Text of Memorandum submitted by the Himachal Pradesh State Committee to the Himachal Governor, Shri Kalyan Singh on March 20

Your Excellency,

 

The Himachal Pradesh state committee of the Communist Party of India Marxist would like to draw your immediate intervention into the unconstitutional and illegal attack on the state party office following a protest of the students in front of the Vidhan Sabha. Also we want your intervention into the illegal police action in Kinnaur against striking employees in JP owned Karchham-Wangtoo hydro power project where more than 700 workmen have been ousted from their shelters/camps. This is nothing but ultravires to the recent Supreme Court intervention in which it has asked several government and para-statal organizations to build night centres for the poor and not to allow people stay in open that too in freezing cold temperatures. It is no business of the police to oust the workers from the camps and which requires an injunction from the court. Sir the brief facts about both the incidents is as follows:

 

  1. On 18th March the students held a demonstration against fee hike and such other issues in front of the Vidhan Sabha. The peacefully agitating students were mercilessly beaten up and chased. The girl students too were targeted and given a severe beating. More than 20 students were hurt some of them seriously and were denied medical treatment.
  2. After 3 hours of the incident the police party led by Ram lal Bansal the DSP Shimla along with Viri Singh SHO Boileauganj and Shiv Kumar ASI with 30 odd policemen some of them in plain clothes broke into the CPIM party office by breaking the front door and some furniture. They took away our office staff including Rama Kant Mishra who is 65 years old and is a heart patient, along with Dr Sivadasan the all India president of SFI. Some of the other office staff were also taken to the police station and were severely beaten up on the way.
  3. The arrested people were badly abused and beaten up in police custody in Boileauganj police station and were denied medical treatment. The lights were switched off and each one of them were laid flat on the ground and were kicked all over.

 

Sir, we demand a judicial enquiry in to the whole incident pertaining to the lathicharge on students and ransacking of the state CPI (M) office. We also demand action against the aforesaid police officials who were directly leading the attack on party office. We are opposed to a magisterial enquiry as this would be a mere eye wash as had happened in the case of the attack on the BJP office in Shimla earlier.

 

1.    Sir, The second incident where we seek your intervention is in the case of striking workers in the tribal district of Kinnaur.

 

2.    In Tapri last night i.e. 19th evening the police high handedness again came to the fore when they ousted more than 700 workmen from the camps were they were staying. The police forcefully evicted them at the behest of JP management and forced the workmen to stay outside in freezing temperatures. Consequently many of the workers have fallen ill.

 

Sir, it is in light that we demand your immediate intervention to stop this inhuman act of the police on the directions of the state Govt. which is against the basic spirit of the recent Supreme Court judgement on night shelters.

 

 

 In a separate memorandum to the DGP of Police, the Party has demanded that the police act independently and not at the behest of the political dictates.