However, Mollah added, to ensure food security, the state government has taken some measures including increasing productivity and converting non-agricultural land to agricultural land.

There are currently 88.75 lakh hectares of agricultural land in the state, of which 32.87 lakh hectares are non- agricultural land, he said.

Three lakh acres of non-agricultural land was converted to agricultural land though four lakh acres of agricultural land was taken away for industrial and other uses, he said.

The state government, he said, was preparing a land map that would be ready in one and half years time.

Mollah said seven nodal agencies including the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) have been empowered to acquire land and prepare detailed project reports for non-agricultural use.

This report is old but very relevant. The indiscriminate industrialisation and urbanisation drive by Hegemony Polity ruled by capitalist Marxist Left in West Bengal and its regemented Gestapo dominace in the grassroot level castedivide society with marginalised minorities and trivals have created intense food insecurity and stavation situation leading to recent Ration Riot.In the recent past, the countryside in West Bengal has not witnessed such large-scale violence spread over six districts against corruption in the public distribution system (PDS). While many observers feel that what began as a food riot by the poor belonging to APL (above poverty line) category a few weeks back, claiming five lives, including two in police firing, is turning into a rage against the cadres of CPI(M) and other Left Front constituents, fear has gripped the majority of the 20,000 ration dealers who have enjoyed CPI(M) patronage for 30 years. The allegation is that the dealers and distributors, with support from CPI(M) cadres and food inspectors, siphon-off foodgrains and kerosene from the PDS and sell them in the open market. For a long time, people have been alleging that when they go to ration shops, they don’t get their weekly allotment or when they do get, the quality of foodgrains is not fit for human consumption. We have not heard of ration crisis since mid 60s. Now, after 40 years, we are seeing reports of ration riots in West Bengal. The first symptom of current ration disquiet surfaced on September 16 when the CPM rally was attacked by a mob in Bankura. Next day, a ration dealer's house was attacked by locals. Within days of being attacked, the dealer committed suicide. The riots, which started in Bankura soon engulfed districts of Birbhumi, 24 Parganas Bardhman, Murshidabad and Hoogly. More than half a dozen persons have died including the one who was shot dead by the police. The West Bengal Government suspended 117 dealers. Thousands of dealers are reportedly in hiding.

Withe submerged villages and siege by intermittent insurrections Kolkata is indulged in Hegemony festival, the Durga Puja carnival.Durga Puja has drawn international attention this year after Harry Potter author J K Rowling sued organisers of a Kolkata pandal based on Hogwarts Castle. But many more innovative structures have popped up in the city. Check out how Kolkata's famed pandals welcome the goddess.

Residents of Khapaidanga in Cooch Behar held a demonstration in front of the shop of one SK Dutta, a modified ration dealer, accusing him of not supplying foodgrain accordingly. However, no untoward incident occurred during the agitation, police said. Mr Pradip Roy, a KPP leader, alleged that the MR dealer was taking additional prices for kerosene and sugar for a long time. "He was not distributing any commodity except kerosene to the APL cardholders," Mr Roy, said.Mrs Kanika Roy, a housewife and resident of Khapaidanga, alleged that the dealer was taking additional prices for sugar and kerosene from them. A large police force was deployed in the area today to prevent any untoward incident during the agitation. The MR dealer, however, has denied the allegations against him.

Eleven departments associated with disaster management are waiting for Central funds. These have not been released because of the departments’ failure to submit utilisation certificates for Rs 331.65 crore before the state government’s deadline.
The funds that require certificates were released last year from the Centre’s Calamity Relief Fund (CRF). As the departments could not provide the certificates, claiming they were busy providing flood relief, no further funds from the Central government’s share (90 per cent) have been released yet.
This came to light when the joint secretary to the disaster management department, Mr D Pal sent letters to the officials concerned and district magistrates, warning them that "without utilisation certificates, the state government would not be able to send a complete utilisation report of the funds spent from CRF, resulting in holding up of the Central government’s share.
"The proposals for sanction of funds from the CRF during 2007-08 would be submitted by all the departments concerned within one month from the date of occurrence of natural calamity, failing which, no proposal would be sanctioned."
A senior district official said: "The departments were asked to submit all the pending utilisation certificates by 15 June, failing which, all treasury payments would be held up. The departments agreed to submit utilisation certificates to the tune of at least Rs 332.98 crore within this deadline.
"But then the floods came and district officials had to concentrate on relief and rescue operations. As a result, they failed to submit utilisation certificates."
The Opposition leaders in the district alleged, "Last year’s floods should have taught the state government a lesson. "
Mr Manoj Chakraborty, president of the State Government Employees’ Federation also alleged, "As the government had pressured officials to prepare funds utilisation certificates within a month, there are possibilities that the expense figures could be manipulated."

Violence imminent over starvation in West Bengal, AHRC warns governor

(Hong Kong, July 18, 2005) Frustrated and starving villagers in West Bengal, India may soon be pushed into violence unless the government acts to address their situation, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) warned the state governor on Monday.

"The AHRC has since March on numerous occasions warned the state authorities about the worsening conditions in Jalangi, Murshidabad district but still they have failed to act," Kim Soo A, urgent appeals programme coordinator, told Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

"The situation is now bordering on a catastrophe and violence is almost certain to ensue," she warned.

The Hong Kong-based regional human rights group said that although the chief minister of the state, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, visited the district headquarters on July 16, people in Jalangi were still getting no relief.

During the visit, Bichuddin, of Taltali village, attempted to commit suicide by drinking poison.

According to a local human rights group, Manabadhikar Surksha Mancha (Masum), large amounts of money had also been allocated for the villagers, but still they have seen nothing.

"At a meeting in the affected area on July 17, Manju Nath Prasad, the district magistrate, said that 110 million rupees have been given to deal with the situation, but the villagers have seen nothing," Kirity Roy, secretary of Masum, said.

"The people are in unbearable distress and they are just hearing lip-service from these officials," he said.

In a telephone conversation with AHRC staff on Monday, Prasad said that 185 families had been given six kilogrammes of rice per week.

"What is the use of six kilogrammes of rice for starving and destitute unemployed families?" Bijo Francis, programme officer of the AHRC, said.

"This tragedy again speaks to the utter callousness of the Indian authorities in the face of avoidable death and utter poverty," he said.

"All of the bureaucrats and politicians from the local to the state and central levels know that people in Jalangi are dying from hunger and attempting to kill themselves out of sheer frustration, yet nothing is being done," Francis said.

"Where is the real relief and rehabilitation they need?" he asked.

"Is the Indian state so bankrupt and defective that it is unable to do anything to help its citizens even in a life or death situation?" Francis added.

The AHRC warned the governor that the police could push agitated villagers into violence unless the administration acts without further delay.

A delegation from Masum met with government officials in the district at the start of July and discussed the severity of the situation in detail, but obtained no commitments from them.

Starvation is occurring in Jalangi because the Padma River is eroding and swallowing up tracts of land, leaving farmers destitute.

Those worst affected are from the Dayarampur, Paraspur and Taltali villages.

Although the problem has become greater over many years, the government did nothing to address it and only now is being pressured to react, the AHRC has said.

The irrigation department only began work to prevent erosion as floods began in May.

# # #

About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Tea garden closures, underfed families, and starvation in Bengal - some hard facts

By Ashok Ghosh, State General Secretary, UTUC.
Translated by Soumya Guhathakurta, Sanhati. Sept. 5, 2007

There are 14 tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district, 2 in Darjeeling district. The number of unemployed tea garden workers (in these 2 districts) is almost 20,000. In the closed tea gardens basic amenities like drinking water and electricity have been withdrawn. The ration system and hospital amenities have been withdrawn. Even then it is said (by authorities) that there are no hunger related deaths. As per government data, between 1 January 2006 and and 31 March 2007, the number of deaths in the North Bengal tea gardens is 571. Of these deaths, 402 are of those less than 60 years of age, 317 are male and 254 are female, 62 are children less than 10 years of age. Of the 571 deaths, 465 people died in their dilapidated homes, in other words no medical attention in hospitals were available in the case of 80% of the deaths. As per unofficial estimates, the total number of North Bengal tea garden deaths in the past 5 years is 2500.

As per recent NSS figures on underfed families in the the various states, there are 106 families per thousand (10.6%) in rural West Bengal (the worst figure) that are underfed for a ‘few’ months during the year. The comparable figure for Andhra Pradesh is 6/1000 (best figure) and 48/1000 (the state just above West Wengal as per this parameter). Further, there are 13 families per thousand that are underfed for the full year. This statistic is 0 for the states of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. Orissa at 13/1000 is at par with West Bengal.

The existence of starvation in West Bengal after 30 years of left front government although the foodgrain availability per capita in the state is 0.2 tonnes per annum or 550 gms per head per day, raises uncomfortable questions about the distribution system and the purchasing capacity (or entitlement) of the rural population. This after claims of successful land reforms and land re-distribution through operation Barga.

The establishment left propaganda machinery has been geared up to obfuscate facts and divert criticism. Manik Sanyal, district secretary, CPIM, Jalpaiguri district, has published a pamphlet which states that ‘from a recent health department report we come to know that the rate of death in the closed tea gardens is in no way worse than that prevalent in adjoining rural areas or that in the operational tea gardens. yet, attention is being drawn to the death rate in the closed tea gardens by vested political interests’. This pamphlet was published in july 2007.

This can be counterposed with the fact that the governor, Gopal Gandhi, on his recent visit to Ramjhora Garden noted 36 deaths in the last 15 months.

However, in june 2007, Sabyasachi Sen, Trade and Industry Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal admitted that poverty is the cause for a high number of deaths in the tea gardens of West Bengal. According to Sen the highest number of deaths, 68, was reported from Kalchini Gardens.

This article originally appeared in the Dainik Statesman.

For an extensive collection of reports on the tea gardens, please click here.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval to a Centrally-sponsored scheme on the National Food Security Mission to enhance foodgrains production and a Rs 25,000 crore Additional Assistance Scheme to incentivise States during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan from 2007 to 2011. The National Development Council had adopted the schemes in a resolution in its 53rd meeting in May. Giving details, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said in view of the stagnating foodgrains production and an increasing consumption need of the growing population, the NDC meeting had adopted a resolution to enhance the production of rice, wheat and pulses by ten, eight and two million tonnes by 2011. The National Food Security Mission (NFSM) will have three components, namely NFSM-Rice, NFSM-Wheat and NFSM-Pulses towards this goal and to enhance the farm growth rate to 4 per cent.

In Midnapore, Swadhina activities cover 10 villages at Garbeta block. The villages are inhabited exclusively by the tribal population. Being mostly landless, a large section of the population work as agricultural labourer. Some have received land from the government but the cost of agriculture being too high most of these land remain uncultivated. Thus the need for the area is to motivate the villagers to opt for low cost alternative and sustainable farming through promotion of an Agro Service Centre, which will guide the villagers.

Seed Support
For Midnapore area, Swadhina has procured good quality seeds of different types of vegetables for offering to the villagers at a subsidised rate. In the first phase 6 women have purchased the seeds from four villages. In coming agricultural season, more seeds will be distributed as apparent from the requests from the farmers. Swadhina tries to maintain good relationship with the local Agriculture department to procure seeds whenever those are distributed. One kg. of Beans seed and 3 kg. of maize seeds were collected during this year 12 women from 4 villages received these seeds.

The total financial implications for the NFSM will be Rs.4882.48 crores during the XI Plan. Beneficiary farmers will contribute 50 per cent of cost of the activities/work to be taken up at their/individual farm holdings.

Beneficiaries can choose to draw loans from the banks, in which case, the subsidy amount prescribed for a particular component for which the loan is availed, will be released to the banks.

Under NFSM-Rice, 133 districts of 10 States — Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — will be covered.

Under NFSM-Wheat, 138 districts of nine States — Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, M.P., Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal — will be covered. Under NFSM-Pulses, 168 districts of 14 States — A.P., Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, M.P., Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, U.P. and West Bengal — will be covered.

In the Rs 25,000 crore Additional Assistance Scheme (AAS) for the farm sector, the outlay for the States would depend upon the amount provided in the State budgets for agriculture and allied sectors, over and above the base line percentage expenditure incurred by the State Governments. The funds would be a 100 per cent grant by the Central Government. An outlay of Rs.1,500 crore for 2007-08 has been set aside. An allocation of Rs 25,000 crore has been approved over five years.

-- A growing agricultural collaboration between the United States and India is helping Indian farmers boost their output and meet international export standards so that India can compete more effectively in world agricultural markets.The partnership, known as the U.S.-Indian Agricultural Knowledge Initiative (AKI), aims to strengthen food security, increase technology information exchange and expand investment in India?s farm sector. It involves universities, research institutions, corporations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Trade Development Agency, the U.S. Department of State and India's National Institute of Agriculture Marketing.The long-term goal of AKI is to revitalize the green revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and reduce hunger and poverty in India. The United States has committed $24 million through fiscal year 2008 to the partnership, begun in 2005.Through the AKI, U.S. universities are teaching people involved in India?s food industry such practices as maintain perishable foods at proper temperatures, keeping products fresh from farm to consumers? tables and assessing health risks in foods.Indian participants also are learning more about such topics as improvements in crop biotechnology, advances in food processing and marketing, water resources management, aquaculture, animal and plant diseases, and fuels produced from farm products.

West Bengal went down on the industrialisation front. Large-scale migration of industrialists took place due to continuous gheraos, sand bandhs. It has not progressed much on the agriculture front, too, the State still continues to be food deficit. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee realised that anti-industry policies will not lead his Government anywhere. Therefore, after getting elected in the last Assembly poll he gave a red-carpet welcome to the investors. But his party comrades, especially the CITU, are pinpricking him.

The current ration riots have exposed the Marxists to the hilt. But the CPM patted itself for implementing land reforms and changing the landscape of rural West Bengal. Despite this propaganda, not much has happened. Let us see what happened in the ration front.

There are 20,000 ration shops. The dealership has been given to CPM cadre, workers or sympathisers. Public Distribution System (PDS) is thoroughly corrupt. Under the PDS specified quantity of rice and wheat is given to a family, depending upon the number of person, at discounted prices. In the form of dealers a new section of exploiters have come up. They live in big houses and have a luxurious life style.

There are different schemes for people below poverty line (BPL) and people above the poverty line (APL). First the Centre allots wheat, rice, sugar to the State, the State lifts the stocks and distributes it to BPL and APL cardholders through PDS. There have been numerous complaints about food grains meant for the BPL and APL cardholders being siphoned off in the open market. The Consumer Affairs Ministry conducted an enquiry and found that more than Rs 31,585 crore meant for the poor was siphoned off from the PDS in the last three years. The largest being reported from UP and West Bengal.

During the food riots dealers in West Bengal were targeted. Southern Bengal Ration Dealers Association staged a dharna outside the State Food Ministry demanding punishment for corrupt officers and protection for themselves. The Association functionary Nirmal Sarkar complained that the dealers are forced to pay weakly bribes to local CPM leaders, panchayat members and the officers. "We have no other way but to make for the loss incurred there by selling the food grains or other goods in the black market". Perturbed by riots, the blame game. The CPM blamed Centre for decreasing West Bengal quota of wheat and rice. Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials claimed that even allotted stocks were not lifted by West Bengal.

Food and Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar has hinted that the food grains are being smuggled out from West Bengal to Bangladesh in large quantities. The CPM has absolved its of the responsibility by saying that the borders are guarded by BSF who never brought it to their notice. The CPM is sacred due to impending panchayat elections and fall out of ration riots in the election. It has blamed Zamiyat Ulema-e-Hind and Maoists for the riots. It has also pointed fingers at Trinamool Congress.

A portion of blame must be directed towards the price rise. When food grains prices were affordable, large numbers of APL cardholders were purchasing food grain from the market. Due to price rise they have fallen back upon the ration shops. The dealers did not lift stocks for APL cardholders, as they were not turning up. Suddenly during last few months they have been queuing at the ration shops and the crises exploded.

Some questions about agrarian structure in contemporary India - Blog article, open for comments
May 15, 2007

The first thing that probably needs to be clarified in the study of agrarian structure in India (and other parts of the periphery) is to understand agrarian structure as an articulation of various modes of production under which socially necessary labour is being undertaken. The concept of socio-economic formation, as an articulation of various modes of production, but distinct from the concept of mode of production itself might prove useful here. I feel that this is a very important point that is often ignored in much Marxist theorising.

Once we agree to understand agrarian structure as an articulation of various modes of production, several questions immediately arise. One, what are the various modes of production that are articulated in various forms in India today? Capitalist and pre-capitalist modes. That much is clear and widely agreed upon.

The next important question, of course, is this: which is the dominant mode of production in this social formation, in this complex reality formed by the articulation of the capitalist and pre-capitalist modes of production? Which, in other words, is the mode that is dominating the others, shaping the others so as to fulfill it’s own needs of reproduction? Which is the dominant and which is the dominated mode of production? In this regard, the tentative hypothesis that I would like to advance is the following: contemporary Indian reality suggests that the capitalist mode of production is the dominant mode. It is capitalism, decidedly of a dependent variety, that is calling the shots in India today. All vestiges of pre-capitalist modes are articulated to the capitalist mode and are serving its needs in various ways. But it would be a mistake to allow the vestiges of these pre-capitalist modes to define social reality in rural India, its agrarian structure.

The question that will naturally follow is this: how to explain the stagnation in Indian agriculture? How to explain the rising rural distress? This is an extremely important question, but I don’t think it is necessary to take recourse to semi-feudalism to explain rural stagnation and distress. Dependent capitalism, of the type that has developed elsewhere in the periphery of the world capitalist system, is precisely a capitalism which entails stagnation, pauperisation and distress for the majority while a small minority grows at a very high rate. That has happened in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and is now happening in India. This is another tentative hypothesis that I would like to advance.

A very close friend of mine, who has been studying agrarian relations in Punjab for some time now drew my attention to three very important characteristics of rural reality in Punjab. These are: (a) the intrusion of ideological factors like "social pride" into the process of mechanization of agriculture (he informed that the possession of tractors in contemporary Punjab is more a matter of "social pride" of the peasantry than any capitalist incentives arising from production conditions); (b) the existence of a class of middlemen who procure agricultural product from peasants and also function as money-lenders, thereby givng rise to partially interlinked markets; and (c) the widespread use of migrant labour in agriculture.

What are the implications of these three characteristics for our understanding of agrarian structure in contemporary India? I would tend to interpret these three characteristics as the many factors, among others, which reproduce capitalist stagnation; I do not see this as providing evidence of the presence of semi-feudal relations in rural India.

The question that immediately came to mind regarding the first charateristic is this: What is the material basis of the "social pride" that comes from the ownership of tractors? An answer suggests itself almost naturally. The tractor manufacturer would gain enormously from the widespread existence of such "social pride". Let us recall several campaigns by the local capitalist class (for example the "hamara Bajaj" campaign) where ownership of scooters and motorcycles and four-wheelers and tractors are given other, social meanings (like national pride, etc.)? Could something like that be in operation in Punjab too?

Existence of a large class of middlemen is important but does not really lend support to any semi-feudal thesis. The class of middlemen, to my mind, are representatives of mercantile capital; a class which makes profit by buying cheap and selling dear. It is important to remember that they have come up under the shadows of a partially paternalistic State and the pressure of rich and middle peasants for minimum price policies. Through them mercantile capital is getting accumulated in rural India. The fact that the credit market is partially interlinked to the product market through this class reminds me of the "putting out system" during the early phases of the industrial revolution in England. But, this system, I am told, has made a comeback through various kinds of "contract farming" in other parts of India too. For instance, Pepsi Co, HLL, Procter and Gamble and many other companies often do the same. They provide credit and other inputs to the farmers and the contract is that they will buy the product at pre-arranged prices. So, even though markets are getting interlinked, it is in a context that is very different from those studied in the early 1970’s by Amit Bhaduri and others. In this case, the capitalist character of many of the participants is beyond all reasonable doubt. So, instead of understanding this as an instance of semi-feudal relations of production, it is probably more helpful to see this as the specific manner in which the articulation to dependent capitalism takes place.

The importance of migrant labour, as my friend pointed out, can hardly be denied. But as I have suggested earlier, while it is important to understand the articulation of modes of production, it is equally important to identify the dominant mode? Moreover, the existence and growth of migrant labour, footloose labour according to Jan Breman, also seems to suggest that the various kinds of bonds that tied down labour to a particular plot of land or village or area is loosening. Doesn’t that gradually erode the semi-feudal basis of power in the rural areas?

Another related question that often comes to mind is this: are big and powerful feudal landlords left in India today, other than in small pockets? Does social, economic and cultural power in rural India reside with the class of feudal landlords? I have serious doubts that it does. I think, instead, that the social and economic power of the landlord class has been largely eroded. Rural power now rests in the hands of the middle and rich peasants, not in the hands of landlords. To a minimum that seems to be the case in large parts of India: Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, TN, Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Gujrat, Maharashtra. Therefore another question arises immediately: does this define the character of rural India or do the remnants of semi-feudal power in pockets of Bihar, Orissa, Eastern UP, MP, Chattisgarh, Jaharkhand define rural India?

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