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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Maletha refuses to be crushed -Rakesh Agrawal

Maletha refuses to be crushed -Rakesh Agrawal

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published Published on Jun 5, 2015   modified Modified on Jun 5, 2015
-CivilSocietyOnline.com

Dehradun: Maletha village in Tehri Garhwal is very angry. Men, women and children sit on the road in dharna, demanding that a stone crushing company grandly called Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram be evicted from their village.

The villagers’ problems began in February 2014 when two stone crushers arrived in Maletha with their machines. Their operations created an ear-splitting noise and belched clouds of dust that settled on crops and orchards.

In August, another three machines turned up. The unbearable din and dust threatened the pride and joy of the village — its vast searas or paddy fields created in the early 17th century by Madho Singh Bhandari, who was gifted the village by the king of Garhwal as a reward for his bravery and intelligence.

In those days, Maletha relied on rain-fed agriculture so all the villagers could grow were hardy millets. But the redoubtable Bhandari, with great determination and hard work, built a two-km canal from the Chandrabhaga river, a tributary of the Alaknanda, to his village. Built of hard rock, the canal had to cut through a hill. The villagers now had enough water to grow paddy, including the aromatic basmati rice, and raise orchards.

Maletha has a memorial in Bhandari’s honour. “But now a few greedy people want to destroy our legacy and our jal, jangal, jameen,” says a distraught Vimala Devi, 44. The villagers began their protests in August 2014 by holding hunger strikes, staging dharnas, singing songs, shouting slogans and organising demonstrations against the stone crushing companies.

The initial protest lasted 42 days. Eventually, Yugal Kishore Pant, district magistrate of Tehri, ordered the stone crushers to stop operations. But the stone crushers approached the Uttarakhand High Court which dismissed the district magistrate’s orders. The court ruled that the district magistrate did not have the authority to throw out the stone crushers since the state government had given them permission to operate.

The village rose in revolt. It became a war zone. “More than 150 armed policemen turned up here as if we were terrorists, but we continued our angry but peaceful protest,” recalls Rukmani Devi, 58.

The administration decided to crack down. Summons were issued against 15 people who had gathered at a central spot in the village to protest. Women and the youth held a rally against the stone crushing companies. They took an oath to oppose them, no matter what. The administration reacted and imposed a ban on gatherings in the village.

Eventually, the Uttarakhand government relented and cancelled the licences of four stone crushing companies. But the fifth — Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram — continues to pound away, emitting dust and noise on a hilltop 200 metres above the village.

The villagers say they will end their agitation only when the government cancels the licence of the company, which belongs to Vikram Singh Negi, the Congress MLA from Pratapnagar constituency.  

“We will do whatever it takes. Our basmati is very popular. We also grow all kinds of pulses and wheat. We will not let anything come in our way,” says Soorbir Singh Bisht, the village pradhan. “If agriculture is ruined it will lead to migration not just from Maletha but from nine villages in three gram sabhas,” points out Dev Singh Negi, 55, a farmer.

“The dust will fall on growing plants, blocking their stomata, reducing photosynthesis and finally causing their death,” warns Anil Gautam of People’s Science Institute, an NGO in Dehradun supporting the agitation.

On 17 May, Maletha organised a rally. Six neighbouring villages marched with the villagers to the SDM’s office in Kirtinagar and handed over a memo demanding closure of the stone crushing company.

The posse of policemen posted at the site is sympathetic. “We are on duty so we cannot take sides but their demands are justified,” confessed one policeman.

“The stone crushers got environmental and pollution clearance in no time as they belong to resourceful people. The irregularities in these clearances must be inspected,” says Sita Devi, head of the Mahila Mangal Dal in Maletha. She went on an 11-day hunger strike in January this year against the stone crushers. The district authorities intervened and shifted her to hospital.

Sameer Raturi, 32, a member of Himalaya Bachao Abhiyan, took over the hunger strike.  

“Stone crushing will lead to landslides and ruin the village’s water resources,” says Raturi.

The villagers are clear that they want to carry on farming. Nobody is interested in jobs.

“Development must be from locally available resources by local people and for local people,” says Raturi. Small industries manufacturing jams and jellies, and marketing local fruit with medicinal value would have appeal here. Maletha is a large village with 550 households and is almost self-sufficient.

Well-known activists are supporting the agitation. Medha Patkar has written to the chief minister about the issue. Swami Shivanand of Matri Sadan who has gone on a fast unto death against illegal sand mining on the Ganga river bed in Haridwar is also supporting Maletha.

Environmentalists  Sunder Lal Bahuguna and Anil Joshi, founder of the Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation, and Vijay Jardhari of the Beej Bachao Andolan are backing the agitation by villagers.

Maletha is also readying for a second fight — against a railway line from Rishikesh to Karnprayag, about 80 km away, that will cut through their fertile fields.

“We are not anti-development. We really want our village to be connected with the train. But why can’t they build a bridge over our fields, so that the train can run and our fields can also continue to produce food?” asks Vimala.

There is talk of a tunnel being built. It will emerge just next to the village’s Bhandari memorial. The villagers say explosives will be used, a lot of debris will fly around, and Maletha’s cultural heritage will be blown to bits.

“They should build tunnels using modern technology that needs no explosives like they did while tunnelling for the Delhi Metro,” says Raturi, who also works with a mobile infrastructure firm in Noida.

The villagers are gearing up to take their battle to the High Court. Even if the court doesn’t rule in their favour, they will not give up. Once again, it will be a people versus government battle.

CivilSocietyOnline.com, June, 2015, http://www.civilsocietyonline.com/pages/Details.aspx?745


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