Residents of over 40 gram panchayat sabhas in Khunti today submitted a memorandum to the industry director, Aradhana Patnaik, protesting against the ArcelorMittal land acquisition bid to set up the Torpa steel plant.

In the memorandum of demands, the villagers vowed to fight "till the end" to safeguard their right over water, forest and land (jal, jungle aur zameen).

The letter was forwarded by the co-ordinator of the Adivasi Moolvasi Astitva Raksha Manch, Dayamani Barla.

The demands included that the state government halt land transfer in Torpa block immediately and that the ryot rights over villages that has been granted to ArcelorMittal is declared null and void.

Citing provisions under the Chhotanagpur Tenanacy Act and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, the residents argued that the villages' tribal communities were the "real owners" of the water, forest and land in the area. Thus, the government had no right to transfer these.

The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, too, upholding the "traditional rights of the tribals" was quoted in the letter.

Instead of setting up new industries in the area, the residents have demanded that waters from Koel, Karo and Chhata be made available to farmers for agriculture.

Copies of the memorandum were also sent to the governor and industry secretary.

On September 14, members of 32 gram sabha had submitted a similar memorandum to Khunti deputy commissioner, while on September 22, yet another was shot off to the Gumla deputy commissioner.

Talking to The Telegraph Barla warned that the seething villagers were getting more and more impatient with the state as they felt that industrialisation was a threat to indigenous culture and values. "We are not going to sit idle," she added.

ArcelorMittal plans to start a 12MT greenfield steel plant in Torpa and Kamdara blocks and needs 8,000 acres for the projects. According to members of Adivasi Moolvasi Astitva Raksha Manch, several farmers from the 32 villages of Khunti and Gumla would be displaced if the firm goes ahead with its plan.

October 1, 2009 / Telegraph

The home department has, finally, made room for the elite Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (Cobra).

Last August, the Centre had given the nod to raise a 10,000-strong special force under the command and control of the CRPF to counter Naxalites primarily in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and other rebel-hit states.

The two battalions sanctioned for the state will be headquartered in Barhi, Hazaribagh, and near Sapphire International School on the Ranchi-Khunti border. The home department has sanctioned 101.50 acres in Barhi block and 85 acres in Khunti district.

Hazaribagh deputy commissioner Vinay Kumar Choubey said the land along NH-33 had been lying barren and was, thus, allotted for housing the force. It will also use the Barhi sub-divisional office.

"The land in question was acquired in the Nineties for industrial purposes. But nothing positive moved on that front. The total barren area is about 575 acres. We are using 101.5 acres while the rest can be used for industrial purposes later," he said.

Khunti deputy commissioner Puja Singhal Purwar said the 85-acre stretch along Ranchi-Khunti road was ahead of Sapphire International School and opposite to the deer park.

State home secretary J.B. Tubid said the Cobra would man the Naxalite strongholds of Hazaribagh, Giridih, Koderma, Chatra, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Latehar and Palamau by December 2009. "The headquarters need to be ready as soon as possible."

Headquartered in the national capital, five of the 10 battalions of Cobra are being deployed in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Two battalions of more than 1,000 personnel each have already undergone training at the Jungle Warfare Training School in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and in Silchar, Assam. Equipped with 19 different assault weapons and intelligence techniques, they are waiting for their headquarters to get ready.

Over 70 districts in the country are grappling with Left-wing extremism, which has been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a "virus" and the "biggest internal security threat".

Around 40 Cobra commandos are currently deployed in Lalgarh, Bengal, to counter the CPI (Maoist) offensive.

22 Jun 2009 / The Telegraph

In what is seen as a victory for workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act here in Jharkhand who had faced hardships because of delayed payment of compensation, as many as 174 of them from 10 villages of Khunti and Murhu blocks have received Rs. 2,000 each under the Payment of Wages Act, the total adding up to Rs. 3.48 lakh.

The payment was ordered by M.A. Haque, Assistant Labour Commissioner, Chotanagpur.

This came at the end of a month-long struggle. A team of student volunteers from Delhi University and elsewhere have been running a "sahayata kendra" (help centre) for NREGA workers here since May 1.

The first problem that came to their attention was that of delayed payments in the district. In most of the villages of Khunti and Murhu blocks that were surveyed, wages had not been paid for weeks, even months. In some cases, the delay added up to years. In the absence of timely payments, rural workers had developed an aversion to the NREGA.

NREGA workers should receive payment within 15 days, failing which they are entitled to compensation under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, of Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 3,000 each.

After the sahayata kendra alerted the district administration to the delays, wages were swiftly paid at many sites, without prejudice to the compensation claims.

The demand for compensation received a boost on June 4 when G. Krishnan, Adviser to the Governor of Jharkhand, sent instructions to Khunti for such payment. The Union Ministry of Rural Development also took a serious view of this matter.

K.K. Soan, the NREGA Commissioner for Jharkhand, and Dr. Haque, the Assistant Labour Commissioner, held a "camp court" in Khunti on June 6 at the sahayata kendra. NREGA workers from Tapinsara, Kota, Chamratoli, Gumpudu, Bududih, Simbukel, Belahathi, Taro Siladon, Chukru and Irud gram panchayats submitted applications for compensation. During this initial hearing, the focus was on cases where the delays were evident from official records, such as muster rolls and payment advices.

The camp court proceedings were swift; compensation was arranged the same day. Further hearings are to be held from June 11.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the Union government's flagship poverty alleviation scheme, is in danger of floundering in Jharkhand. Significant delays in the payment of wages to workers were noticed here owing to administrative apathy, a team of researchers who have been following its fortunes in different districts of the State have found.

The team was part of the NREGA Sahayata Kendra, or help centre, in Khunti, set up by researchers associated with the Centre for Development Economics at the Delhi School of Economics, in collaboration with the district administration, to provide assistance to NREGA workers.

A Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan was launched on May 1, International Labour Day, in Khunti district to activate the NREGA in the district. Preliminary field visits in Khunti and Murhu blocks showed there was hardly any NREGA work undertaken in the area and that wages were due to be paid for work done months, in some cases even years, ago.

As part of this Abhiyan, teams of students from Delhi University, Bombay University, Bangalore University and NALSAR Hyderabad surveyed 10 gram panchayats in Khunti and Murhu blocks from May 4 to 10. In these 10 panchayats they found more than 30 worksites where payments were due. These include sites in Jikki (Siladon gram panchayat) and Chikor (Bhandra) where more than 50 workers had not been paid for work done two years ago.

An officer's promise

On May 11, the teams submitted their findings to the Deputy Commissioner. They also presented to her a set of complaints for each panchayat, and a list of sites where payments were due in the 10 panchayats. The officer assured them that action would be taken on all the complaints and all pending payments made by May 18.

On May 20, the teams returned to the panchayats, but the reports from the field were disappointing. In Chikor, for instance, no worker had been paid. In the same panchayat, the team visited Jilinga village where they learnt of three other worksites where payments were due: one pond and two wells, of which one was sanctioned two years ago.

Similar reports were received from the other teams.It was the same story in Murhu block: in Murhu panchayat, labourers were going to collect their wages from the post office, but they had not yet received their job cards from the "munshi".

When Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera, part of the Sahayata Kendra, visited the Murhu block office on May 20 at 10.30 a.m., not one official concerned with NREGA was present. The block programme officers were unable to provide a list of the villages where payments had been made in May, though they had told the Deputy Commissioner that Rs. 12 lakh had been paid.

Professor Dreze and Dr. Khera said they had written to the Department of Rural Development asking for compensation of at least Rs. 1,500, under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, for each worker whose wages have been delayed. They were also demanding that a fine of Rs. 1,000 be imposed on all the officials responsible, under Section 25 of the NREGA.

Khunti is historically known for the centre of activity of the Birsa movement and the greart Jharkhandi leader, Birsa Munda was born in this district.

The area however is endowed with good rainfall - in most blocks the annual rainfall exceeds 1100 millimetres. There are numerous small rivers, rivulets and streams, which carry water up to the month of February or March. In spite of that, most cultivated lands do not have assurance of water for crops even during the monsoon. Inadequacy of water harvesting infrastructures and water use systems have allowed the rain water to run off through the streams to downstream areas beyond the State, leaving the lands here dry. It has been long argued that ensuring water assurance to crops and improving land husbandry practices could go a long way in improving the livelihoods of poor families and impacting the local economy in rural areas. However, it has also been the experience that timely credit in adequate amount and know-how for improved agriculture are also essential along with water assurance to crops. For water assurance, the large irrigation schemes have not been successful in the district and other parts of Jharkhand.

The area is famous for the Lac cultivation. A large part of the India's total lac production comes from this area. Lac, a natural polymer (resin) is produced by a tiny insect, Kerria lacca (Kerr), which is purposely cultured on shoots of several species of trees, mainly palas, kusum and ber. This agricultural profession of lac cultivation is a subsidiary source of income for a large number of families in the area.

Naxal –

Apart from the Maoist activities in the Khunti district in Jharkhand, there are two other groups operating in Khunti. One is the Peoples Liberation Front of India (PLFI) and the other is Jaynath Sahu group. These two groups also clash among themselves. Levy collection, extortion and kidnapping for ransom are the main agenda of these groups. However, PLFI is now banned outfit in Jharkhand and is in the list of Naxal organization.

Regular police operations are being conducted in the district. The police have also reached out to the public in general and regular community policing programs are being conducted in the district. Some psychological operations have also been taken up like making the people aware through "nukkad nataks", distribution of pamphlets and distribution of articles like sari, dhoti, blankets, lantern, sports materials and other items.