Landless Poor Occupy Land in Jamui and Beguserai
During the past few days the CPI(ML) led a land occupation movement by the poor in Jamui and Begusarai districts. The Nitish government which had promised to give land and housing for the poor slapped false cases on CPI(ML) leaders and other protesters. The government which boasts of giving land to the poor is actually carrying on a drive to evict the poor and dalits. They are being driven away mercilessly by the Modi and Nitish governments from land on which they have been settled for years; and when the poor take their own initiative and occupy ceiling, bhoodan or gairmajrua land, they are tortured with different kinds of false cases against them.
On 1 July the Party settled 500 poor from the Musahar community on gairmajrua land in Bank Village, Dandari Block, Begusarai District. No untoward incident occurred during the process of settling the poor. Despite this, the administration persisted in calling it an anarchistic action and unleashed a campaign of repression on the mahadalit-poor. 85 named persons and 200 unknown persons were made accused in 7 kinds of false cases.
Two false cases were also slapped on CPI(ML) State Committee member and Begusarai District Secretary Diwakar Prasad. The local administration is actually working at the behest of a relative of BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh who is laying claim to this gairmajrua land. Obviously, the BJP’s attitude towards the poor and dalit is extremely insensitive. In this Block, dominant forces and criminals have captured ceiling, gairmajrua and Kaiser-e-Hind and other government lands in many Panchayats but the administration is taking no action against them.
A protest rally was held against the false cases against protesters on 10 July at Dandari Block. The rally marched from Dandari Chowk raising slogans for government land for poor and demanding withdrawal of the false cases. The meeting was addressed by AIARLA National General Secretary and CPI(ML) Politburo member Dhirendra Jha. He said that Nitish Kumar had promised to give 5 decimal homestead land to all poor, landless and dalits and made laws for it, but today the BJP-JD(U) government is bent upon razing poor settlements and evicting dalits and the poor. Lakhs of acres are being handed over to corporate houses. The meeting was also addressed by peasant leader Shivsagar Sharma, Begusarai District Secretary Diwakar Prasad, Baiju Singh, Noor Alam, Indradev Ram, Gauri Paswan, AISA leader Watan Kumar, Ramvilas Rajak, Jaggan Sada, Ashok Ram, Ratan Mala Devi, Amarjeet Paswan, Deepak Anand and others. The meeting was presided over by AIARLA leader Chandradev Verma.
Jamui: On 3 July about 500 dalit poor from the Musahar community under the banner of AIARLA occupied bhoodan land in Mangobandar, Khaira Block, Jamui District and put up their huts. These dalits had been demanding for years from the administration that they should be settled on this land but their demands went unheeded. As soon as they put up their huts they were attacked by dominant forces. Govind Manjhi sustained head injuries in the attack and many others were seriously injured. The administration, instead of acting against the attackers, slapped cases on the protesters, including CPI(ML) Jamui District Secretary Shambhu Sharan Singh, AISA District President Babu Saheb, Sintu, Basudeb Rai and other activists. The poor who were attacked by the goons gave a spirited reply to the attacks.
Before the huts were put up on the land, AIARLA leaders addressing the meeting said that there are 10,000 landless Mahadalit families in Khaira Block. In Mangobandar alone there are 400 families who are landless and need land for housing. There are 93 acres of bhoodan land lying here for a long time but the government is not distributing this land. On the contrary the land mafia is trying to sell this land illegally. The land mafia, brokers and middlemen want to grab this land through false land documents. The Block administration officials are standing in support of the land mafia, brokers and middlemen. But the people are resisting this and will not allow this to happen. If the administration does not settle the poor on this land, they are determined to take their own initiatives and put up their huts on the land. At the conclusion of the meeting the poor occupied the bhoodan and other gairmajrua lands and put up their huts on the land.
