[Marxistindia] Strongly Condemn This Brutal Killing of Adivasis

[news from the cpi(m)]

20 July 2019

Press Statement

 

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the
following statement:

 

Strongly Condemn This Brutal Killing of Adivasis

 

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the brutal killing of ten
adivasi landless farmers, including three women by criminal land grabbing
mafia in Umbha village, Sonbhadra district,  backed by the UP Government and
administration. The adivasis have been tilling the land for the last seven
decades but no Government gave them the land pattas which was their right.
After the Adityanath Government took office, the adivasis have been
threatened by the local land mafia to stop tilling the land. Even though the
adivasis had complained to the authorities, the Government and
administration refused to act. The Adityanath Government is trying to put
the responsibility on others but it is during the rule of his Government
that the land mafia led by the pradhan claimed to have "bought" the land and
unleashed terror on the adivasis. It is highly condemnable that the
Government has not given a single rupee to help the injured and on the
contrary some were forcibly discharged from the hospital.

 

A CPI(M) delegation visited the village yesterday, the first to do so,  to
meet the victim families breaking the condemnable restrictions imposed by
the UP Government on entry into the village. A six member delegation led by
Com Hiralal Yadav central committee member of the CPI(M) and State Secretary
and other leaders including Dinanath Yadav, Anup Pratap Singh, Baccha Lal,
Arvind Vakil, Anil Kumar Singh. The details the families related are
horrifying. Truckloads of armed men led by Yagya Dutt opened fire even as
the adivasis were tilling the land, a mass butchery. The families gave
details of the number of times they had pleaded with the administration to
give the pattas in their name. Earlier, the land had been captured in 1955
by powerful landlords led by one Sinha and a trust was formed in the name of
Adarsh trust. Since then the adivasis families have been paying an annual
rent per bigha which in the last payment was 500 rupees per bigha on the
assurance that the land was not going to be sold. It is in 2017 that the
land was apparently sold to Yagya Dutt with the help of the administration.
This is during the regime of the BJP Government.

 

Clearly the current regime is responsible for protecting the land mafia and
denying land pattas to the adivasis. The delegation also visited those
injured and admitted in two hospitals. 

 

The CPI(M) demands that the land pattas are immediately given to the adivasi
families who have been tilling the land for over seven decades. It demands
strong action against the administration officials and the police who
connived with the criminals and immediate arrest and stringent punishment of
all those involved in the brutal massacre. It demands immediate compensation
to the families of those killed and to the injured. Government has to ensure
free rations to the families who are deprived of their livelihood. 

 

 

(Hari Singh Kang)

For CPI(M) Central Committee office

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://cpim.org/pipermail/marxistindia_cpim.org/attachments/20190720/bb58ce80/attachment.html>