Let Santals reap their rice: HC

The High Court Division on Thursday directed the government to either allow Santals to reap rice they had grown on Rangpur Sugar Mill’s land or ask the mill authorities to harvest and give the crop to the Santals.
It also directed the superintendent of police of Gaibandha and the officer-in-charge of Gobindagan police station to report to it in 10 days what legal action had been taken against the perpetrators of atrocities on the Santals since November 6. 
At least three Santals were killed and 16 others were injured when police opened fire and lobbed teargas shells on the Santals on November 6 during their eviction from their ancestral land at Sahebganj, now the sugar mills sugar cane growing field.
Santals’ dwellings were looted and burned down after their eviction. 
The court also directed the SP and the OC to submit reports to it in 10 days providing explanation whether criminal cases were filed against the attackers , how many cases were lodged and when the cases were recorded. 
The court also directed Gaibandha deputy commissioner, SP and the OC to provide safety to the Santals and ensure their freedom of movement so that they could enter and leave their homes without any hindrance.
The court also asked the government and the police to explain in two weeks why their inaction in protecting lives and properties of minorities particularly Santals of Shahebganj, Madarpur and Joypur villages would not be declared illegal.
The hearing resumes on November 30.
A bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice Krishna Debnath passed the orders after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition of Ain O Salish Kendra, Association for Land Reform and Development, and Brotee Samaj Kalyan Sangstha. 
Petitioners’ lawyers ZI Khan Panna, AM Amin Uddin and Abantee Nurul submitted in the court that the government brutally evicted the Santals without rehabilitating them in clear violation of the guidelines laid down by the Appellate Division in the event of evicting slum dwellers. 
In their submissions they pointed out that many Santals had been arrested and detained in jails and many others have gone into hiding as the police want them in connection with several cases the police recorded making them accused in November 6’s clashes with police.
Petitioners’ lawyers also pointed out in their submissions that on Wednesday the police recorded the cases filed by Santals 10 days back over the murder of four fellow Santals hit by bullets, injury of 16 others as well as destroying their homes after looting their belongings on November 6. 
They submitted that since they were rendered homeless the Santals were passing theirs days under the open sky.
The lawyers submitted that the Santal were demanding restoration of ownership to their 1840.32 acres of ancestral crop land that were acquired during the Pakistan era for Rangpur Sugar Mill’s sugarcane plantation at Shahebganj.
They submitted that there was no justification to whatsoever to keep the Santals away from their ancestral crop land since the Rangpur Sugar Mill was shut down in 2004.
The petitioners’ lawyers pointed out that at the time to acquiring their land the authorities had assured the Santals that their land would be returned to them whenever the sugar mill was shut down.

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