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It took only 53 years for the people of drought-hit
Palamau in Bihar to realize that the ways of the Indian Welfare State are more
erratic than the monsoon rains. And so, for a change, they did not wait for the
government to act. Instead they acted. More decisively than ever. With spades in
their hands, mud and boulders on their heads, men and women, young and old, they
wrestled with nature, day and night.
The impact of the two years of people’s labour, was
a marvelous check dam waiting to gush forth water in millions of gallons into
vast dry fields. On the other hand, a panicky government poured in hoards of
policemen and sealed the entire district to foil the great inauguration of the
dam.
That was the heart-rending scene on the unique day
of July 5 at the site of the controversial Beldaha dam in the Garhwa district of
Palamau, Bihar.
The scene was electrifying. Tension mounting each
moment. The district administration had declared even till three days before the
event that it would not obstruct the people’s efforts. The very next day,
however, it moved into swift action.
‘It is the naxalites who have built the dam, we
will never allow it to be inaugurated’,
screamed the district officials. Literally, they left no stone unturned, no
entry point unsealed and no vehicle unchecked. All to block the suspected
People’s War and their sympathizers from reaching the dam site. The newly
appointed police superintendent of Garhwa, Sudhansu Kumar, knew what he was
expected to do. After all, how can one allow the naxalites to take on
developmental programmes which are the government’s own prerogative. What a
disgrace, the officials wondered.
The administration wasted no time in detaining
those who dared to move in. On July 4, the Garhwa police arrested five people at
a village close to the dam site under Manjhiav police station, filed cases
against them under the new Criminal Law Amendment Act (17) and IPC (21A) for
conspiring to commit offences against the State, and jailed them in Garhwa (GR
Case No.447/2000). One of them, Sachidanand ‘Prabhat’ of the AIPRF still bore a
vibrant smile while returning from the dam site.
Next day, July 5, was the day to be reckoned with.
Preparations were complete for the inauguration. But the police had already
taken their position and surrounded the dam site. In panic, hundreds of
villagers fled towards the hilltops. Some closed themselves within their houses.
Not one dared to gaze at the explosive spot. It was all suspense. But time
passed, evening was setting in. Sure of their victory, the policemen had their
fun before retreat. They broke the stage, pulled down the tent, uprooted
bamboos, tore the banners and flags and began to loot whatever they could.
It was then that the unexpected thing happened. The
people demonstrated their real power. From some corner of the hilltop someone
raised a slogan against the police. Soon, spontaneously, hundreds of them joined
in a violent slogan-raising spree. The voices from the surrounding three
hillocks, where nearly 2000 people had gathered, came down and dwelt upon the
dam site. The echoing effect made such a dramatic effect on the policemen that a
deadening fear overpowered them. After all, it was not safe for the police to
stay on into the night at such a ‘terrible naxalite stronghold’. They ran
in great fear, leaving behind the things they were looting.
Seeing the desperate flight of the police, the
people’s courage shot up. At once they rushed down the hills and made some
immediate preparations for the inauguration. A ‘Samiti’ member, Harkhu Singh
Karwar, was unanimously elected to formally inaugurate the dam.. As he cut the
ribbon, the excited crowd of nearly 2000 clapped their hands and cheered. Sweets
were distributed. The dam was opened. Water flowed down. The people danced and
celebrated all over.
Beldaha dam is still partly a mystery. Who
masterminded it and how it was built still baffles the government and many
others. "Logon ne milkar banaya hein" (people built it), utters every
mouth here. In any case, the credit goes to the ‘Sinchai Sangharsh Samiti’
(the irrigation struggle committee), which ran the campaign, collected
‘chanda’ (donation) and organized ‘sramdaan’ (free labour) from about
15 villages.
The dam would benefit about 17 villages spread out
in four Panchayats of Manjhiav block. It would irrigate vast areas of dry land
that lay barren till now. Signs of this are already visible all along the
‘kutcha’ road from Bishunpura to the dam site — fields of Banjhari, Aadar, and
Semri villages are all bathed in water and paddy replantation is in full swing.
Villagers are curious to narrate the story of their
dam, if one does not ask their names. If you believe them, there are expert
masons among them who have gained great skills in designing and construction
works by long yeas of experience in various parts of India. One marvels at the
engineering skill with which the dam is built. Reportedly, even the SP of Garhwa
once came with an engineer and wondered, mainly at the mechanism for the
‘escape’ for the excess water. Unofficial reports say the total cost would be
around 20 lakhs, including the cost of free labour. According to one report,
every adult of all the villages benefiting from the dam had to put in 20 days’ ‘sramdaan’.
For the extra labour every one was paid just wages. ‘Chanda’ (donation) was
collected from every family according to the amount of land each possessed.
The two years of birth pangs was not an easy one
for the people. Police constantly harassed them. District officials frequently
visited the spot, checked on the activities, questioned the men and women at
work, and even threatened them to stop working — all in a desperate attempt to
figure out as to who was behind the dam. People would stop the work for a few
days to ‘oblige’ the police and start again. They even carried on work through
many nights to escape the police wrath. The administration had a strong
suspicion about the direct involvement of the People’s War in the construction
of the dam. For the people, any truly revolutionary, democratic and socialistic
organization that would genuinely believe in the power of the poor and
downtrodden people and work for them is welcome. Perhaps they found one such
group in the Jharkhand Mazdoor Kisan Sangram Parishad, whose area in charge, a
simple looking and young Kundan, played a pivotal role in the whole campaign for
the Beldaha dam.
In every sense, the poor and neglected people of
Palamau are really proud of their self-built dam that has already begun to
irrigate hundreds of acres of dry fields. They have received a new life
altogether. Their joy is doubled as they have achieved it after a great struggle
and many sufferings, and as a result, now they do not have to go to Bhojpur and
Magadh areas of central Bihar in search of seasonal jobs. A dream seems to be
turning into a reality.
But on the other hand, the government is not
willing to accept defeat at the hands of the people (in fact, of the naxalites,
for the state!) From the very next day of the formal inauguration of the dam,
which was a direct blow to the government, the district police have intensified
its repressive actions in the area. Almost every day, they patrol the dam site,
terrorizing the poor villagers all along. People are so scared that they try not
to come in their sight. Even a month after, this reporter could see at the dam
site policemen moving in line and the villagers scampering at their sight.
"We are prepared to face police atrocities, but we
will make the dam", Bhanu Pratap had
said that afternoon. Three hours later, police swooped down upon his group—
eight of them were caught, bashed up and put in jail. The stage was set for the
dam that lay yonder. Scene one became a reality too soon, scene two a dream too
far.
Bhanu Pratap is the president of the just
constituted ‘Sinchai Sangharsh Samiti’(Irrigation Struggle Committee) for
the people’s dam on the river Panda at Konhar village in the Bhavnathpur block
of Garhwa. A group of conscientized men from that block had come to Daltonganj
that day to participate in a day-long seminar on "Governmental Development
Versus People’s Initiatives" organized by the All India People’s Resistance
Forum (AIPRF), Bihar, on August 6.
Reports say that ten of them were returning in a
hired jeep. Just on the outskirts of the city, at ‘Padva Mor’, suddenly a police
gypsy with the S.P and his team overtook, stopped and surrounded them. Two ran
and escaped. The rest, including the driver, were arrested, beaten and taken to
Garhwa P.S. with arms thrust into their hands, where cases were registered
against them under Section 25(1)B, 26/35 Arms Act (GR.521/2000 and Garhwa P.S.
Case No.150/2000).The reason? We have it that the police fired at the hapless
men before thrashing them— "Saale, Naksalion ke meeting mein jaate ho?"(how
dare you attend naxal meetings)
If Beldaha is already here, can Konhar and other
dams be far behind? That seems to be the question agitating the minds of the
innumerable drought-hit villagers of Palamau-Garhwa. Beldaha dam is only the
first of a series, by the people here. "Prasaasan aatang ka mahaul band kare
to aur bhi dam ban sakte hein", (If the government stops suppressing us, we
will build many more dams), they say. For, "we have to work out our own
development now". Wherever the government has built check dams under the
‘Jawahar Rojgar Yojna’, it has failed us, they point out. Apparently, people
have lost faith in the government completely now.
Quite sure of the struggle that lay ahead, Bhanu
Pratap and his companions were excited about the plans for their new dam. The
‘Konhar Bier Scheme’ has been a project pending from the time of the
J.P.Movement of the seventies, and the government survey had been completed a
long time ago, they say. Yet nothing has been done so far, and now we will have
to do it ourselves, they add. They put the estimate for the total cost at
nothing less than two crores. Envisaged to benefit 30 villages, this dam is to
irrigate about 50,000 acres of land.
How will the people, then, get the estimated two
crores? We hope to raise about 80 lakhs as ‘chanda’ (donations) from the people,
and every village will have to put in ‘sramdaan’ (free labour), says Shivkumar
Singh Kharwar, the secretary of the ‘Samiti’. In fact, every village has an
individual ‘Samiti’ of five members each, which would oversee the fund
collection and sramdaan.
Beldaha has caught the attention of not just the
people of Konhar, many more such dams are in the offing. Kavaldag dam on the
Dhobani river and Phulwar dam are two more that have got concrete plans afoot.
Besides, there are also plans of starting new committees for the construction of
dams at Seneri, Beerbandha and Sonadiha. A huge government-built dam and canal
on Peeri river in Lesliganj has been defunct for many years now. People of the
surrounding villages have already formed committees to work towards it.
People here have now a vision of a new Jharkhand
that offers endless scope for self-development. Our Jharkhand will see many more
such people’s initiatives in building schools, health centers and so on, they
say. And they add the one condition: government should not meddle with our
development and carry out repression.
Perhaps
for the people of Palamau-Garhwa today it is more important to fight a seemingly
irrelevant and anti-people government than to worry about a new government for
the new state.
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