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# POTA WATCH: TAMIL NADU: POTA Repeal: Little Cheer For Detainees Tehelka, October 02, 2004 TAMIL NADU POTA repeal: little cheer for detainees PC Vinoj Kumar Chennai The Union Cabinet??™s decision to repeal pota has brought little cheer to the 14 Radical Youth League (ryl) cadres, who went on an indefinite fast in the last week of August demanding repeal of the controversial law. The Tamil Nadu government has no plans to withdraw the cases against the ryl cadres. In fact, the government is believed to be toying with the idea of enacting a new law on the lines of pota. Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, who had been accused of misusing pota, held that repeal of pota would have ???disastrous consequences for the internal security situation in the country???. If pota was repealed, Jayalalithaa had stated, law enforcement agencies would have to rely upon the provisions of archaic laws. ???by no stretch of imagination can these laws be considered adequate to handle the terrorist menace,??? she had declared. Officials have taken the cue from the government and speak on similar lines. ???There is no question of dropping pota charges against the ryl cadres,??? a senior officer told Tehelka. ???The Cabinet has only decided to issue an ordinance for repealing pota. They have also given a period of one year for the pota Review Committee to give its recommendations on the pending cases. So, there??™s time to decide our next course of action,??? he said. Human rights activists who have taken up the cause of ryl cadres are disappointed. ???After 21 months of their arrest, trial has not yet started in the case,??? says G. Hari Babu, state coordinator of Centre for Protection of Civil Liberties (cpcl). The police charge against the ryl cadres is that they were engaged in arms training in the Uthangarai forests of Dharmapuri district, when a team of the Naxalites special wing police stormed the camp. The police claim that there was an exchange of fire between the two sides, and that in the encounter, an ryl cadre, Siva alias Parthiban, was killed. Explosives, weapons, and some pw (People??™s War) pamphlets were seized in the operations that followed, police say. A total of 29 people, including 6 women, were detained and charged with offences under the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Arms Act and the Indian Explosive Substances Act. After about a month, pota charges were slapped on them. Two juveniles, and the owner of the mango grove, where the ryl cadres had assembled, have since been released on bail. The bail petitions of the others is pending in the Madras High Court for the last five months. According to human rights activists, there??™s no truth in the charges against the ryl cadres. A. Rahul, general secretary of Indian Association of People??™s Lawyers (iapl), and counsel for the ryl cadres, says that the youth were only holding ???ideology classes??™ in a mango grove in Uthangarai, when police surrounded them and shot dead Siva. ???Siva had been threatened by police earlier since he was a key witness in the ???encounter??™ death of Ravinder, a former junior engineer in the telephone department, who was killed in 2000,??? he alleges. Ravinder??™s wife, Nirmala, had filed a petition seeking protection for Siva??™s life, as he was the lone witness in her husband??™s death, he points out. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main7.asp?filename=Ne100204POTA_repeal.asp --------------------------------------------------------------------- #2 Caste Bias On School Mid-Day Meal Menu Tehelka, October 02, 2004 Caste bias on school mid-day meal menu Manjeet Sehgal Warrior MANDI The Himachal Pradesh government has implemented mid-day meals in the 10,618 government-run primary schools of the state from September 1. However, the scheme has already run into rough weather. The reason: the sharp caste divide, especially in the rural areas. Out of the roughly 7 lakh students in the schools, 1,93,689 are dalits. Several district headquarters have received complaints of dalit students being ostracised. In many schools of Bainchi panchayat in Kullu district, dalit students are allegedly asked to sit 2-3 metres away from upper caste students and not allowed to touch the utensils of the school. They have also been asked to bring their own plates. ???The district administration should intervene and should stop the victimisation of the students by the people of upper caste. We??™ll inform the education minister by way of a memorandum shortly,??? says Nirat Ram Rakha, district president of the Dalit Sahitya Academy, Kullu. District Deputy Commissioner RD Nazeem confirms that he is aware of the caste divide in the district but denies victimisation of dalit students. ???Revenue and Development officers clandestinely visited the schools (concerned) and did not notice any treatment which amounts to victimisation of dalit students. We??™ll leave no stone unturned to implement the scheme. Complaints in future will be examined minutely and the guilty will be punished,??? he says. The Mandi district administration has also received similar complaints. In one of the incidents, in the Gohar block of the district, food for dalit students was cooked in separate utensils. In a written complaint to Ali Raja Rizvi, the Deputy Commissioner Mandi, eight residents of the block said that if the Constitution permits separate teaching arrangements for dalit children, they would happily admit their children in dalit schools. If upper caste people were not eating food cooked by dalits, they would ask their children not to eat food cooked by upper caste people. ???The Sub Divisional Magistrate of Gohar has been asked to inquire into the matter,??? says Rizvi. In other areas, it is the upper caste students who refuse to eat meals cooked by dalit aanganwadi workers. The government primary school in Khudla, 50 km from Mandi, is one such example. There are 72 students, of which 13 Brahmin students stopped eating the mid-day meal on September 6, when cooking duties were entrusted to dalit aanganwadi workers. The Brahmin students refuse to comment when asked why they are not eating. Sunita Devi, a teacher, says, ???The Brahmin students were asked by their parents not to eat meals cooked by dalit workers. The matter has been reported to higher authorities.??? The headmaster, Brij Lal Rana, has failed to pacify the Brahmin families. ???The students are not eating meals despite requests made by the school staff to their parents. We??™ve reported the matter to the block education office,??? says Rana. ???Only doomsday can compel us to accept food from lower caste people. We cannot give up old customs,??? says a Khudla villager who does not want to be named. Interestingly, Rajput students have no objections to the meals. Many teachers look at the mid-day scheme as one more headache. ???The state government has already transferred thousands of school teachers under its rationalisation policy. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (ssa) has further aggravated the situation. Teachers are being compelled to get training under ssa and schools go without teachers for weeks together. The mid-day meal scheme takes up three hours daily and the exams are looming large. We??™re in a piquant situation. We cannot speak against government,??? says a government schoolteacher, on the condition of anonymity. The state government is confident. ???These are teething problems and will be taken care of soon.??? says state Public Health Minister Thakur Kaul Singh, who is from Mandi. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main7.asp?filename=Ne100204Caste_bias.asp ------------------------------------------------------------- #3 NAGALAND: NISC Deplores Terrorist Attacks On Civilians NISC, Amsterdam, October 04, 2004, Tuesday NISC deplores the evil terrorist attack on civilians in both Nagaland and Assam The Naga International Support Centre (NISC) is shocked by the cowardice shown in the attacks on the Naga people in Dimapur. NISC wishes to express its profound sorrow. NISC shares its sympathy with the victims of the bomb blasts at Dimapur Railway Station and Hong Kong Market, with their families and with the Government of the People's Republic of Nagalim. NISC is outraged that no one dares to claim responsibility for these horrendous and treacherous attacks. While some Naga organizations point fingers in a bid to gain some leverage for themselves, it is clear that no Naga has stooped so low as to murder innocent people. The Indian authorities know that Nagas fight for their right to self determination even though the same Indian authorities have done their best to divide and rule over them. The only previous incident was in 1995, a bomb attack in Nagaland. The Nagas were exonerated then. Many step forward and point accusing fingers now, however the real question is who gains an advantage out of this? The pressure of other states on the peace talks is great. The Assam Rifles are known supporters of deviant organizations. In a bid to break through the cease fire and peace talks could it be the military itself that creates havoc in both states? On the other hand, the ULFA has the logistic capability to strike with bombs. Is the ULFA being used by those who fear the potential reunification of the Nagas? These are only speculations, of course, just as the allegation put forward in the press by officials that Pakistan could be behind it. What can be done other than condemning these inhumane acts? NISC encourages every authority, every organization, each and everyone who can to come forward to provide information that will lead to the arrest of the culprits to do so immediately. NISC calls on all ordinary people, officials, non-governmental and government organizations to raise the alarm and relentlessly pursue those who committed these vile acts. NISC suggests strongly that the reward of one lakh rupees NSCN (I-M) announced for information leading to the arrest of these inhumane culprits be increased. NSCN (I-M) is the organization that represents the Naga peoples in the peace talks with the Government of India. NISC calls on those who are capable of fathoming the motivation of those who committed these despicable acts come forward so the terrorists can be understood and tracked down. ============================================================== Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (CHRO) |
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| << October05, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]A K Gopalan: From Satygrahi To Revolutionary |
October06, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]MANIPUR WATCH: Patil Sings Unconditional Talks Tune >> |
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