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Villager hurt in police action dies

Special Correspondent

Situation in Gharsana worsens

JAIPUR: The situation in the strife-torn Gharsana-Raola belt in the Sriganganagar region of Rajasthan took a turn for the worse on Wednesday with one of the villagers who had sustained injuries in police action on farmers on October 16 succumbing to his injuries. Chandu Ram Saran, in his late thirties, was reportedly forcibly discharged from the Bikaner Medical College Hospital two days ago.

Till late in the evening hundreds of people were waiting at 10 LM, the native village of Chandu Ram in Sriganganagar district's Anupgarh tehsil. Many of the leaders belonging to Kisan Mazdoor Vyapari Sangarsh Samiti (KMVSS), who had gone underground fearing police arrest in the past, too have reached the village.

The villagers are demanding a compensation of Rs.5 lakh to the family of the deceased and filing of cases against the police officials who had ordered the lathicharge.

Speaking from 10 LM villages, CPI (M) State secretary Vasudev alleged that the death of Chandu Ram was due to wanton beating by the police.

He had sustained many injuries and several fractures and was asked by the hospital authorities to leave as they wanted to escape the responsibility for his death, he charged.

Compensation sought

According to Prof. Vasudev, the body would not be cremated unless the Government agrees to pay the compensation and also promises to provide a job to a member of the victim's family. The leaders of KMVSS, who are jailed, should be released to facilitate them to attend the funeral, he said.

The farmers have given the authorities time till Thursday morning to decide on their demands. "If the demands are not complied with, the body would be taken to Gharsana," Prof. Vasudev said.

A team of All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) led by general secretary Sudha Sunderaraman is on a visit to Phase I areas of the Canal. Speaking to The Hindu from Sriganganagar, Ms. Sunderaraman said women had to bear the brunt of police brutality this time. No women police were deployed in the area and male police personnel brutally handled the womenfolk among the agitators, she charged.

The team visited AIDWA State general secretary Durga Swami, who sustained injuries in the police lathicharge, in the Sriganganagar hospital. They also met two women -- Kalavati and Anju -- of 17 KD villages who were severely injured when the police raided the village on Friday last week.

Kalavati was hit in the chest by a pellet when the police burst tear gas shells while Anju lost her pregnancy in police action.

In Jaipur, more than a dozen organisations, including CITU, AITUC, Rajasthan Nirman Mazdoor Sangathan, PUCL, NFIW, AIDWA and Samagra Seva Sangh on Wednesday expressed solidarity with the agitating farmers. Ravindra Shukla of CITU, D.K.Changani of AITUC and Prem Krishna Sharma and Kavita Srivastava of PUCL denounced the State Government policy of repression towards public agitations.

The Government was trying to spread the canard that the agitation was politically motivated, they charged.

The groups announced a series of steps including a public awareness programme on availability of water and farmers problems in the Phase I area in the coming fortnight.

They also announced a function in Jaipur's Ramniwas Garden on Friday to commemorate the second death anniversary of six farmers who fell victim to the police bullets in Gharsana and Raola on October 27, 2004.

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