The Fight - Page 1

The "Pandora's box", as previously mentioned, was opened on the evening of 14th Feb. When local residents resisted a fresh bid at encroachment, the stall owner ran to his mentor. This goon(as we shortly came to know) is not a resident of our locality, cared two hoots about our problems and was probably making a fast buck out of his "mentorship". A show-down followed in which the goon and his cronies raved and ranted about the right of the individual to earn a living. We did not ask them if exploitation, extortion and illegal encroachment are part of such rights, merely indicated that the legal status of his own "structure" is probably as sound as that of the ones he shelters. A volley of abuses and threats to "burn" this and "burn" that followed, after which the gang retreated. The residents persisted with their demand that this new stall must not be set up. A decision was made then and there - "to hell with our wonderful isolation and love for privacy, people of the locality must finally meet each other."

Hand- written leaflets were distributed. The original idea was to collect a body of 10-12 people and the number of leaflets were no more than than. But as we moved from one house to another, first in twos then in threes and fours, people simply poured onto the streets seething with long suppressed anger. Hardly anyone knew more than four or five people in the area(imagine! A community of hundred odd families), but we all realised how badly we needed each other. Our personal egos had failed to deliver us from this hell, or to stop our locality from being branded a "PIG PEN."

This tradition of hand-written leaflets has continued ever since. If you so wish you may find here a collection of these in easily downloadable and printable forms, along with english translations, and the very first leaflet distributed before Parivesh Suraksha Committee was born.

The First Meeting - Held in the shades of one of the apartment blocks, a major part of it was used up in trying to get each other introduced. The age range of the congregation varied exactly from 32 to 76(as we later discovered!). A committee was formed incorporating roughly two members from each of the apartment blocks and a few from here and there. A few names for the committee were suggested. Since the main issues were Pollution and Security, the words PARIVESH(environment) and SURAKSHA(protection) soon evolved into consensus.

A link to that very first Committee. It has changed somewhat. Original members who do not belong to the present committee will always be greatly respected by us.

What happened next > The March

© Parivesh Suraksha Committee