Terror around the quarries

Published : Mar 16, 2002 00:00 IST

Private contractors and an unhelpful administration make life difficult for workers in the stone quarries of Bhiwani district in Haryana.

THE roadblocks at the exit points of the stone quarries at Khanak in Bhiwani district of Haryana have turned out to be barriers to peace and fairplay in this area known for its iron-rich building stones. They have been put up allegedly by some contractors in order to extort 'royalties' for the stone taken out of the quarries by crusher owners. To make up the loss, the latter cut the payment of the owners of the trolleys who in turn pay the workers less. When the workers protested in the first week of February, the police responded with a raid on their villages, arrests and assaults.

The Haryana government has drawn a lot of criticism for its inaction in this matter. Even though tension had been brewing in the area for a few months, it did nothing to control it; the government was apparently preoccupied with the byelection in the Yamunanagar Assembly constituency. The quarry workers, led by the Khanak Pahad Mazdoor Union (KPMU), which is supported by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, have been seeking the administration's intervention to stop the extortion by some contractors who have taken the quarries on lease from the government. Of the 10 quarries in the area, seven have been leased to contractors and three are with the workers' unions. Incidentally, such a situation came about after the government raised the upset price a few months ago, putting the lease out of reach for the local people. This brought in the private contractors, four years after a similar attempt to change the policy was thwarted by the people and the panchayats even though the minimum auction amount was increased. The lease amount was then raised from the families engaged in quarrying.

More than 10,000 families of 12 villages around the perennially dry Khanak area close to Tosham town depend on the quarries for their livelihood. Gurgaon and Faridabad districts and parts of Mahendargarh and Bhiwani districts are rich in hard stone deposits, but the stones of Khanak are considered the best for building purposes because they are rich in iron.

The contractors are known to enjoy political patronage, and they allegedly lease out the quarries to stone crushers. The extortion in the name of royalties began a few months ago when the contractors formed a company called the Baba Mungipa Mining Company. They reportedly charged, at the exit point, Rs.250 per hundred cubic feet of finished material for all vehicles carrying the crushed stone. Even vehicles carrying stones from plots belonging to the unions were not exempt from the 'levy' at the barriers, which are erected illegally on public roads. There are at least 200 stone crusher owners in the Tosham-Khanak area.

Ultimately, the cost of the extortion is passed on to the trolley owners, who in turn put the squeeze on the wages of the workers who load and unload the stones and handle the explosives used to blast rocks. Inderjit Singh, State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said more than 20 people had been killed in accidents in the quarries. The workers' appeals to the district administration fell on deaf ears and matters reached a head when the contractors forcibly took possession of the KPMU's office.

ON January 29 the workers staged a demonstration before the district headquarters in Bhiwani and urged Deputy Commissioner Harpal Singh to get the road barriers lifted by February 2. Instead of heeding their appeal, the authorities targeted them. In a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission, representatives of the KPMU said that the police lathi-charged a peaceful procession of workers, causing injuries to several hundred people, including women and children.

On February 3 and 4 the police conducted raids in Khanak and Baganwala villages after sealing all exit points. They broke open doors, forced their way into houses and beat everyone in sight. It is alleged that Savita, 12, was dragged out of her house and molested. Seven other women, including a nursing mother, faced the wrath of the police. A delegation of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), which visited the affected areas, criticised the district administration for letting loose a reign of terror.

The intimidation did not stop here. On February 21, five trade union office-bearers - Satvir Singh, general secretary, and Dharambir Kungar, joint secretary, of the State CITU, and Karamvir, president, Anil Sharma, general secretary, and Anil, former general secretary, of the KPMU - were taken away from the office of the Deputy Commissioner by plainclothesmen. They had been invited for negotiations by Harpal Singh himself. According to the complaint given to the NHRC, the five leaders were beaten and made to stand in cold water for several hours at night at the police station in Bhiwani. They are among the 60 persons remanded to judicial custody on charges of arson, rioting and attempt to murder. A maha panchayat at Baganwala, which was to be held to discuss police atrocities, could not be held as the police did not give permission for that.

The Om Prakash Chautala administration drew flak for suppressing democratic rights. Krishna Swaroop Gorakhpuria, general secretary of the Haryana Kisan Sabha, said that the democratic rights, especially those of the farming class, were being trampled upon. In the recent past, agitating farmers in Bawani Khera and in Kandela village of Jind district faced violent administrative action.

Meanwhile, work has almost come to a standstill in the Khanak area though the contractors are putting pressure on the crusher owners to hire out their crushers. If the latter give in, the contractors will further monopolise the mining process and further erode the bargaining power of the workers. A long-standing demand of the workers is the registration of the workforce, but the government has not responded so far.

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