“THEY may take my life, but I will not go. I will not leave my father’s land. All that I have in the world is here,” declared Sohagini Saren. She was not alone. Many more villagers present in Suvarna Vanik Samaj Hall in Kolkata on Wednesday, August 3, expressed their determination to fight to the end to protect their land and livelihood, under threat because of the Deucha Pachami coal block project. Sohagini and many others have been fighting to save their right to land, forest and livelihood ever since Mamata Banerjee's government announced the open-cast coal mining project on Deucha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harinsingha land in Birbhum district of West Bengal. This tribal woman was brutally beaten by the police while trying to hold on to her land rights, and the land. She had to receive seven stitches to a head wound. But she did not back down from the movement. Standing on the stage of a joint convention, she declared, “I'll fight till the end, no matter what happens. No one has the power to stop our fight. They came to occupy our village, but we chased them away with our brooms. We shall not let them take away the land of ours.” The hall erupted into spontaneous applause to her firmness of purpose.

After the announcement of this coal mine project, the chief minister spoke about employment. Sohagini responded by saying, “We don't know how to read and write. So, I know we won’t be getting jobs. The land is all we have. We will save that with our life.” Saren Hembram of Dinupara expressed the same opinion and said they would continue the fight for water, land and jungle.

The Trinamool Congress government is desperate to seize land and mine coal, so they are constantly creating pressure on the agitators in various ways -- by fear or by the greed for money. Ratan Hembram, a resident of Deucha, highlighted that. He said, “We are being intimidated by the police. False cases are being filed against us. But we didn’t back down and we won’t.” Since coming to power, the Trinamool Congress has been claiming that it has solved all the problems of tribal people. But there is a big difference between its claims and reality. So far, the road from Deucha to Suri, the district headquarters, has not been fixed. There is no hospital in villages. And even if there is one, there is no doctor there. No midday meal is provided properly by ICDS schools. Sushil Murmu spoke about the plight of the area. He said, “They have not done anything for us after being in power for nearly 12 years. Now they say coal mining will be good for us. Those who could not do anything in 12 years, what more will they do?”

MINING AGAINST TRIBAL PEOPLE'S INTERESTS

Deblina Hembram, Central Committee Member of the CPI(M), addressed the convention and said, “The government announced this coal mining project for their own interest without following any natural and scientific method. They think that they can occupy the place by intimidating the tribals but they are wrong. The way the government is trying to suppress this movement shows its dictatorial attitude. We have to remember that we tribals are descendants of Sidhu and Kanhu, leaders of the Santhal Hul rebellion. So, we have to continue the fight we have started for the land, water and jungle.”

Gauranga Chatterjee, CPI(M) Paschim Bardhaman district committee secretary and a front-ranking leader of coal workers, said, “The government wants to hand over the land to the Adani group for its own benefit. But, according to the law, Adanis cannot get that land. The struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples must be intensified.”

Prominent educationists, Ashoknath Basu,  Basudev Burman,  Siddharth Dutta, Ramlal Murmu, Tushar Chakraborty,  Malini Bhattacharya, Amitabh Bhattacharya,  Anindya Sarkar, Hiranmoy Ghoshal and Ajay Roy, and MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya formed the presidium. Ashoknath Basu, the former vice-chancellor of Jadavpur University, conducted the meeting on behalf of the presidium. Leader of the tribal movement Rabindranath Hembram presented the main proposal of the convention.

RALLY AGAINST LOOT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

On August 10, braving the downpour, Nagarik Samanway Manch, a citizens' organisation, led a rally from Sealdah to the office of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation against the loot of water, forest and land in the name of the Deucha-Pachami coal mining project. Hundreds of tribals from Deucha Panchami also participated in this protest. The entire civil society of Bengal participated in the procession. Civil society members also joined this rally demanding the immediate cancellation of the coal mining project. They strongly protested various immoral actions of the government in a huge gathering in the area adjoining Kolkata Municipal Corporation headquarters. The main aim of the march was to protest against the government-sponsored corporate loot.

The agitators called for a massive movement in towns and villages across the state. After the rally, Deblina Hembram from the West Bengal Adivasi Adhikar Manch, tribal leader Laxmikanta Hansda, Anisur Rahman from the Nagarik Samanway Manch, Indrajit Ghosh, leader of the democratic movement, lawyer Shamim Ahmed and others spoke against the tyrannical actions of the government. Besides, Ratan Hembram, Sushil Murmu, Jaba Murmu, Kokila Murmu, Dhani Hembram, Dinu Chande and other representatives from Deucha-Pachami also addressed the gathering.

The leaders said that thousands of tribals, dalits, minorities, poor, and working people of this state are in extreme helplessness. Even after 75 years of independence, the country's oldest inhabitants, the tribal communities belonging to Scheduled Castes, are still living a subjugated life. The marginal people in this state as well as in the country have to fight for the right of water and forest land again and again.

Although various laws for them are included in the Constitution, the basic rights including the right to water, forest and land did not reach them. At present, large coal reserves have been discovered in 42 village areas lying in the Deucha-Pachami-Dewanganj-Harinsinga coal block. Rulers dreaming of inordinate loot have jumped in to grab it. Plans are afoot to evacuate the life, livelihood, home, language and culture of thousands and thousands of tribals living in the proposed mining area. The speakers emphasized that to date there has been no environmental damage assessment survey for the project, nor has there been any public hearing. As a result, no legal avenues were properly explored. There are similar stories of state-sponsored tyranny and torture in Farakka, Thurga and Tilabani Hills.

So, it is the marginalized people of Deucha Pachami who have come forward to form the gram sabha (Village Assembly). The marginalized people are fighting in compliance with the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, enacted by the UPA-1 government in 2006 with the help of the Left. They are raising slogans, "Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha? The biggest body is the gram sabha.”

The speakers also said that at the same time, a larger movement against the deprivation of thousands of educated job seekers affected by the teacher recruitment scam is gaining momentum across the state. On the one hand, we cannot forget the plight of the state's government education system, and on the other hand, we cannot overlook the mockery of the investigation into the death of the protesting youth Anis Khan. Therefore, all the poor working people, including the affected people, tribals, dalits, and minorities have raised their voices in protest. The demand is clear: the scrapping of the Deucha Pachami coal mining project. Corporate profiteers must be removed from the water-forest-land. Every village and city should rise up against the immoral and autocratic attitude of the government and against the all-pervasive corruption. All in all, Kolkata’s democratic citizenry is in solidarity with the people of Deucha.