B Prasant

JUSTICE Mukul Gopal Mukherjee, chairman of the Bengal Human Rights Commission (BHRC), took strong exception to the way the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chose to send out its team to Bengal for an inquiry, without taking into cognisance the presence of a functioning human rights commission in the state. Justice Mukherjee also lamented that the NHRC is indeed being criticised and "it is said that, in general, the NHRC is sent out to the non-BJP ruled states."

Citing article 36(1) of the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993, Justice Mukherjee said it would have been proper for the NHRC to ask for relevant evidence from the BHRC. The way the NHRC chose to send its representatives to Chhoto Angaria village at Garbeta in Midnapore without involving the BHRC, "has put us in a slightly uncomfortable position," he said while speaking to the media in Kolkata.

Justice Mukul Gopal Mukherjee further said perhaps the NHRC did not know that the state-level human rights body was already looking into the alleged incident at Chhoto Angaria in Garbeta. He, however, would not like to see a debate generated over the issue.

In the meantime, the two-member NHRC team had a meeting with high-level state officials at the Writers Buildings after returning from Midnapore where they said to have "collected a lot of evidence." They, however, would not disclose the kind of "proof" they dug out.

The NHRC officials also met the "ailing" Trinamul Congress activist Abdul Rahman Mandal alias Bakhtar Mandal at a Kolkata Nursing Home. Bakhtar, the person to lodge the FIR at the Garbeta Police Station over the alleged "genocide" at Chhoto Angaria, was said to be afflicted by a novel disease called Permanent Memory Loss Syndrome as per the observations of the Trinamul Congress spokesmen. The attending doctors would not allow the state police to speak to Mandal although he has been speaking to a section of the media quite freely and for long periods of time.

State police officials stated that the NHRC members largely agreed to the ongoing police inquiry’s findings about the incident at Garbeta. The NHRC had, in fact, communicated to the state police officials that they had not been sent either to find fault with the functioning of the Bengal government or to see for themselves whether the state-level inquiry was being correctly handled. They were on what they called a "fact finding mission."

Responding to the comments made by at least one member of the NHRC about finding evidence of a "genocide" at Garbeta, the state police chief said that, with no evidence pointing in that direction, the state police would not concur with the view expressed in this matter.

COMRADE Narendranath Lahiri, CPI(M) councillor of Garulia municipality, succumbed to bullet injuries he had sustained when he was shot at by Trinamul Congress thugs on January 19. He was 69 and was lying in coma in a hospital ever since he was attacked and left for dead.

A worker at the Annapurna Cotton Mill, Comrade Narendranath was attached to the Garulia local unit of the CPI(M). He played an active role in building up the party organisation in Anjangadh area of North 24 Parganas district from where he hailed.

Comrade Narendranath won from Ward 21 of Garulia municipality by defeating the combined opposition from the Pradesh Congress, BJP and Trinamul Congress. His popularity found expression in the long funeral march that was taken out on January 20. A bandh was observed in the Garulia municipal area to protest his murder and to call for early arrest of the culprits.

A CPI(M) worker and Kisan Sabha member, Sabuj Sheikh (44), was killed on January 20 evening in Sundarpur village under Badangya police station near Berhampore in Murshidabad.

When Pradesh Congress goons attacked a CPI(M) leader Sheikh Yunus’s house at Sundarpur, Comrade Sabuj rushed out, accompanied by several CPI(M) workers, to resist the armed attackers.

In the attack, Comrade Sabuj received deep cuts from sharp weapons and was felled with a powerful bomb blast. Surprised at the fierceness of opposition from a handful of unarmed CPI(M) workers, the gangsters chose to flee the scene of crime. While Comrade Sabuj died on the spot, Sheikh Yunus was saved from any harm. The police arrested one of the assailants late in night while the rest of the criminals are absconding.

THE voters’ list for the 2001 assembly elections in Bengal was formally released recently by the state’s chief electoral officer. The list shows that there has been an increase of 1.16 per cent voters over the last time the list was updated. This translates into the addition of just under 5.6 lakh new voters. This year 13,40,000 voters were added while the names of close to 7.8 lakh were deleted, mostly on account of demise.

The total size of the Bengal electorate, which stood at 4.56 crore in 1996, has now gone up to 4.86 crore, an increase of 30 lakh voters over the past half a decade. The voters’ list would be available this year in a CD-ROM and would be supplied at no cost to all the recognised political parties, according to state government sources.

WEST Bengal CITU leaders have expressed apprehension that the incident at the Baranagar jute mill, where a worker was shot dead within the premises of the mill, followed by lynching of the mill’s chief executive officer (who had fired the shot) and the personnel manager, was part of a conspiracy. (See People’s Democracy, January 21 for the details.)

Speaking to INN, state CITU general secretary Chittabrata Majumdar said that the apprehension emerged out of the fact that the mill’s CEO went to the mill with a loaded revolver on the day the incident took place. The state government needs to find out whether there was really a conspiracy to unleash violence by inciting the mill workers who got the worse of the deal when the unit reopened under a new management, with one Govind Sarda as the proprietor.

INN learns that less than a decade back, the Baranagar mill employed more than 6,000 workers. But their number has now come down to less than 4,000, with one-fourth allocated jobs of a perennial nature. As per the tripartite agreement of 1984, the ratio of casual and permanent workers should have been 20:80.

Again, despite the agreements, the mill owners made no attempt to start a third shift. This, among other things, caused a lot of anger among the workers of the mill.

There is also a great deal of uncertainty over the actual status of Govind Sarda as the new owner of the mill. When queried, Sarda failed to come up with viable legal evidence in support for his contention about proprietorship.

The corporate media has started a vile campaign about the existence of "two CITU unions in the Baranagar jute mill" in order to build up a story that the incident was the result of infighting among the workers.

State CITU president Niren Ghosh, retorted that "contrary to what is being bandied about, there is one BCMU union affiliated to the CITU at the Baranagar jute mill." He pointed out that, in general, jute mill owners employ part-time workers under the guise of "learners," badli workers, special badli workers and bhagawallahs. At present, more than 40 per cent of jute workers in Bengal are deprived of a permanent job status, Ghosh said.

Jute mill owners have also defaulted in paying Rs 83 crore into the workers’ provident fund, and Rs 200 crore as gratuity. A large amount is yet to be paid into the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme.

In the meantime, a one-member committee, headed by the state home secretary, is inquiring into the incident and is expected to place its findings with the state government soon.

The management has closed down the Baranagar mill since the day of the incident. Recently, the Indian Jute Mill Association sought to shift the blame for the affair onto the shoulders of the workers. (INN)