Resistance to Imperialist policies- Kakinada Anti SEZ Struggle
Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is a key instrument for
furthering the imperialist policy of Globalization, Privatization and
Liberalization which is enacted in the year of 2005. It is to pave the
way for the Multi National Corporations (MNC) to acquire prime
agriculture land to set up their enclaves where they are free to do
virtually what ever they want. The SEZs are anti people anti
constitutional and imperialistic in nature. Once the SEZs are
established the economy will be controlled by few capitalists forces
where the rich becomes richer and poor becomes more poorer . It is to
satisfy these sections of the capitalists, the ruling class is ready to
sacrifice the sovereignty of the country. Peoples land is being taken
off them often at low market rates.
Land, a sacred trust is being commodified by using
state muscle to deny farmers their rights and then establish corporate
monopoly on land ownership.The large scale uprooting of millions of
farmers in Andhra Pradesh ,U.P, West Bengal, Maharashtra is breaking the
sacred bond between peasants and the land which supports them. The
situation at Kakinada is not vary from other SEZs. The victims of land
grabbing of Kakinada SEZ have been struggling since 3 years for their
right to live as guaranteed by the constitution of India.
Considered the rice granary of India, East Godavari
district has always been in the forefront of all-round economic
development setting itself as a role model for several districts not
just in Andhra Pradesh but in other states as well. Situated in the
north of Andhra pradesh and bounded by visakhapatnam, west godavari
and Khammmam districts and the Bay of Bengal the district is endowed
with abundant natural resources and scenic beauty that has few places in
the country. The district has history of anti colonial struggles and
produced revolutionary warriors such as Alluri Sitarama Raju who fought
against British Raj. The present proposed SEZ is located about 20
kilometers away from the city of Kakinada.
On March 07,2008 on eve of International Women’s Day,
thousands of women of Kakinada SEZ Vythireka Mahila Sangham along with
their men scathing attack against formation of SEZ in their home land.
The members of sangham entered into the forcibly occupied fields of KSEZ
and demolished the constructions and destroyed the fencing. Truly, it
was a turning point in our struggle and it is surely inspiration to
other sez struggles .
Acquisition of land – A Violation of fundamental rights
The constitution of India has guaranteed rights to
its citizens. As per the article 21 of constitution every citizen has
right to live, with dignity and prosperity. The SEZ act itself is
against the spirit of this article. The acquisition of land in
Kakinada is being done fraudulently and using coercive methods. The
people are threatened and terrified to leave their home land and hand
over the lands to KSEZ by the revenue officials and police. They are
subjected to all sorts of humiliation. The political forces are being
used to divide the people The process adopted for the acquisition of
land for SEZ is therefore is violation of fundamental rights. The SEZ
act as significantly contributed to India’s real estate boom yet the
harsh reality is that the land is taken from farmers to benefit private
enterprise which is the precondition for globalization. A large
population of country consist of agrarians who will be unemployed in a
market that seeks only skilled labourers and just compensation for
acquired property remains questionable.
Kakinada SEZ – A classic Example
In 2005, a memorandum of understanding between the
Government of A.P and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation on 03.03.2005 to
establish an oil refinery as an SEZ near Kakinada, for which an area of
10,000 acres had to be acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
Being intensively cultivated paddy growing area, there were protests
from the farmers and farm labourers, the latter organized by leftist
organizations. For reasons which have never been made public, but most
probably because of pressure exerted by the real estate lobby, the
notification was not followed up but a fresh notification was issued for
about the 12,000 acres of land in U.Kothapally and Thondangi mandals,
which are away from the developed areas near Kakinada and politically
dormant. The real estate sector is on high growth path according to
recent reports in The Economic Times. Almost simultaneously the ONGC,
the original beneficiary of the proposed SEZ, declared that it had no
interests in the proposal. But the government went ahead nevertheless
with aggressive acquisition strategy.
Corporate feudalism
A developer called K.V. Rao of the KSEZ Pvt. Ltd
entered the picture, while the notification was in the force, he was
allowed to ‘persuade’ the landowners to sell land to him, citing the
delay and other difficulties incidental to land acquisition proceedings
and was given large scale subsidies. This is a criminal subsidy the
state is giving to the rich by stealing from the poor. The revenue
authorities aided the developer and his brokers (middlemen) who started
roaming the villages of these mandals, on a daily basis, in village
after village. A price of Rs. 3 lakh was arrived at an negotiations
with some willing sellers, and the developer’s men with the active
connivance of the revenue authorities used intimidators tactics,
threatening the farmers that if they did not sell their lands at Rs. 3
lakh not to the KSEZ Pvt. Ltd, they would have to accept the government
rate of one lakh or one and a half lakh and would have to run around
courts or years if they wanted more. A ‘s land and then tell his
neighbor B that the SEZ will come up in his neighborhood and he cannot
continue his cultivation so he had better to sell his land too. In some
cases they even lied about the neighbor having sold his land.
Many of the innocent semi-literate farmers,
threatened and misled by the revenue authorities, the developer’s men
and their brokers sold away their lands. About 45% of the proposed land
was acquired by the developer by these means. The registration papers
described these lands as barren and vacant, that these are no proper
irrigation facilities, that the income of the farmers on these lands is
insufficient, and hence the farmers are “ voluntarily” agreeing to sell
their lands at Rs 3 lakh per acre to the KSEZ authorities in a “mutually
agreeable” manner. Many times the poor did not get compensation at all
due to the absence of land titles.
In reality, the lands of the farmers are replete with
lush green foliage. They grow mango, caesarians, cashew, sapota, amla,
coconuts and numerous other crops. The crops grow in abundance on
these fertile lands. The lands also have good facility of natural water
resources and good filter points and therefore there are no problems of
watering the lands. Irrigated by the canals of the Godavari and Eluru,
these lands enable three successful harvests annually, including paddy
crops. Both the farmers and farm laborers, whose livelihoods depend on
these lands, know no drought or hunger, suicides are unheard of.
Rehabilitation and resettlement package is an illusion
Fifteen hundred sheep rearing and 1000 families of
toddy taping, pot makers, black smith families are dependent on their
profession and serving the community. Much of the population are
Dalits who are working as farm labourers are dependent on the land.
Government has issued G.O No. 68 which promises relief to the victims,
this rehabilitation and resettlement policy adopted by the government is
specially prepared for the SEZ affected people. The rehabilitation
package which was announced by the government is not acceptable to the
people because the package merely announced by the government it never
allowed people to be part of decision making. The forced and aggressive
implementation of this package created big hue cry in the community.
The middle men are minting up money from the people and government to
bargain for better settlement. Castist forces and dimensions are playing
substantial role in the same. The package announced by the government
is more patriarchy in nature and anti class oriented. There is no space
for women and artisans in the total package.
SEZ ACT is anti people
The SEZ Act was passed to boost so
called Economic development in India. However, the Land Acquisition
Act,1894 does not clearly define the scope o land acquisition for the
public purpose. Essentially has been used by the government to acquire
land for private corporations. Now the public out cry against SEZ act
is that it is “anti peasantry, anti rural poor, anti labour and anti
environment”. So the Land Acquisition Act is in dire need of scrap. It
permits 70% of the land required to be purchased by the company or
corporation and 30% can be acquired for private projects by the
government. The question is whether SEZ is really required so much land
as often done. Even SEZ prescribes that out of acquired land 25% to
50% can be used for the establishment of units and remaining land can be
used for infrastructure development, which obviously lures the investor
to go for real estate business. The land acquisition is also
contradicts the purpose of Act itself which was supposed to use to
acquire for the public purpose and not for private and monopoly
ownership rights.
Battle in the courts : strengthening the struggle:
In 2006,the farmers organised themselves and formed
a SEZ Vythireka Porata Samiti (SVPS), which has been protesting against
the dubious and coercive acquisition of land done for the Kakinada
Special Economic Zone. In December 2007 the State human right
commission (SHRC) passed an interim order for the East Godavari
Administration “not to adopt any coercive methods against the farmers to
part with their lands or offered by them” the commission also decided
to investigate the matter further and was supposed to make a site visit
the area which is still pending. A writ petition filed by farmers in
the High Court questioning the legality of the land acquisition is also
pending in the High Court and there is stay of dispossession of the
petitioners. But the government has formally completed the land
acquisition proceedings ex parte insofar as the other farmers are
concerned (those who have not succumbed to the developer and those who
have not gone to the High Court and is threatening to use force to take
possession of that land and to help the develop to take possession of
the lands he has fraudulently purchased.
Over the last few months members of the KSEZ
Vythireka Porata Samithi have been threatened , harassed and arrested
many times all this is being done to create fear in the minds of the
farmers and debilitate the process of the SHRC fact finding. The
respondents advocate (a senior advocate from Delhi) argued that this
case does not come in purview of Human Right Commission and further he
argued that it has no jurisdiction and KSEZ is not affecting he article
21 of Constitution of India which guarantees Right to live quoting
different case laws. It shows how colonial policies and interests are
safeguarded even by the judiciary.
Vote bank politics – dubious standards
The opposition parties and other main stream parties
are are playing dubious role. It is surprised to note that the then
ruling party Telugu Desam which had given approval to KSEZ is now
opposing the SEZ because to get the vote bank for the coming
election.Bharathiya janatha party(BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which
have local stand has been supporting peoples struggles though they are
not opposing SEZ policies. The so called left parties have not taken
any clear cut stand till today. CPI state committee members visited
the struggle area and supported the peoples fight and formed Costal
Corridor Parirakshana Committee in which members of anti KSEZ movement
have also taken part. The CPM party which is main culprit in killing of
Nandigram farmers to create SEZ is silent about SEZs in A.P. In the
beginning of the struggle few CPI ML parties had involved to organize
the sections of the poor farmers except CPI (ML) liberation, however
with intervention of the NGOs they withdrew from the scene.
Solidarity of Peoples Organizations : boon for the struggle
It is also pertinent to state that the members of the
sangham participated in yatra organized by National alliance for
peoples movement from Nandigram(Kolkata) to Gorai (Mumbai). Members of
various peoples organizations have visited the area and extended their
solidarity. KSEZ Vyathireka Porata Sangham also approached all the
Democratic forces at state level to support their struggle,
organizations like Virasam (Revolution Writers Association) Patriotic
and democratic movement (PDM), Human Rights Forum (HRF) APCLC (Andhra
Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee), National Alliance for Peoples
Movement and Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruttidarula Sangham (APVVU). etc
The Non Governmental Organization KADALI which initiated the process
to create awareness among people against SEZ is continuing the support
the peoples movement.
Active involvement in other Anti SEZ movements:
Sangham members are actively involved in other anti SEZ movements in
Andhra Pradesh. Harassed members extended their support to struggles of
Polepally, Coastal Corridor, Dibba Palem and other struggles. Efforts
are being made to form a Coordination committee at state level to
enhance fight against evil SEZ. Democrats and all progressive sections
of the society were informed to take part in the struggle and
collaborate with us.
Current Situation
In spite of State Human Rights Commissions’s mid
term order and several instructions from it the government is taking
hasty steps to oppress the movement by using police and military forces
and people of the area are living under fear day in and day out.
Community leaders are being charged with many cases and terrified by the
police. Possession of land is still with the farmers only and
cultivating the land except in rehabilitation area. The displaced and
harassed land lords are approaching the local courts for cancellation of
registration under appropriate acts. Repeatedly farmers are approaching
the Human Rights Commission when ever their rights are violated.
Committee is planning to file a Public Interest Litigation in High
Court. Recently under Section 30A of Land Acquisition Act 1894 notices
are served to the parties stating that their awarded money for their
Committee acquired land is deposited in the courts and if necessary to
approach the courts as last resort.
Struggle Committee along with farmers has
decided to continue their fight against SEZ as well as Coastal Corridor
as it is booming up in our area.
Your solidarity actions are essential to continue our
fight against imperialist policies and to intensify our struggles to
scrap SEZs.
Struggle greetings, Date:30-09-08
HEMA VENKATRAV
Counsel and representative
KSEZ Vyathireka Porata Mahila Sangham
KSEZ Vythireka Porata Samithi
