Sunday, May 2, 2010

MSEZ might crushes yet another farmer!

Until recently Gregory was a passionate farmer, happily cultivating over 50 kinds of agriculural n horticultural products in his 15 acre land. He was also equally passionate about protecting his land from the likes of Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) and Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) who were eying his fertile land for their industrial expansion. As the vice president of the Bala Panchayat, he was also very keen on preventing the acquision of fertile agricultural land in his village and thus he would go around to advise many of his neighbours not to yield to the pressures of MSEZ and not to sell their fertile agricultural land. He was sad that many of his neighbours had succumbed to either the pressures or the attractive packages of the MSEZ and sold off their fertile agricultural land. Even when many his neighbours collected their compensation by selling their fertile land, he remained as one of the very few defiant faces in the area not yielding to either the pressures or attractive packages offered by the MSEZ. Needless to say, his defiance earned him many friends and enemies too. Many were fascinated by his passion for agriculture (at a time when many were distancing from it) and also by his courage to take on the mights of MRPL and MSEZ. On some occasions he had even been invited to some seminars that discussed the pros and cons of MSEZ and he also appeared in local tv channels explaining his stand against MSEZ. He even featured in NDTV. (watch it here). Also read my earlier post titled 'braving the onslaught of MSEZ' here.
All that has changed now. On 28th April, KIADB officials demolished his house rendering him homeless. Though it should have made national news, sadly only a few papers reported this inhuman incident. (i had even sent a message in twitter to Barkha Dutt (of NDTV fame!) to cover this issue but probably the message has not reached her yet!). For those interested in going through some of the newspaper links click here, here, here, here and here.
Good to note that even daijiworld reported this incident, which was a huge surprise. As i had written in my earlier post, daijiworld had all along appeared to be promoting MSEZ and to find this incident in the pages of daijiworld was a great surprise. Moreover, tvdaijiworld had even uploaded a video. Hats off to daijiworld and tvdaijiworld.
Personally, i am sad that there was no church official either to express solidarity with the family or to condemn this gross violation of human rights. On the other hand, i was happy that at least a swamiji was around to express his solidarity and to condemn this attack. 
Now what is next for this family? The family claims that the demolition was carried out illegally without serving them any notice, without giving them alternate accommodation and sufficient time to shift their valuables. The family also claims that many of their valuables like money and gold have been stolen. With the family refusing to move out from the place it appears that the family is determined (rightly so) to carry on the fight. 
Will this family get justice? or will this incident be soon forgotten to prove yet again that in India only might is right? 

2 comments:

  1. I think it is violation of human rights. In the name of court order one cannot simply demolish a house. Alwyn, any reason why church leaders did not visit the spot. Today Daiji gives a news mentioning that it is 100 years old house. Before the Bajpe church was built the services were held there. Nice article. All the best. Jossie

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  2. i feel one of the reasons why Gregory n his family havent got much church support is because of the fact that Gregory is a BJP supporter! He was the former vice president of bala panchayat and for which he was supported by BJP! this is my reading.

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