REPORTS

Reports from Karnataka

Gangavati, Koppal : Rasta Roko for Irrigation Water

On 21 February, more than 300 small and marginal peasants along with agricultural labours marched and staged a Rasta Roko at Gangavati. The Rasta Roko was led by J.Bharadwaj, SLT member of the party and state president of AIALA. Hundreds of peasants claimed that water is their right and releasing water from dam should not be stopped until April 20 as it would affect the paddy crop. They also demanded 10 tmc of water to be released from Bhadra reservoir to left bank canal of the Tungabhadra. CPI(ML) took up the issue as it would affect the peasants of four taluks, Gangavati, Sindhanur, Manvi and Raichur of Northern Karnataka. The traffic in the highway was disrupted for more than three hours because of Rasta Roko organized by the party.
Comrades Uma Shankar, taluk secretary of the party, Ismail of AICCTU, Rafeeq of RYA addressed the gathering along with others. Com.Bharadwaj criticized the BJP government for its anti-peasant policies and also ridiculed anti-farmer Yeddyurappa claiming himself to be the leader of farmers. He also appealed to the people to teach a fitting lesson to and unseat the communal, anti-women and anti-poor rule of the BJP in the state.

Harapanahalli, Davanagere : Women’s Struggle for Their Rights

The newly-formed unit of All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) in Harapanahalli held a protest demonstration in front of Taluk Office on 13th March. This was a culmination of a week-long campaign on women’s demands and rights launched on the eve of International Women’s Day to link the day-to-day issues of women to larger issues and to observe the women’s day in a meaningful and relevant manner. The protesters demanded houses under Ashraya Housing Scheme for the poor, construction of free toilets for every house, proper implementation of NREGS, granting interest-free credits, subsidy loans and revolving funds for SHGs and issuing Bhagyalakshmi bonds for girl children. A good number of women took part in the protest and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.
As a part of the campaign, village-level meetings were organized in more than 15 villages of Harapanahalli taluk to create awareness and mobilize women to fight for their demands and rights. In the course of the campaign, AIPWA activists interacted with hundreds of women in villages and also enrolled members to the organisation. Rally
AIPWA State Vice President E.Hampakka flagged off the campaign on March 8 and Com. Rati Rao, All India Vice-President, AIPWA, led the demonstration to the DC Office on 13 March. Comrades Gandhimathi, NCM, Ranjani, State Vice-President, Devakka, State Joint Secretary and Taluk Party Secretary Parashuram addressed the protesters.
Com. Rati Rao called upon the women to lead a united struggle against globalization, communalism and corruption. E.Ramappa, CPI(ML) State Secretary, said that the demonstration was only a beginning and a warning to the administration and appealed to the people to defeat BJP’s communal politics and the anti-people policies of Congress and vote for change, vote for CPI(ML).

AICCTU Inked an Agreement

Karnataka General Labour Union, affiliated to AICCTU signed a Memorandum of Settlement with RMC Readymix India Pvt Ltd, one of the group concerns of Mr.Rajan Raheja who is also the owner of a large enterprise including Outlook magazine, on 20 Feb.2009. Mr.Rajan Raheja is also one of the top 100 billionaires in the country who built his empire based on real estate and construction and then spread to every other sunrise industry. The marathon talks between the management union that ran into ten months was facing various hurdles in the process, including the recession. The 3-years agreement for a wage hike of Rs.1980/ including Variable Dearness Allowance assumes significance in the backdrop ofrecession in construction and industry in general and the consequent wage freeze, wage cuts and retrenchmet. Workers will also get the arrears from the date the previous agreeement period came to an end, i.e., for the period from April 2008 to February 2009.

AICCTU Vice-President Com.Shankar signed the agreement along with RMC branch office-bearers Jaishankar, Unit President, G Somu, Secretary, M Narayanaswamy, Vice-President, Stephen, Joint Secretary and M S Thomas, the treasurer.

- Shankar

8th March Programmes

International women's day was observed by AIPWA in different districts in West Bengal in different ways with great enthusiasm. District conferences of AIPWA were organised in Siliguri (Darjeeling district; along with a procession) and Kolkata, Howrah; while in Asansol procession was followed by an activists' meet. Processions were also held in Krishnanagar (Nadia district) and Naihati (North 24 Parganas) while a mass meeting was organised in Goswami-Malipara in Hoogli District. An activists' meet was also organised in Buz Buz (South 24 Parganas). Most of these events saw a good mobilisation of working women. In view of the approaching Lok Sabha elections, most of these were held at central places in the constituencies where the party has put up candidates. Together with the demands like equal pay for equal work, proper and expanded implementation of NREGA and the like, the people were called upon to vote for revolutionary left candidates.
At Patna, AIPWA held a March asserting women’s agenda in the forthcoming Parliamentary polls, as well as Block-level marches all over Bihar. At Siwan, AIPWA held a protest March and road blockade against an incident of rape and murder.
In UP, too, AIPWA commemorated 8 March in many districts.
In Jharkhand, AIPWA’s Campaign for Women’s Right to Employment culminated on 8 March, with district-level programmes all over the state, in which women unorganised workers, para-health workers, construction workers, Anganbadi workers, mid-day meal workers etc, participated in large numbers.
In Andhra Pradesh, AIPWA held its Krishna district Conference at Nuziveedu with 150 delegates, and also held rallies at 3 places in East Godavari district.
On 7 and 8 March, AIPWA held district conferences at Madurai and Namakkal in TN respectively. At Madurai, where more than 150 delegates took part, Com.Saroja was elected President and Com. Divya as Secretary, while at Namakkal, 40 delegates took part and Com. Thenmozhi was elected President and Com. Saraswati as Secretary.
In Assam, AIPWA rallies were held at Tinsukia, Jorhat, Nagaon, and Sonitpur, and a seminar at Dibrugarh, on the theme of Women’s marginalisation in Parliament and the betrayal of 33% reservation for women. At all these programmes, between 200-300 women took part, and at Guwahati and Tezpur, AIPWA observed Women’s Day along with AIDWA and NFIW.
In Karbi Anglong, a Rally asserting women’s agenda in Parliamentary polls was held at Diphu on 8 March, addressed by AIPWA National Secretary Kanaklata Datta and CPI(ML) CCM Dr. Jayanta Rongpi. On the same evening, the Karbi Toiling Women’s Association held its Conference, electing Kaleng Inglengpi as President and Leena Hansepi as Secretary. On 9 March, KNCA held its State Conference, re-electing Kajek Thatipi as President and Pratima Engheepi as Secretary.

At Punjab, Women’s day was celebrated with mass meetings at villages in Mansa and Ludhiana districts. At Chhattisgarh, a large gathering of workers at Ravanbhata, Supela – including some 250 women safai (sanitation) workers – celebrated women’s day under the banner of AIPWA. They were joined by 200 men workers. Many women workers – Rekha Banjare and Savitri Devi spoke at the meeting, as did Bhagwantin Kune of the CMM, and Samkiksha Nair, Prof. Lakshmi Krishnan, Prof. Sheela Sharma, and writer Mita Das. The meeting was conducted by Poonam Sahu. At the end, workers took membership of the AICCTU Safai Karmi Union.