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.