Orissa bans Maoists

Orissa bans Maoists

The Orissa government finally outlawed the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and seven pro-Maoist organisations on June 9. Maoists are active in 14 of the 30 districts in the State and have been gaining strength by the day. The seven front organisations that have been declared unlawful are the Daman Pratirodh Manch, the Revolutionary Democratic Front, the Chasi Mulia Samiti, the Kui Lawanga Sangh, the Jana Natya Mandali, the Krantikari Kisan Samiti and the Bal Sangam. The CPI (Maoist) and the outlawed organisations have condemned the ban. They staged a two-day road blockade agitation on June 14 and 15 to register their protest against both the ban and police action in the interior pockets.

The State Cabinet has approved a rehabilitation policy for extremists who surrender and return to the social mainstream. It was advertised in several newspapers in the days following the announcement of the package. A week later, no one had responded.

The ban has come without any immediate provocation from the Maoists. The government did not impose a ban when hundreds of armed Maoists launched a wildcat attack on the district headquarter town of Koraput in February 2004 and looted a large cache of arms from the district armoury; nor when extremists raided R. Udayagiri town in Gajapati district on March 24 this year, freed 40 prisoners from a jail and abducted two police officers. The ban has come about now because those in the corridors of power have began to believe that the Maoists are the biggest obstacle to the ongoing industrialisation in the State.

For the past few months, the Maoists have put several barriers in the way of industrialisation. They and their sympathisers are opposing mineral-based industries and mining because these have caused large-scale displacement of tribal people. The opposition became shriller after the police firing at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district on January 2. Thirteen tribal people were killed in clashes with the police when they opposed the construction of a boundary wall of a proposed steel plant.

The ban has been imposed at a time when an ill-equipped State police is facing the Maoist onslaught. For example, the police failed to prevent extremists from felling a large number of trees to block roads in Malkangiri, Gajapati and Rayagada districts on the night of June 13 to enforce their road blockade agitation. Two more India Reserve Battalions have been sanctioned by the Centre, but it may be two years from now for these battalions to become operational.
The State is now tackling the Maoists by deploying three Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) battalions provided by the Centre. One more battalion is likely to be deployed in the Maoist-hit pockets shortly. The government is now trying to woo the rebels through rehabilitation, which provides for screening of surrendered ultras by a district-level committee.

The rehabilitation package will consist of a payment up to Rs.10,000 on surrender; a payment up to Rs.20,000 on surrendering arms and ammunitions; allotment of a homestead plot, a house-building grant of up to Rs.25,000 and payment of Rs.15,000 for marriage. It will also include assistance to secure a bank loan of up to Rs.2 lakhs, and a payment of a subsidy up to Rs.50,000 after repayment of 75 per cent of the loan, which is interest-free for the first two years. Extremists who surrendered would be paid the reward money declared on their heads and receive free medical treatment in government hospitals.

Pro-Maoist organisations are now preparing to challenge the ban in the High Court. Until recently, the government treated the Maoist menace as a socio-economic problem and not just as an issue of law and order. But the ban has drawn clear battle lines between the government and the Maoists.

It may not solve the problem but it might act as a morale-booster to the police, but the government must also win back the confidence of the tribal people in the backward districts, who are leaning towards the ultras.

PRAFULLA DAS

Resettlement and resentment in Orissa

Rehabilitation and resentment

The Orissa government has adopted a policy to resettle and rehabilitate people who would be displaced by new industries and other development projects. The new policy, which appears to be silent on the questions raised by those resisting displacement, has been welcomed by the industry. However, critics have termed it `pro-industry'.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Ministerial and bureaucratic colleagues were jolted out of their zeal for indiscriminate industrialisation on January 2 when 13 tribal people fell to police bullets during their protest against the construction of a boundary wall for the proposed Tata Steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district. (Frontline, February 10).

The draft resettlement and rehabilitation policy gathered dust since last July. As the struggle against the steel plant project of Korean steel-maker POSCO gained momentum in Jagatsinghpur district, and tribal resistance increased after the Kalinga Nagar incident, the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government announced its plan to implement the new policy soon.

A five-member Ministerial Committee was formed to finalise the draft policy after consulting representatives of the Opposition, non-governmental organisations, tribal leaders and experts. The Committee cleared the policy even as the Kalinga Nagar deadlock continued. The State Cabinet approved the policy after incorporating certain changes to make the rehabilitation package more attractive. For instance, the financial assistance for building houses was increased to Rs.1.5 lakh from Rs.50,000. The policy stated that gram sabha will be consulted before finalising the plan.

The plan allows a project proponent to purchase land directly from the people and promises to enhance the one-time cash assistance in lieu of employment/ self-employment to Rs.5 lakhs, Rs.3 lakhs, Rs.2 lakhs and Rs.1 lakhs for different categories against the earlier provisions of Rs.2 lakhs, Rs.1 lakhs, and Rs.50, 000. It states that industries would be asked to issue convertible preference shares up to a maximum of 50 per cent of the one-time cash assistance at the option of the displaced families and subject to the relevant laws. The cash compensation in lieu of the land would be Rs.1 lakh an acre for irrigated land and Rs.50, 000 for non-irrigated land.

"The new policy indeed has been designed to give a weapon in the hands of the pro-industrialisation forces to silence the genuine voices of protest. The framers of the policy have manipulated certain words to create an illusion that it offers more for the people," said Sudhir Patnaik, a social scientist. "Again, will it be wise to allow the private companies to buy land directly?"

As the new policy allows the government or the project authority to extend additional benefits to the displaced, keeping in view the specific nature of displacement, the State Cabinet also approved special benefits for families facing displacement by the POSCO plant in Jagatsinghpur and projects of Tata Steel and other companies at Kalinga Nagar. In the case of the POSCO project, the government promised compensation of Rs.6,000 for each decimal of land for betel growers, including those on government land. In Kalinga Nagar, where the government acquired land in the early 1990s, it decided to give an additional ex-gratia of Rs.25,000 an acre.

Both Tata Steel and POSCO have welcomed the new policy and the additional benefits announced by the government for those facing displacement. But the people are not happy. Resistance to the POSCO project is growing with the administration's failure to convince the people of their "gains" from the project. In Kalinga Nagar, the situation continues to be volatile. Despite the administration managing to create a division among the locals, those agitating since January 2 by blocking the national highway passing through their area have rejected the new policy.

"We are against displacement," said Rabindra Jarika, convenor of Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch, the organisation that is spearheading the anti-displacement agitation at Kalinga Nagar. "We will not leave our land and homes to make space for industries at any cost. We have rejected the rehabilitation policy as it favours industrialists and supports displacement of the people," Jarika said after the talks between the representatives of the Janmanch and the Chief Minister failed to put an end to the crisis.

The Janmanch has announced that the road block will continue until the government fulfils their demands, including the dropping of cases registered against their activists. It has also decided not to extend its cooperation to the judicial commission probing the January 2 firing.

Prafulla Das