The 2 day old hunger strike has now been called off after the district officials started processes to meet some of the demands of the local communities.

The 17 days struggle, including a 2 day old hunger strike, which started in Sandila tehsil and after a 3 day padyatra the scene of action had shifted to the district headquarters at Hardoi, ended on February 23, 2006, after a series of negotiations with the District Magistrate K. Ram Mohan Rao. The dharna has to some extent shaken up the otherwise insensitive administration and forced it to make following concessions. The DM has promised to follow up and accomplish the unfinished work in response to the demands of the dharna.

The wages of the workers who worked on Kashipur Minor will be paid, however, not for desilting the canal but for making the path next to the canal. The Irrigation Department says that there is technical problem in approving the desilting of canal work near Gutayya village as it has taken a decision five years back not to release water upto this point. It is a different matter, though, that the Irrigation Department has been charging people money for using water from this canal whereas in reality people have not received any water. Moreover, according to information obtained during the dharna related to income-expenditure of Bharawan Kshetra Panchayat, portions of the canal have been desilted in 2004-05 with an expenditure of over Rs. 3 lakhs!

About 800 of the 2212 people, in Sandila tehsil alone, who held land titles but did not possess their land were given possession of their land. In some cases, however, the powerful people recaptured the land as soon as the Lekhpal and police went back after performing their job. The administration had to undertake this exercise after the DM had declared a day before the dharna started that there was not a single case in his district where people holding land titles did not possess their land. It was the pressure of the dharna which forced the officials to acknowledge the truth.

Food grains which were siphoned off and not given to the people possessing BPL, Antyodaya and Annapurna ration cards for the last five years period were given for 3 months in village Atwa Danda. The administration has agreed to give 6 months of ration in other villages too where people come forward with their ration cards showing incomplete entries. This exercise by the people is to recover the grains which have been siphoned off by the powerful food mafia patronized by political leaders.

Information regarding expenses incurred under SGRY/JRY by the Bharawan Kshetra Panchayat and Sandila Kshetra Panchayat as well as NFFW details and Indira Awas beneficiaries list for Sandila Kshetra Panchayat have been made available. All this information and more which is not available yet was being demanded by the people under the Right to Information Act since October 12 when it came into being.

Beniganj, which used to get electricity supply for hardly 2-3 hours per day has now started receiving it for 12-13 hours a day.


Jageshwar Prasad, Turi, Neelkamal, Ram Babu, Gayadeen, Sajiwan Lal, Ganga Sagar Awasthi, Ram Sagar Verma �Guddu�, Ram Bharose, Bhagwandeen, Om Prakash Rawat, Rajni Rawat, Chandralekha, Jitendra Dixit, Munna Lal Shukla, Baijnath, Shiv Kumar Tiwari, Sandeep

Asha Parivar/National Alliance of People's Movements, Asha Ashram, Village Lalpur, Post Atrauli, Dist. Hardoi. Contact: Neelkamal (9335287180), Munna Lal Shukla (9838575546), Jitendra Dixit (9839842511), Arundhati Dhuru (0522-2347365, 9415022772)

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