere effort to provide basic facilities to the people of Kandhi, Beet and Changer areas of Punjab. Nor did these governments pay due attention to the development of this area during the last 67 years after independence. Amidst resounding slogans, both the leaders announced that the people of Kandhi, Beet and Changer would not pay their bills of drinking water, and remarked why the poor people of Kandhi could not claim free and safe drinking water when the landlords and rich farmers of the state were getting free electricity and free irrigation water. They further told that whatsoever the people of Kandhi, Beet and Changer have achieved, they have achieved through their long and militant struggles and sacrifices. No government at the centre or in the state has ever gifted any facility to the people of this semi-mountainous area. The rally was also addressed by Nirmal Singh Ghuman, Balbir Singh Kaulgarh, Hem Raj Mahipur, Mrs Shashi Rana, CITU leaders Yash Pal Bhumbla, Ram Babu and Gurdev Singh Bagi, and by AIKS leader Master Daleep Singh. The leaders of the Kandhi Sangharsh Committee and CPI(M) state secretariat member Raghunath Singh handed over a memorandum to the SDM of Balachaur  on the day, addressed to the chief minister of Punjab. The memorandum included the following demands: 1) Free supply of safe drinking water to the people of Kandhi area. 2) For speedy development of this backward area work should be provided to the needy people under the MGNREGA for all the 365 days in a year. 3) Crops of the peasants of this area must be protected from the wild and stray animals. 4) Drug addicts must be given free treatment in government hospitals and the drug   suppliers sent to jails and given exemplary punishments. 5) Black marketing of sand and gravels must be stopped. 6) Agro based industries must be set up in this backward area. 7) All vacant posts in the schools, hospitals and other government departments must be filled at the earliest.