To,

Justice (retd) Anand,
The Chairman,
National Human Rights Commission
New Delhi.

The farmers and farm labourers of the rural
hinterland surrounding Delhi are fighting for
their survival, amidst the growing vulcanization
and expanding megalopolis at their cost. Their
struggle seems to be with their basic right to
live with their agrarian economy and rural
natural environs on one hand and to demand fair,
just and humane treatment granting democratic
rights and civil liberties even when the State
decides to acquire their resource base and evict
them for transferring the same to the corporate
sector in the name of development. When thousands
of acres of land, where populated villages and
prime agriculture have thrived for generations,
is being handed over to the giant companies,
Indian multinationals, whose money, muscle and
market power is well known, around the ever
expanding Delhi, in the adjacent districts such
as Ghaziabad in U.P. the struggling farmers have
questioned the deals that the companies or the
states on their behalf are engaged in. The State
is forcing them to give away their livelihoods
and lifestyles by compelling them to sell the
land and everything attached; houses, civic
amenities, cultural monuments, communities, and
common property resources.

It is this struggle that has witnessed the worst
of the attacks by the State Government of U.P.
(most probably, as per the peoplesí narration,
hired goons) on July 7^th and 8^th on which we have
conducted an urgent enquiry and report to you
herewith. We request and demand that the NHRC
undertake an in-depth investigation at the
earliest and ensure that the guilty are punished
and the farmers, villagers receive compensation
for their losses and justice in the deal related
to their lands and properties. With the violence
unleashed by the state and the corporates, their
lives are under threat and hence they need full
protection not just physical, but of their right
to life and livelihood. The above incidence
being only a part of the large-scale trampling
upon the agrarian life around the mega-cities all
over the country, including Mumbai, Delhi, and
Kolkata, we would expect the NHRC to take a
position on the issue of urban development and
its impact on the hinterlands. We would also
like to remind you of our petitioning on the
issue of development-induced displacement where
neither public interest nor just and timely
rehabilitation with alternative livelihood is
ensured. Maybe expect an immediate action on
these issues.

Sincerely,

Justice Rajendra Sachar (Retd.), Peopleís Union for Civil Liberties
Kuldeep Nayyar
Medha Patkar, National Alliance of Peopleís Movements
Thomas Kocherry, National Fishworkers Forum
Kamal Mitra Chenoy, JNU
Pradipto Roy, CSD
Vimalbhai, Matu Jan Sangathan
Rajendra Ravi, Lokayan
Denzil Fernandes, Indian Social INstitute
Madhuresh Kumar, CACIM
Bhupendra Rawat, Jan Sangharsh Vahini
Faisal Khan, NAPM, Asha Parivar
Bedoshruti Sadhukhan, Human Rights Law Network
Joyson Mazamo, NPMHR

REPORT ON THE VIOLENCE

Dehat Morcha, Jan Morcha, Rana Sangram Singh
Sangharsh Samiti, and other organizations under
the leadership of Shri V.P. Singh, the former
Prime Minister of India, Shri Raj Babbar, M.P.,
and supported by various political organisations,
have been demanding a fair deal for the farmers
of 7 villages in Gaziabad district whose lands
have been grabbed for the Reliance power plant in
Dadri. To cut short the long history of their
2-3 year struggle, they were being compelled to
surrender 2,500 acres acquired at a price much
lower than the market price in the area. This is
also a known story for other companies who too
have taken over large chunks of land
(30,000-35,000 acres each) at a very low price,
which is a small percentage of the price that
companies are reselling land for (the instance of
Uppal and Chadha company, one of those in the
ìHigh-Tech Cityî in Gaziabad, selling hundreds of
acres of land in some villages at the rate of Rs.
14,000 per square yard, without purchasing or
legally acquiring it through ìpre-launchingî as
it is called, is shocking). This is done
obviously in connivance with the State using the
ìlawsî but violating the constitution and
fundamental rights.

The farmers, laborers, traders and others in the
villages affected by Reliance power project
received a very low cash compensation of Rs. 150
per square yard but were compelled to accept the
same under the age-old Land Acquisition Act
(1894) still in practice, and using intimidation
tactics, about 3 years ago. Soon after a few
were compelled to accept it, they realized the
loot and began the agitation. It was in February
2004, at the time of the inauguration, that Mr. 
Mulayam Singh Yadav, CM of U.P., publicly
announced that they would be given a better
price, up to Rs. 310 per square yard, even when
the market price is at least Rs. 500 per square
yard and in the High-Tech city a few kilometers
away, it is many times higher. There was no
fulfillment of the promise and the farmers had to
resort to a number of protest actions and started
a peaceful sit-in since November 2005. Later,
Shri. V.P. Singhji intervened and compelled the
Chief Minister of UP, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav, to
promise them a rate of Rs. 310 per square yard by
June 30^th.

However, this did not materialize and the
Reliance Company with a huge subsidy granted in
various forms, kept the 2,500 acres of land
unused during these years. It was their attempt
to establish the plant now that led to the
villagers feeling compelled to intensify their
agitation against the betrayal beyond the
ten-month long dharna in village Bajeda. The
peaceful nature of the movement is obvious from
the fact that they never resorted to violence
even during such a long agitation. Later, they
planned a program of symbolic ploughing of their
own land only to assert their rights on July 8^th,
which was an open declared form of protest, under
the leadership of Shri. V.P. Singh, the former
Prime Minister of India, Sri. Raj Babbar, MP, and
supported by various political organizations.
The events related to the program, which indicate
brutal violence and show the inhuman face of the
state, are described below.

1. On July 6, late night around 11pm, a few
policemen came to the village and began asking
the people sitting in the square to get
dispersed. When the villagers refused, the
police returned back.

2. On July 7, the police tried to locate the
leaders of Dehat Morcha, probably to arrest them,
but could not. It was just before midnight that
a contingent of PAC arrived at the main square of
village Bajeda in tens of vehicles along with
senior most officials, including D.M., SSP and
others. In the late night, the villagers could
not identify but there were a number of cars with
red and blue light as reported. There were only
about a hundred villagers sleeping at the dharna
site (i.e. main square), and 10-20 were awake.
On seeing the vehicles from a long distance, they
shouted and called the villagers. When men and
women gathered, they protested peacefully, asking
the police not to enter the village and
expressing determination that they would not
move. The police instead threatened them of
using force and without a formal warning, started
firing. During 4-5 rounds of firing, three
youths named Prempal, Vinod, and Naresh got
wounded. We could meet them in the jail hospital
where the wounds were bandaged and the case
papers recorded ìwounded with blunt objects.

3. After the firing, there was a sudden
stone-pelting and the village leaders could see
and conclude that the same was started by some
plainclothesmen who accompanied the police in
uniforms. The villagers identified them as the
goons brought along by the police. After about
an hour-long confrontation, the police returned
back.

4. On July 8^th, it was in the early morning
at six a.m. that a large contingent of police in
the vehicles arrived again. Parking the vehicles
a little away, they all marched into the village
when there were not more than 100 villages
sitting at the square. A number of officials
were accompanying them and when they started
approaching, one of the leading villagers, Former
Major Himanshu, requested the villagers not to
protest or stop them, but to allow them to come
in and be prepared for a dialogue. The villagers
did so, but the police entered and without even a
warning resorted to lathi charge, brutal and
severe.

5. Shri. V.P. Singh, Shri. Raj Babber and
others were stopped from entering the district
Gaziabad with barricades and an order of
preventing their entry for one month under
Section 151 IPC was clamped upon them. They and
others squatted on the roads in protest, were
arrested and then released. This stern action is
obviously unjustified considering the nature of
the agitation planned. It also seems to be the
Stateís weapon to weaken and break the peopleís
organization. We might also remark on the
strangeness of the state resorting to such
tactics against a former Prime Minister of India,
showing the lengths to which it will go to serve
corporate interests.

6. There was apparently a court order
obtained by Reliance Energy against the action
program of July 8^th, which we were told happened
after midnight. However, instead of merely
serving the orders or informing the villages
about the same, the state attacked the community
with the police force. It was totally
unjustifiable and inhuman, violating the human
rights and encroaching upon the civil liberties.

7. The police fired tear gas and then,
wasting no time, resorted to brutal, unlimited
lathi charge, breaking the heads and hands,
causing fractures as well as injuries.

8. We met Subhash Zamadar, Monu, Manoj, and
others, who had fractures. There were others
like Charan Singh and Dinesh who had serious head
injuries due to beating with sticks. Both of
them were in Gaziabad Jail, amongst 80 others who
were arrested on the 8^th morning, but shifted to
jail around 11pm at night.

9. The police also entered the houses and
broke the wooden doors, brick walls of a few
houses, chulhas (cooking stoves of mud), material
such as radios and glass windows, and scattered
grains. A few shops, such as those of Suresh
Sukhbir Singh, and Satish Chandra Garg (both
arrested and in jail), in the village were fully
destroyed along with the materials and stored
money was taken away.

10. We met in Bajeda village a boy of
ten-twelve years whose whole body had the burns
due to the tear gas shell. Sunil Giri had his
eye seriously wounded. Sheilaben, a widow living
with her daughter and child, was beaten up by the
police who entered her house and beat her on the
head, injuring her eye too. She was found
bedridden and, as others, was not capable of
reaching the hospital on her own. Many women,
including Biroben, Parvati Birpal, and Seema
Gopal showed the marks on their thighs, backs,
and hands, which proved a serious beating. Even
the small infants of a few months were thrown
away from their mothers by the police who pulled
the women by hair and broke many things and
furniture inside their houses.

11. Almost all the beaten up villagers
confirmed that they were not in any action when
the police attacked them. It was early morning
and they were engaged in their household chores.
Some were eating, while others were with their
children or cattle. The police loosened the
cattle and let them go in order to get the men
out of the house to be beaten up and then entered
the house to take care of the women.

12. The worst part of the operation was the
beating and abuse unleashed on women, who were
pulled by their hair and pushed against the wall.
The women also complained of molestation since
their saris were torn and they were pushed and
pulled by the men police. A number of women lost
their earrings, many of gold, since policemen
pulled them out forcibly. The pain and wounds
were unlimited. They also described how the men
officials were laughing and passing sarcastic
comments and policemen abusing them in filthy
language.

13. Amongst the beaten up and arrested were
villagers who had nothing to do with the
agitation, including an old landless laborer,
Tuki Chhidda, Shishupal Jagdish of Dhamdoj
village (District Gurgaon), who had come to take
his wife back from Bajeda, the three young men
operating the microphone system at the village
square, and young students such as Manu in the
9^th standard who were all in jail.

14. It was against this we were shocked to
know that out of 80 persons arrested, most (who
were beaten up and pulled from their houses) were
charged under Section 307. Many other sections,
we were told, are also applied against them.
Seven or eight of them have three cases of Sec
307 and two have four cases as if they tried many
times to commit murder. Eight children below 21
years were amongst those in jail. Obviously all
the cases filed are false and are merely a
strategy to justify the beating and firing by the
police.

15. On visiting the Gaziabad Jail in the
afternoon of July 9^th with Raj Babbar, Kunvar
Sareraj Singh, MP, and others, we found that
about 20 persons were hospitalized and almost all
sixty men sitting outside the hospital also had
marks of severe beating. They had pains in the
bodies and many could not even sit or speak
properly. There were aged farmers about 70 years
in age, and some children below 16 years who were
also beaten up above the waist, and on their
backs, hands, and heads.

16. We found that the single doctor in jail
was unable to take care of so many patients with
so many wounds and full treatment had not been
provided until we met them, but the minimum was
taken care of. We saw a number of patients with
their shirts full of blood, indicating the
bleeding they had undergone. They were all
extremely worried about the women and children at
home who were beaten up and some also left
unconscious in front of their eyes.

17. It should also be noted that a press
reporter (Dainik Jagran) and media persons (of
NDTV) were beaten and their equipment damaged,
mainly to suppress information as repeated in the
village.

All this and much more was narrated to us and
observed by us during our full-day investigation
on July 9^th. We expect the NHRC to take the
severest action possible against this incidence
of forcible possession and occupation of the land
and everything attached to land, using the
British-days act, from the farmers and others
villagers. Such a war against the farming
communities that are already indebted due to the
unequal price and wage policy, is resulting in
nothing less than killing the living communities.

Development-induced displacement as it may be
called is to be seriously reviewed since affected
people rarely get their due in rehabilitation and
their resources are diverted to fulfill more the
private interests than the public. NHRC must
therefore take a broader view of what is
happening in the name of development that is
pushed by the corporate and political powers
jointly using the money, market and mafia forces.

The state violence against the non-violent
agitations may seem to be bringing the results to
those who are all out to suppress the agitating
farmers but, we would like to warn, can create a
worse problem of land and order unless the
constitutional authorities and the NHRC intervene
with the right spirit to protect the peopleís
rights.