*Campaign Against Land Grab Forced Displacement of People* Meeting held Friday 11th February at Shaheed Uhdam Singh Welfare Centre, Birmingham.
Salient Points were: 1. Our group has campaigned against the mining projects in the dense forests areas of India which threatens the livelihood of the tribals and dalit communities in these parts. These people are putting up heroic struggle to preserve their way of life and are fighting for their rights to keep their land, water and forest. Frustrated by the peoples’ resistance, the Central and State Governments of India have initiated a massive offence named Operation Green Hunt to forcibly acquire the land and give it to the mining industrial corporates like Vedanta, Posco, Tata, etc. in order to honour the numerous memorandum of understanding. Around 100,000 central paramilitary solders are being deployed, which will supplement the similar numbers of state armed police force already in use. This offensive is likely to result in the mass killing of poor people in the region. The Campaign Group has resolved to lend voice against the Indian Government’s draconian offensive and support the people against the land grab and forced displacement. 2. To further the above aim in Birmingham a film show on Peoples’ resistance will be organised, followed by a discussion. Venue and availability dates to be found for this event by first week of March. 3. The titles and film videos to be collected. 4. It was pointed that an International Campaign Against War on the People of India had been set up, see link below. Efforts were afoot to organise support in the London area. Our effort in the Midlands should complement each other. 5. It is understood that Arundhati Roy, who is a passionate campaigner for the rights of the tribals and dalits, will be touring Britainin the coming months and we should work towards organising big public meeting around that time for Arundhati to address. http://icawpi.org/en/intl-campaign/47-announcements/287-the-international-campaign-against-war-on-the-people-of-india-launched *Campaign Against Land Grab and Forced Displacement of People*
