Press Note on Kanhar

1st July, 2015

The All India Kisan Sabha condemns the arbitrary manner of arrest of activists fighting against the illegal construction of the Kanhar Dam in Sonbhadra District, Uttar Pradesh. The Uttar Pradesh police illegally detained and kept Roma, General Secretary of All India Union of Forest Working People, Sukalo Gond, leader of the Adivasi Community and Abhijit, activist and a few others in the early hours of 30th June, 2015 from the AIUFWP office at Robertsganj. Later while Abhijit and others were released Roma and Sukalo Devi were sent to the Mirzapur Jail.

AIKS notes that in the context of the Land Acquisition Ordinance and a JPC sitting to discuss the matter, the Uttar Pradesh Government has gone ahead with extreme repression in the region ignoring the country-wide protests against indiscriminate land acquisition. On Ambedkar Jayanti and again on 18th April, 2015 the police resorted to unprovoked firing on a peaceful assembly of protestors in which people suffered severe injuries. The Uttar Pradesh Government went further ahead and issued an authoritarian order banishing Sukalo Gond from entering the District. The AIKS General Secretary along with Uttar Pradesh Kisan Sabha had attended a meeting in solidarity with the people of Sonbhadra on the struggle path in Lucknow on 12th June, 2015.

AIKS also condemns the blatant manner in which public opinion is being disregarded and the State is facilitating the loot of resources ignoring popular protest. AIKS demands that all cases and trumped up charges against the activists be dropped forthwith and both of them be released immediately. AIKS will be part of all protests against such repression.

Sd/-

Amra Ram, President

Hannan Mollah, General Secretary