WEST BENGAL – SIKKIM RAILWAY PROJECT : TWO WORKERS DEAD, 5 INJURED IN A TUNNEL COLLAPSE AT BHALUKHOLA NEAR MELLI.

Sumendra Tamang 

(21.06. 2021)

COVID 19 has tilted the entire nation upside down and shaken the whole country like never before. With countless deaths and innumerable horrid stories of the pandemic, many issues which need immediate attention have been sidelined and overshadowed. One such issue is the pathetic and hazardous condition of construction workers. Although the construction of the new parliament structure under the Central Vista Project attracted media attention, not many of similar stories have come to the fore. Right now many of us are staying indoors, quarantined and isolated, but for the large mass of daily wage earners the situation is dissimilar, if not grimmer. Construction work(both private and public) is going on all around us even during the pandemic period. One such instance is the 4085 crore (approx) Sevoke – Rungpoo broad gauge railway project under the aegis of Indian Railways Construction Company Limited (IRCON), incorporated under the Ministry of Railways. 

 Sikkim is all set to get its first railway connection with the rest of India. The 45 kilometer long route starting from Sevoke (West Bengal) to Rungppoo (East Sikkim) will have 14 tunnels, 14 major bridges, eight minor bridges along its way. According to sources, the railway line will have five stations mainly Sevoke, Riyang, Teesta Bazaar, Melli and Rungoo. It is also said that 70% of the route will be built in tunnels with the longest being 5.13 kms in length and the longest bridge will be around 375 metres. On 30th October, 2009 the foundation stone for the project was laid by the then Railway minister, Mamata Banerjee and the Vice President Hamid Ansari. Due to repeated delays, the project was finally initiated in 2017. It is learnt that the total expenditure will be borne by the Ministry of Finance and Railway ministry of India. 

 

Development, Displacement and Dissent

On 17th June 2021 at around 10.30 PM, continuous monsoonal rain led to the collapse of a part of the tunnel 10 being built at BhaluKhola near Melli. Severe rock slides trapped seven workers inside the tunnel. The local police had to rush to the spot and dig out the trapped workers. Out of the seven, two workers were declared dead at Kalimpong district hospital. The deceased workers, Salku Murmu and Naresh Soren, both hail from Jharkhand. Local sources say that both the deceased were working at large drilling machines and were closest to the wall, thus sustaining the worst injuries that ultimately resulted in death. The other five workers, namely, Sufal Hembrem, Sukeshwar Singh, Thakur Das, Ashok Singh and Kundan Singh have been are undergoing treatment at Kalimpong district hospital and North Bengal medical college and hospital. The work on the railway line has stopped for the time being, an investigation is underway and 'adequate compensation will be provided to family of the deceased' said Mohinder Singh, Project director of IRCON.

 It however needs to be mentioned that the terrain on which the construction work is going on has long been considered dangerous, particularly during the rainy season: landslides and floods are usual occurrences. 

 

From an environmental perspective, this railway project has always been contested. Environmental activists as well as local forest villagers living in areas adjoining National Highway 10. The NH10 and the entire terrain is a known landslide prone area, where construction work of any kind is bound to adversely affect the already endangered slope stability of the geologically fragile hillsides. This vulnerability needs serious and immediate attention. Right now as we speak, heavy rain has already triggered multiple landslides 

along the route. Many environmental activists have always asserted that use of drilling machines and powerful explosives for tunnel construction along the rail line would turn out to be extremely hazardous for the locals and the environment. This would mean a huge risk for the workers deployed inside those tunnels. The National Highway authorities and the local forest villagers have also claimed that building of low lying dams at Kalijhora and Rambi by the National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) is the reason behind frequent landslides in the valley side which is damaging the whole stretch. On the other hand, NHPC has held the poor drainage system accountable for recurring landslides along the stretch. 

 Adding to this, forest village activists claim that around 24 forest villages and several thousands of forest villagers would be affected by the railway project, which the locals claim would be disastrous to the livelihood as well as the environment. According to the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA 2006) unless and until the Gram Sabha (general assembly of villagers for decision making) issues a No Objection Certificate (NOC) no such projects can be initiated even if it’s a government aided one. In 2019, due to the non compliance of FRA 2006, construction of a flyover over Rungpoo river was stopped by Calcutta High court. The locals also claim that many were forced to give consents coming under administrative and political pressure. Without taking into consideration the relentless resistance of forest villagers and local activists the project has started citing its ' importance to national security'. What indeed is often heard is that this ambitious project is a part of the Central government’s initiative of improving connectivity with the Indo-China border in Sikkim, to help in the mobilisation of military and heavy machinery, if the situation demands. Meanwhile many forest villagers were hounded and activists mishandled for their resistance against this project. 

 

Another important question that the activists raise is that of illegality of the railway project. Most of the railway track are passing through forest areas, they point out, flagging that use of forest land for non-forest purposes is strictly prohibited under the law. According to the Forest Conservation Act 1980, all non-forestry activities on forest land require prior permission in stages from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India. So far as it could be ascertained, the Sevoke Rangpo project hasn't yet received this permission. On what basis then, they continue to occupy forest land, destroy trees at will and construct tunnels and roads, activists question. The project, they say, has already been challenged in the Kolkata High Court. 

 

Development has many sides to it and questions are always asked as to what kind of development do we precisely end up with? 

And development for whom? And at what cost? 

As always the government says that the project would create employment and accelerate tourism. But when voices are raised about the cost of such projects, dissent is suppressed using state machinery. At a time when concerns for the environment are paramount, our very own Prime Minister says and I quote him, ‘Global warming doesn’t exist, the ability of people to bear heat has decreased and hence we feel more hot every day'. How can we expect development by such a government to be eco friendly? The hills of Darjeeling and Sikkim have always been earthquake prone and academics and scientists have repeatedly claimed that unwanted and continuous exploitation of nature will prove to be disastrous for the locals as in the case of Uttarakhand and elsewhere. With heavy rainfall every year and such environmentally harmful projects, accidents and natural calamities are bound to happen. But the death of two workers is not a natural incident as questions arise as to why the workers were made to work even when it was raining extremely badly? Meanwhile, Salku Murmu and Naresh Soren will not see the development that the government has promised. 

 On the bright side, 64 forest villages of Kalimpong district have been converted into revenue villages by the State government as notified on 18th of. September 2020 and this is a sign of relief to the Forest villagers of Kalimpong as they are one step ahead in their fight for ownership of their ancestral lands. This may be an appeasement move by the state government to please the villagers for not going against the project and also a political move by the TMC government to abide by their political manifesto promise of granting land rights to the forest villagers. But the question arises as to why other districts were exempted from the said notification? But one thing is for sure this is a victory for the Forest villagers of kalimpong.

 

Development follows displacement and vice versa, and with it arises dissent. Sandwiched in all of this are the most marginalized of our society and our embattled environment, because the development pattern that is being followed here is not lopsided, undemocratic and not pro people at all. If the development pattern is not inclusive of environmental well being, it is not development in the first place and is not aimed at the overall progress of our society. We have arrived at a time when thinking about development without taking into consideration the primary importance of ecological balance and it’s sustainability is a hoax, because doing so will be hazardous not only to the environment but also to the ones whose lives are closely intertwined with nature and it will also endanger the workers involved in the large-scale construction works that usually stand for development. All in all, the occupational hazards involved in such development will escalate, and lives would be unnecessarily lost; a hard price to pay for such hollow models of development for the few.

 

 

THE PANDEMIC OF NORTH BENGAL: COVID 19 AND PLANTATION WORKERS

Sumendra Tamang 

13th June 2021 

COVID 19 has orchestrated an unimaginable ripple of chaos, stress and heaps of dead bodies right into the heart of this system and our everyday lives.  On an average of 3000 – 4000 people dying has become the new normal. It is an irony that the availability of beds is seen as an indicator of things improving. Innumerable and uncountable lives have been lost due to the unavailability of hospital beds, oxygen, medicines, basic health infrastructure. The virus has penetrated every section and strata of our society. It has magnified our deepest fears and accelerated inherent systematic crisis, which otherwise would have been looked down upon as something close to ' collateral- corruption’ before. Our planet Earth is habitable and abundant for human civilization because of its oxygen constitution and natural resources but unfortunately, people are dying outside of hospitals due to unavailability and black market hoardings of oxygen concentrators/ cylinders. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India, there are more than 10, 26, 000 + active registered cases in India at present and a total of 3,70000+ people have died till date. This is the government data but field survey and experience would reflect much higher numbers of active cases as many are afraid to undergo testing and think that COVID is just a myth. After all, when people holding ministerial positions talk and boast  misinformed facts people will generally believe them.

PLANTATION AREAS AND THE PANDEMIC : 

 The Public health system of India has proven to be a complete failure in this pandemic situation. When I say failure I do not mean any disrespect to the frontline workers this is meant at the ones controlling the business of healthcare commodification. The pandemic has thoroughly exposed the inability of the private health system to cater for the needs of the marginalised sections of our society. The profit-driven motive of private hospitals was a known fact but the pandemic has exposed the hollow and falsified advertised incentives of private hospitals and has highlighted the issue of public healthcare in the forefront. The second wave of COVID 19 has hit the urban areas hard and rural areas even harder. The general awareness and information revolving around COVID 19 have been disappointing especially in the rural areas. Lack of proper sanitization, hygiene, healthcare facilities has been one of the primary reasons for increased contagion and rising death rates. Absence of solid and reliable scientific knowledge and general information about how to deal with the pandemic, the way false and consecrated information are being circulated in the online world about COVID 19, magnification of social evil such as casteism, sexism, racism etc and a general absence of helping the ones in need ( in action and not just words ) has given a sharp rise to this unprecedented state of affairs right now. 

While the virus has been circulating amongst the most private of spaces and affecting almost everyone be it the rich or the poor, the elite or the marginalised, it is with utmost disheartening that the Plantation industry of tea and Cinchona was running in full swing. For the tea industry-first flush always has been more valuable to the owners and the government ( both central and state ) than the workers who pluck, produce and process packages of tea. Hydroxychloroquine made a huge advancement in the drug industry after news of it helping in COVID treatment surfaced. The drug is a product of Quinine produced from Cinchona barks and the plantation saw rampant and increasing numbers of workers getting infected in the Cinchona plantation of Darjeeling hills Kalimpong Terai and Dooars. Munsong Cinchona garden is located in Kalimpong district and it has seen five COVID deaths till date out of which one is a woman work. The garden has got more than 20 active cases. On 5th June 2021 even amidst such a critical situation the management put up the Cinchona saplings planting initiative on the pretext of environment day and the traditions revolving around it. When the local youths spoke out against it, the management simply said ‘youths should understand ‘ narrative while the workers were put under such unwanted and  systematic risks. On the other hand, the value of the first flush of Darjeeling tea has been the topic of Western romanticism since the early 1800s. To be clear during the period of lockdown when all of us were inside our homes, the workers of tea and Cinchona Plantations were all working under the diktat of capital profit hegemony and as a result of which hundreds of workers have been affected till date and many have lost their lives. The blame also is upon the Bidhan sabha elections of 2021. The question however is,

Even amidst the fear of a pandemic, was it necessary for the government to keep on allowing the plantation industry’s functioning and production, at the risk of worker's lives?

Haven’t the workers done enough for this society and accumulated enough capital profit for the owners of these Plantation industry ?

We all can live without having tea at least during such pandemic, isn’t it?

Are the tea leaves more valuable than the lives of workers? 

If we start asking such uncomfortable questions now the list will be humongous. From 1st Jan 2021 onward the daily wage of tea garden worker increased to rupees 202 from 176. Imagine living a life with your family for Rs 202 a day when the price of essential items like rice, potato, pulses, oil, gas has skyrocketed up high and inflation has exponentially increased. When the daily wage of workers doesn’t suffice for daily life and sustenance, how can we expect workers to avail education, health facilities for themselves and their families? 

   Adding on, with the pandemic and economic crisis looming around our heads it is impossible and inhuman for the workers to work for the interest of the owners and risk their lives for this first flush of tea or hydroxychloroquine with such meagre amount as daily wages and absence of basic health infrastructure in these gardens. Under the law, it is the responsibility of the owners to provide the basic level of primary healthcare to the workers but as of today few gardens have working dispensaries and most dispensaries have no doctors and proper medicines. It must be mentioned here that it is not possible to maintain distancing while at work in these gardens and even after talking about such life taking risks, many workers don’t even get ambulances from the management to ferry patients to the nearest government hospitals. Afterall these daily workers cannot afford to even think about private hospitals. All that the management does in most gardens is provide some chemicals for the sake of sanitisation. Does their responsibility end there?  When a worker is inflected with COVID 19 he/ she has to stay in home quarantine ( if suggested by a doctor) for 17 days and during that period of isolation, the worker is not even paid daily wages. The question therefore is,

If the workers aren’t paid any wage, how will they sustain themselves? 

If the workers aren’t provided with Ambulance ( which they should according to the law ) how will the workers without any money go to the hospital if needed? So many lives are lost due to a lack of proper health care. As tax payers of this country, should’nt everyone get equal provisions for public healthcare?

And on top of that, ambulance services and owners have created a monopoly-like situation right now. To cite an incident, ferrying a patient from Kurseong to Siliguri ( North Bengal medical college and hospital ) a workers family from Margaret’s Hope tea garden had to pay 26000 rupees ( total distance – approx 30 km ). The said patient is dead now and the patient’s family chose to remain anonymous for their own reasons. One patient while being transferred from Triveni COVID hospital, Kalimpong was charged 20000 rupees to move to a private hospital at Siliguri ( distance approx 30 km). This patient too is no more among us as we speak. With such massive charges from an ambulance, how can someone earning daily wages manage to even get to the hospital? 

Why doesn’t the government and the local administration step up to put an end to such open loot and monopoly of the private ambulance? 

Why is the government (both state and central) not interfering with the indifferent and dictatorial behaviour of plantation owners? 

Where did we go wrong as a society?

All in all, the burden of the pandemic is put on the heads and shoulders of the working class. The absence of proper public health infrastructure is putting the final nail to the coffin of plantation workers.

 

CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE PANDEMIC : 

The development of an active, political and helpful section of people from the existing society is very much needed in any type/form of social interaction, especially during difficult and dark times. A lot of helping hands are extending their support to these workers of plantation areas but not all rural and distant gardens are getting enough help. This pandemic has bought many different people from the Darjeeling Terai and Dooars together to standing with the workers of Plantation areas. Relief and financial aid is a temporary solution, the final solution however is always political and includes the Collective struggle of the people. However, keeping aside the motives behind different NGOs, social organisations, clubs, Political parties are coming forward to aid the distressed workers. Even if temporary, relief can provide a sense of wantedness and trust towards the existing  society. Helping hands are surely better than forever sceptic lips during such times of unimaginable stress and chaos. However, the understanding behind such civil initiatives is also equally important. It is imperative to have an understanding that the government and the ruling class has proved to be futile and self-centred and due to these state of affairs, relief and social welfare plays an active role in understanding the nature of our contemporary society. It is, in particular, the lack of required initiatives by the government to avail basic rights such as healthcare to the workers and and the inability to  pressurize the owners of these Plantation to do the needful. Such civil initiatives need to spring now and then. It is in one way a helping hand to the ones who build up our society from scratch and roots and in the other, a way of questioning the system constructively and collectively and make people understand the limitations of the system, and its appropriation and  authority. Along with helping hands we provide them solidarity and expose this existing order of private ownership and power. 

People are discontented and raising questions against the system, worldwide. Human civilization led by capitalism speaks of civilisation beyond our planet on one hand and on the other, fails to provide basic humans rights to the majority of population on earth. The pandemic has been many things. It has been a killer, a murderer, a rapist, an offender and so on. But it has also been an eye-opener and has thoroughly exposed the system as incapable of sustaining human civilization and the  overall progress of all. This system is so much engrossed in profit extraction that has put a quantified ranking of value label to each one of us where more capital equals more value in its hierarchal existing society.  It has reduced us to robotic consumers and doesn’t care for the downtrodden and oppressed sections of our society. It has made many realise that the system is a pandemic, Corona is just a virus. Now the question is,

Do we return to the same older order of things or do we see this pandemic as a portal to a new and just world with equalitarian grounds?

The choice is yours.