One more Untouchability wall demolished in Tamil Nadu on the intervention of TNUEF

A temple and a wall built on the road to a Dalit colony in Dharmapuri District six months ago was demolished by municipal authorities on Thursday. These structures were constructed on the road between Ambedkar Colony of the Dalits and Gandhi Nagar where caste-Hindus resided.

Officials said in September last year, M. Kanchana of Ambedkar Colony lodged a complaint with the Dharmapuri Municipality that caste-Hindus of Gandhi Nagar had constructed a wall 10 years ago to block the way to her colony, forcing the Dalits to take a circuitous route to their colony. While they continued to endure this, the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) began in 2009 a series of protests to have the wall removed. But, there was no solution.

A. Kumar, district convener of the TNUEF told that the organisation had held many agitations, including one on March 14 this year, to demand the demolition of the temple and the wall. It had also represented to District Collector and Superintendent of Police for action.

Ms. Kanchana submitted a petition to the municipality on September 13, last year, seeking demolition of the wall. Meanwhile, the residents of Gandhi Nagar constructed the temple on the road.

Officials said that after verifying the land records, they found that the temple and the wall were built to block the path. The wall and the temple were demolished on Thursday morning. This was carried out in three hours, in the face of protest from the residents of Gandhi Nagar, A. Gurusamy, Commissioner (in-charge) of Dharmapuri Municipality said. Police were posted at the spot to prevent violence.

When asked why the civic body took eight months since the submission of petition to demolish the wall, Mr. Gurusamy said two rounds of talks with residents of both colonies were held to find an amicable solution. When the municipality saw that those who built the temple and the wall were not willing to remove these, it decided to demolish the structures.

Kisan Rally in Haryana

Leaders of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) today made a scathing attack over the ruinous policies pursued by both Central  and state governments while holding these responsible for indebtedness of the peasantry. A member of the Central Kisan Council of the AIKS   Hannan Mollah a former MP revealed that one farmer was compelled to commit suicide every half an hour in India owing to the fact that farming was no longer a viable and sustainable profession. Addressing a large rally of the farmers on the occasion of three day state conference of Haryana Kisan Sabha he asked the farmers and agriculture workers to unite and launch struggles in order to reverse retrograde policies.

AIKS national  Vice- President Amra Ram, MLA (Rajasthan) accused the Congress governments of Haryana and Rajasthan of fraudulently taking away farmers prime lands and handing these lands over to Robert Vadra for appeasement of Smt. Sonia Gandhi. He held both Congress and BJP for following similar economic policies. Jatinder Chaudhary a minister in the Tripura government highlighted the achievements of CPI(M) led Left Front government by stating that land was distributed to all landless, power was given free for tube wells, education was imparted free to all upto college level and total literacy has been achieved by the state. He said that their government was never making propaganda of these achievements unlike Bhupinder Hooda government claiming the state as number one though the farmers were deprived of subsidies in fertilizers, seeds, pesticides ets.

AIDWA all India Vice-President Jagmati Sangwan called upon the women to stand up and launch social movements unitedly with struggling farmers against female foeticide, alcoholism, violence against women, casteism and other social evils. CPI(M) state secretary Inderjit Singh asked the gathering to grasp the challenge posed to the livelihood and dignity of toilig masses and strive to alter the policies of neo-liberalism which have benefited only the selected vested interests and MNCs.

Others addressing the Kisan rally were Harpal Singh ex- MLA, Phool Singh Sheokand and Pradeep Singh, general secretary, President and Treasurer of AIKS Haryana. They asked where  the jobs promised as a result of setting up of SEZs in lieu of huge amounts of lands acquired by the companies who were now being allowed to change the land use through corrupt practices at the official level.
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President and Treasurer of AIKS Haryana. They asked where  the jobs promised as a result of setting up of SEZs in lieu of huge amounts of lands acquired by the companies who were now being allowed to change the land use through corrupt practices at the official level.

Trinamool Wins in Howrah, Lost Total Votes of 157,714; Disillusionment is the ‘Real’ Mandate

Left Front Achieves 4.85% Vote Increase compared to 2011 Assembly Elections

Howrah Lok Sabha by-election has shown a clear disillusionment with the ruling Trinamool Congress that resulted in a massive slide in Trinamool vote bank. The margin of 184,000 votes in 2011 election in all seven constituencies has gone down to just 27,000 votes. This proves a major setback of Trinamool Congress and their vote bank in Howrah.
This time in Howrah Lok Sabha constituency the total vote cast was 954,381 out of the total voters of more than 14 lakhs. Out of the total votes cast Trinamool candidate got 426,381 votes and Left Front candidate Sreedip Bhattacharya got 399,422. The Congress candidate bagged 96,743. BJP has withdrawn their candidate for an untold alliance with the ruling party. The margin however comes down to just 26,965 votes whereas in the last assembly election in all seven assembly segments the total margin was 184,679. The difference of margin Trinamool congress lost is 157,714.
The Left Front candidate Sreedip Bhattacharya has considered the election result quite positive and optimistic for Left Front in the coming days. ‘In the last assembly election we lost in all seven constituencies by heavy margins. But this time not only the margin comes down, the total votes in favour of Left Front have increased considerably. We have won in two constituencies also. This definitely has ensured our moral victory.
The BJP state President Rahul Sinha in a press meet has overtly confessed that Trinamool Congress has won due to the withdrawal of BJP candidate. It was not possible for Trinamool Congress to win the Lok Sabha seat without support of their voters.
This time the most important aspect of this by-election is the increase of Left Front vote. In 2011 the percentage of vote in all seven constituencies Left front bagged was 37%. But this year the favoured vote has increased up to 41.85%. The clear increase is 4.85%.
Biman Basu
People of Howrah have experienced incessant lying, false promises, and fancied concept of development in the last two years. People have already experienced the ‘so called change’ not at all beneficial for their lives, said Left Front Chairman and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Basu.
Trinamool Congress has won the seat by intimidating common voters, attacking opposition workers. The election was accomplished amid massive terror in different areas of the constituency. Left Front agents were not allowed to sit in the booths. They would not have won the election if they did not intimidate voters for seven days before election. He however congratulated the people of Howrah for casting their votes amid such a terror crisis.
People have witnessed in last two years the performance of Trinamool Congress. People of this state are now feeling deceived of the so called ‘change’.