Spreading Fast

Prafulla Das in Bhubaneswar
THE increase in Maoist activities in the forested and backward interior regions of Orissa in recent months is a clear indication of their growing strength in the State. On the other hand, the State government’s plans to thwart them have failed in virtually all aspects, barring the arrest and killing of some of them.

The Maoists have capitalised on the virtual absence of the administration in areas that do not have roads and other basic facilities, including hospitals and schools. They now have a strong presence in 18 of the State’s 30 districts and are entering newer areas every day.

The Special Operations Group (SOG), the anti-naxal strike force of the police, has not been able to penetrate the Maoist strongholds deep in the forests. Malkangiri district, which shares its borders with Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, is a good example of this.

The Maoists obviously enjoy the support of both tribal and non-tribal people in these areas. Faced with neglect by the administration, the local people have turned silent supporters of the extremists.

The Maoists have won over the majority of the tribal people by taking up their demands with the administration. The extremists have boycotted elections, observed bandhs and put up posters and banners to highlight the people’s demands.

For the police and the administration, the situation has taken a turn for the worse since the Centre and the State government announced recently the launch of a special operation. The Maoists, who almost routinely targeted railway lines and telecommunication networks, besides attacking policemen, forest staff and “police informers”, recently turned their focus on a member of the political class. In Mayurbhanj district on October 13, they attacked Sudam Marandi, president of the Orissa unit of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and a former member of the Lok Sabha. Marandi escaped under cover of darkness, but the Maoists killed three policemen and took away two AK-47 rifles.

The State government had announced that top officers of various government departments would visit different districts to review development works. But most of the bureaucrats simply did not go. As a result, development work suffered and the Maoists gained support. Now, the situation has reached a point where bureaucrats are scared of visiting the districts because of the naxal strikes.

The Naveen Patnaik government is contemplating a special drive to reach out to the people by involving both the administration and the police in it. “We are now planning to adopt a two-pronged approach to deal with the Maoist problem,” said Prakash Mishra, Director-General of Police (Intelligence). The administration would reach out to the people in Maoist strongholds with the help of the police, women’s self-help groups and such other social groups, he said.

The State government has also not been able to strengthen its police force. The policemen on duty at police stations in the naxal-affected areas face frequent attacks. On several occasions the Maoists have been successful in looting arms and ammunition from police stations and armouries.

The SOG has been ineffective largely because it does not have enough men – it has only 1,100 personnel. As regards raising India Reserve Battalions, the State government has been able to raise only three so far. For two more IRBs, the recruitment process has been completed and the cadets are to undergo training. Although the Centre has sanctioned another IRB, the State government has not been able to start the process of recruitment.

The State police have also not been able to coordinate effectively with the police of neighbouring States except Andhra Pradesh. While Orissa and Andhra Pradesh have special forces to deal with the Maoists, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand do not.

With the administration failing to implement the pro-poor welfare schemes, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, and the police ill-equipped to take on the Maoists, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik demands additional Central forces whenever there is a major Maoist attack in the State.

There are six battalions of Central paramilitary forces deployed in different parts of the State for various duties, including the anti-naxal operations. The Centre is yet to fulfil the State government’s demand for seven additional battalions of Central forces for the anti-Maoist operations.

“The State government cannot fight the Maoists by using the police force or announcing development schemes,” says Janardan Pati, secretary of the Orissa State Committee of the CPI(M).

When thousands of tribal people sought land rights and agitated against the non-tribal people who had taken away their land in the past, the State government did not arrest even a single non-tribal person on the charge of taking away tribal land, says Pati.

He was of the view that the armed struggle by the outlawed CPI(Maoist) would not succeed in defeating the ruling class in the country. He, however, said the Maoists should not be treated as an enemy of the country. The problem, he added, could be solved only by ensuring economic development of the poor by providing them land, employment and basic necessities.

Drain of wealth

PRAFULLA DAS
in Keonjhar

Illegal mining activities dent the image of Naveen Patnaik’s government in Orissa.
IN Bayakumutia village, 22 kilometres from the district headquarters town of Keonjhar, the wails of a girl rent the air one morning in August. Her 12-year-old younger sister had died after suffering from high fever for some days. The nearest government hospital is 7 km away, and her father, Sukra Juang, could not take the child there for treatment.

This is not an isolated incident. The cries of Sukra Juang’s daughter echo the sufferings of thousands of hapless families in Orissa’s Keonjhar district. They lead miserable lives despite the wealth of resources that surrounds them.

The district has immense forest as well as mineral wealth. About 30 per cent of its total area has dense forest cover. It sits over vast mines of iron ore, manganese, chrome and other minerals. But its population has benefited little from these. The district has remained at the bottom in terms of development indices. Illegal mining that cost the State huge revenue losses, environment pollution, malaria and some unknown diseases, man-elephant conflicts and so on have plagued it in recent years.

The mining scam that figured prominently in the Budget session of the State Assembly in July brought this situation into sharp focus. It rocked the Naveen Patnaik government and dented the Chief Minister’s image.

FACILITATORS
For years, the law has taken a back seat in Keonjhar with the mine mafia, private companies, contractors, transporters and criminal gangs looting the mineral resources at will across the district. Unregulated mining has wreaked havoc in the region in the past nine years.
What is most shocking is that those in power have been aware of the theft of minerals. Thousands of mineral-laden vehicles rumble along the district’s roads from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. Rules framed to check illegal mining and trading in minerals are flouted, often with the connivance of the administration.

The mafias operate in a well-organised manner. To facilitate illegal mining, many posts in the Departments of Mines, Forests and Police are kept vacant. The fact that there have been only six Class IV employees in the Mines Department to handle as many as 20 weighbridges meant for mineral-laden vehicles makes this clear. Moreover, the number of weighbridges has been too small to cope with the volume of minerals being handled. The government has admitted this in the wake of the expose.

The State government had formulated rules in 2007 for the prevention of theft, smuggling and illegal mining of minerals. However, these were not implemented properly. The task forces constituted for the purpose were hardly put to use.

The mining scam is not limited to Keonjhar. The recent scrutiny of records of the eight mining circles by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) revealed that there were no government checkgates in six circles and no government weighbridges in four. “Due to lack of checkposts/weighbridges, the minerals were transported without any check of the quality and quantity. In the absence of government weighbridges, weighments were done at private weighbridges, leaving scope for leakage of revenue,” the CAG pointed out.

The latest CAG report dealt in detail with several facets of the illegal mining. But the State government chose to remain silent.

The Central government agencies in charge of keeping an eye on violations of mining and forest laws too have ignored the problem. No survey was carried out either in Keonjhar or elsewhere to ascertain how reserve forests and government land were being illegally mined. In many cases, those who had obtained mining leases for non-forest land carried out mining in forest areas without obtaining the necessary clearance. There are scores of cases where mine owners have kept their own mines untouched and extracted ore from areas outside their limits. Many big companies are allegedly involved in such practice.

“There is not a single mine in Keonjhar where everything is going on in a fair way. A sincere scrutiny by any authority in the entire district would prove this,” said Mohan Majhi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, who was formerly Deputy Chief Whip of the ruling alliance in the State Assembly.

Majhi, who hails from Keonjhar, has been demanding the constitution of an “Orissa State Mining Enforcement Authority” to take stringent action against the mine mafia. “The government is not making any serious effort to check the illegal mining and loss of revenue,” he lamented.

ORIGINS
Illegal mining of iron and manganese ores started in a big way in 2000 when the demand for steel grew in the international market. Coincidentally, the same year, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik took over as the Chief Minister of the State. Though Patnaik promised to run a transparent government, the looting of minerals in Keonjhar and other districts started increasing by the day. A stage reached when more than 25,000 trucks were engaged in the transportation of minerals from Keonjhar district alone.

The services of the Railways were also used to transport minerals. The mine mafia was thus able to take away extra quantities of ore since there was no facility available in the State to weigh the rakes carrying minerals. A few such cases had come to the notice of the government.

The loot by road was so organised that fake transit permits were printed and used to take away thousands of truckloads of minerals to different destinations within the country and to the ports at Paradip, Haldia and Visakhapatnam for export. The mafia always had the upper hand vis-a-vis the ground-level government staff, and the illegal trade continued, causing huge revenue loss to the state.

The Naveen Patnaik government said in the Assembly that owing to the non-availability of transit passbooks printed in the government press, such books were printed outside and were being authenticated by the authorities of the Mines Department. But the truth lay elsewhere. For obvious reasons, the authorities did not collect the books from the government press for four years despite giving requisitions for them.

In cases where action was taken against violators of mining laws, the proceedings often led nowhere. The violators used loopholes in the laws to escape punishment.

The fact that large volumes of minerals were being illegally mined and taken away from Keonjhar is evident from the number of vehicles seized by the Mines Department. More than 200 minerals-laden vehicles seized by the authorities are lying near the office of the Deputy Director of Mines at Joda town in Keonjhar. Many of them operated with fake registration numbers, and nobody came forward to claim them.

The issue of illegal mining in Keonjhar had been raised several times earlier at different forums, including the Assembly. But it never hit the headlines as it did during the Budget session of the Assembly this year. It is said that the BJD-BJP split before the Lok Sabha elections contributed to the unfolding of the scam.

The scam began to surface when BJP legislators alleged irregularities in the mining activities of Ram Bahadur Thakur Limited. The other companies that were mentioned were S.N. Dasmohapatra and Arjun Ladha. The Congress, as the major opposition party in the State, also joined the issue.

The proceedings of the Assembly were disrupted for days together, with the opposition criticising Patnaik and demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the scam. The government, however, put on a brave face. Steel and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty claimed that no illegal mining was taking place in Keonjhar and that the government was taking adequate measures to check such activities, if any.

However, when the opposition parties continued to embarrass the government on the floor of the House, the Chief Minister directed the Vigilance Department to probe the allegations.
Soon vigilance sleuths visited the spot and submitted a report to the government. Thereafter, they registered a case against eight persons, including two mine operators, five employees of the Departments of Mines and Forests and a former Mines Department official. The accused were arrested. They have since secured bail from the High Court.

Both the BJP and the Congress reiterated their demand for a CBI probe. While the BJP said that it would approach the Central Empowered Committee constituted by the Supreme Court on forest and environment law violations, Pradesh Congress Committee president K.P. Singh Deo took up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and sought a CBI probe.

Former Minister Bijoy Mohapatra alleged that the mining scam involved minerals worth at least Rs.10,000 crore. Experts say the amount involved could be bigger if all aspects of the scam are probed as per law.

There are indications that politicians from almost all major parties are linked to the scam, directly or indirectly. “The Vigilance Department is not the right agency to investigate the scam. The Chief Minister should immediately hand over all illegal mining cases to the CBI if he wants to keep his image clean,” said Rabi Das, political analyst and president of the Odisha Jana Sammilani.

Hundreds accused in Orissa riot cases on the run

Prafulla Das
BHUBANESWAR: The administration in strife-torn Kandhamal district of Orissa is now grappling with a crisis that had arisen in the wake of the recent anti-Christian violence. The district police now have around 800 riot-related cases to handle and hundreds of people wanted in these cases are now on the run.

While looking for those involved in the riot, the police are also struggling to maintain peace as sporadic attacks on Christians continue and Maoists expand their network and activities.

A 45-year-old man belonging to the minority community was hacked to death by a group in the Tikabali area of the district on Thursday, and armed Maoists attacked a forest beat house and took away five weapons on Wednesday night. Police have registered a total of 784 cases relating to the riot so far. The number of accused named in these cases stands at 11348, a senior police official told The Hindu on Friday.

Besides, the number of those not mentioned in the 784 First Information Reports registered till date was around 89000, the officer said. The police have been able to arrest only 700 persons and filed charge sheets in a few cases. Those listed as accused are still evading arrest by hiding in the forests during the day, sources said.

The cases registered relate to killings, murderous attacks, burning and damaging of houses, churches and prayer houses, and looting.

The district had witnessed attacks on Christians and their houses and places of worship soon after the murder of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four of his associates on August 23. A Catholic nun was also raped in the district on August 25.

The two cases pertaining to the murder of the VHP leader and the rape are being investigated by the Crime Branch of the State police, while the remaining cases are being handled by the 15 police stations spread across the district. Meanwhile, the State government has initiated steps to establish two fast track courts in Kandhamal for speedy disposal of the riot cases. The two courts are likely to be inaugurated in the first week of March.

Chilling memories

PRAFULLA DAS in Kandhamal
Charge sheets have finally been filed in the nun rape case in Orissa, but the wounds of last year’s violence are yet to heal.

VIOLENCE has by and large come to an end in Kandhamal, but the district, now heavily policed by paramilitary forces, continues to live in the shadow of the communal carnage that tore it apart five months ago. The police administration, meanwhile, has managed to file charge sheets in the case of the rape of a nun and also that of the murder of Lakshmanananda Saraswati on August 23, 2008, which sparked off the lootings, arson and killings. Investigations in both cases, however, have been kept open because several suspects have not been arrested so far.

Lakshmanananda Saraswati of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was killed by suspected Maoists. The Crime Branch has now confirmed that one of the seven people charge-sheeted for the murder is a Maoist, while the others are Maoist sympathisers who belong to the local population. Ten men have been charge-sheeted in the rape case, and efforts are on to arrest 20 other suspects.

Meanwhile, the police in Kandhamal have registered a total of 780 cases in police stations across the district on the basis of complaints filed by riot victims. More than 11,000 people have been named as accused. Only 700, though, have been arrested so far. Many of the tribal people who attacked the Dalit Panas are on the run to avoid police action.

For the Dalit Panas, a largely Christian community that faced the wrath of their tribal brethren, the Kuis, life has not been the same ever since. Kandhamal was lush green when the violence started at the end of the rainy season last year. Now it is filled with the sights and sounds of spring. Flowers are now blooming across the district, but the divisive tensions that came to the fore with last year’s violence are refusing to go away.

More than 40 people were killed in the violence that followed the murder of Lakshmanananda Saraswati. Churches and homes of Christians were burnt down. Some 25,000 people fled their homes and sought shelter in relief camps set up in schools and other government buildings. They fled with their children, hiding in forests and hilly terrains, and braving the rains for days until they reached the camps in other parts of the district or in Berhampur, Bhubaneswar or Cuttack.

The number of people still living in relief camps is down to 6,500. But most of those who left the camps chose not to stay on in Kandhamal and are trying to rebuild their lives in Bhubaneswar or in other cities. People still living in the camps said that many of those who did return to Kandhamal could do so only after converting to Hinduism. Some district officials corroborated this version.

Ruben Digal (35), a resident of Breka village, said: “I have not been able to muster the courage to return to my village because if I go there I will have to change my religion and become a Hindu. We have been told by those working for the VHP and such other organisations that we should return to our villages as Hindus or leave Kandhamal for ever.”

Ruben has been living in a relief camp at the Tikabali block headquarter town since August 29, 2008, with his wife, two daughters and two sons. The administration has not been able to give him any work, and the education of all his children has come to a complete halt. One of his daughters, Runima, was a Class X student in a convent school at Raikia block when the violence drove them away from home. Like scores of other children in the camp, it is uncertain whether she will be able to appear in the board examinations that are now just a few months away.

A shopkeeper in Phulbani, the district headquarters, said: “The communal violence was the handiwork of divisive forces. The common man did not support the violence. Now the situation has improved, but people are apprehensive because the general elections are approaching.”

Most people are reluctant to talk about what happened. In the interior areas of Kandhamal, the suspicion seems to run deeper, and any outsider is suspect. The district is now largely peaceful, thanks to paramilitary personnel posted at sensitive locations, but sporadic clashes between members of different communities and between local residents and security personnel are reported from interior areas.

Indeed, the tensions between the tribal population and the Dalit communities have deepened, a situation that becomes particularly dangerous in the context of vote-bank politics. One consequence is that the people live in fear, while vested interests try to exploit the feeling of insecurity.

It is clear that Naveen Patnaik’s government has not been able to restore confidence in the local population. His government’s measures to rehabilitate the riot victims also fall far short of the actual requirements. Not a single damaged church has been rebuilt. As for the damaged homes, the compensation offered by the government is often not enough to rebuild them. “The roof of our house has multiple cracks, and all the doors and windows are burnt. What will we do with the Rs.20,000 that the government is going to give us for repairing the house?” said Sevika Digal, a resident of Tengedapathar who returned to her village recently. “The government should repair our houses instead of handing over the compensation money to us,” she said. A few other families in the village who had returned from relief camps said the sum of Rs.50,000, offered for completely damaged houses, was just not enough.

If the story of compensation and rehabilitation is one of too little too late, the people are also taking a hit as the economy of the district shows signs of distress in the aftermath of last year’s violence. Agriculture is suffering, and income from tourism has all but vanished.

The State government has announced a special development package for Kandhamal, but so far it is largely on paper. That the government is not serious seems evident from the fact that a top official who was appointed as Special Commissioner to oversee the implementation of the package continues to hold charge as Secretary of the Higher Education Department. The announcement of the package may help the State government to claim that it has done its bit. It may also help the ruling alliance to woo voters in the forthcoming elections. But political parties are unlikely to be in any great crisis to heal the wounds inflicted by the violence, for divisive politics brings in votes.

The Naveen Patnaik government passes off the Kandhamal violence as a case of ethno-communal conflict, denying that religious identity played a major role. But the flames were fanned by leaders who were trying to create a vote bank in the name of protecting the interests of the tribal Kui people of the district. Religion was a handy tool in their hands.

The violence raged for weeks as the tribal people were egged on by their leaders to attack the Dalit Panas. Policemen who tried to intervene were attacked, too. The violence was checked only after the administration swung into action and arrested a large number of people, including those belonging to the Sangh Parivar, following advisories from the Centre asking the State government to take strong measures to control the situation.

A facade of normality in Kandhamal

Prafulla Das
KANDHAMAL: From outside, the situation appears normal in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, which witnessed large-scale anti-Christian violence five months ago. But interaction with locals and administration officials on Monday made it clear that the divide on the lines of religion, caste and political affiliations was hampering restoration of peace.

Although life turned a bit normal with the opening of some schools and colleges, distrust among those belonging to different religions and supporting different political parties, and Kui tribals and Dalit Panas continues to be conspicuous. Such was the level of fear that virtually no one was ready to divulge his identity.

Situation in camps
But many of those sheltering in relief camps, having losing all hopes of returning to their villages, were eager to reveal their identity.

“We are not able to go back to rebuild our homes as Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists have been reiterating that we should convert to Hinduism if we want to return to our village or else leave Kandhamal for good,” said 60-year-old Bitaliya Digal of Toparbali, who is staying with his family members at the Tikabali camp.

More than 25,000 people took shelter in different relief camps in the district when communal violence was at its peak. The riots broke out after the killing of VHP leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati on August 23 last.

But a vast majority of those who were in these camps left the district, while a few hundred families returned to their villages. Many of those who returned to their villages reconverted to Hinduism.

CRPF presence
Despite heavy deployment of Central Reserve Police Force personnel, many people are apprehensive that the situation could turn worse in the run-up to the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls.

More than 30 companies of Central paramilitary forces are now on duty in Kandhamal and the administration is trying its best to maintain this level until after the elections are over. But locals are of the view that tension will continue in Kandhamal for many more months to come.