Fighting Injustice in Polepally SEZ

Two-Day National Seminar on
Political Economy of Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

The Special Economic Zones Policy in the country had been formally introduced by the Govt. of India in April 2000. The theoretical genesis for the formation of these zones is the export-led growth strategy considering the need to enhance foreign investment and also to promote exports from the country. Further, the SEZs are expected to offer high quality infrastructure facilities and support services, besides allowing for the duty free import of capital goods and raw materials to make the domestic enterprises and manufacturers to be competitive globally. Read the rest of this entry »

Cartoon Courtesy AndhraJyothy

This evening (11th June 2009) around 9 0′clock, Polepally sarpanch, Balaswamy Goud was attacked near Aurabindo factory when he was going to village in his car. Group of people came in two vechicles and hit him brutally, his condition is serious, right now he’s in hospital, his car was smashed (a maruti which he recently bought). Balaswamy is around 30, unmarried , he lost both his parents when he was young, he is also a victim of Polepally SEZ too. He was committed young sarpanch and always with people in the struggle (you all know that there was mysterious death of Mr. Upender Reddy few years back, who is also very supportive and who brought this issue out).

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- K. Venkateshwarlu

HYDERABAD: Fifteen contestants for Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha seat, all victims of Polepally Special Economic Zone and two supporters of their cause, made their voice heard loud and clear yet again by bagging as many as 77,568.

Like in the previous Assembly byelections, these votes could have marred the chances of the Congress candidate, D. Vithal Rao as his Telangana Rashtra Samithi rival, K. Chandrasekhar Rao won by a majority of mere 20,000 votes. Conversely, the TRS candidate too would have improved his victory margin by 50,000 votes more.

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Once again Polepally played a critical role in demonstrating what the poor and the exploited villagers can still do in carrying out the struggle without compromises and using every means available in taking forward the movement against atrocious SEZ policies

Polepally would stand as a model for the strength of peoples struggle in electoral matters as well. While the established political parties of different shades in the state talk of the strength of money bags, the poor and displaced and harassed have proved they can do wonders. The strength is their struggle and commitment for people’s cause.

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Courtesy : www.indian-elections.com

List of Polepally ‘Mahabubnagar’ Constituents

15th Lok Sabha Election Results LIVE Update on 16 May, 09

Assembly Election Results Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Sikkim LIVE Update on 16 May, 09

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Fifteen villagers contest as independent candidates for Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha seat

Photo: P. V. Sivakumar

Registering protest: Pollepally SEZ victims who contested as independent candidates engaged in discussion after polling at Jadcherla. -

POLEPALLY (Mahabubnagar Dt): Victims of Polepally Special Economic Zone whose lands were acquired at low prices for setting up a pharmaceutical SEZ in Jadcherla constituency of Mahbubnagar district are planning to go to New Delhi on the day the new government is be sworn in.

The victims already drew national attention by fielding 15 among them as independent candidates for Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha seat, making it probably the only constituency with so many independents in the first phase. And, they want to make the new Prime Minister realise their plight and ‘do something to remedy the loss incurred with no fault of theirs’.

The 350-odd families voted en masse for their candidates but, casting 2,400 votes on the electronic voting machines was not an easy affair for villagers, mostly illiterate.

New to EVMs

Troubled as they were to identify their candidates’ names in the EVMs, the victims were, however, committed to continue their struggle as assurances given to them like permanent jobs and house sites are hard to come by. “It is not just our vote.

People from neighbouring villages also voted for us and this vote is all set to tilt the balance,” G. Ravindra Goud, one of the contestants said.

What about the choice of the villagers as the election was held simultaneously to Jadcherla Assembly segment? “They may have different affiliations, but our people we firmly believe have not voted for the party which created so much of trouble for us,” B. Lakshmamma and Rangavva, two other candidates said hinting at the trouble in store for Congress candidate Mallu Ravi in the fray.

Courtesy: Hindu

URL: http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/19/stories/2009041954160400.htm

Dear All
 
Now poor cannot have an acre of land. They will be killed if they refuse to part with the land. Land, livelihoods, natural resources are not for poor and oppressed castes in Andhra Pradesh. Neo-feudal politicians are for all games of cheating the people with slogans and promises with expiry date of polling day. Alliance politics are just part of the drama of looting the poor collectively after polls with active or silent support for each other.
 
Separatists and long-time integrationists are together. CPI-M of Maha Kutami already has plans of post poll alliance with Congress. ‘Boycott Elections’ radicals cautiously bless anti- Congress parties in present polls.
 
Palamoor parched lands, Telangana exploitation, weavers’ suicides in Sircilla, genocide of Koya tribe under Polavaram dam, Polepally carnage in pharma-SEZ will continue to remain after elections as well for these parties to issue once again copy of the old statements and gloss it with crocodile tears
 
Polepally SEZ has forty nine farmers killed since 2003 from the day TDP announced SEZ, Congress-TRS alliance government forcibly acquired the lands and harassed dalits, Muslims and bahujan communities in Polepally to offer thousand and more acres to SEZ lords for the gifts they offered to these leaders and their projects and parties that need money for next polls
 
Scholors  today talked of Palestine struggle in Polepally village and there is also a drama titled Polepally Peenuga  (Polepally Corpses). It is time we recognized Polepally killings as state killings and see these deaths as not corpses. Today’s Telangana has several protest movements. Polepally is part of it. They are waged by the people themselves.
 
Polepally protest movement (Polepally SEZ Vyatireka Aikya Sanghatana) had been relentless and had arrests, harassment and eviction along with rising death toll. They sought help of local TRS MLA and other parties in Mahabubnagar and Hyderabad, gave memorandums, held dharnas, meetings, gheraos, etc. Initially it elicited some sympathies here and there, some write ups on their woes, some activists showing solidarity.  Then Polepally Committee decided to contest mid-term polls of May 2008. Thirteen farmers, whose lands were looted and who were rendered homeless and battered by SEZ lords and local leaders, stood in Assembly polls. The nation heard their tale and atrocities in the name of SEZ and denial of political parties (wedded to national change or regional change) to see Polepally killings. They gained 13,000 votes. And also defeated the local TRS MLA.  Later NTPP Devender Goud, PRP Chiranjeevi visited Polepally village. Subsequently formed Round Table also brought TRS K Chandrasekhar Rao, TDP, CPI and CPM etc to the Polepally. All parties spoke in collective meeting to condemn Congress for the Polepally killings
 
Almost a year since then, no party has done anything on SEZ atrocities. Their manifestos don’t have anything on SEZ or Polepally. Some parties contesting in Mahbubnagar, and hence forced to visit Polepally for votes, talk of justice after elections. Same promises the farmers have been listening time and again for years. They decided to contest Lok Sabha polls now. They contest to tell the world that these parties have nothing different from each other and are same when it comes to the killing and eviction of the poor and selling the lands of the poor people to the SEZ lords across the state.
 
Political parties, politicians, and theoreticians may like to talk of things of change after years and decades after polls and next polls. But Polepally people, like people anywhere, threatened of eviction and empty stomachs want justice NOW. No theories they need, No schemes and designs of transfer of state power from one gang to other gang.
 
Polepally poor are contesting elections to condemn the insensitivity of our politicians and party spokespersons and ideologues and vulgarization of politics where people are reduced to only voters. What else is left to be robbed off from the poor!
 
Polepally is contesting Lok Sabha and has visitors of all shades- the contestants, the visitors, media, intellectuals and revolutionaries- because they are voters and it is the auspicious time to meet them.
 
Conscientious, wise and radical forces of the society posed hundred questions to Polepally poor. The evicted, hungry, landless poor contestants are posed with lots of questions by so many who never bothered to see the village that was reeling under deaths.
 
Right, Left, centrist, radical, and Telangana parties and their intellectuals as well as ‘poll time Telangana activists’ from the region and abroad ask the Polepally poor why they contest elections? Why not confine to the struggle? Why to contest now when Telangana chief KCR is in the fray? And so on.

Polepally poor contestants who are moving village to village without any resources and fleet of cars and bags of money are asking why these parties did not fight for them, why they kept silent on the killings and why they have not stopped the SEZ atrocities.
 
Polepally people say they are contesting today because these political parties have abandoned them. You have ignored our deaths, you have left us to the pack of SEZ devils, you have forgotten that we are part of Palamoor and that Palamoor killings are part of Telangana tragedy, because you have forgotten that we are people and you have seen us as mere voters to fill your ballot boxes. Because you failed us, we are contesting now
 
Did any of the politicians, intellectuals, activists and revolutionaries find ever an auspicious time to visit Polepally earlier?
 
దొరలార మమ్మల్ని అనాధలను చేసిండ్లు. నాయకులు మీరు, సదువుకొన్నొల్లు మీరు, నీతి చెప్పెటోల్లు, మా ఊర్లు ఆగమయితానై మా వోల్లు చస్తాండ్లు అని మొర చెప్పుకొంటె ఇనకపోతిరి. మా సావులను కూడ పట్టిచ్చుకోక పోతిరి. మా భూములను మాకిప్పియ్యండి, గీ సెజ్ ను తీసెయ్యుండ్లి అని ప్రతి ఒక్కరి కాల్లు పట్టుకొంటిమి. మమ్మల్ని ఆగం ఆగం చేసిండ్లుగదా.
మా బతుకులు మా సావులు వోట్లకు తప్ప పనికిరాకుండ అయిపాయె. గియ్యాల వొస్తిరి మా ఊరుకు, మా వొట్లడగబడ్తిరి. ఎందరికని ఎయ్యాలే? ఎవ్వనికెయ్యాలే?
ఇక్కడ పీనుగలు లేవు. దేశం మమ్మల్ని సంపుతాంది. దేశంల ఉన్న దొరలందరు పోలేపల్లిల చేసిన హత్యలు ఇవి. 

రాజ్యాలు మారినంక, రాజులు మారినంకనె మా ఊరు గోస ఇంటమంటిరి. మాకున్నయన్నీ పాయె. మాకున్న వోటును గూడ మాకొద్దనబడ్తిరి. ఉన్నయన్నీ దోసుకున్న దెసంల మా వోటును కూడ ఒదులుకుంటె మమ్మల్నెవ్వదు కానుతడు. మా బతుకుల్ని మా సావుల్ని కాకుండ మా వోట్లనె సూశేటోనికి మేమెయ్యం. మా వోటు మాకే ఉండనియ్యుండ్లి. గదొక్కటన్న మిగలనియ్యుండ్లి.

ధర్మాత్ములయితె మా వోట్లని కాదు మా బతుకుల్ని సావుల్ని సూడుండ్లి. ధర్మాత్ములయితె మా తోని ఉండండి.

Condemn Pharma SEZ Killings!
 
Save Polepally! Save Telangana People!!
 
Sujatha Surepally

April 14, 2009, Times of India

They are displaced farmers and they know that their chance of getting elected is very remote. Yet, they have entered the electoral fray.
As many as 15 farmers of Polepally village in the backward Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh have filed their nomination for the Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha constituency as independent candidates for the coming general elections.

Their purpose is to draw people’s attention to their plight and also of all others whose land have been acquired for setting up a Special Economic Zone. Of course, this is not for the first time that the unlettered and apolitical farmers are contesting the elections. They had done so in the by-elections held in May 2008. Thirteen of them contested for the Jadcherala assembly segment, which comprises Polepally. They together garnered over 13,500 votes and all of them forfeited their security deposits.

They were, however, happy at the outcome as they could draw the attention of the people of the state to their prolonged struggle against the SEZ. This time, they want to draw the attention of the country.

The farmers’ problems started in 2003, when the then Telugu Desam Party government identified 969 acres in Polepally and Mudureddypally villages for setting up the SEZ. In 2005, the Congress government enforced the proposal leading to displacement of around 350 small and marginal farmers. Nearly half the land acquired was assigned land belonging to dalits and tribals.

According to farmers, their compensation ranged from Rs 18,000 to Rs 50,000 per acre depending on whether it was an assigned or patta land, while the market price stood at around Rs 20 lakh an acre.

The farmers were against the SEZ from the beginning. In 2003, they blocked the Hyderabad-Bangalore national highway in protest against land acquisition. The next year, they staged a demonstration before the state Legislative Assembly. A Polepally SEZ Vyathireka Aikya Sanghatana (Alliance against Polepally SEZ) was formed and the struggle continued.

Meanwhile, 200 acres in the SEZ have been earmarked for pharmaceutical companies, where Hyderabad-based Aurobindo Pharma Ltd and Hetero Drugs Ltd are setting up their facilities.

By C H Prashanth Reddy in Hyderabad

By Ravi Reddy ( The Hindu)

Enter the Lok Sabha race seeking abolition of SEZ Act, restoration of their lands and a check on pollution

PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

DETERMINED LOT: Displaced farmers of Polepally village are contesting the Lok Sabha polls to oppose the SEZ.

POLEPALLY (MAHABUBNAGAR DT): They are all unlettered farmers who have never been active in politics even in their own village. But circumstances seemed to have willed otherwise for over 360 farmers’ families of this village in the backward Jadcharla Assembly constituency of the drought-prone Mahabubnagar district, known for migration of labourers on a large scale.

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Courtesy: India Today

By A. Srinivasa Rao Hyderabad, April 5, 2009

They lost their land when the government decided to develop the Polepalli pharma special economic zone (SEZ). Now, 15 evacuees are contesting polls from Andhra Pradesh’s Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha seat.

They are demanding that the land acquired by the government for the SEZ be returned to the people.

The SEZ will come up at Jadcherla in Mahbubnagar district, about 80 km from Hyderabad.

The 15 candidates — B. Lakshmamma, Mala Jangilamma, Sattemma, Rangamma, K. Kurmaiah, K. Narsimha, Y. Lingaiah, Chinna Venkaiah, G. Narasimha, M. Pandu, D. Sayanna, M. A. Jabbar, Ravinder Goud, Sinaiah Goud and V. Venkatesh — filed their nomination papers on Monday. Another candidate, G. T. Krishna, filed his papers for the Mahbubnagar assembly seat.

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మన సద్దులు మన సుద్దులు
మన వనర్లు మన బతుకులు
మనం తీర్చిదిద్దుకునే
తెలంగాణ తేవాలె

- వరవర రావు
 

Dear Friends,
 
Thanks to all friends who have given the moral support to Polepally team in their fight for justice. Sixteen candidates from Polepally have filed nominations against all odds.
 
It would not have been possible without the support of many friends and more particularly the timely support and encouragement of Bharath Bhushan, Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Radha Reddy, Vanaja and Biju Mathew, who met Polepally team in the recent press meet and also visited the village once and continued to extend the support their struggle in all forms.

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By Tushar Dhara

First Published : 01 Apr 2009 03:21:00 AM IST

Last Updated : 01 Apr 2009 12:34:58 PM IST

MAHABOOBNAGAR: The spectre of Polepally has returned to haunt mainstream political parties in Mahaboobnagar Lok Sabha constituency. As many as 15 farmers, who have lost their lands to the 1,000-acre special economic zone, have filed nominations, seeking to administer a dose of their own medicine to their netas.

The farmers, whose lands were acquired for the creation of the pharma SEZ in 2003, have been fighting a valiant battle against successive governments for justice in vain.

The 15 contestants in the fray are least interested in gaining entry into the Assembly. Their sole objective is to ruin the chances of the official nominees of the mainstream political parties. Given that victory margins in the Mahaboobnagar parliamentary constituency and Assembly segments are razor thin, the ruling Congress and the Opposition Grand Alliance can take the farmers lightly at their own peril. For instance, in the by-election to the Assembly in 2008, sitting Telangana Rashtra Samiti MLA from Jadcherla, under which Polepally falls, lost to Congress candidate Mallu Ravi by 2,000 votes. Then, 10 farmers contested, pulling in 13,000 votes.

This time around, political heavyweight and TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao is contesting Mahaboobnagar Lok Sabha seat. But his slogan of separate Telangana may not impress the Polepally victims. The Polepally contestants want to send a message, loud and clear, to all the parties –– this is pay back time for letting them down when their lands were ‘acquired’ for a pittance.

“It is like slapping the leaders on the face,” says M A Jabbar, one of the contestants who lost 54 acres.

The Polepally candidates are confident of securing at least 1.5-2 lakh votes of the 14 lakh registered voters in Mahaboobnagar Lok Sabha constituency. Poleppaly has been in the news since 2003 when the then TDP government started acquiring land to build a ‘Green Park’. That was upgraded into an SEZ under the Congress dispensation.

Nearly 1,000 acres were acquired from 320 families at dismally low prices. In a number of cases, even that hasn’t been paid till date.

The compensation for assigned land was fixed at Rs 18,000 per acre while for ‘patta lands’ it was between Rs 40,000-50,000 per acre. However, the government resold the land for Rs 40 lakh per acre!

Source: The New Indian Express

This is the photograph of the 15 farmers belonging to Polepally village who are contesting in the 2009 Parliament Elections to protest against the illegal land acquisition for Polepally (Jadcherla) SEZ

(Click on the image for full size image)

Why the poor must contest in elections?

Our Constitution declares that we are “Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic”. Our democracy is the symbolic representation and acknowledgment of different identities of class, caste, gender, ethnic, minority communities unique of our geographical, historical, social background. Election process in India is an important feature of our democracy. Elections remain critical structure of the governance in the country since the first general elections in 1951, despite its bias towards protecting the interest of the dominant community to the exclusion of dalit, bahujan, adivasis, minorities, women among other vulnerable groups.

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Friends,

Today we had a review meeting in the mango farm, adjacent to Polepally SEZ. Whole farm is sold out to housing plots. The meeting was held in the shade of the orchard that is about to vanish shortly. All surrounding areas have now become real estate properties of people sitting elsewhere with money bags. That entire area wears a radically different image with the SEZ. One can’t see any more signs of a village. Telangana village is broken into hi-tech roads. For a moment one would feel it is some industrial area of Delhi, or Vizag steel plant. I saw small children and men sweating as they sit in hot mid day painting the road divider. Hi-tech roads that devoured the villages and the people and their lives that used to be here until very recently. Oorunu mingina roadduku rangula nagisheelu chekkinattu unnadhi

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