Villagers resist forced displacement by Electro Steel Company in Dhanbad-Bokaro. Mass resistance led by colliery belt leader A K Roy
Report by Ranjan Ghosh
M.C.C (Marxist Coordination Committee) led by A K Roy had been campaigning against the torture and exploitation of Electro Steel Company for the last 9 months. Various other political parties had launched campaign against the same company from time to time during the past 5 years, gave fiery speeches etc. only to be purchased by the company ( Bolero, Scorpio, contracts…). The aggrieved villagers whose land has been purchased (read looted!) at throw away prices, whose village entry road had been blocked to forcefully uproot them, whose wells and other water resources have dried up due to huge extraction of underground water through deep bore wells of the company, had nowhere to go.
Those who dared to oppose(legally) had been implicated in criminal cases like attempt to murder, snatching of arms, dacoity etc. and beaten by the police and security guards. The local people who got the unskilled jobs in the factory are working under appalling condition without minimum wages, fixed working hours, health or accidental insurance, provident fund etc.
When all the legal and democratic forms of protest failed to yield any result the villagers and workers initiated a blockade of the main road approaching the company premises. Nearly 500 policemen were deployed by the district administration to maintain the law and order! (i.e. to scare the protestors). But the numbers of protestors were more than 5000. On the second day of this movement, ailing leader A.K. Roy, who is nearly 75 years now and can’t walk or speak properly arrived on the spot. The sight of this old man was enough to draw a crowd of 15000! He left in the evening and on the next day early in the morning police arrested nearly 200 of the protestors including their leader Mr. Arup Chatterjee, MLA. They were kept in a school building nearly .
When this news spread thousands of men and women, young and old, blocked the busy main road between Bokaro and Dhanbad. At around 2 PM a phone call came from Basant Soren, younger brother of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, that PM wanted to have a meeting with the representative of the people and the Managing Director of the company at Ranchi on September 30. The arrested people were released, the blockade of roads were withdrawn, nearly 1000 officers and staff of the company who were virtually imprisoned within the factory compound for three days were allowed to go home!
M.C.C (Marxist Coordination Committee) led by A K Roy had been campaigning against the torture and exploitation of Electro Steel Company for the last 9 months. Various other political parties had launched campaign against the same company from time to time during the past 5 years, gave fiery speeches etc. only to be purchased by the company ( Bolero, Scorpio, contracts…). The aggrieved villagers whose land has been purchased (read looted!) at throw away prices, whose village entry road had been blocked to forcefully uproot them, whose wells and other water resources have dried up due to huge extraction of underground water through deep bore wells of the company, had nowhere to go.
Those who dared to oppose(legally) had been implicated in criminal cases like attempt to murder, snatching of arms, dacoity etc. and beaten by the police and security guards. The local people who got the unskilled jobs in the factory are working under appalling condition without minimum wages, fixed working hours, health or accidental insurance, provident fund etc.
When all the legal and democratic forms of protest failed to yield any result the villagers and workers initiated a blockade of the main road approaching the company premises. Nearly 500 policemen were deployed by the district administration to maintain the law and order! (i.e. to scare the protestors). But the numbers of protestors were more than 5000. On the second day of this movement, ailing leader A.K. Roy, who is nearly 75 years now and can’t walk or speak properly arrived on the spot. The sight of this old man was enough to draw a crowd of 15000! He left in the evening and on the next day early in the morning police arrested nearly 200 of the protestors including their leader Mr. Arup Chatterjee, MLA. They were kept in a school building nearly .
When this news spread thousands of men and women, young and old, blocked the busy main road between Bokaro and Dhanbad. At around 2 PM a phone call came from Basant Soren, younger brother of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, that PM wanted to have a meeting with the representative of the people and the Managing Director of the company at Ranchi on September 30. The arrested people were released, the blockade of roads were withdrawn, nearly 1000 officers and staff of the company who were virtually imprisoned within the factory compound for three days were allowed to go home!
