Update from the Dharna in Mehendiganj
Day 19th of the protest
Minutes of call with Nandlal and Suresh on April 10, 2006 by Sanjeev Ranganathan
There was an event at Banaras organized by the Sajha(Collective) Sansankriti Manch, in support of Narmada Bacho Andolan and the Mehdiganj struggle. There were around 200 people and Arvind and Suresh went to the event.
There is yet to be any Govt response. Suresh felt that the pressure from the protest is building up. I asked for why he asked. Since the visit of Kalyanranjan on the 23rd when he provided an estimate for the first time about the coke plant drawing 5lakh/day production seems to have slowed down. The production seems to have dropped and it is not clear if it is because they want to now stick to the production with 5 lakhs/day. Coke also seems to be getting desperate and has been sending people to pay people not to provide electricity and other facilities at our center.
There has been some mention of the struggle in all the four local newspapers every day Aaj, Hindustan Times, Danik Jagaran, Amar Ujala are publishing a story every day. There was also an article in the Banaras newspapers specifically talking about the decreasing water levels and that the water level has gone below danger levels and drinking water is starting to become a problem.
The music troupe went to Kurauta. Due the building of the Banaras hi tech city, 10 village farmers are loosing their land and homes. The farmer collective had put together an awareness event so they could all understand the scope of the displacement and get organized. The group went and distributed flyers about the struggle here in Mehdiganj and the people gathered there expressed their solidarity and promised to participate in the struggle.
There are 5 water stops presently in action - 2 at Rajatalab (GTRoad bus stop) in the two sides, 1 jansa bazaar, 1 belipur bazaar, 1 at the dharna spot. There are flyers about the movement so people can read it when they use the water.
Madhu was here for a few days and acted as the translator for 3 activist film makers who had come from Germany. They were here for four days and went to villages to film and document the accounts of the people in the villages. We also got the opportunity to show Madhu all the documentation we had about the struggle and coke. Madhu promised to send information to all of you regarding the information. The organization is called Ing Altemeier and had worked to document impact of coke especially to workers in Germany. At the time they finished their documentary no TV channel showed their documentary, but later when the world cup foodball was decided to be in Germany and coke took up the sponsorship in return for all products in the 1 mile radius only being coke products, there was a public uproar and local stations started showing the documentary. Coke didn't let them in saying that they were external to the protest. They mentioned that they will only allow 5 people and only if they went in with Nandlal Master.
Nandlal decided to take the initiative and go in and record the documentary by himself, but was asked to keep aside all recording devices as well as cell phone before being allowed in. This was of course not acceptable since there has been repeated efforts to weaken the movement with false information. Nandlal then requested that the banners that have been put in front of the coke factory be amended with all the additional rules or be removed which states that the protestors are welcome to come into the factory and examine it.
Yesterday they also met all the people's movements and cooperatives at the district head quarters there were also a few people from political parties, but no real representation from the government.
Another documentary film maker group will be here for a little time with us, I believe they have come from the US. A couple of them are here. Jhone's are already here.
A professor from IITK Rohit Verman (IME Department) is also here for a few days and doing independent research. He was allowed inside the factory though he was also an external person.
This is a busy time for the farmers for their crops and is also the time of the examinations for the college going youth which makes the core of the struggle. This has hit the numbers a little to 40-50 on each day. They had allocated a time table based on the villages that proposed to participate in the struggle and we have been following the same schedule.
A good number of people from outside Rajatalab have been requested to hold their visits as we are using the present time to raise awareness and put all our efforts together in a few months to get a response from the government.