[Onthebarricades] SIKKIM/INDIA: Sikkim hunger strike against mega hydel projects enters 60 days, Chief Minister unleashes vicious campaign

Sun Aug 19 05:16:29 PDT 2007

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Sushovan Dhar 

On the 15th of August when the whole country celebrated 60th anniversary of independence, two young hunger strikers in Sikkim, Dawa Lepcha and Tshering Lepcha completed their 57th day of protestfast in Gangtok, Sikkim.The fasting duo, members of the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT) are onhunger strike from June 20, 2007, along with other members, protestingagainst the indifferent attitude shown by the Sikkim Government towardsthe issues and concerns raised by the people of north Sikkim and theinhabitants of Dzongu, a Lepcha Reserve in particular.Their current demand that the State Government constitutes a ReviewCommittee and all ongoign construction works on hydel projects bestopped pending the report submitted by the Review Committee have notben fulfilled yet. Although, the Government promised to constitute sucha Committee, neither it has been notified nor any discussion took
 placeon who will be the members of the Committee and who will head it. ACThas demanded that the Committee be headed by a well known, politicallyindependent person and fifty percent of the members of the Committeeshould be acceptable to ACT.Thus the stalemate continues while the health of the protesting duodeteriorates.A total of 26 mega hydel projects randing from 150 MW to 1200 MW havebeen proposed in Sikkim, ten of them on the Teesta river itelf, andeight of these are proposed in north Sikkim within the area ofKhanchenzjonga Biosphere Reserve, home to peace loving Lepchas, aprimitive community, endangered flora and fauna, a biodiversity hotspot,falling under severe earthquake prone zone IV and dotted by hundreds oflandslides and landslips. The area is also sacred to the Lepchas, thelast of their ancestral homeland.The information on the hunger strike, views of the people of Sikkim
 andthose from the rest of India and abroad, and a lot of documentaion onthe proposed hydel projects, impacts and about the region have beendisseminated through a dynamic blog at *weepingsikkim.blogspot.com<http://weepingsikkim.blogspot.com/>* from the day 1 of the hungerstrike. Without this blog, we would have never learnt so much on theissue and the news of the protest.Please visit weepingsikkim.blogspot.com <http://weepingsikkim.blogspot.com/>*Pawan Chamling unleashes vicious campaign against ACT borderinginsinuation and personal vendetta*While the stalemate continues in to the 60th day, during the last weekprior tot he independence day, Pawan Chamling, the Chief Minister ofSikkim, and the leader of the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) hasunleashed  a vicious campaign and a scathing attack on the peacefulprotestors unparalled in the political history of Sikkim.Even those who sent messages of support and solidarity to ACT andappealed to the CM for speedy resolution of the impasse have not beenspared. Our friends who have called up the CM and Governor's office havebeen misbehaved with over the telephone.The following paragraphs are quoted from Chamling's recent IndependenceDay speech and the Press Releases issued by the SDF.The press
 release of Sikkim Democratic Front has cautioned nationalintelligence agencies against a cyber-war launched as "Weepingsikkim"website launched from Sikkim and alleged anti-national andanti-development work is campaigning through website. SDF further addedthat promoter of ' *weepingsikkim'* Pemzang Tenzing engaged in cyberactivities that amounts to anti-national activities.The Affected Citizens of Teesta who have not only failed to comprehendthe right spirit and values and meaning of 'SatyaGraha' as identifiedand taught by Gandhiji who undertook it to free India from clutches offoreign powers. Here in Sikkim same is misused for wrong purposes thatstands for anti-Sikkim policies.Chief Minister told the massive gathering at Palzor Stadium on theIndependence Day that a cyber warfare is launched through"WeepingSikkim"website by Pemzang Tenzing who just added lepcha to hissurname by
 engaging into anti-national and anti-development work throughcyber campaign.He further added that promoter of 'weepingSikkim' PemzangTenzing has collected Rs.40 lakhs from state government towards landcompensation towards his land for hydel projects and now devoted toactivities that amounts to anti-national activities.Testen Lepcha who isChief Co-ordinator of ACT is general secretary of SPCC although he sayshe resigned from the post and President of ACT Athup Lepcha became aMinister in Sikkim Government on slogan'Return of Sikkim from India'.All these people are political people and therefore how can ACT benon-political organisation as they term it.Even Lepcha Priest (Bonthing) who was made to join hunger strike for aday was paid Rs.10000/-by way of settling his loan in a Mangan Bank by ACT.The Outsiders are trying to disturb the Peace in Sikkim.If the peace
 isdisturbed and threatned than Police would be its first casuality as itwould the force that would have to fight it out the insurgency of anykinds therefore Sikkim Police is one of the most happiest and stressfree force should timely contend these forces and find out who arepeople spreading communal hatred through pamphlets.Further, he requestedbusiness community in state to not to give support and financialpatronage to anti-sikkim and anti-developement forces who are solelymotivated to disturb peace in state.Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling today warned that "outsideinterference" in the internal affairs of the state will not be tolerated.The chief minister was addressing a meeting organised by the rulingSikkim Democratic Front (SDF) at the Guards' Ground in Tathangchen heretoday.Prior to the meeting, the SDF took out vehicle rallies from all over
 thestate that converged on the capital in a show of strength. The rallieswere aimed at silencing the Opposition in the wake of protests againsthydel power projects in the Lepcha reserve of Dzongu and elsewhere inthe state. All senior leaders of the party, legislators and cabinetministers attended the meeting.Chamling's scathing critique made obvious references to the supportextended to members of Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT) by CPM leaderand Bengal minister Asok Bhattacharya and the Lepcha organisations ofDarjeeling.In the course of his three-hour speech Chamling also came down heavilyon ACT alleging that the organisation was just a front for such outsideforces. "There is only a handful of people from Dzongu are taking partin the hunger strike. The rest are all outsiders," he said.Chief Minister Dr. Chamling while commenting on ACT told the massivegathering that ACT is
 front of a group of political minded people whohave all come together to use platform of NGO for their politicalambitions and Lepchas associated with these organisations are not fromDzongu but from across the border of Sikkim and are raising crores ofrupees from different sources in the name of environment, lepchas andDzongu. The public faces of ACT are not in the control of ACT as theyare being guided by people with mask and behind curtains with politicalmotives. He said, "Hunger Strike is a method chosen by ACT to collectcrores of rupees from various sources".*From weeping sikkim blog*Just yesterday, I received a communication from the administrator of theblog mentioning that*"Yesterday on Independence day, nobody was spared in the aggressivespeech and not even weepingsikkim.blogspot.com!!!  You can read more on the speech on **www.sikkimnews.blogspot.com *<http://www.sikkimnews.blogspot.com/>* It's reached a point where i may be handing over the blog to someoneelse because i fear things here. Its sadly not a democracy here inSikkim, its a fascist state."****What can we do?*The precent situation cannot continue like this...with the Governmentnot willing to honour the demands, the health of the hunger strikersdeteriorating, and above all there is an apparent move to exploit thedemographic divide against the Lepchas and Bhutias.Hundreds of appeals have reached the government to which it seems to beinsensitive. The appeals have also reached the Prime Minister and
 thePresident both from India and abroad.The citizens of this country and those who stand in favour of democracyand freedom of speech and expression have to decide and decide fast howto end this impasse. What should be the logical interventions?For the benefit of our friends and readers, the contacts forcommunication are given below.1. *Chief Minister's Secretariat*Phone:91 3592 202575,202536,202304Fax: 202245Email: cm-skm at hub.nic.in <mailto:cm-skm at hub.nic.in>2. *Governor of Sikkim*Phone 91-3592-202756Fax 91-3592-202742Mobile: 91-9434011174 (Dy. Secretary)Email: abhutia at nic.in <mailto:abhutia at nic.in>3. *Prime Minister of India*Email: manmohan at sansad.nic.in <mailto:manmohan at sansad.nic.in>/manmohan at sansad.nic <mailto:manmohan at sansad.nic>/ pmosb at pmo.nic.in<mailto:pmosb at pmo.nic.in>Email: chavanprithviraj at sansad.nic.in<mailto:chavanprithviraj at sansad.nic.in>Phone: +91-11-23012312 / 23018939Fax: +91-11-23016857 /
 23015603 / 230142554.*President of India*Email: presssecy at alpha.nic.in <mailto:presssecy at alpha.nic.in>/presssecy at sansad.nic.in/ <mailto:presssecy at sansad.nic.in/>presidentofindia at rb.nic.in <mailto:presidentofindia at rb.nic.in>Phone: +91-11-23013172 / 23015321Fax: +91-11- 23017290 / 23014580 / 23017824

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why delete messages? Unlimited storage is just a click away.

__._,_.___ 
Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic 
Messages | Files | Photos 
Socialist Pakistan News (SPN) is managed by supporters of Weekly Mazdoor Jeddojuhd and Labour Party Pakistan 

Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) 
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional 
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity
  a..  6New Members
Visit Your Group 
SPONSORED LINKS
  a.. Pakistan 
  b.. Pakistan calling card 
  c.. Pakistan long distance 
  d.. Pakistan phone card 
  e.. Call pakistan 
Y! Messenger
Files to share?

Send up to 1GB of

files in an IM.

Yahoo! Mail
You're invited!

Try the all-new

Yahoo! Mail Beta

Endurance Zone
on Yahoo! Groups

Groups about

better endurance.
. 
__,_._,___ 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/onthebarricades/attachments/20070819/64a1c287/attachment.html>