Violence in Chainpur-Vishunpur

Violence in Chainpur-Vishunpur
 It seems that Bihar too is soon going to face the similar conditions which occurred in West Bengal’s Singhur. People of Singhur asked that development will happen at the cost of what? Will it be at the cost of the life of a human or at the cost of environment or at the cost of their fertile agricultural land? The same mindset can be seen among the villagers of Muzaffar Pur’s Madvan block’s Chainpur-Vishunpur village. Tata was supposed to manufacture Nano car in Singhur and here in Chainpur-
Vishunpur 
Balmukund company wants to manufacture asbestos.

The violence in Singhur was witnessed by the entire world. The Tata’s had to move from Singhur to Sanand. People of Chainpur-Vishunpur too have become quite furious they don’t want the asbestos factory to be established in their village hence they finding out ways to get rid of this problem. As we have heard that a spark neglected burns the house similarly, if the situation in Chainpur-Vishunpur is not controlled well on time then this village may soon turn as violent as Singhur was.

In the year 2009, in Chainpur-Vishunpur, the owner of the Balmukund Company purchased 50 acres of land on the name of establishing agricultural plant. At that point of time the villagers were absolutely clueless that he is actually planning to establish an asbestos factory. The truth came in front of all only when the villagers saw the construction work for the asbestos factory going on. This was not at all welcomed by the villagers hence they decided to give an application to the DM to stop the construction work immediately while stating the negative impacts of the asbestos factory.

Gradually, this news got spread in the entire village and the whole village got united and came out on roads as a mark of protest. On 18th August, 2010 a meeting of the villagers was organized in Chainpur-Vishunpur Secondary School under the leadership of Ramchand Rai, where he constructed a Struggle Committee against Balkmukund’s Company for saving the villagers from it. Ramchand Rai became the convener and Tarkeshwar Giri and Vinod Singh became the co-convener and this way this committee consisting of 51 members was formed and in this very meeting only the agenda of opposing Balmukun’s factory was decided.

On 6th December, when the villagers found out that they are going to get no help from the government, then the Struggle Committee decided to lock the factory on their own. On 8th December under the banner of the Struggle Committee thousands of people from 6 Panchayats locked the gate of the asbestos company and sat on demonstration. This demonstration included farmers, woman and children. The people sitting for demonstration were shouting slogans against Balmukund to leave this place. They were shouting that they will not allow construction of this factory on their fertile lands. On 10th September the villagers gathered near the gate of the factory. After getting the news that the GM of this company Om Prakash Aggarwal is going to visit the factory; the villagers decided to frighten him so that he will stop the construction work immediately. Their motive was to frighten him by beating or using any other means so that he drops the plan of constructing this factory and abandons the place.

On 14th September, DM ordered the BDO, CO and the police to let the factory gate open. But the villagers did not allow them to open the gate and made them run from the site. On 19th September it was ordered by the SDO, West, Kundan Kumar and his committee that by the time we call both the sides and the environmentalists, we shall keep the factory locked. But this order was overlooked again and again which made the villagers even more furious. On 13th December when the villagers were demonstrating on the gate, in order to stop them, firing was done which injured half a dozen of people. This enraged the villagers furthermore and they started beating the workers working in the factory. They broke the factory gate and badly beaten up the factory manager BK Tiwari, deputy manager Sanjeev Mishra guard Naveen Kumar Singh and Lallan Singh. On the other side the injured villagers Harendra Mahto, Santosh Ram, Mantosh, Dharmendra Paswan, Golu Kumar, Haroshankar Singh and Kumod Ram were admitted to hospital. On 14th September the secretaries of the struggling factory Tarkeshwar Giri and Kumod Ram were sent to jail. This made the situation even more violent. The villagers could not tolerate their leaders going in jail.

Ramgopal Krishna, All India coordinator of asbestos Mukti Andolan, is tensed over the entire matter and said that asbestos is very harmful for health. Even the minutest particle of asbestos entering in the body can lead to various deadly diseases like cancer etc. According to Sachidanand Singh from Dr Rammanohar Lohia hospital, asbestos is banned in all the countries. Despite this the health of the poor Indians is being overlooked and by showing the poor the dream of development these factories are being opened. The leader of Ganga Mukti Andolan, Anil Prakash said that it is banned in Europe.

However, the construction of this factory is going on which is giving rise to more tensed environment. The dismal thing is that the government is not taking any suitable action over this matter. It may happen that the carelessness of the government may give birth to similar conditions which occurred in Singhur.