People's Democracy

JAMMU & KASHMIR

Sewa Hydel Workers Fight Back Repression

 Tikender Singh Panwar

KEEPING in mind the importance of launching struggles of the masses against class exploitation, consolidating them and ensuring their politicisation, the Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir state units of the CPI(M) led mass organisations recently took steps to organise the workers of the 120 MW Sewa hydel project and the affected peasants in nearby areas on their immediate demands. For the purpose, they first made a concrete study of the issues involved and then worked out a plan for the next six months.

The said hydel project is being constructed by the National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) on the Sewa river, a tributary of the Ravi in Jammu & Kashmir. The maximum discharge of this snow fed river is 369 cubic metres per second. The project is located in the interior of Kathua district, in a mountainous region. It is at a distance of 200 km from the district headquarters and it takes 12 hours to reach the last site of the project by bus.

The project is designed with a run of the river dam, disilting chambers and a headrace tunnel of 10 km length with a small diameter of 3.5 metres. The powerhouse will be at Hut Mashka, adjacent to the 560 MW Chamera-I hydel project in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh. However, the road distance between the powerhouse and dam site at Gatti village is 40 km and it takes two hours and a half to reach one site from the other.

The construction works were allotted to two construction companies --- Gammon India Ltd and Patel Engineering Ltd --- in September 2003. The dam, disilting chambers and headrace tunnel were allotted to Gammon India and the powerhouse to Patel Engineering. They, however, further sublet the work to numerous smaller contractors. The total workforce at the different sites is approximately one thousand.

This subletting style of construction is a new phenomenon, introduced in the last 5 or 6 years. It is highly exploitative in nature, as the main contractor keeps a profit of 10 to 15 per cent of the contract bid, deploys very little staff (out of which, more is of managerial nature), and provides the big construction machines to subcontractors. After ensuring his share of profit, a subcontractor then sublets the work to some other contractor and he, in turn, sublets the work to yet another firm. Thus, at every turn, the firms ensure their respective shares of profit by progressively reducing the workers’ wages and facilities. This is the reason that, despite their mutual contradictions, the company and the contractors are found united against the workers, taking the formation of a workers’ union as their biggest enemy. They are even prepared to spend lakhs to do away with a union.

The peasants of the area are small, poor landholders. They cultivate traditional crops for self-consumption. The area has a mixed population --- 70 per cent Hindus and 30 per cent Muslims --- who have close relations, without any communal divide. The area people had welcomed the hydel project with the hope of finding livelihood, but their hopes stand belied. Not all the villages here are electrified or have telecommunication facilities. The project management communicates with different work sites on wireless sets.

It was this place that witnessed state repression from June 11 to 19. On June 11, two leading comrades --- Om Prakash and Munish --- were severely beaten in police custody and sent to Kathua Jail in a concocted case under the Arms Act. When the workers learnt about the arrest of their leaders, they brought the entire work to a standstill.

After this solidarity strike, however, another 28 were taken in police custody on a false charge under section 307 IPC; 18 of them were workers belonging to the CITU and 10 were peasants associated with the Kisan Sabha. Another one dozen were illegally kept confined in Bani police station. The workers and other residents of Gatti village (site of the dam) were forced to vacate their camps and residences when an army troop launched an undeclared combing operation on June 13 night in the name of flushing out terrorists. Shockingly, these operations were carried out only in night, so that the sins committed on women and the aged were blacked out.

Several women of Gatti village got their limbs broken and many were molested on June 14 night when they were sitting on a peaceful dharna, demanding the release of Om Prakash and Munish. Asha, a young Kisan Sabha activist studying in Class 12, received severe head injuries that required 12 stitches. Another activist woman, Shukantla’s nose was broken in a combined attack by the police and the management’s hoodlums.

The workers and peasants stood their ground under the red flag, despite the state repression that was too much for their nascent organisations. To help their struggle and to get halted the repression that has no legal sanction, the CPI(M)’s Lok Sabha members Sudhangshu Seal and Sunil Khan arrived in the area on June 18 night, along with CPI(M) state secretary Yousuf Tarigami, MLA.

On June 19, Sudhangshu Seal, Sunil Khan, Yousuf Tarigami, Rakesh Singha and Bakshi addressed the meetings of workers and peasants at Hut Maska and Gatti village. They warned the management that terrorising the workers would not yield the desired results. It would be more appropriate for the management to concede the genuine demands of the workers and peasants, and recognise the workers’ union, as a mark of their professional outlook. The speakers said the CITU affiliated unions do not harm an enterprise as it gives workers livelihood, but there can be no compromise on the workers’ interests. Tarigami said it was astonishing that those who were defending the nation’s integrity and unity, and were making sacrifices for it, were being branded as terrorists. It is dangerous that, under the garb of fighting terrorism, organs of the state are assisting the management in a labour-capital dispute. The area people told the leaders how they were terrorised and forced to leave their homes for fear of being beaten up.

The intervention by the CPI(M) MPs led to a meeting of the NHPC management, the DC and SP of Katuha, representatives of the workers’ union and Kisan Sabha to resolve the issue. Babu Singh, a minister in the Mufti government, also played a positive role in resolving the dispute. It was decided that all those arrested would be unconditionally released by 8 a m on June 20, that criminal cases against them would be withdrawn, and that the NHPC would ensure that the contractors engaging workers implement the labour laws in letter and spirit. As per the decision, the leaders were released and workers on the project site welcomed them like war heroes. They also pledged to continue their fight for their genuine demands. It was only after their release that normal work could restart at the dam and powerhouse sites.

In the meantime, minister Babu Singh convened a review meeting at Kathua on July 3. The workers’ representatives, the J&K CITU’s representatives, Yousuf Tarigami, the DC and SP of Kathua, the SDM of Bani, the labour commissioner, representatives of the NHPC and those of the contractors attended the meeting that was to discuss the implementation of labour laws.