Statement On Arrests Of Trade Union Activists In Telangana Under False Charges
May 30, 2022Mazdoor Adhikar Sangharsh Abhiyan (MASA)
Condemn the illegal arrest of Comrade Mohmed Rasuddin and other trade union activists!
Release comrade Rasuddin and other trade union activists unconditionally!
20th May 2022: MASA strongly condemns the illegal arrest of Com. Rasuddin and other trade union activists under false charges by Telangana police. Com. Rasuddin was arrested from his house in Yellandu town and was put in the jail on 20th April, 2022. He was implicated with 124A-sedition act (which has come under the scanner of Supreme Court for its malicious uses), UAPA and other serious charges. These charges were linked to an incident between a forest ranger and the villagers about shifting cultivation lands in Kichechenapalli village, which comes under Allapalli police station in Bhadradri Kothagudem district on 6th August, 2015. The police then registered a case on 9th August2015, in which more than 80 people, including leading trade union activists were charged with many sections of Indian Penal Code. By that time comrade Rasuddin was not mentioned in the above cited case but later his name was added. Now Telangana police have arrested and jailed him, and is after other trade union activists whose name was there in the FIR. It is a clear attempt to suppress the revolutionary trade union movement.
Comrade Mohmed Rasuddin is a revolutionary trade union activist and leading comrade of Indian Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), which is a constituent organization of MASA. He is acting as the president of Progressive Auto and Motor Workers Union (Affiliated to IFTU) and General Secretary of Singareni Collieries Contract Workers Union (SCCWU).
A long drawn struggle is going on by the comrades of IFTU to pressurize the government to issue pattas (certificates) to such Podu lands which were under the possession of tribal communities for more than 45-50 years. These are the very basic livelihood demands of forest dwelling tribal communities in the forest areas. As soon as the Telangana state was formed in 2014, the first CM of the state, Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao assured that the government would not evict tribal communities from such podu lands and it would not cut the forest. As an eyewash action the government initiated a survey. But it has gone nowhere till now. The state government is now attempting to evict tribal communities from the forest and hand over the forest resources to MNCs and big corporate houses. As the struggle has been intensified again, the arrests of trade union activists have started. The state government is adding more names in the case and with its repressive mechanism is creating terror in forest areas.
MASA demands immediate release of Com. Rasuddin and other trade union activists, immediate withdrawal of all false charges, stoppage of eviction of tribal communities from forest lands and handing over land and natural resources to big corporate houses. MASA demands scrapping of all black laws, that are being maliciously used to suppress trade union movement and peoples’ struggles.
Co-ordination Committee,
Mazdoor Adhikar Sangharsh Abhiyan (MASA)