Kidnap as strategy

PRAFULLA DAS
in Bhubaneswar

Maoists strike again, this time in Chhattisgarh, by taking a District Collector in the Bastar region hostage.

ALEX PAUL MENON, Collector of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh.

A GROUP of armed Maoists kidnapped Alex Paul Menon, the first Collector of the newly formed Sukma district in Chhattisgarh, on April 21, confirming the fact that the rebels are able to strike at will wherever they have a presence. The abduction took place even as a beleaguered Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha was trying to ensure the safe release of Jhina Hikaka, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator representing the Laxmipur Assembly constituency, by acceding to the demands of the Maoists, and close on the heels of the release of two Italian citizens who were abducted by another group of Maoists in Odisha's Kandhamal district in mid-March.

Alex Paul was kidnapped in a manner similar to the kidnapping of R. Vineel Krishna, the Collector of Odisha's Malkangiri district, in February last year. A few weeks after Krishna was released, his services were sought by a Central Minister.

The abduction of Alex Paul, the fourth major abduction carried out by Maoists in the region in a little more than a year, came at a time when a number of battalions of Central paramilitary forces were engaged in anti-naxal operations in both Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

Alex Paul was taken hostage when he was returning from a farmers' meeting in Kerlapal village on National Highway 221, along with administration officials. (The farmers' meeting had been organised as part of the Gram Suraj Abhiyaan, a village contact programme under which officials and people's representatives hold meetings with rural residents to assess the progress of the government's welfare schemes.) The Left extremists gunned down two of his personal security guards who tried to intervene.

The Maoists ascertained the identity of the 32-year-old Collector before they took him away into the nearby forested area. The other officials were spared.

AFP 

ITALIAN NATIONAL BOSUSCO Paolo posing with tribal women at an undisclosed location in Odisha. A file photograph.

Alex Menon was kidnapped just a day after suspected Maoists struck in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. Three persons, including two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists, were killed when the rebels triggered a landmine blast as an official convoy passed through the area. A BJP legislator, Mahesh Gagda, and Bijapur District Collector Rajat Kumar escaped unhurt, but one of the eight vehicles in the convoy was blown up. Interestingly, the attack took place when the officials were monitoring the implementation of the Gram Suraj Abhiyaan project in the rural areas of the district, indicating that the Maoists are against official teams gaining entry into the areas where they have a strong presence.

The abduction of Alex Paul came soon after the release of the two Italians who were abducted on March 14, Bosusco Paolo and Claudio Colangelo. The Maoists reportedly demanded that the Odisha government stop Operation Green Hunt, a combing operation by Central paramilitary forces in the naxal-affected areas of the State, and initiate a dialogue with them. They wanted the Odisha government to act on long-standing demands such as the release of political prisoners.

The Maoists first released Claudio Colangelo on humanitarian grounds. They set free Bosusco Paolo, who had been running an adventure travel agency for the past 19 years in Puri, after the Naveen Patnaik government accepted some of their demands.

The Italians were freed after the Odisha government agreed to release several persons who had been jailed for their alleged links with the Maoists. The government accepted the Maoists' demands for the release of the hostages after negotiations were held between three government officials and two social activists, B.D. Sharma and Dandapani Mohanty, whose names were suggested as mediators by the Maoists.

The 37-year-old tribal leader Jhina Hikaka was kidnapped in the dead of night on March 24 when he was returning home from the district headquarters town of Koraput. The Maoists released Hikaka on April 26 although no negotiations were held between government officials or any interlocutors named by the Maoists. In fact, no dialogue was held between the government and the Maoists for Hikaka's release as right from the beginning the abductors had refused to hold any talks. While the government did keep the media informed about its stand, the Maoists released information about their demands through the media and through Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, a Koraput-based lawyer who had been fighting the cases of Maoist cadre as well as activists of the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha (CMAS). The Maoists finally released Hikaka on the outskirts of Balipeta village in Narayanpatna block of Koraput district after extending the deadline for the release of 29 political prisoners.

Before Hikaka's release, the Andhra-Odisha border special zonal committee of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) had said that the legislator would be released as per the decision taken at a people's court held at an undisclosed location in the district. The Maoists had said that the decision to release Hikaka had been taken after he had given an undertaking before the people's court that he would try to get their demands fulfilled and that he would resign from his post if he failed to keep his promise.

PTI 

JHINA HIKAKA, A BJD MLA in Odisha. He was released by the Maoists in Koraput on April 26 after 34 days in captivity.

It may be recalled that the Maoists had organised a similar people's court before releasing Collector Vineel Krishna.

The abductors of Hikaka had demanded the release of 29 prisoners, but the government agreed to facilitate the release of 25 persons. But none of the 25 prisoners has been released so far despite the government reiterating that it is taking the necessary steps to facilitate their release.

The Odisha government had not made any commitment to release the remaining four persons, including Gananath Patra, adviser to the CMAS. Interestingly, the different groups of Maoists who abducted Vineel Krishna, the two Italians and Hikaka had demanded the release of Patra. The Patnaik government faced severe criticism from the opposition parties for its alleged failure to handle the twin cases of abduction.

In the case of Alex Paul, the Raman Singh government acted promptly and started the process of negotiations to facilitate his release. First, it sent essential medicines for the Collector, who is an asthma patient, to the Maoist hideout through former Communist Party of India (CPI) legislator Manish Kunjam, when negotiations were about to begin between Nirmala Buch and S.K. Mishra, the former Chief Secretaries of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh respectively who acted as the government's negotiators, and B.D. Sharma and G. Hargopal, the two mediators named by the Maoists. Sharma is a former Chairperson of the National Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Commission, while Hargopal, a social activist, was one of the three mediators who held talks with the Patnaik government for the release of Vineel Krishna.

The abductors of Alex Paul have demanded the release of eight of their jailed leaders, including two women prisoners; a halt to Operation Green Hunt; and the withdrawal of the paramilitary forces from the Bastar region.

The immediate fallout of the recent abductions is that the anti-Maoist operations in the three contiguous States of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have been hit badly. While the combing operations were carried out in the forested districts of Koraput, Malkangiri, Ragayada, Gajapati and Kandhamal in Odisha, the exercise was affected in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, one of the major hotbeds of Maoist activity.

The development works started in recent months have come to a grinding halt as administration officials hesitate to venture out into rural areas. People's representatives are also equally scared of visiting their constituencies in the forested regions of the three States.

According to highly placed sources, when anti-naxal operations were put on hold, Maoists operating in Odisha and Chhattisgarh got a chance to regroup in the tribal-dominated regions where they were growing in strength despite differences between the various divisions of the CPI (Maoist).

Popular support

The presence of a large number of tribal people in the people's courts, organised for the release of hostages at different times, has indicated that the tribal people support the Maoists in inaccessible areas where the Left-wing extremists have been growing in strength despite the efforts by the Central government and the States that have been facing the menace. In fact, the Maoists are gaining control over newer areas despite the fact that many of their senior leaders have been killed in encounters and many others have surrendered before the authorities in recent years.

The Maoists have been gaining strength in the tribal regions, primarily because the fruits of development have not reached the local people. The extremists are taking advantage of the situation by making inroads into areas where the tribal people have been agitating over issues such as land rights, displacement and the mining of iron ore or bauxite for the establishment of industries.

In the absence of dialogue between the administration and the agitators, the tribal people's agitation for land rights or against mining operations is seen by the police as a pro-Maoist action. The Narayanpatna block in Koraput district where Hikaka was released has been witnessing an agitation by the tribal people for land rights for nearly two decades, but the Odisha government has not been able to sort out the issue to this day. The tribal people have alleged that their land has been taken over by non-tribal people by various means.

As the Maoists continue to resort to kidnappings to get their demands met, the law and order machinery in the naxal-affected States is now facing a serious challenge. In such a situation, many right-thinking people have started arguing that the Centre and the State governments concerned must start thinking of holding talks with Maoist leaders during normal times instead of starting negotiations only after someone is taken hostage. Civil society should also be involved in the exercise to check the growth of the Maoists and ensure the development of backward regions.

At a time when the States fighting the Maoist menace are feeling helpless, a change in approach seems to be the need of the hour to save the tribal people who continue to suffer owing to the presence of both the Maoists and paramilitary forces in their areas.

mediacop

Patnaik announces names of 27 Maoists to be freed

THE STATES

Maoist surge

PRAFULLA DAS
in Bhubaneswar and Kandhamal

Odisha: The latest round of kidnappings and killings by Maoists put the State government in a tight situation.

AFP 

Italian nationals Basusco Paolo and Claudio Colangelo (below), who were kidnapped by Maoists from Kandhamal district on March 14. Colangelo was released on March 17.

BISWARANJAN ROUT/AP 

In an unprecedented move, Maoist rebels, who have virtually held sway in Odisha in recent years, kidnapped two foreign nationals and a State legislator in March. While two Italian citizens, Basusco Paolo and Claudio Colangelo, were kidnapped from Kandhamal district on March 14, Jhina Hikaka, a legislator of the ruling Biju Janata Dal was abducted from Koraput district on March 24.

The news of the kidnapping of the Italians became public only when two residents from Puri who had been kidnapped along with them were released on the night of March 17.

It was from the Daringbadi tehsil of Kandhamal district that the Maoists abducted Paolo, a Puri-based Italian tour operator, and Colangelo, a tourist from Italy who had gone trekking in the forested hills of Gazalbadi. Daringbadi is a small hill station that has been popular since colonial days. Driving on the Gazalbadi ghat road is a Herculean task for those going to Daringbadi from Bhubaneswar, the State capital.

Media teams were quick to reach the place even as the Naveen Patnaik government was grappling with the issue. In Bhubaneswar, three senior State government officials negotiated with the interlocutors, social activists B.D. Sharma and Dandapani Mohanty, for the release of the Italians. However, there was no information about the kidnapped men until March 25, when the abductors handed over one of the two Italians to a small group of journalists they had called to the jungle.

The Italians were in the custody of top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, organising secretary of the Odisha State Organising Committee (OSOC), one of the four major groups of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Jhina Hikaka was kidnapped near Toyaput village while he was returning from Koraput town to Laxmipur, his constituency. The kidnapping was carried out by Maoists operating under the Srikakulam-Koraput division of the Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC), another Maoist group.

Maoists operating in Malkangiri district, meanwhile, shot dead a sub-inspector of the State police in Khairaput market on March 20. Malkangiri district is under the control of the AOBSZC.

Government's failure

The Naveen Patnaik government, which has badly failed to check the Maoist menace and resolve the problems of the tribal people, seems unaware of the ground realities in the interior pockets of the State. The government, which came to power in March 2000, has been making tall claims about fighting naxalites and implementing various development projects. But the numerous incidents of arms loot, landmine blasts, killing of security personnel and police informers, and abduction of police and forest officials in recent years prove that it has not been able to check the growth of Maoists.

The fact is that as many as four committees of the CPI (Maoist) are now actively working in four major regions and have a presence in as many as 24 of the 30 districts of the State. These are the AOBSZC, the OSOC, the Mainpur Divisional Committee, and the Jharkhand Odisha Divisional Committee. Each of the committees is said to have hundreds of armed men in their cadre, besides tribal supporters.

It is not true to say that the State government, which receives much help from the Central government in the form of grants and deployment of paramilitary forces, has not taken any measures to corner the Maoists.

In fact, it has intensified anti-naxal operations in recent months. More than 350 tribal men and women have been put behind bars for their alleged links with the Maoists, while many Maoists have been arrested or killed by the security forces engaged in combing operations. Several Maoists have surrendered before the authorities.

While addressing the State Assembly on February 21, the opening day of the Budget session, Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare said that in 2011 there was considerable success with regard to the surrender of Maoist leaders. The number of cases of naxal violence had also dropped significantly from 130 in 2010 to 100 in 2011, he said. As per the records of the State government, the number of deaths of security personnel came down from 22 in 2010 to 15 in 2011.

Apart from adding 1,066 posts in the Special Operation Group (SOG), the State police recruited 1,384 constables, 3,127 sepoys and 511 sub-inspectors and other personnel. The government deployed an Mi-172 helicopter for the smooth movement of security forces in inaccessible areas and for the evacuation of injured personnel.

In another recent initiative, the government sanctioned the construction of 70 police stations in naxal-affected areas with an investment of Rs.2 crore for every police station. It is a different story that hundreds of families in these backward regions are yet to be allocated houses under the Indira Awas Yojana scheme and continue to live in hutments made of mud and wood.

Growing in number

But despite the government's efforts, the left-wing extremists have been capturing newer areas. In fact, they have been growing in number despite the lack of unity among the various groups of the CPI (Maoist) operating in the State and the surrender or arrest of their cadre from time to time.

The AOBSZC, along with its Srikakulam-Koraput Divisional Committee, has been operating in Malkangiri and Koraput districts, and parts of Rayagada district, and also in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The OSOC had been working in Kandhamal, Ganjam, Gajapati, Rayagada, Nayagarh, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Jajpur districts.

The Mainpur Divisional Committee has been controlling operations in the districts of Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Bolangir, Bargarh and Subarnapur districts, while the Jharkhand Odisha Divisional Committee's work is concentrated in Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj districts.

According to a social activist, Maoist groups recruit their cadre from among the youth in the interior pockets of areas they control. The youth who join the Maoist ranks go inside the jungles after telling their neighbours and others that they are going to work in cities in other States. Whenever their presence is required at home, they come, pretending to have returned from a distant city. This aspect of the Maoist strategy has not been studied much thus far.

Such is the situation in Maoist-affected regions of the State that the government is not able to build roads or bridges there. Work on bridges at Motu and Janbai in Malkangiri, which were planned long ago, has not started to date. Construction of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana has also been hampered in the red corridors of the State.

PTI 

The damaged Srikakulam-Koraput road at Toyaput near Koraput from where the Maoists abducted Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikaka (below) on March 24.

AFP 

Waking up from its slumber, the State government recently decided that two engineering battalions would be commissioned as part of the State police to take up construction activities in naxal-affected areas.

The administration, however, appears to be virtually absent in the inaccessible areas. People here have little access to health care facilities, primary education and drinking water. Government offices are situated in far-off places.

All one can find in the Maoist-affected areas are the camps set up for personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force, the Border Security Force or the SOG. The forces are to carry out combing operations in the areas allotted to them by the State police.

There are allegations that the security forces have been harassing the poor tribal people living in hamlets inside the jungles or on the forested hills. Social activists engaged in anti-displacement agitations in Rayagada and Koraput districts had alleged that the forces were looting the tribal families; at least four women in the area were gang-raped in the past one year. However, intelligence department officials suspect that the social activists are Maoist sympathisers.

As the war between the State government and the Maoists continue, the tribal people, caught in the crossfire, have become the worst sufferers. Such is the fear in the minds of the tribal people that they do not enter forests, apprehensive of the presence of either the Maoists or the police.

The tribal people seem to prefer the Maoists to the security forces. Though the Maoists have been blocking development works in the backward areas, they are not directly harming them. Many tribal youth joined the Maoists or became their supporters in the absence of employment opportunities. The youth who do not have Maoist leanings leave for cities in other parts of the country when they develop the feeling they have become virtually outsiders in their own territory.

The tribal people neither invited the Maoists to take up their cause nor asked the police to provide them security. The violent activities of the Maoists and the alleged excesses of paramilitary personnel have made life hell for them. A tribal youth lamented that their fight to secure basic rights was being perceived as a pro-Maoist action.

Strengthening their base

According to experts, the Maoists succeeded in strengthening their base in many tribal areas by extending open support to various social agitations of the tribal people – such as those against the liquor menace and the land mafia. In Narayanpatna and Bandhugaon blocks of Koraput, the Maoists gained ground by supporting the long-drawn agitations of the tribal people for land rights under the banners of two different groups of the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha, a local outfit. Tribal land had been taken over by liquor traders and members of the local business community. The government has not been able to resolve the disputes so far.

Meanwhile, the police camps remain visible and static, while those of the Maoists are invisible and moving. In a situation where different camps of Maoists are resorting to violence, bandhs and abductions, the State administration is in a quandary inside the red bastions. The government has been concentrating more on tackling the various scams that have been unearthed in recent years than on dealing with the naxalite menace.

Efforts on to check Maoist violence in State: DGP

PRAFULLA DAS

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Performance of the police personnel comes in for praise

The State police, with the deployment of Central paramilitary forces in the Maoist violence-hit regions, are now trying their best to tackle the menace of Left wing extremism in an effective manner.

While in many regions the police have succeeded in counterchecking the Maoist activities during the past one year, efforts are now on to prevent Maoist strikes in the regions where the extremists were still active or trying to regroup. The success was achieved by busting of a number of Maoist camps and seizure of arms and ammunitions.

“We are trying our very best to bring down the Maoist violence profile in the State and provide security cover to developmental activities,” State Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj told The Hindu on Thursday.

The DGP is happy over the performance of the State police, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Border Security Force (BSF) that had given led to a decline in the Maoist violence in the State in 2011 when compared to 2010.

The total death roll relating to the Maoist menace stood at 49 in 2011, which was less than the previous year. The 49 deaths reported in the State this year include the death of two security personnel and auxiliary staff of the State police, death of nine police personnel from Chhattisgarh in a Maoist attack in Nuapada district a few months ago. The remaining deaths include 23 Maoists and remaining were civilians.

The regions where the police succeeded in arresting the growth of Maoists during 2011 include the districts such Keonjhar, Jajpur, and Dhenkanal. The menace was also brought under control to a great extent in Sundargarh district bordering Jharkhand, according to sources.

The police, however, are now focusing on deploying more Central forces in Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Bargarh, and Bolangir districts where the Maoists are resorting to violence during the recent months. The other areas where efforts are being made to take on the Maoists in an effective way include portions of Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, and Rayagada districts.

Under surveillance

The top officials of the State police are now happy that they had managed to keep the Maoist problem under control in some regions, and are preparing to tackle them in other inaccessible areas in Koraput and Malkangiri districts in the coming months. Narayanpatna Block in Koraput is also under strict surveillance of the police where the situation is under control during the past few months.

However, going by the ground realities, it seems that it will take time to put an end to the Maoist problem that spread to 21 of the 30 districts in the State.

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49 persons died in Naxal violence this year

Maoist problem spreads to 21 of 30 districts

BJD going strong despite scams

The ruling Biju Janata Dal, which celebrated its 14{+t}{+h}Foundation Day on Monday, appears to be going strong despite its government facing a series of scams in recent years.

It was evident from the claims the leaders of the party made at a meeting held here to mark the party's completion of 14 years. The meeting virtually turned out to the launching of the party's campaign for the panchayat polls scheduled for February.

Even though the scams such as mining, land, coal, dal, mark sheet and MGNREGS had generated enough criticism against their government, the leaders who addressed the meeting at the party office claimed they would comfortably win a majority in the panchayat polls.

Putting on a brave face, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and many other leaders of the party tried their best to criticise the Congress-led government at the Centre on various issues to keep the morale of the party workers high ahead of the panchayat polls.

Mineral resource rent tax

Mr. Patnaik criticised the UPA government for not revising royalty on iron ore and not imposing Mineral Resource Rent Tax despite he writing several letters to the Prime Minister.

In his usual style, the Chief Minister also highlighted the various welfare measures launched by his government for the benefit of the people belonging to different sections of the society. He also urged the party workers to inform the people about his government.

Apparently aware of the fact that opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party were unable to garner sufficient public support, one of the senior leaders even went to claim that their party would win at least 450 Zilla Parishad seats in the panchayat polls.

Although their party was plagued by infighting, the BJD leaders claimed that they would win the forthcoming panchayat polls.

Naveen, party leaders flay Central government on various issues

Chief Minister highlights welfare measures launched by his government

Ad blitz with an eye on panchayat polls?

PRAFULLA DAS

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It is on the lines of India Shining campaign undertaken by the NDA government

Is Odisha really shining or the Naveen Patnaik government trying hard to create a feel-good factor by launching an advertisement blitzkrieg ahead of the forthcoming panchayat polls?

Whatever be the truth, the advertisement campaign launched by the State government certainly tells an unusual story.

The advertisement campaign seems to have been undertaken by different departments of the State government to highlight various pro-people schemes with a clear intention to garner support in favour of the ruling Biju Janata Dal ahead of the polls scheduled to be held in February next.

A cursory look at the local newspapers during the past couple of days makes it clear enough that the advertisements are being released by the government just to highlight various welfare programmes without any reason, but to justify that the government has been doing a lot for the poor and deprived sections of society.

Full page ads

Several newspapers have been given three or four advertisements each on a daily basis during the past few days, all highlighting government schemes meant for different sections of society.

Many of these advertisements are full-page advertisements that would make any media house feel happy in terms of revenue generation. According to political analysts, the ongoing advertisement campaign, being carried out before the issuance of the notification for the panchayat elections that would bring the model code of conduct into force, is not only aimed at generating support for the ruling party ahead of the polls but also to refurbish the image of the government, which is being criticised for various scams.

It is a different matter that the opposition parties have so far not reacted to the issue or raised questions whether the government is right in releasing a series of advertisements using taxpayer's money for gaining political mileage.

But the number of advertisements released by various departments certainly reminds of the India Shining slogans of the erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in which the BJD was a partner.

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Political analysts see it as an attempt at image makeover by the BJD

Opposition parties are yet to react to the high-voltage campaign

Orissa’s unborn daughters

PRAFULLA DAS
in Nayagarh and Bhubaneswar

The female foeticide expose in Nayagarh points to a practice that is prevalent throughout the State.

PICTURES: ASHOKE CHAKRABARTY 

At the venue of a demonstration organised by AIDWA activists in front of the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar on July 24.

ONCE you leave Orissa’s fairly green capital city of Bhubaneswar and head towards the district headquarters town of Nayagarh, about 100 kilometres away, virtually everything appears greener. The rainwater-filled paddyfields and farmers at work make you feel everything is all right with Orissa.

But just 6 km before Nayagarh, at the Itamati panchayat headquarters, one gets an indication that this is not the case. A blue roadside signboard in Oriya reads: “For safe termination of pregnancy and motherhood, Dr. Nabakrushna Sahu, MD (O&G) Utkal, Kalpana Complex, Nayagarh.” The town recently hit the headlines for its network of doctors and owners of nursing homes and ultrasound clinics engaged in the unethical medical practice of sex determination and female foeticide.

Kalpana Complex has been very much in the news as it housed Krishna Clinic, a nursing home that has been pulled up for carrying out mass female foeticide. The clinic was owned by Nabakrushna Sahu’s wife Sabita Sahu. Sahu, who is still in government service, has been on leave for the past two years, apparently to manage his wife’s clinic.

Sabita Sahu is now in judicial custody following her arrest, while Sahu is absconding. Sabita Sahu’s arrest came soon after the Nayagarh police retrieved large quantities of infant body parts from a 6-metre-deep pit that her clinic allegedly used to dump medical waste. Between July 22 and July 25, the authorities took out around 150 polythene packets containing medical waste, many of them had infant skulls and bones. Local people who watched the three-day action said that the body parts recovered would be of more than 60 foetuses.

On July 24, this writer found a large number of bones and skulls still lay scattered near the well sealed by the police. The size of the bones varied from 2.5 centimetres to 10 cm. The human remains were not very old or decomposed.

The crime came to light on July 14 when a 12-year-old schoolboy saw seven female foetuses packed in bloodstained polythene bags, while searching for waste bottles near Duburi hills close to Ramachandiprasad village, a few kilometres from Nayagarh town. People from nearby areas thronged the spot as the news spread. The well, situated on a site on the outskirts of the town and belonging to Krishna Clinic, is hardly 100 m away from the Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir school.

An Oriya television channel reported the incident the same day. However, the foetuses had disappeared by the time the Nayagarh police reached the spot in the evening.

The Chief District Medical Officer, M.M. Ali Baig, said that according to medical experts the infant body parts, particularly the long bones recovered from the pit, belonged to foetuses that were about five to six months old. Ali was transferred to Nayagarh on July 12, just two days before the racket was exposed. In fact, Nayagarh district has seen as many as 16 Chief District Medical Officers since 2000. This throws enough light on the way in which the health care system in the State is run.

Many women’s organisations have accused the Nayagarh police of laxity. “The foetuses were removed from the spot with police connivance,” alleged Tapasi Praharaj of the Orissa unit of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) after a visit to Nayagarh.

A billboard advertising safe termination of pregnancy at Krishna Clinic in Nayagarh.

The accusations seem to have some basis. The police showed little interest in the case after the foetuses were found. The administration also did not take any action until more infant body parts were retrieved from another waste-dumping pit in the town. Raids on nursing homes and ultrasound clinics began in earnest only then.

An independent fact-finding team from Bhubaneswar, comprising social activists and office-bearers of various child rights organisations, visited the Duburi hills site on July 16. It submitted a report to the government and demanded a Crime Branch probe.

On July 21, the government ordered a Crime Branch inquiry into the case pertaining to the discovery of the seven foetuses at Duburi hills. The Crime Branch took over the case on July 22. However, neither the missing female foetuses nor those who destroyed the evidence could be traced.

The detection of the second pit led to the arrest of seven persons who managed nursing homes and ultrasound clinics in Nayagarh. The police said that more arrests were likely. Many of those running the clinics were untraceable.

The State Health Department has sealed all the eight nursing homes and five ultrasound clinics in Nayagarh. Investigations revealed that seven of the nursing homes did not have the licence to operate. The ultrasound clinics were running without official approval.

Several of the nursing homes have questionable records. One of them, with ultrasound facility, was run by a woman who studied homoeopathy. She is absconding. Another nursing home, adjacent to the district headquarters hospital, was operating even though its owners had informed the district health officials long ago that they were winding it up.

Local residents are convinced about the involvement of government doctors in the sex determination and female foeticide cases. While Dr. Sahu had his last posting at Bolagarh, about 25 km away from Nayagarh, several doctors posted at the district headquarters hospital were rendering their services at nursing homes in the town.

According to a government doctor, most of the private nursing homes and ultrasound clinics in the small town had sprung up in the past six years. The authorities also knew that sex determination and termination of pregnancies were conducted in the clinics.

According to Dr. B. Sukla of the district headquarters hospital, the then Chief District Medical Officer of Nayagarh, Dr. A.K. Das, had written to the State Health Department and other authorities in 2005 informing them about these activities. But no action was initiated.

Fake drugs racket

Meanwhile, a massive fake medicine manufacturing and marketing racket was unearthed at Kantabanjhi town in Bolangir district on July 20. Four persons, including a doctor, were arrested even as medical shop owners in several towns dumped large quantities of fake drugs into rivers, canals and nullahs.

An unnerved Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, who had already ordered a Crime Branch probe into the female foeticide cases, ordered a similar probe into the fake drug racket. As criticism started coming from various quarters and the Centre sought a report on female foeticide cases, the State government on July 25 announced that separate task forces would be created at the district level to control the fake medicine menace and the problem of female foeticide. A four-member monitoring committee headed by the Chief Secretary would be formed to oversee the functioning of the task forces, the government said.

However, Opposition parties and women’s organisations are not satisfied with the action taken in the two cases. Many political parties demanded that heads should roll in the police, the administration and the Health Department. The Congress demanded that Health Minister Duryodhan Majhi should step down.

Women’s organisations, which have been raising for long the issue of falling child sex ratio in the State, particularly in the coastal districts, are up in arms. “Those in the government only know how to shift responsibility. The Women and Child Development Department says that it was the duty of the Health Department to implement the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique Act. Moreover, nobody in the government seemed ready to talk about the unborn child,” said Bisakha Bhanja of the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations.

Asha Hans of Sanskriti blamed the State for ignoring requests to deal with the issue of the declining child sex ratio. The 2001 Census data presented an alarming picture of the child sex ratio in the State.

Curious visitors to the spot of the pit, now sealed, where aborted foetuses were seized by the police.

There had been a decline of 17 points, from 967 in 1991 to 950 in 2001, she said. Not surprisingly, Nayagarh had the lowest child sex ratio – 901. Female foeticide and a skewed gender ratio were more prevalent in the urban areas of the State.

“The Nayagarh female foeticide case is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Tapasi Praharaj. “Female foeticide is prevalent in almost all districts of Orissa. Those involved in female foeticide and the authorities who support them should be punished immediately; all government departments concerned should work in coordination to check the menace,” she said.

The women activists lamented that the preference for the male child was growing in Orissa. They said that the two-child norm for those who wanted to get elected to panchayati raj institutions in Orissa had made people in rural areas opt for gender-selective abortion.

National Commission for Women member Manju Hembram, who headed the Commission’s three-member team to Nayagarh, expressed shock over the manner in which female foeticide had been committed there. She blamed it on the administration’s failure to implement the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique Act.

With the Nayagarh female foeticide case bringing the crime against unborn girl children to the fore, there is unanimity in the belief that the practice is prevalent in other parts of the State as well. There is a demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the whole episode.

Many people feel that the mere formation of task forces by the government will not help curb female foeticide. Action against errant private clinics and diagnostic centres and an aggressive campaign against female foeticide and the decreasing sex ratio are necessary to deal with the challenge.

Tactical retreat

PRAFULLA DAS
in Bhubaneswar

The Orissa government suspends the land acquisition for the Posco project in the face of stiff opposition from the people.

BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT 

Children form the front line of the human barricade in Kujanga block of Jagatsinghpur district.

SIX years ago, when the South Korean steel giant Posco arrived in Orissa with the biggest ever foreign direct investment that had come the country's way, it was expected to help rid the economically backward State of its ‘poor' tag and bring prosperity.

Posco had won the $12 billion deal at a time when steel companies and prospective steelmakers from all parts of the world were making a beeline for Orissa to grab a share of the State's abundant natural resources – iron ore and other minerals, coal, revenue and agricultural land, forest land and water. In June 2005, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the State government for a 12-million-tonne capacity steel plant that was to come up in over 4,000 acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) of land spread over the gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang in Erasama block of Jagatsinghpur district.

But neither Posco nor any other big-ticket industrial projects – such as those from Tata Steel and Vedanta Alumina Limited – in the State has got off the ground so far. Agitations against them have overshadowed the industrialisation hype in the State.

The local people's refusal to part with their lands blocks the implementation of the projects. With the State government not holding discussions with the agitating people, the stalemate continues.

In the first place, the Naveen Patnaik government had not invited any of the companies to set up industries in the State. It was the companies that came running to the State government, seeking help to set up steel mills of different capacities when the price of iron ore soared in the international market.

Chief Minister Patnaik, who came to power riding an anti-Congress wave in 2000, was soon signing MoUs at frequent intervals. He claimed that his government was seriously interested in the industrial development of the State through the exploitation of its mineral resources and also other natural resources such as water, land and forest.

BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT 

In Kujanga block, on June 11, a day after two dozen betel gardens were destroyed by the police to acquire

The State government went ahead with the industrialisation drive, forgetting that a vast majority of the State's native population was dependent on agriculture. The Chief Minister, who has not entertained the idea of holding talks with the agitators, is depending on the district administrations concerned and the police to acquire land at any cost from the people. The police stations in the areas witnessing industrialisation have been busy registering cases against those opposing displacement and loss of livelihood sources.

In the case of Posco, the State government has bent rules, including the Forest Rights Act, to implement the steel plant project. It also recommended to the Centre to grant Posco prospecting licence for the Khandadhar iron ore reserve in Sundargarh district.

The State government's recommendation was criticised and rejected by the Orissa High Court. It has since challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court.

Shady deal

In fact, suspicions over the intentions of Posco and the State government had started growing even before the MoU was signed. Opposition parties questioned many of the company's proposals, particularly those with regard to the export of iron ore through its own proposed captive port at the Jatadhari river mouth on the State's coast, a few kilometres away from the site chosen for the steel plant and its captive power plant.

A captive port seemed superfluous when the site chosen for the steel plant was just nine kilometres away from the Paradip port. The proposal to grant special economic zone (SEZ) status to the steel plant was also strongly opposed by opposition parties and other organisations.

The anti-Posco agitation started in July 2005 under the banner of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS). On many occasions since then, the local people prevented government officials and Posco employees, who came to survey the land earmarked for the project, from entering the area.

They were often detained, and later released, with a warning not to enter the area in the future.

The State government, which never held discussions with the displaced, started acquiring land in earnest after the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests granted the final clearance in May for the diversion of a vast tract of forest land for the company.

About 20 platoons of armed police personnel were deployed in and around the 3,719 acres of land earmarked for the project. Tension started building up on June 2 when 17 persons, including Basudev Behera, Panchayat Samiti member of Gadakujang gram panchayat and vice-president of the PPSS, were beaten up and arrested for opposing the destruction of their betel gardens. Betel leaf cultivation is a major source of livelihood here.

The incident led to the Sangram Samiti forming a human barricade outside Gobindpur village in Dhinkia gram panchayat, the nerve centre of the anti-Posco agitation, to prevent the entry of land acquisition officials and the police.

A farmer works in his betel garden, which falls in the Posco project area, in Dhinkia panchayat of Jagatsinghpur district.

The resistance intensified when about two dozen betel gardens in Gobindpur area were destroyed on June 10. Officials entered the area through a different route as hundreds of men, women and children blocked the main road. What has deterred the administration and gun-toting policemen is the presence of a large number of children at the forefront of the human barricade. On June 21, the State government said that the land acquisition process in the area had been halted until further orders.

The order came after senior leaders of many political parties, including the Left parties which have always supported the anti-Posco agitation, the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Nationalist Congress Party, visited Gobindpur to express solidarity with the villagers.

Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, too, issued a statement expressing the hope that the State government would not use the clearance from his Ministry as a “licence for forcible acquisition of land”. He appealed to the State government to ensure that land was acquired only through peaceful and lawful means. “Dialogue and discussion, not coercion, is as essential to ecological security as it is to democracy,” he added.

Activists who visited the agitators demanded that the State government stop forceful land acquisition and withdraw the police without delay. They also demanded that the Chief Minister visit the area and hold talks with PPSS leaders. In fact, the Chief Minister had assured a PPSS delegation in June last year that he would visit the project-affected villages, but he did not keep his promise.

The State government also receives flak for going ahead with the land acquisition without renewing the MoU, which expired in June last year. The government has been stating that it will renew the MoU soon.

The Chief Minister insists that no force was used to acquire land and that his government was for peaceful industrialisation. But the villagers have a different story to narrate.

“Many influential persons from our village having links with the ruling Biju Janata Dal have forced us to give away our betel gardens,” said a farmer of Nuagaon village. Though the administration claims that the majority of people in Nuagaon support the Posco venture, hundreds of people from the village joined the human barricade after the demolition of their betel vineyards. A petition has been filed in the Orissa High Court questioning the land acquisition as claims filed by villagers seeking rights over the forest land they had been cultivating since long had not been disposed of. The petitioners are yet to get any relief.

Temporary halt

A visit to the seaside villages makes it clear that the State government may resume land acquisition any day. The heavy police presence in the area is a clear indicator. Work on the construction of a boundary wall around the acquired land has begun. But the PPSS activists and the villagers, who demand the shifting of the project site, say they will resist the government move.

The involvement of children in the agitation has been questioned by the State government. But the PPSS thinks it is an effective approach. Children, they point out, are affected by the displacement of their parents from their land and livelihood sources.

Orissa defers land acquisition for Posco

Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa government on Saturday deferred land acquisition for the proposed mega steel project of Posco till Monday, as pressure mounted on it for withdrawal of armed policemen from three gram panchayats in Jagatsinghpur district.

The authorities announced the postponement owing to bad weather, hours before social activist Swami Agnivesh visited Govindpur to express solidarity with the agitating villagers who have formed a human barricade at the entry point to their village, with children and women at the vanguard.

Addressing the villagers who have been opposing the land acquisition and demanding the shifting of the project to any other location, Swami Agnivesh said the impasse could be ended through talks between the State government and the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. He urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to visit the villages and talk to the people who opposed the project to save their land and sources of livelihood. Forcible land acquisition should be stopped forthwith.

Expressing concern at the Centre's clearance for Posco to set up a captive port close to the site chosen for the steel plant, the Swami said he would take up the controversy with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh.

A team of senior Congress leaders of the State also visited Govindpur to express solidarity with the agitators. They also condemned forcible land acquisition.

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and many prominent anti-displacement activists will visit Govindpur over the next few days.

In Bhubaneswar, many activists took part in a dharna during the day against the forcible land acquisition. Activists of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) staged a demonstration demanding that the land acquisition by use of force be halted immediately.

The State government has been facing growing criticism as it is going ahead with the exercise though it was not able to renew the memorandum of understanding signed with Posco in June 2005, which expired in June last year.

Posco: government suspends land acquisition due to bad weather

Prafulla Das

Sangram Samiti organises public meeting to oppose land acquisition

BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa government on Friday suspended land acquisition for the Posco steel plant project, citing bad weather, while hundreds of agitating villagers, including many women and children formed a human chain outside Gobindpur village in their attempt to resist the process.

Armed policemen, who were proceeding towards Gobindpur village, returned to their camps from Balitutha, the entry point to the Posco project area, after officials suspended the exercise for the day.

The agitators, however, were under the impression that the administration stopped the process in view of the people's resistance and the growing support for the anti-Posco movement.

The Sangram Samiti organised a public meeting at the place where the villagers had gathered to foil the administration's move to resume land acquisition after a break.

Many prominent social activists and two senior leaders of the State unit of the Nationalist Congress Party addressed the gathering, criticising the State government for using armed policemen to forcibly acquire land for the steel venture.

NCP opposes police picketing

The NCP leaders visited the area to oppose the heavy police presence in the locality even though their party had contested the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in alliance with the ruling Biju Janata Dal headed by Naveen Patnaik.

In a related development, former MLA of Erasama and a resident of Gobindpur, Bijay Nayak, too addressed the meeting and announced support to the agitation. Mr. Nayak, a Congress leader, hails from Gobindpur village.

Many of the speakers, including social activist Prafulla Samantara, demanded a high-level probe into the demolition of “fake” betel vineyards in the area. He alleged that the administration officials had siphoned off a huge amount of money by claiming to have demolished many betel vineyards.

They also refuted the administration's claim that many residents of Gobindpur had written to the authorities about their willingness to part with their land. The matter should be probed by the higher authorities, the speakers demanded.

President of Odisha Jana Sammilani Rabi Das demanded that the State government immediately withdraw police from the area and the Chief Minister visit the locality to talk to the agitating villagers who were not willing to hand over their land and livelihood sources to make space for the steel project.

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.