The Great Land Grab

ORISSA
Prafulla Das in Bhubaneswar

TO the outside world, Orissa is no longer the land of the Jagannath Temple in Puri, the Sun Temple in Konark or the Chilika lake. It is now best known for places such as Kalinganagar, Niyamgiri, Dhinkia, Khandadhar and Kashipur whose residents are up in arms against the acquisition of thousands of acres of land for mining and other industrial projects that can sound the death knell of their livelihoods. Police lathi charge and firing, and the foisting of “false cases” on people fighting to protect their land have become the order of the day. Protests are also on the rise against the taking over of thousands of acres of both government and private land to establish private universities and other educational institutions.

Between 2002 and 2010, the State government cleared 184 industrial projects involving a total investment of Rs.8 lakh crore. They include 50 plants for the production of 83 million tonnes of steel at an investment of Rs.2,50,000 crore, 30 thermal power plants for a targeted production of 37,000 MW of power, four port projects, several alumina refineries and a number of cement plants. 

The government has identified 14 sites to develop ports along the 480-km coastline.

All these industrial projects require more than 50,000 acres of land. Besides, thousands of acres are to be alienated for the extraction of iron ore, coal, bauxite and other minerals to meet the raw material needs of the projects. This is over and above the vast tracts of land already under mining.

However, the State government has been able to facilitate the acquisition of only about 15,000 acres. A few companies are buying land for their projects directly from the people, by winning over influential people, in different areas. With the State government accepting more and more proposals for industry, resistance to the acquisition of land has grown stronger. The government has deployed thousands of police personnel to help the land acquisition authorities.

In the Dhinkia area in Jagatsinghpur district, the Orissa government has been making a last-ditch effort to acquire 4,000 acres of land for the proposed 12-million-tonne steel mill of the South Korean giant Posco in the face of stiff resistance from local people. Although the villagers have gone to court, terming the land acquisition “illegal” and violative of the Forest Rights Act, the government is going ahead with it.

Last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik assured a delegation from the Posco project area that he would visit the villages to hear them out. But he has since backed out. And, notwithstanding the opposition at a number of places across the State, his government has not stopped signing MoUs with more and more companies. The MoUs hold the promise of employment to thousands of people. But the fact is that lakhs of people will get displaced and lose their livelihood because of the proposed projects. In the case of Posco, the creation of 7,000 jobs has been promised, but the venture will affect the lives and livelihood of more than 20,000 people.

In fact, Patnaik's tenure, which began in March 2000, marks the rising of many people's movements against land acquisition for private companies. Three tribal men died when the police opened fire on agitators at Maikanch village in Kashipur block of Rayagada district in December 2000.

Those taking the industrialisation process forward, however, did not learn from their mistakes at Maikanch. The resistance to land acquisition reached a flashpoint on January 2, 2006, when 13 people died in police firing at the Kalinganagar industrial hub in Jajpur district. The tribal people there were opposing the construction of a boundary wall for the proposed six-million-tonne steel plant of Tata Steel.

Though the incident attracted widespread attention, Patnaik did not even visit the spot after the firing. The only visit he paid to the area after a long time was to inaugurate a police station in the locality where the administration has been striving to displace the tribal people by dividing them on political lines.

As criticism grew, the State government came out with a new rehabilitation and resettlement policy and established a new directorate for it. Patnaik claimed that the policy was one of the best in the country. But the situation on the ground has shown no improvement, and every time there is resistance from the people, the government deploys the police to tackle the situation.

The administration turns a deaf ear to the project displaced people. In many cases the affected people have approached a court of law or the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. The results, however, have not been very encouraging for them. The major opposition parties too are equally indifferent when it comes to opposing displacement.

Tribal people, who bear the brunt of industrial development, have been fighting tooth and nail against the acquisition of forest land and mineral-bearing land and hills. Be it in the case of the Niyamgiri hills at Lanjigargh in Kalahandi, which Vedanta Aluminium Limited was trying to mine, or the Khandadhar hills in Sundargarh district, which the government was hell-bent on handing over to Posco for iron-ore extraction, they have come out in large numbers to oppose mining, which would adversely affect their livelihoods and water availability.

Surprisingly, the State government seems to have missed the point about how the regions witnessing maximum industrial growth and mining activity will be able to cope with the cumulative impact of the so-called industrial development. The 30 thermal power plants alone would generate 90 million tonnes of fly ash a year, and there is little land available to dump this waste.

Further, the acquisition of vast areas of land for industrial projects has created a real estate boom across the State. The poor are the losers as corporate houses and real estate developers vie with one another to grab land. The hype over industrial development has already cost the farmers and tribal people dear.

Supporters of people fighting against displacement at Narayanpatna and other places have been insisting that it is high time the government reviewed its approach of handing over land to corporate houses. But the State government, which claims to be making efforts to draw a balance between the environment and industrialisation, is not willing to listen.

Worse, people's movements are branded as pro-Maoist, and innocent people and activists questioning the land acquisition moves are jailed and charged with having links with the extremists.

Ready to resist

PRAFULLA DAS
in Dhinkia

Villagers of Dhinkia in Jagatsinghpur are preparing for an all-out battle to defeat attempts to implement the Posco project.

LINGARAJ PANDA 

Residents of Dhinkia panchayat at the gates they put up to prevent the administration and Posco officials from entering the village.

VISITORS to Dhinkia in Jagatsinghpur district in Orissa are stopped at the barricades at its entry points. Villagers have been guarding them 24x7 since February 1, a day after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) granted conditional clearances for Posco's 12-million-tonne steel plant in the area. Having agitated for five years against the project, they are in no mood to relent; no government official, police personnel or Posco employee can expect to get past the bamboo fences.

Residents of the coastal hamlets in Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang are all set to resist democratically a fresh move by the Naveen Patnaik government to resume land acquisition – which had been withheld for some time now – for the proposed mega project that threatens to snatch their homes and livelihoods. The protest is peaceful, but the place resembles a war zone. It is a war between the people and, as they say, a “pro-corporate government”.

The villagers have been opposing displacement since July 2005, when the Patnaik government signed a memorandum of understanding with the South Korean steelmaker to establish a steel-cum-captive power plant and a minor port in their locality. The government has held no meaningful discussion with them though thousands of people have come together under the banner of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) led by Abhay Sahu, a Communist Party of India leader.

Last June, a group of PPSS activists met the Chief Minister at his office in Bhubaneswar on the latter's invitation. But Patnaik did not keep his promise to visit the villages coming under the site earmarked for the project to find out the reasons for the agitation. Worse still, after the MoEF announced its go-ahead for the steel plant and port projects, he reportedly said there was no possibility of his visiting Dhinkia in the near future.

The villagers' opposition to the project is not without good reason. Numerous creeks, narrow water channels and ponds meant for prawn cultivation dot the Dhinkia landscape. There is hardly a place where there is no cultivation in the freshwater zone just two and a half kilometres from the Bay of Bengal coast, towards the south of Paradip town. People here now fear that the State government will make serious efforts to displace them in its efforts to facilitate the implementation of Posco's projects. Suresh Kumar Dash, who has four betel vineyards, has not gone out of Dhinkia panchayat limits since the agitation against Posco began in 2005. An active member of the PPSS, he has a number of cases registered against him and he fears he will be arrested outside the village.

The betel vines he has grown on forest land adjacent to the village help Dash fend for his family of six. He also employs at least 50 labourers a month at a daily wage of Rs.250 each. They come from neighbouring villages. Truckloads of betel leaves are taken out of Dhinkia to distant places across the country every day.

Most people in Dhinkia grow betel leaves or coconut, cultivate rice twice a year (kharif and rabi crops), do fishing, or rear cows and buffaloes for a living. Papaya, cashew, banana and vegetables are aplenty in the village.

“We have been living here peacefully. Can we live this way in a resettlement colony if we are displaced?” asks Jyotirmayee Satpathy, a 23-year-old girl in Patana hamlet in Dhinkia panchayat. Her mother runs a betel shop at her house in the heart of the village.

Jyotirmayee's father, who was the village priest, died two years ago. The three-member family, which includes her mother and brother, 18, does not own any agricultural land. The boy now has taken up his father's vocation and supplements the family income. Jyotirmayee also rears goats.

She justifies her opposition to the project by saying that a number of families that got displaced a few years ago for an oil refinery project near Paradip had became daily wage labourers. These people were now coming to work in the fields or betel vineyards in their hamlet, she said.

LINGARAJ PANDA 

ABHAY SAHU, LEADER of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti.

“The Naveen Patnaik government is now planning to use force to displace hundreds of people from their homes. But we will not allow the destruction of Dhinkia gram panchayat's agrarian economy and will not part with our land, homes and sources of livelihood at any cost,” said Abhay Sahu.

Sahu was arrested on October 12, 2008, and was in jail until August 14, 2009. Out on bail, he is determined to take the fight to its logical end.

Raju Swain, 31, from Patana is a key activist of the PPSS. He has nearly 25 cases against him for being involved in the anti-Posco agitation. “We are virtually under house arrest. I have not gone outside the Dhinkia area as I apprehend arrest in one of these cases,” he said.

Nevertheless, the villagers are prepared for another round of agitation. On February 13, the State's Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj, along with Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Orissa Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) Priyabrata Patnaik, visited some areas close to the site selected for the Posco project. They covered a few kilometres from the port town of Paradip towards the proposed Posco site on a kuchha road. Apparently, IDCO has plans to construct connecting roads from Paradip to the proposed steel mill and captive port of Posco. “The joint visit of the DGP and the IDCO CMD clearly shows that the government is forcing us to be at war with it,” said Sahu.

A day after the duo's visit, more than 150 villagers from Dhinkia and nearby gram panchayats dug up the sandy road the officials took at nearly 15 places. This confirmed the determination of Sahu to intensify the agitation in the coming months.

Outside Dhinkia too, the Posco project has many hurdles to cross: opposition to the supply of water for the steel plant from the Mahanadi river and to the handing over of the Khandadhar iron ore reserve to Posco. The matter pertaining to the grant of prospecting licence for the Khandadhar mines in favour of Posco is before the Supreme Court. The State government had, in fact, moved the apex court challenging an order of the Orissa High Court, which set aside its decision to recommend to the Centre grant of licence to Posco. The High Court order was passed on a petition filed by an Indian company that was one of the applicants for the prospecting licence.

As regards the plans of the PPSS to intensify its ongoing agitation, Sahu said it had already started coordinating with other people's movements in different regions of the State and outside. “Anti-Posco solidarity fronts have already been formed in different cities of the country to extend moral support to our agitation,” he said.

“We will resist peacefully. Also, we don't plan go to court against the decision of the Naveen Patnaik government to tell a bundle of lies to the Central government and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests with the sole aim to obtain various clearances for Posco,” said Sahu.

He is equally critical of Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh for giving the green signal to the Posco project.

LINGARAJ PANDA 

PADDY FIELDS OF Dhinkia panchayat. The land here remains productive throughout the year.

“He [Jairam Ramesh] broke the laws by going against the reports of the committees that had been set up by the Central government itself,” he said.

Many non-governmental organisations too are preparing to challenge the Orissa government's stand on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in the Posco project area.

But Sahu said forest rights was not the issue the PPSS was concerned with. “Our agitation not to hand over our homes, land and other sources of livelihood started much before the FRA came up for implementation,” he said.

Sahu said there was no government mechanism at that time to facilitate the filing of petitions by the people that they be given rights over the forest land they claim to be dependent on or are cultivating.

About the State government's claim that its policy on resettlement and rehabilitation was one of the best in the country, and the company's claim that it would provide the best resettlement and rehabilitation package to the people facing displacement, Sahu said the PPSS had long ago rejected the R&R policy of the State government.

The writing is on the wall in Dhinkia. The people here are ready to resist displacement no matter what clearances Posco obtains from the Central or State governments for its project.

I am “really worried,” says Majhi's mother

She says he is the sole breadwinner of the family

Her tears kept rolling down when Parbati Majhi spoke to presspersons soon after meeting the mediators who had come down from Hyderabad to facilitate the release of abducted Malkangiri Collector R. Vineel Krishna and her Junior Engineer son Pabitra Majhi here on Sunday.

“I am really worried. You could easily make the pain of a mother in such a situation. My son Pabitra is the lone breadwinner of our family,” Ms. Majhi, the widowed mother of the young tribal engineer said.

“I pleaded before the mediators [Someswar Rao and G. Haragopal] to try for the release of the District Collector and my son, and they told me that both of them were safe and they were trying for the release of the two.”

Ms. Majhi, whose husband died in 1999, has been living in a house that they have built on government land in the Saliasahi slum cluster of the city along with her two other sons who are younger than Mr. Majhi.

Mr. Majhi had passed out from a technical institution in Cuttack and joined government service as a Junior Engineer in Maoist-infested Kudumuluguma Block in Malkangiri district on September 23 last year. The family hails from Chanchabani village in Mayurbhanj in the northern part of Orissa.

Ms. Majhi and her other son were helped by a local journalist to reach the State Guest House where the mediators were holding discussions with top officials of the Orissa government.

Although she had been living in the heart of the Capital city, no official from the State government had visited them yet , she said.

Angry villagers damage approach road to Posco site

PRAFULLA DAS

The agitation against land acquisition for the Posco steel plant intensified in this seaside gram panchayat in Jagatsinghpur district on Sunday, with the villagers damaging an approach road to the area earmarked for the project.

Led by Abhay Sahu, chairman of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, which has been spearheading the protest since July 2005, more than 150 people from different hamlets in Dhinkia went out with spades and other tools and damaged the ‘kuchha' road leading to the project site from the Paradip port, which is a few km away.

The PPSS activists decided to damage the road, which runs along the coastline, after the Chairman of the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) and the Director-General of Police took the same road to reach the site on Saturday.

The IDCO plans to make the road a ‘pucca' one as it will act as an approach route to the 4,004 acres earmarked for the Posco's steel plant and captive port near the mouth of the Jatadhari river.

“We will continue our agitation peacefully. We will not hand over an inch of land for Posco in our locality at any cost,” Mr. Sahu said.

Talking of the visit of the DGP and the IDCO Chairman to the area, Mr. Sahu said: “It clearly shows that the State government is readying for applying force to evict people from their land and homes.”

Land acquisition

In August last year, the State government halted the land acquisition process after an order from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. But after the Ministry granted conditional environmental clearance recently, the government is now planning to resume land acquisition after giving an assurance to the Ministry about the people claiming to be dependent on the forestland.

But the villagers are in mood to allow the government to resume the work; they have erected six bamboo gates at the entry points of their gram panchayat to prevent officials, Posco employees and the police from entering their hamlets.

Exploring an ancient kingdom

PRAFULLA DAS
in Bhubaneswar

Buddhist relics unearthed during recent excavations in Jajpur district of Orissa lead scholars to identify Radhanagar as the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kalinga.

PHOTOGRAPHS: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT 

A rock-cut elephant found during the excavations.

ORISSA is already known for its rich Buddhist heritage. Now its importance in ancient history is all set to mount. Experts believe that the recent discovery of Buddhist relics by archaeologists of the Orissa Institute of Maritime and South-East Asian Studies can solve many unanswered questions pertaining to the location of the capital of Kalinga, the Buddha's visit to the ancient kingdom, and Emperor Asoka's work in the land where he fought a bloody battle in 261 B.C., known as the Battle of Kalinga.

A pillar bearing floral designs, at Deuli.

Buddhist stupas, inscriptions, pottery and terracotta remains dating back to the third century B.C. have been dug up in Dharmasala block of Orissa's Jajpur district. The area is close to the well-known Ratnagiri-Udayagiri-Lalitgiri Buddhist complex. The excavations were carried out after obtaining a licence from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Epigraphists of the ASI had deciphered the inscriptions and confirmed the findings, said State Culture Minister Damodar Rout.

"The excavation led to an amazing discovery in the field of ancient history, which could solve many puzzles of Indian history in general and Orissa history in particular, and may add new chapters in the annals of history," a beaming Rout said while announcing the findings recently.

Debraj Pradhan, Secretary of the Institute and director of the excavation project, said that the excavations had brought to light the fort of Tosali, the royal headquarters of Kalinga, at Radhanagar village in Dharmasala. The Asoka rock-edicts near the Dhauli hills near Bhubaneswar say that Tosali was the royal headquarters of Kalinga during the time of Asoka. But Tosali had not been identified till date. Though scholars tried to identify Tosali with Sisupalgarh near Bhubaneswar, no inscriptional evidence to buttress the arguments could be found.

A pendant found in Radhanagar. It has 'Tisa' inscribed on one side. Tisa was a brother of Asoka who stayed back in Kalinga after the great battle and, like his illustrious sibling, embraced Buddhism.

"The unearthing of several inscriptions and other corroborative evidence clearly proves that Radhanagar was the capital city of Tosali,'' Pradhan said. A senior ASI expert has deciphered the inscriptions as `Tosali Nagara', `Tosali Nagar' and `Tosali', and they are datable to the third and second century B.C.

The inscriptions tell the tale of a lost era. One of them says: `Kalinga rajna go'. Unfortunately, the remaining portion of the potsherd, which might have revealed the name of the Kalinga king, could not be retrieved. Experts now believe that the name of the Kalinga king during the Kalinga war might have started with `Go' or `Gu'.

The recent findings may also lead to the tracing of the exact venue of the Kalinga war. Yuddha Meruda in Korei block near Dharmasala seems to be the place where the historic battle between the forces of Asoka and the king of Kalinga was fought. Yuddha Meruda, a vast expanse of land on the bank of the Brahmani, seems to fit the descriptions of the battle. Until now, it was widely believed that the battle was fought on the banks of the river Daya on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

Archaeologists are excited over the uncovering of the actual site of the Kalinga battle because Yuddha Meruda is not very far from Radhanagar.

From the archaeologists' point of view, what is significant is that all the 10 Asoka stupas have been discovered within a radius of 10 km. This matches with the Chinese traveller Hieun Tsang's accounts (A.D. 629-645), which say that the Buddha had visited the region where Asoka constructed 10 stupas.

Excavation work is in progress at Langudi, Tarapur, Kayama and Deuli. Excavations will also be carried out in Neulpur, Kantigadia and Vajragiri to unearth the remaining stupas.

Terracotta potsherds found among the ruins in Radhanagar.

The ancient texts say that Emperor Asoka constructed these stupas to commemorate the Buddha's visit and preaching.

The current excavation has led to the unearthing of square stupas made of laterite blocks, burnt bricks, railing pillars, cross-bars and so on. Besides, pottery and terracotta remains of the Asoka period have been found in these hills.

Earrings found among the ruins in Radhanagar.

The excavation at Tarapur has led to the identification of the Kesa stupa. It has also been discovered that the stupa was built with a donation from Bhikhu Tapusa. The Buddhist texts say that the Kesa stupa is the earliest stupa. Two pillars, discovered at the site, carry the inscriptions `Kesa Thupa' and `Bheku Tapusa Danam'.

According to the Buddhist text Anguttara Nikaya, two merchants from Ukkala, on their way to Madhyadesa with 500 carts, met the Buddha on the last day of the seventh week after his enlightenment at Bodhgaya. They offered him rice-cake and honey. The Buddha gave them eight handfuls of his hair, which they later deposited in a stupa in their native Ukkala. The stupa came to be known as Kesa stupa (kesa meaning `hair'). It is now presumed that the place was a centre of attraction as early as the lifetime of the Buddha and that the Buddha visited the locality on the invitation of Tapusa and Bhallika, his first disciples.

Asoka might have chosen to construct 10 stupas in and around Tarapur as the Kesa stupa constructed by Tapusa during the sixth or fifth century B.C. possessed strands of Buddha's hair. Another reason was easy riverine communication, surrounded as the place was by rivers such as the Brahmani, the Kelua and the Sagadia.

The remains of a stupa at Deuli.

In one of the railing pillars found at Kesa stupa, the word `Kalingaraja' is inscribed. The pillar is broken and the remaining part of the name of the king is missing. The Kalinga monarch was probably a Buddhist and he might have made some endowment to the Kesa stupa, Pradhan said.

In another railing pillar, the inscription in Oriya is `Gupata Khandagiri Parikshya', meaning `secret Khandagiri where experiments are made'. Five great poets in 15th and 16th centuries have vividly described the sacredness of Gupta Khandagiri, Pradhan pointed out.

Rock-cut bench found in the Kayama hills.

The excavation at Kayama hill, on the right bank of the Kelua river, towards the north of the great fort of Tosali, has resulted in a series of discoveries. The rock-cut elephant at Kayama is a unique piece of Kalinga art and was probably erected by Tisa, the brother of Asoka who stayed back in Kalinga after the war. The anatomical features of the elephant are perfectly to the scale.

The name `Tisa' is also inscribed on a rock-cut bench situated towards the north of the Kayama elephant. Tisa, who became a Buddhist, desired to stay in Kalinga with his preceptor Dharmarakhita. Asoka constructed a Vihara, named Bhojakagiri, for his brother.

Remains of pillars found at Tarapur.

A royal pendant found at Radhanagar has the name Tisa inscribed on it. The pendant, made of semi-precious stone and rectangular in shape, has `Sadabhu Tisa' written on one side and the figures of the sun and the moon, a Swastika and the Buddhist symbol on the other sides. The pendant is considered to be a unique symbol of a royal personage who believed in all faiths.

The Orissa Culture Department may be thrilled over the uncovering of the Buddhist heritage, but it is yet to get its act together on saving the relics from plunderers. In recent years, the Buddhist heritage in the district has faced threats from local contractors who carry out illegal quarrying in the hills, to extract red soil and stones that are used for laying asphalt on roads and for building houses.

Burnt bricks found in the Kayama hills.

The local administration, despite efforts from time to time, has not been able to keep the plunderers at bay. The authorities have to take the matter seriously to ensure that the rich Buddhist heritage is protected. Maybe the government should declare the area protected.

Anti-Posco villagers hold rally at Dhinkia

Prafulla Das

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Agitators plan road blockade today

Leaders, activists express shock over MoEF's decision

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BHUBANESWAR: A large number of villagers who have been opposing land acquisition for the proposed 12 million tonne capacity steel plant project of Posco-India Private Limited in Orissa are now in no mood to give up their struggle already in its sixth year.

A day after Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh granted conditional clearance to the company's steel-cum captive power plant and a captive minor port, hundreds of men and women came out of their homes to attend a protest rally in Dhinkia area of Jagatsinghpur district on Tuesday and reiterated their resolve not to part with their land and livelihood sources to make space for the steel mill.

The villagers, who came to the rally venue raising slogans against Mr. Ramesh and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, decided to create roadblocks from Wednesday in their attempt to prevent the entry of land acquisition officials, police and Posco employees into the site earmarked for the proposed steel plant.

The meeting was convened by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the outfit which has been spearheading the anti-displacement agitation since the Naveen Patnaik government signed the memorandum of understanding with Posco for the steel project way back in June, 2005.

The leaders of different political parties, including the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Forward Bloc, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal and many social activists participated in the rally and expressed their solidarity with the agitating villagers.

The leaders and activists expressed shock over the MoEF's decision to grant conditional clearance to the project even though land acquisition work for the project had been stopped as per its orders in August last year.

President of the Sangram Samiti Abhay Sahoo, who blamed Mr. Ramesh for “acting like a corporate agent,” announced that the villagers would not part with their land at any cost. The campaign against the project would be intensified and taken to the State and national level soon, he added.

The farmers, betel vine growers and fishermen in three gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang have been demanding since the signing of the MoU that the State government should shift the project to any other location to save their homes and livelihood sources.

Before the MoEF's latest order, there had been several clashes involving those opposing and supporting the project as well as the police, who had lathi-charged the villagers opposing the project on several occasions. Similar clashes cannot be ruled out if the administration attempts to acquire land in the coming days.

Mixed response to Ministry clearance for POSCO

Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR: Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh's order granting conditional clearance to POSCO's controversial steel plant project, along with a captive minor port project of the company, evoked a mixed response in Orissa on Monday.

While POSCO-India Private Limited and the Orissa Government welcomed the order, Opposition parties and the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organisation opposing land acquisition for the project, expressed shock over the development.

“We welcome and accept, with humility and gratitude, the decision of the Minister of Environment and Forests. We fully appreciate the concerns of different stakeholders on the sustainability of environment as well as the livelihood of affected people,” said G.W. Sung, Managing Director of POSCO-India Private Limited.

“We are committed to taking sustainable green initiatives and effective measures for conserving the land and marine environment of the area. We are also committed to create sustainable livelihood opportunities for the project-affected people through implementing the R&R [Relief and Rehabilitation] package sincerely.

“As a responsible corporate citizen of India, we will continue to work for the welfare of the local community and plough back a part of earnings for CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility] after the operations commence,” Mr. Sung said in a statement issued here.

Reacting to the Ministry's order, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said his government would study the conditions and see what could be done. “On the face of it, it seems to be good news,” he said.

Renewal of MoU

Steel and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty welcomed the order saying that the implementation of the POSCO steel project would open a new chapter in the history of industrialisation in Orissa.

He added that the State government would soon renew the memorandum of understanding (MoU) that it signed with POSCO in 2005. The MoU had expired in June last.

Mr. Mohanty also expressed hope that the Orissa government would soon resume land acquisition for the project in Jagatsinghpur district.

The work was stopped in August last following a Ministry order saying that the transferring of forest land had to be stopped till all the processes under the Forest Rights Act had been satisfactorily completed.

‘Shocking'

“The conditional clearance accorded to POSCO by the Central government is shocking,” said Jual Oram, president of the Orissa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

PPSS president Abhay Sahu announced that the villagers who were not willing to part with their land for the steel project would intensify their agitation in the coming days.

An all-party meeting will be held on Tuesday to decide the PPSS' future course of action, he added.

Villagers await decision on Posco plant

Prafulla Das

Stir likely to be intensified if project gets green signal

BHUBANESWAR: With the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests set to take a final decision on the proposed steel plant project of Posco-India Private Limited on Monday, Orissa villagers facing displacement have decided to intensify their agitation if the Ministry order went in favour of the company.

That a majority of villagers in the three gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Gobindpur in Jagatsinghpur district were apprehensive appeared clear on Saturday.

“Going by the reports reaching us from New Delhi, we are apprehending that the order might go against us,” said Prashant Paikray, spokesperson of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organisation which has been opposing establishment of the proposed steel plant of Posco since 2005.

The land acquisition work for the proposed steel mill in Jagatsinghpur had been stopped by the Naveen Patnaik government on the orders of the MoEF, following a report of a panel set up by the Centre indicating violations of the provisions of the Forest Rights Act.

Two separate reports

Subsequently, another Central panel headed by the former Secretary of MoEF, Meena Gupta, had also submitted two separate reports raising environmental issues along with the alleged violation of the Forest Rights Act.

According to Mr. Paikray, the PPSS has decided to hold a public meeting in Dhinkia on February 1 to decide their future course of action in the light of the MoEF's decision that would be announced on Monday.

‘Coordination'

“After the February 1 meeting, we will try to develop coordination between all people opposing the project and carry forward our agitation to demand withdrawal of the project from the State if the MoEF order supports the company,” Mr. Paikray added.

Meanwhile, highly placed sources hinted that the MoEF might come out with a decision to strike a balance on the whole issue and not pass a harsh order against Posco the way it had done in the matter pertaining to the mining of Niyamgiri hills to extract bauxite for the alumina refinery of Vedanta Aluminium Limited and expansion plans for the refinery.

Whatever the MoEF decision, the Posco project was likely to face more hurdles in the coming days as different groups of people were opposed to establishment of the plant in Dhinkia, the company's proposed captive port at Jatadhari river mouth close to the site earmarked for the steel mill, sourcing of water from Mahanadi and Hansua for the project and proposed mining of iron ore from the Khandadhar mines in Keonjhar district.

NHRC takes serious view of poverty in KBK region

Prafulla Das

It seeks status report on implementation of welfare schemes

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The commission's two-day camp sitting concludes

The panel discusses various issues with officials

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BHUBANESWAR: The National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the prevalence of poverty, food scarcity and malnutrition in Orissa's backward Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) region, and directed the State government to effectively coordinate and implement various schemes for the region.

The commission also directed the State government to place before it a status report on the implementation of its recommendations about welfare schemes, including public distribution system, health and special security schemes. Addressing a press conference at the end of a two-day camp sitting here, its Chairperson Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and members Justice B.C. Patel, Satyabrata Pal and P.C. Sharma said they heard a number of complaints about alleged farmer suicides, alleged starvation deaths, vacant posts of doctors and teachers in the KBK region.

They were unanimous in their view that there was strong evidence of malnutrition in KBK region despite implementation of a series of welfare schemes under the Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) for the eight KBK districts such as Malkangiri, Koraput, Nawarangpur, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Bolangir and Sonepur.

The commission, which discussed the issues of poverty, unemployment, deprivation, hunger, starvation and malnutrition in the KBK region in a separate session with officials of the State government , expressed serious concern on the food security of the poor people who had been left out of the BPL (below poverty line) list.

Ration cards

The commission also directed the State government to send a detailed report on the issue of bogus ration cards in the KBK region and action taken against corrupt officials. The commission, which has been monitoring the situation in the KBK region for the past several years, would continue to do so in the days to come, they said. Giving details of a specific case, Mr. Justice Balakrishnan said they had sought explanation from the Health and Family Welfare Department of the State government about vacant posts of doctors in the KBK region.

Apart from dealing with cases from the KBK region, the commission also heard a series of cases from other parts of the State, including some relating to custodial deaths and violation of human rights of those displaced by different industries including that of Tata, Vedanta and POSCO.

Shadow of ryots' plight on New Year celebrations

Prafulla Das

They are still waiting for compensation for damaged crops due to unseasonal rains

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State yet to finalise guidelines for payment of compensation to sharecroppers

Package announced by the Chief Minister only a ‘deception': Congress MP

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— Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Bisika Behera, a sharecropper of Samantarapur village of Ganjam block, trying to retrieve whatever she could from her inundated field near NH 5 in Ganjam district on Saturday. The Central team that visited Orissa to ascertain the loss of paddy crop due to unseasonal rains has observed that considerable loss has been incurred.

BHUBANESWAR: Millions of farmers across the State were still waiting to receive compensation money for the extensive damage of their crop due to unseasonal rain, and Youth Congress activists were admitted to hospital during the day as their condition deteriorated while taking part in a fast-unto-death dharna in the city demanding a better deal for the rain-hit farmers. But hundreds of leaders, Ministers and activists belonging to the ruling Biju Janata Dal, who seemed to be blissfully ignorant of the increasing unrest among the farmers, thronged the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here to greet him on the occasion of New Year on Saturday morning.

Many senior government officials and officials of the State police also made a beeline for the Chief Minister's residence and presented him bouquets of flowers and greeted him. Similar was the scene at the State Secretariat and residence of the Ministers and senior bureaucrats with people, primarily ruling party politicians and businessmen, reaching with bouquets to renew their association with the powers that be. A host of politicians, including the Chief Minister, also visited the Sri Jagannath temple in Puri to seek the blessings of the deities.

Officials in the Revenue and Disaster Management Department of the State government admitted that disbursement of compensation money, as per the Rs. 902 crore special package for farmers announced by the Chief Minister on December 18, had not started in any of the affected districts till date.

Furthermore, the State government had also not finalised the guidelines for payment of compensation for the damage of paddy crop to the sharecroppers.

Meanwhile, president of the State unit of the Youth Congress and Lok Sabha Member Pradeep Majhi, who was also taking part in the fast-unto-death dharna that entered into its third day on Saturday, criticised the BJD government accusing it of turning a blind eye towards the plight of the farmers when farmer suicides were increasing by the day in the wake of the crop loss.

Mr. Majhi, who charged that diverting agricultural land for industries was a priority for the BJD government, said the package announced by the Chief Minister was only a “deception”.

As regards the BJD's criticism of the Congress-led alliance government at the Centre, Mr. Majhi said it had become a practice for the Chief Minister and BJD leaders to blame the Central government without rhyme or reason.

In another development, leaders of different Opposition parties and activists of various civil society organisations staged a dharna near the Raj Bhavan under the banner of All Odisha Coordination Council for Protection of Farmers. A delegation of the activists also submitted a memorandum to Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare urging him to intervene in the matter and ask the Centre and the State government to ensure payment of adequate compensation to the rain-hit farmers at the earliest. They also demanded that all farmers' families should be included in the list of families living below the poverty line.

Under pressure

PRAFULLA DAS
in Bhubaneswar

The Naveen Patnaik government is facing court strictures and opposition criticism for irregularities in grant of mining leases.

S. SUBRAMANIUM

Naveen Patnaik. He had a clean image when he first came to power in 2000.

WHEN Naveen Patnaik stepped into his father Biju Patnaik's shoes and donned the mantle of leadership of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to become the Chief Minister of Orissa for the first time in March 2000, he was seen as a crusader against corruption. In his initial years in power, he did live up to the expectations of the voters who had rejected a disgraced Congress regime to bring the BJD to power. He removed several Ministers who faced charges of corruption, making the public believe that he was providing a clean and transparent administration. But now, in his third consecutive term as Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik is feeling the heat that he himself generated against his political rivals a decade ago.

“Moneybag industrialisation” and “Vedanta Janata Dal” are some of the epithets that greeted the BJD when the winter session of the State Assembly opened on November 23. The Opposition accused the government of protecting the interests of corporate houses, ignoring the protests of the common people against the loss of land and livelihood owing to unplanned industrialisation.

Accusing the government of large-scale corruption in various deals, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators said Naveen Patnaik should take moral responsibility and step down in view of the Orissa High Court order quashing the land acquisition process for the proposed Vedanta University. The Anil Agarwal Foundation was to establish the university over 8,000 acres (one acre = 0.4 hectare) of land near Puri. A Bill to establish the university, which was passed in the Assembly in July 2009, is waiting for the Governor's assent.

The Opposition also blamed the government for allowing Vedanta Aluminium Limited to set up a one million-tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district. Vedanta even started work to increase the annual capacity of the refinery to six million tonnes by bending rules. The irregularities committed by the company were detected by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in August, and directions were issued to deny it permission to extract bauxite ore from the Niyamgiri hills for use in the refinery. The MoEF also ordered it to stop the expansion work of the refinery.

Naveen Patnaik has been facing strong criticism from various quarters for not acting upon a report of the State's Lokpal (ombudsman) on alleged irregularities in the acquisition of land for the proposed Vedanta university. In an order passed on March 17 on a complaint alleging illegal acquisition of land, the Lokpal recommended a moratorium on the project until the Anil Agarwal Foundation converted from a private company to a public company.

The Lokpal also recommended the appointment of a competent authority “to thoroughly investigate and inquire into the deal in question from its beginning so as to find out the person(s)/public servant(s) responsible for advancing the cause of the Foundation in haste without compliance of various laws by the Foundation”.

“The plea of the public servants concerned that having the interest of the State in mind they acted in good faith and rendered all assistance to the Foundation is not acceptable though from various circumstances of the case it appears that they were victims of circumstances, having been influenced by a representative of the Foundation or having been pressurised by other quarters,” the Lokpal observed.

Matters became even more complicated for the Chief Minister when the High Court judgment came on November 16 on the controversial land acquisition for the university project.

Disposing of a bunch of public interest petitions, a Division Bench quashed the land acquisition proceedings and directed that “the possession of the acquired land shall be restored to the respective land owners irrespective of the fact whether they have challenged the acquisition of their lands or not”. “On restoration of the possession to the land owners, they shall refund the amount received by them as compensation or otherwise in respect of their lands,” the court ordered.

The Bench observed that “the action of the State government in issuing the impugned notifications is void ab initio in law on account of the fraud played upon the State government by the beneficiary company by misrepresenting the facts and made it to believe and act upon the same to exercise its powers to acquire the vast tract of lands in its favour for which they are legally entitled to and therefore the action of the State government in exercising its power for the purpose other than vested in it, amounts to legal mala fides.”

It also quashed the grant of government lands to the beneficiary company under Rule 5 of the Government Land Settlement Rules with a direction to the State government to resume the lands given by way of lease.

The government had issued notifications for acquiring over 6,000 acres of land spread over 18 villages in favour of the company. The land acquired included 605.87 acres belonging to the Sri Jagannath Temple Management Committee and 702 acres of government land.

PTI

CONGRESS MLAS HOLD placards opposing the land acquisition for Vedanta university, inside the Assembly in Bhubaneswar on November 23.

In his reply on November 25 to an adjournment motion moved by the opposition in the Assembly on the alleged favours shown to the Anil Agarwal Foundation, the Chief Minister said that appropriate steps would be taken in accordance with the law on the court verdict.

Criticism is also growing against the BJD government for allegedly favouring POSCO-India Private Limited, which tried to obtain a mining lease for its Khandadhar iron ore reserve in Sundargarh district and also planned to acquire 4,000 acres of land to set up a 12-million-tonne-capacity steel plant. The company planned to establish its own private port near the proposed steel plant, about 12 km from the Paradip port.

Setting aside the government's recommendation to the Centre to grant a prospecting licence to POSCO, the High Court observed that the mineral policy of the State was in a total mess and that the government had adopted a policy “to suit favoured parties”.

In July, the MoEF asked the State government to stop acquiring land for the POSCO steel plant project in Jagatsinghpur district after a committee from the Centre pointed out violations in the Forest Rights Act. The issue has not been resolved as the MoEF is yet to take a final decision on the matter.

MINING SCAM

The Naveen Patnaik government is also facing criticism over the multi-crore illegal mining scam involving many mining companies. After the scam came to light in 2009, the State government ordered suspension of 246 leases of mines that had been operating without the statutory licence for several years.

Although the State Vigilance Department is investigating some of the illegal mining cases and has registered cases against several government officials and mining companies, petitions seeking a CBI probe into the scam are pending before the High Court. In a public interest petition before the Supreme Court, the petitioner has sought, among other things, a direction for prosecution of all those found involved in the illegal mining activities.

The Central Empowered Committee (CEC), in its interim report to the Supreme Court has pointed to the large-scale irregularities. “Mining activities were going on in a large number of mines in Orissa without the requisite approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, environmental clearances, and the Air & Water Acts. The mining activities also exceeded the production limit as approved under the mining plans,” it observed.

Senior journalist Rabi Das, who has moved the Supreme Court over the mining scam, is of the view that illegal mining is still rampant in Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts. “The country has lost huge natural resources and forest wealth owing to rampant illegal mining in the State,” he said.

Despite the mounting pressure, Naveen Patnaik is trying to put up a brave face. The State government has signed about 90 memoranda of understanding involving an investment of about Rs.7,00,000 crore in sectors such as steel, thermal power, alumina refineries and ports. All these industries need large tracts of land, forest land, water and mines, which require approvals from various levels of administration. Since politicians and bureaucrats play a key role in such a situation, allegations of payment of bribes to flout the rules are mounting.

“Orissa is witnessing moneybag industrialisation. All the MoUs that the Naveen Patnaik government has signed, including the ones with Vedanta, POSCO, Jindal, Mittal and Tata, should be reviewed and the violations of rules should be detected,” said Bijoy Mohapatra, former Minister and senior BJP leader.