Maitreya Project and NAPM Convention
National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM)
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Dear journalist friends,
the NAPM national convention this time is taking place at the site of farmers' protest against land acquisition for maitreya project in kushinagar, eastern UP,(
http://maitreyaproject.org/en/index.html) on 7-8 june, 2008. you're invited to this event. medha patkar will be there for four days from 6-9 june.
more importantly, i urge you to investigate the maitreya project. this non-govt. initiative is still collecting money (in $, yen and sterling) for a $250 m project of which $195 m would go towards making the 500 ft. buddha statue. without even the guarantee of funds the govt. of UP has made land available to this private party. what will happen if the govt. has to retract because of farmers' protest and the maitreya trust simply closes shop after collecting huge sums of money from all over the world? is there any accountability in this project?
the main issue so far as the farmers are concerned is displacement and NAPM will support the farmers till the end. we believe that tourism is not an alternative to agriculture and it is a crime to acquire prime agricultural land (approx. 660 acres) and simply hand it over to an organization of dubious credibility. who will benefit from the project and who'll be the loser is a big question to be looked into.
love,
Sandeep Pandey
ph: 0522 2347365, m: 9415022772, 9839883518 (keshav, based in deoria-kushinagar)
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National Alliance of Peoples' Movements
INVITATION
Seventh Bi-Annual Convention
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CHALO KUSHINAGAR
Buddha rises with peoples' movements
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Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh 7th – 8th June, 2008
Dear Friends,
Zindabad!
You may know that the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements is a coming of various Peoples' Movements fighting for the toiling peoples' right to Life and Livelihood, and as also those working on various alternatives in the fields of Agriculture, Water, and Energy etc. The Alliance , over the years has brought together diverse groups engaged in struggles across the country and drawn people's attention to the marginalization of the majority of the people for the benefit of the wealthy and influential few.
We realise that the situation is becoming ever grimmer, by the day, be it any party ruling at the Centre or in the States. The stark reality is:
Ø While the 'powers that be' boast of a high growth it is at best a jobless, or rather a 'job-loss' growth.
Ø The Agriculture sector has been destroyed and labour laws decimated at the bidding of the Global Financial Institutions and Corporate interests
Ø All basic services and Utilities such as Water, Electricity, Health care, Education, Roads, Railways, Ports, Public Transport have or are in the process of being turned over into private hands through a cruel onslaught on peoples' resources.
Ø Caste violence, religious fundamentalism and ethnic strife are being perpetrated so as to destroy our social fabric.
Ø What has been unleashed on the people – farmers, fisher people, adivasis, dalits, minorities, workers is 'development terrorism'
Whether it is Nandigram, Singur, Kalinganar, Ayodhya, Posco, Gorai, Plachimada, Chengara, Kakinanda the cruelest violence is used to displace, dispossess, dis-employ and dehumanize people killing the democratic space and social justice sought to be enshrined in our Constitution. Anyone raising a voice against this is labeled 'anti-development', 'anti-national', 'naxalite' 'foreign-funded' etc. These hundreds of land and resource grab exercises, actively indulged in by corporate bigwigs and ably manoeuvred by state machinery have revitalized with renewed rigour the need for and demands by nation wide struggles groups to give flesh and blood to Article 243 in the Constitution, which provides the framework for "development" (in whose name all the tamasha of SEZs are happening) and locates the Gram Sabhas and Ward Committees in villages and towns as the epicentres of any developmental planning. National sovereignty, democracy and governance are virtually being outsourced and sub-contracted in the name of Public Private Partnership. How far away is this to practical realization, more particularly, in the wake of draconian definitions of 'public purpose' creeping into enactments, as is being witnessed in the recently proposed Land Acquisition Bill, 2007 and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2007 is the challenge before peoples' movements and struggles all across the country.
Over the last 12-14 years, NAPM has been at the forefront of people's struggles be it the slum-demolitions in Mumbai and other cities and towns, displacement by various dams and projects, the Enron struggle, the various anti-SEZ struggles, fisher peoples' struggles, WTO and World Bank Bharat Chodo campaigns, Desh Bachao Desh Banao campaigns etc. Similarly, its various constituents have led successful struggles of fisher people, those displaced by dams, those fighting globalization in its various manifestations.
Probably, never before has there been in the history, so much a need, as also an opportunity, for all democratic forces, including like-minded individuals, groups, alliances and movements, with the struggling masses at large, to come together and challenge the claims of those who hold seats of power in various ways, both within and outside the framework of the State and reclaim back not just legitimate democratic spaces, denied and robbed hitherto, but also assert positive claims to natural and other resources and strive for societal and political recognition of the non-destructive, equitable ways of harnessing those new economics and politics of reconstruction. The inevitable task, ahead for presently sectoral people's struggles, is to strike at the root of inequality at various levels within existing power-structures and the future pre-condition for that would be the strategic coming together of all the concerned and their democratic supporters, across the country and around the world.
Over the years, NAPM has come to grow as a broad-based platform of diverse groups articulating the concerns of various marginalized people and communities. It is in this context that the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements is hosting its 7th Bi-Annual Convention and invites you, along with your friends and allies, to join us at this Convention, who are ready to struggle for ensuring democracy, equality, secularism and justice. The 7th NAPM Convention is therefore an opportunity for all those struggling with the people and those desirous of bringing about an alternative development paradigm through various sustainable alternatives and experiments.
Yours sincerely ,
Arundhati Dhuru Sandeep Pandey Prafulla S Sr. Celia
D. Gabriela P. Chenniah Anand Mazgaonkar Thomas Kocherry
Aruna Roy Sanjay M.G. Ulka Mahajan Mukta Srivastava
Geeta Ramakrishnan P.T. Hussain Uma Shankari Subhash Ware
N.D. Kohli Amarnath Bhai Rajendra Ravi Medha Patkar
For further programme and travel details contact:
Nandlal Master: 09415300520 ,,
Udhay Bhan: 09935445489 ,,
NAPM National Office:
National Alliance of Peoples' Movements, C/o Chemical Mazdoor Sabha,
28, 29, Haji Habi Building , Naigaon Cross roads, Dadar (East) Mumbai – 400 011
Simpreet 09969363065 ,,
Venue: Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh (50 km from Gorakhpur and 30 km from Devaria)
A detailed schedule of the travel and transport details and particulars of trains plying from various parts of India may be obtained from the above contacts. The above contact persons would be waiting at the Gorakhpur and Devaria Railway Stations, with the NAPM banners.
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Exhibition and Discussion on Alternatives – 6th June, 2008
· An exhibition on alternative development would be put up from the 6th of June itself. All those committed to alternate and sustainable development, please bring along with you models, banners, literature, posters, for the exhibition.
· A Meeting on alternatives would be organized in the afternoon of the 6th.
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Kushinagar, 7th – 8th June, 2008
Programme schedule for Seventh Bi-Annual Convention
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Date and time
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Session
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Day I: 7th June, 2008
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10.00 a.m. - 12.00 p.m.
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§ Inauguration: Medha Patkar, Mahant Vichar Das, Kabir Math, Magahar & Prof. Ram Krishna Mani Tripathi
§ Paqnel Discussion
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12:00 a.m.-m 1:30 p.m.
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Reporting by the National Convenors about movements across India and in various states
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1:30 p.m. – 2.30 p.m.
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Lunch
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2:30 p.m – 4:30 p.m
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Group Discussion
Issues – Dalit Rights and Annihilation Of Caste; Secularism and Freedom Of Religion; RTI And NREGA; Food Security; Land Acquisition; SEZs, Displacement And Development; Unorganized Workers; JNNURM and Urban Poor; Women's Rights as Human Rights , Water Crisis, Drought and Floods, Energy And Environment, Kashmir, North East, Naxalism, Terrorism and State Repression, Democracy in South Asia
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4:30 p.m – 6: 00 p.m
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Alternative Politics
Coordinator: Ajit Jha
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6:00 - 7.30 p.m.
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Reporting back by the groups
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7.30 p.m. - 8.30 p.m. -.
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Dinner
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8.30 p.m. -. onwards
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Cultural programmes by U.P. and Kerala groups
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Strategy Meeting of Representatives of peoples movements
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Day II: 8th June, 2008
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9.30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
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Building NAPM
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11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
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Passing of Resolutions
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12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
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1:00 p. m - 2:30 p. m
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Lunch
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2:30 p. m – 4:30 p.m.
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Election and Declaration of new Convenors
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4:30 p. m – 5: 30 p.m.
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Presentation of future strategies and plan
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5: 30 p.m.
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Lok Manch –parliamentarians and legislators from various political parties and NAPM representatives
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Join the Rally against Special Religious Zone at Kushinagar
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