Under a cloud

PRAFULLA DAS

The Assembly Speaker resigns after accusations of sexual harassment against him and the alleged role of a Minister rock the government.

ALMOST everything was going smoothly for Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He had come out unscathed from several controversies surrounding his administration since he assumed power in 2000. He had warded off many accusations effortlessly and maintained his “Mr. Clean” image.

Then, in the last week of March, Patnaik came under pressure as never before when a suspended woman Assistant Marshal of the State Assembly, Gayatri Panda, brought sexual harassment charges against the Speaker, Maheswar Mohanty. Mohanty quit his post amid mounting protests from Opposition parties and women activists.

Patnaik has earned a reputation for being “clean” and he is feared as the leader of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) as he has never hesitated to take stern action against erring or tainted Ministers.

Patnaik, it is said, would sack anybody from his Ministry in order to save his own skin or the image of the BJD and the BJD-Bharatiya Janata Party government.

However, the first sexual harassment controversy to rock his Ministry saw the tough Chief Minister dither a bit before initiating action against the accused, primarily because it involved the Speaker and a close associate of Patnaik, a Minister who was accused of instigating the woman marshal.

Five days after the scandal pushed his government into turbulence, Patnaik sacked Information and Public Relations Minister Debasis Nayak without giving him a chance to resign on his own. The Chief Minister sent an official note to Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare recommending the removal of Nayak. He said he dropped the Minister since he had lost confidence in him.

Mohanty’s resignation took place simultaneously. He said that he quit his post as the issue had rocked the Assembly, which was in session, and affected the dignity of the Chair. His disciplinary action against an “undisciplined employee” (the marshal was suspended) had resulted in her levelling false and baseless allegations against him, he insisted.

In the past, Patnaik has dismissed three Ministers; four of his Ministers were forced to quit under controversial circumstances. Half a dozen of his ministerial colleagues were shown the door at different points of time. Most of the Ministers who were relieved of their responsibilities during the past eight years belonged to the BJD.

The latest controversy began on the night of March 25 when some television channels flashed news clips in which the suspended woman marshal was shown levelling sexual harassment charges against Mohanty.

As soon as the House assembled the next morning, Mohanty read out a statement on his own denying the allegations. He, however, said that since the charges were of a serious nature he would not preside over the Assembly proceedings until the matter was investigated.

While suggesting that a House Committee be set up to inquire into the matter, Mohanty alleged that a conspiracy had been hatched to defame him and that some important persons were behind it. He said he would tell the whole story before the House Committee. The matter did not end there. In fact, Mohanty’s statement added fuel to the controversy.

The Opposition parties soon began to stall the proceedings. They demanded that no business of the Assembly should be held until the Speaker resigned from the post in order to facilitate an independent probe into the matter.

The next day, Opposition legislators occupied the Speaker’s podium as soon as the House assembled. Deputy Speaker Prahallad Dora, who was to take the Chair, waited at the entrance to the podium for more than an hour before finally returning to his chamber.

Despite desperate efforts by members of the ruling alliance and Dora to restore order, the Assembly proceedings were disrupted for four days with the Opposition legislators firm on their demand for the resignation of the Speaker and the institution of an independent inquiry into the scandal. They argued that a House Committee could not look into the matter as the issue involved the Speaker himself. The Opposition MLAs also demanded that the inquiry should probe the allegations made by the Speaker that the smear campaign was motivated by some important people.

While the House witnessed high drama over the issue, outside the Assembly there was no let-up in the controversy.

Panda sent her complaint to a women’s police station through a group of women activists. She alleged that the Speaker had made vulgar gestures at her several times. She even said that he had sent a vehicle to her house in the night and tried to persuade her through his driver and other staff to have sexual relations with him.

Since Panda did not lodge the complaint herself, the police took two days to verify her signature on the one-page plea and finally registered a case against the Speaker under Sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 507 (similar intimidation through telephone), 509 (lewd suggestions and obscene remarks) and 34 (common object) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

As the standoff continued, Patnaik left for New Delhi to attend a meeting of Chief Ministers of the mineral-bearing States. The controversy showed no sign of dying down until he returned on the third day.

Meanwhile, in Puri, the Speaker’s home constituency, BJD supporters of Mohanty took out a rally to protest against the slur cast on their leader, while Congress workers took out a rally demanding the Speaker’s resignation. Mohanty’s supporters squarely blamed Nayak, alleging that he had instigated Panda to make the allegations against their leader.

Some BJD workers also staged a demonstration in Bhubaneswar and made a strong demand for the resignation of Nayak. The cracks within the BJD became visible, and Naveen Patnaik, as the party’s president, was clearly in a fix.

With the controversy raging and demonstrations taking place against Mohanty and Nayak, the Assembly was adjourned sine die on March 31, two days ahead of schedule, after the State Budget for 2008-09 by voice vote. It was then that Patnaik was virtually forced to act tough.

Mohanty tendered his resignation hours after the Assembly was adjourned. The Chief Minister’s recommendation to the Governor was sent around the same time and it was also accepted immediately. But the controversy did not end with the resignation of Mohanty and the ouster of Nayak. It got further complicated.

The Opposition parties, which were in an upbeat mood as they sensed that the controversy had the potential to damage the image of the Chief Minister and his government, demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter. The government readily agreed to this demand. Meanwhile, women’s organisations stepped up their demand that Mohanty be arrested.

In an attempt to cash in on the controversy, the Opposition parties also announced that they would take the matter to the people. With the Assembly elections just a year away, the controversy is likely to affect the prospects of the ruling combine if it does not come to an end soon.

Everything will now depend on whether the suspended marshal fights it out or succumbs to pressure for a compromise.

Deathly inaction

PRAFULLA DAS
in Kashipur & Dasmantpur
The Orissa government’s apathy in providing health care makes cholera deaths a recurring phenomenon.

Young Ruai Majhi, a resident of Kucheipadar village in Kashipur block of Orissa’s Rayagada district, was eight months pregnant when her dreams of motherhood came tumbling down. She got seriously ill with cholera and was initially taken to the nearby primary health centre for treatment. But owing to the lack of adequate facilities there, she was rushed to the hospital at Tikiri. Doctors saved her but not her baby; she gave birth to a stillborn baby at the hospital the next day.

Ruai and her husband, Tankadhar Majhi, are happy that she survived cholera but are aggrieved that the absence of proper health care claimed their first child. “The doctor told me that I should be worried about my wife but not about the child that she was carrying,” Tankadhar said.

Subai Majhi of Ruai’s village met with the same fate. She survived cholera but lost her unborn baby. In the last week of August alone, the deadly disease claimed four lives, including that of a 35-year-old, in Kucheipadar, where tribal people form the majority.

The Kucheipadar health centre speaks volumes about the administrative neglect that leads to many diarrhoea and cholera deaths every year in this mineral-rich region during the monsoons. Established seven years ago, the health centre does not have a toilet, water or electricity. Ironically, there are power supply lines just a few metres away.

The lone post of doctor has also been lying vacant for the past one year. A doctor was posted and electricity provided after activists of the Prakrutika Sampad Suraksha Parishad and residents of Kucheipadar and nearby hamlets staged a roadblock on August 22 demanding help for the cholera-hit population. The authorities, who had been sleeping over people’s problems for years together, suddenly swung into action and got work started on a new tubewell in front of the health centre.

The Naveen Patnaik government makes frequent announcements about filling up of vacant posts of doctors in the backward Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region of the State. But the Kucheipadar health centre had a doctor for just two years in the past seven years.

Against the sanctioned strength of 12 doctors in Kashipur, there are only three doctors at work. Similar is the situation in the Dasmantpur block in the neighbouring Koraput district. This place has three doctors against the required 11.

Although appointments are made, no doctor reports for duty and even the rare ones who join are keen to leave the area as early as possible. The prime reason for this is lack of basic amenities. Many health centres do not have residential accommodation for doctors. Or the houses do not have electricity and water.

In some areas, it is the fear of extremists that keeps the doctors away. Despite the government announcing incentives for them, doctors are not willing to work in the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region.

Early this year, the primary health centre at the block headquarters of Dasmantpur was upgraded to a community health centre. But it does not have a doctor on permanent posting. Two doctors drawn from two other primary health centres in the block are on duty here, leaving no one to attend to patients in their actual places of posting.

The Kashipur and Dasmantpur blocks did not have enough doctors even two full months after diarrhoea and cholera started claiming the lives of tribal people in the area. Cholera-related deaths in the two worst-hit blocks were first reported in the first week of July. The local administration and the State government reacted to the situation only in the third week of August. By then at least 100 people had died.

The district authorities, who were caught napping when reports started appearing in the media on the deaths, were clueless about the death toll. As correct information was not coming through official channels on the deaths occurring in distant hamlets, officials found it convenient to suppress the actual toll.

The State government claimed that only 178 persons succumbed to diarrhoea and cholera in Rayagada, Koraput, Kalahandi and Gajapati districts by September 4, but unofficial reports put the death toll at over 300. Bhagban Majhi, convener of the Prakrutika Sampad Suraksha Parishad, said that at least 180 persons had died in Kashipur block by the end of August. Majhi, who himself survived cholera, alleged that the authorities were deliberately keeping the figures low to save the government from embarrassment.

In Dasmantpur, leaders of both the Congress and the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said that as many as 130 people died of cholera and diarrhoea by September 1. They said the health department, which was suppressing the exact number of deaths, would have a tough time issuing death certificates to the kin of those who died in the epidemic.

Squarely blaming the BJD-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government for its failure to cope with the epidemic, Taraprasad Bahinipati, the Congress legislator representing Koraput, said the authorities had ignored his repeated requests to fill up the vacant posts of doctors in Dasmantpur. “Only a permanent solution to the problems ailing the health sector in the region can prevent deaths in the coming years,” he said. The prime reasons for so many diarrhoea deaths in the region are a weak health care system, absence of safe drinking water and non-availability of employment opportunities. When 20 people died of cholera in Kashipur block in August 2001, the Naveen Patnaik government announced that it would improve the health infrastructure in the region. But it still remains a promise.

Contaminated water and total absence of health care in the region are the reasons for the large number of deaths of tribal people during the monsoons every year. The rural water supply scheme has failed to meet the people’s needs. Hundreds of tubewells are defunct in the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region.

The latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) makes the government’s apathy clear. It says: “Out of 74,020 wells targeted during the period 2001-06, 65,680 wells were constructed. Of these, 27,316 tubewells (42 per cent) were found to be discharging water with high iron/fluoride/chloride contents, rendering them unfit for drinking. Several piped water supply schemes remained incomplete for one to 14 years due to failure of water sources, deviations during execution, constraints of funds, etc. There was a general disregard to the government’s instructions regarding testing the quality of water through trial bores before installation of tubewells.”

Water is not tested and monitored periodically. “Water quality of 0.40 lakh sources in 0.28 lakh habitations was found unsafe for drinking. Around six lakh people were affected by water borne diseases during 2002-05,” the CAG report says.

This is not all. Many tubewells have water only during the rainy seasons. Local people alleged that though the authorities claim that the tubewells are sunk 100 feet (30 metres) or below, the real depth was around 70 ft (20 m). This is the main reason for water scarcity and contamination, they said.

The less said the better about the employment generating schemes. In Rayagada and Koraput, there are signboards announcing developmental works being carried out under the Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). But the schemes have made no substantive difference to the lives of the people.
Hundreds of hamlets do not have roads. The roads laid in interior areas are in bad shape and the water harvesting structures are not maintained well.

The CAG report also clearly outlines the faulty implementation of employment generation schemes“Review of implementation of Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) in the State during the period 2001-06 showed serious deficiencies in implementation of the programme.

The Government failed in adhering to the scheme guidelines for efficient financial and food grains management, leading to loss of Central assistance, misutilisation of scheme funds, shortage and pilferage of food grains. Contractors were extensively used in the guise of Village Labour Leaders (VLL) and prohibited works/non-durable assets/idle assets were created. Man-days generation was hypothetically arrived at without linking to the actual generation as per the muster rolls. Serious irregularities existed in payment of wages. There was no dedicated monitoring mechanism at the State level to review and evaluate the implementation of the scheme.”

The Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS), a Delhi-based organisation that had conducted a survey of 100 villages to assess the implementation of the NREGS, said that it was not the epidemic of cholera but the cancer of corruption that was killing hundreds of poor tribal people and crippling millions of them.

Alleging that government officials had misappropriated Rs.500 crore of NREGS funds, the CEFS said this amount would have given about 90 days of employment to 10 lakh poor families in Orissa.“It is not just another financial scam. Callous officials of Orissa have robbed 10 lakh hungry families of one meal a day for a whole year or two meals for six months,” it said.

Death at the doorstep

ORIA KANJIKA (35) of Pajar village in Dasmantpur block of Koraput district was shell-shocked when his father died of cholera at the community health centre on August 31. The disease had already claimed the lives of his mother and seven-year-old son in the days before that.

Oria was even scared to touch the body of his father for fear of contracting cholera. His father, Saiba Kanjika, caught the disease soon after his mother’s funeral at the cremation ground on the outskirts of their village.

With only one villager accompanying him to the hospital 20 km away from his village, Oria needed help to take his father’s body back home. But help was difficult to come by.

His request to the hospital authorities to arrange a vehicle to transport the body was met only on September 1 afternoon, a full 19 hours after the death. The hospital did not even have an ambulance. The private vehicle that had been hired by the government for its operations to tackle the epidemic came only after the intervention of District Collector Balakrushna Sahu.

More than anything else, Oria was worried about his wife and a remaining son and a daughter.

Uncertainty and fear of further cholera attacks in the family were writ large on his face.
Oria said the family did not have enough land to eke out a living. They also did not have a below poverty line (BPL) card. “We have been waiting for a BPL card for the past six years,” he said.

As shifting cultivation on his own land did not give him enough yield, Oria worked as a casual labourer whenever work was available in the area. He said there was no work since a watershed project under the food-for-work programme was completed in June.

From the little he earned, he paid Rs.25 every alternate month to a family possessing a BPL card to use it to draw 25 kg of rice at Rs.4 a kilo.

Oria’s is not an isolated case in Pajar village. Four others succumbed to the disease in the village, which has only 85 families, and many were undergoing treatment for cholera at different hospitals.

Tears rolled down Oria’s cheeks when he left for his village in the vehicle that carried the body of his father. Meanwhile, more and more patients were being brought to the hospital from far off hamlets.
Prafulla Das

Where are the NGOs?

THE question that hit the mind as one went round government health centres and cholera-affected villages in the two backward blocks of Kashipur and Dasmantpur in Orissa was: Where are the NGO leaders?

Though hundreds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) claim to have been working for the welfare of the poor in the interior pockets of Orissa, not one could be spotted over two days on August 31 and September 1. NGO leaders, the latest coinage denoting those leading NGOs, were not visible at all.

On the second day, this correspondent saw a few volunteers of an international voluntary organisation sitting in their vehicles loaded with medicines outside the Dasmantpur community health centre. The visiting NGO team vanished soon after handing over some medicines to the local health department officials.

In Dasmantpur, where NGOs operating in the region were not found in action, the office-bearers of some political parties were playing the role of Good Samaritans. Although the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party had done very little to prevent the cholera deaths, the president of the BJD’s Dasmantpur block unit, Narayan Bisoi, came down heavily on NGOs.

“All the 16 gram panchayats under Dasmantpur block have been affected by the cholera and diarrhoea that surfaced in the first week of July. The district administration has been trying to extend some help to the affected people during the past two weeks, but NGOs have not reached the spot so far,” Bisoi said on September 1.

In Kashipur the previous day, as NGO workers remained elusive, the only person found rendering voluntary service to cholera patients at the Tikiri primary health centre was Bhagirathi Behera, a local person.

“I have not brought any patient. But I have been cleaning the health centre premises and taking care of the cholera affected for the past 10 days,” Behera said.

On September 4, Sanhati, a federation of 65 NGOs of Orissa, came out with a report of a fact-finding team that it had sent to the cholera-affected villages in Rayagada and Koraput. More than 250 people had died of diarrhoea, it said.

The organisation, which said its team visited the affected villages from August 31 to September 3, blamed the district administration for its failure to implement social security programmes and welfare schemes.

Maintaining a deliberate silence on the role of NGOs in such a crisis, the four-member Sanhati fact-finding team accused the district administration of failing to mobilise civil society organisations to tackle the situation. The team further claimed that there was no cholera since 1987 because of the coordination between the government and NGOs.

The district administration, “for obvious reasons”, was now deliberately avoiding the involvement of the NGOs working in the region to mitigate the disaster, the Sanhati team alleged.

Sanhati’s allegation that the administration was deliberately avoiding the NGOs may be true. However, the NGOs, a majority of which are headquartered in the State capital, Bhubaneswar, and other urban centres, seem to be more concerned about policy decisions than being with the people.

The voluntary work of yesteryear appears to have turned into an armchair affair.
Prafulla Das

Poverty politics

PRAFULLA DAS
in Bhubaneswar

The Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region comes into focus as the blame game over its neglect begins ahead of civic polls.

WITH Orissa readying for the three-tier panchayati raj elections scheduled for February, a fresh round of political blame game has begun over the tribal-dominated Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) region's continued backwardness.

Various ongoing welfare and development measures, including the Revised Long-Term Action Plan (RLTAP), have failed to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people. No serious effort has been made to understand the reasons for the failure of the RLTAP to bring any perceptible change to the region, which is known for its low literacy level and abject poverty. According to official figures, a total outlay of Rs.6,251.08 crores was envisaged for KBK under the RLTAP, covering a project period of nine years, from 1998-99 to 2006-07. The funds were to be utilised for the development of agriculture, horticulture and irrigation; afforestation; drought-proofing through watershed development; providing health care, drinking water and rural connectivity; emergency feeding; and the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In spite of this, the percentage of families living below the poverty line (BPL) has shown an increasing trend.

The 1991 Census had indicated that 71.40 per cent of the families in the KBK districts were below the poverty line. The Central government's National Sample Survey conducted in 1999-2000, however, showed that about 78 per cent of the rural people of these districts belonged to the BPL category as against the State average of 47.15 per cent.

The KBK region accounts for 19.72 per cent of the State's population and over 30.59 per cent of its geographical area. The KBK region was divided in 1992 to form eight districts - Kalahandi, Nuapada, Bolangir, Sonepur, Nawrangpur, Malkangiri, Koraput and Rayagada.

The people of the region, with 38.72 per cent of them belonging to various tribal communities, suffer from high morbidity on account of under-nutrition and endemic diseases such as malaria, according to the latest economic survey of the State government. In fact, in August the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) expressed distress over the failure of the State in dealing with the menaces of malaria and diarrhoea in the region. It recommended the extension of the RLTAP beyond March 2007 to achieve the ultimate objective of drought-proofing, poverty alleviation and improving the quality of life of the people. The Commission has been monitoring the development programmes for KBK since 1996 under a Supreme Court mandate.

Out of the total 80 community development blocks, 49 are regarded as very backward and 28 as backward. Only three - Karlamunda in Kalahandi, Dunguripali in Sonepur and Podia in Malkangiri - are treated as "developing" blocks. The State has 314 blocks in 30 districts.

All the KBK districts are ecologically disturbed. More than 50 per cent of the forest cover in these districts has degraded, aggravating the problem of poverty. Road connectivity remains a major constraint, making access to markets, health care and educational institutions difficult.

The literacy level continues to be abysmal. The literacy rate stands at 36.58 per cent compared with the State average of 63.61 per cent. More than 60 per cent of the girls in the region marry below the age of 18 as against the national average of 36.80 per cent.

Although numerous schemes have been implemented, employment opportunities continue to be limited. Since agriculture, the main economic activity, does not generate enough employment, the region has been witnessing large-scale distress migration. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) will face an acid test in KBK in the coming months if trains passing through the region continue to be packed to capacity with people migrating to work in brick kilns in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The current hullabaloo over the KBK region started in August with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik blaming the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre for the gross neglect of the region. He alleged that the Centre had decided to discontinue the RLTAP. (However, a visiting Planning Commission team raised hopes by reiterating that the plan would continue.) Stating that the funds for KBK would now flow from the Backward Region Grants Fund (BRGF), resulting in a decrease of Rs.120 crores a year, Patnaik announced a Rs.600-crore plan, Biju KBK Yojana, to supplement the RLTAP.

While smaller parties described Patnaik's action as an attempt to help the ruling Biju Janata Dal strengthen its base in KBK and hide his failures, the Congress, the main Opposition party, was caught unawares. State Congress leaders approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and requested him to visit Orissa. Although Manmohan Singh failed to tour the KBK region owing to inclement weather, in Bhubaneswar he tried to set the records straight by saying that there was no question of his government neglecting KBK. "We will continue to give Rs.250 crores [a year] for the next six years to the KBK districts. This is in comparison to the Rs.700 crores given by the National Democratic Alliance government and Rs.500 crores given by us in two years [of rule]."

Manmohan Singh said the Centre would "fully support" all efforts for the development of the KBK districts and the rest of Orissa. "If the State wants any special rules for KBK districts, we will consider it."

While politicians thrive by making tall promises from time to time and bureaucrats in New Delhi and Bhubaneswar confine themselves to framing policies, the talk of the administration adopting a pro-poor approach at the ground level remains a subject of discussion in seminars and review meetings.

The administrators seem not to have bothered to read the official reports, which have pointed out deficiencies in the implementation of the RLTAP. The recommendations of a three-member team of the Planning Commission that visited the region in July 2005 is gathering dust.

In its 46-page report, the Planning Commission team had suggested that the Chief Administrator, Special Area Development (KBK) Project, should be located in Kalahandi, in the middle of the region, for effective implementation of the programmes and be given all powers of Chief Secretary. At present, the project's headquarters is in Koraput.

"While inspecting the construction activities, it was observed that the estimates are on the higher side. The quality of construction did not seem to be satisfactory," the Planning Commission team had pointed out.

The NHRC in August called for all-out efforts to eradicate poverty, saying that poverty by itself was "the greatest violator of human rights".

Expressing displeasure over the implementation of the rules that prohibit transfer of land in the Scheduled areas, the Commission said "not much has been done so far in changing land relationships to the legitimate advantage of the tribal population whose livelihood system was dependent on land resources".

The Commission took strong exception to the failure of the State government in effectively combating the menaces of malaria and diarrhoea, which keep recurring in the KBK region. The shortage of doctors remains a major problem in the region.

Land alienation

KORAPUT district in Orissa is a classic paradox. Although one of the most natural resource-rich districts of the country, it is also one of the poorest. The phrase `poverty amidst plenty' sounds apt here. Ever since Independence, special attention has been paid to the district through the initiation of various developmental programmes. But the gains in terms of improving the living standards of the tribal people have been minimal.

A recent study, carried out in 12 villages (Aminguda, Lendrimaliguda, Machhra, Kellar, Podapadar, Badanereka, Dumarpadar, Kudipadar, Gaudaguda, Khajuriput, Suku, and Podagada) under Koraput, Laxmipur and Dasamanthapur blocks by a Bhubaneswar-based forestry research organisation, RCDC, in collaboration with the Hyderabad-based National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), indicates that tribal land alienation has been a continuous process in the district.

The total number of households taken up for study was 1,850, of which only 6.7 per cent belonged to the Scheduled Castes. The Scheduled Tribes constituted nearly 65 per cent of the total households. Nearly 28.4 per cent of the households belonged to other castes. The total population in the villages was 8,062, of whom 4,097 were male. The sex ratio stood at 967 females for every thousand males.

The study threw up some alarming findings, such as the ones given below:
About 90 per cent of the families covered in the study were below the poverty line.

In three of the villages under the study, not even a single household was found to be above the poverty line.

Despite abject poverty, only 18 per cent of the households got houses under the Indira Awaas Yojana.

Among the households chosen for study in the selected villages, 10 per cent were of big farmers. The percentage of small farmers' households was 38 and marginal farmers and landless households constituted 32 and 20 per cent respectively.

The study found that of the total households having homestead land, only 15 per cent had pattas. The rest did not possess title deeds although they were in physical possession of the land.
Several residents of seven villages (Kellar, Badanereka, Kudipadar, Gaudaguda, Suku, Podagada, Machhra), who were allotted land in 1976-77, were yet to get pattas.

In many villages, the land allotted to the legitimate beneficiaries was found to be either unproductive or uncultivable.

The study concluded that serious attention needed to be paid towards the mortgage and sale of land without any valid documents, which had caused large-scale land alienation.

Prafulla Das

Orissa industrialisation lands in trouble

Prafulla Das

The Naveen Patnaik Government's ambitious plans could flounder on the issue of land acquisition.

GROWING OPPOSITION to land acquisition has emerged as a major barrier to the ambitious industrialisation plans of the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government in Orissa.

Protests have broken out Statewide against the displacement caused by land acquisition for industries. More so after the police firing at Kalinga Nagar in which 13 tribals were killed on January 2. The recent approval of special economic zone status to several upcoming mineral-based industries has added impetus to the people's opposition to land acquisition.

In fact, people's reluctance to give up their land to make space for industries seems to be growing apace with the speed at which the alliance government continues to sign memoranda of understanding with private companies for setting up industries in different parts of the State.
Poor rehabilitation of those displaced earlier is a major factor for the people's opposition.

By now, the land required by different companies to house their industries has already crossed the 1,00,000 acres mark. This requirement is in addition to the land the companies would get on lease for mining iron ore, bauxite, coal, and other minerals.

A total of 45 MoUs had been signed in the steel sector; the number of valid agreements stands at 42 at present following the cancellation of three. But the number of these MoUs is set to grow in the coming months as several other companies are waiting for the clearance of their proposals.

Besides, the State government has already signed 13 MoUs for setting up of thermal power projects that also require land both for their plants and mining of coal. Ten of these MoUs were signed on a single day last month (September 26).

That the Naveen Patnaik Government has failed in acquiring land for various industries is getting clearer by the day. The authorities have so far not been able to persuade the tribals of Kalinga Nagar to vacate their land. The tribals continue to block the Daitari-Paradip national highway near Kalinga Nagar since January 2 saying a firm no to displacement.

In the coastal villages spread over three gram panchayats in Jagatsinghpur, where a 12 million tonne capacity steel mill is planned, the situation is equally bad. The Government has agreed to hand over possession of 1,135 acres at Rs.25,000 per acre, but the steel company has not been able to take possession of any land in the area till date.

In its efforts to cope with the people's opposition to displacement, the company brought down its land requirement from 4,500 acres to 4,004 acres, but to no avail. The families facing displacement by the project have now blocked entry for both government and company officials to the area.

The Government has also not been able to earmark 30 acres in Bhubaneswar where the company plans to set up its office and a residential colony for its staff members. The company continues to run its office from space hired in a government building in the city. Its officials are living in private houses taken on rent.

Even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik continues to welcome all and promise land, minerals, water, and other help to create employment opportunities for the people, the whole exercise is threatening to flounder over land acquisition. Instead of creating an environment of economic prosperity, the industrialisation process seems to be creating social tensions in the proposed industrial hubs and mining zones.

The officials of various companies that have started offices in the State are now running from pillar to post to take possession of land required for their projects. But in most cases, these officials are in a fix. They are unable to raise their voice against the bureaucrats dealing with the land acquisition process and convince the people facing displacement to give land for new industries.

Capturing the aftermath of a tragedy

Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR: Almost seven years after the super-cyclone that ripped coastal Orissa claiming over 8,000 human lives, the trials and tribulations of its survivors have been portrayed in an Oriya feature film.

Kathantara (The Another Story) highlights the plight of Kalpana, a young woman who lost her husband in the storm. The narrative unfolds with the observance of the anniversary of the cyclone that hit on October 29, 1999.

Produced by Iti Samanta, editor of Kadambini, an Oriya monthly, the film is directed by Himanshu Khatua, whose debut film Sunya Swaroopa (Contours of the Void) won the national award for Best Oriya Feature Film in 1997.

Kathantara depicts the insecurity that dominated the minds of the Bangladeshi migrant families living in the coastal villages of the State. Many of these families were issued notices to quit India.

Kalpana, the lead woman character, who survived the super-cyclone, finally decides to marry the young Oriya man who saved her from death. Daughter of a Bangladeshi refugee who was born in Orissa, she approaches him after she is served with a notice to leave the country. Anu Chaudhury played the role.

The film shows the ordeals of Kalpana's sister-in-law Rupa, another survivor who is struggling with an abusive husband whom she married after her husband's death in the cyclone.

Kathantara provides a picture of the cyclone survivors taking shelter at the short-stay homes run by NGOs, adoption of children who lost both their parents in the storm and the media's role in the aftermath of the tragedy.

It was shot in the villages of Ersama block that was badly ravaged by the cyclone and hamlets of Kendrapara with their Bangladeshi settlers.

Orissa witnesses frenzied investment activity

Prafulla Das

Steel, power, alumina refineries chief gainers
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State of choice
Over Rs 4,00,000 cr in mineral-based industries
Huge investments in IT, tourism, and education
Private cos evince interest in ports, rail links and roads
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Bhubaneswar , July 23

Orissa is currently witnessing a spurt in investment activity.

After Reliance Energy's announcement on Friday on setting up a 12,000 MW power plant at a total investment of Rs 60,000 crore, Bhushan Steel and Strips on Saturday submitted a proposal to increase the capacity of its upcoming steel mill from three million tonnes to nine million tonnes at an additional investment of Rs 15,000 crore.

Orissa has so far attracted private investments of over Rs 4,00,000 crore for setting up mineral-based industries such as steel mills, power plants, and alumina refineries.

Besides, the State is also attracting huge investments in IT, tourism, and education.

Ceremonies of signing of agreements and powerpoint presentations have become a routine activity in the conference hall outside the Chief Minister, Mr Naveen Patnaik's office.

Teams of officials from various companies are seen meeting top officials of different Departments and Ministers to apprise them of their requirement of land, iron ore, bauxite, coal, and water.

In the steel sector, 43 MoUs have been signed for the production of 58 million tonnes of steel annually at a total investment of around Rs 1,40,000 crore.

The 44th agreement is likely to be signed shortly with Arcelor-Mittal for a 12-million-tonne steel mill at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore.

The rush to make steel gained momentum towards the last quarter of 2004 after officials of the Korean steel major, Posco, visited the State and announced plans to set up a 12-million-tonne steel plant at an investment of Rs 51,000 core, the highest ever FDI in the country.

The major players who have signed agreements are Posco, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, Sterlite Iron and Steel Company, and Essar.

In the energy sector, apart from Reliance Energy, major companies that have come forward to set up power plants include NLC, Tata Power Company, Sterlite Energy, KBK Nilachal, and Monnet Ispat.

Three companies - GMR Energy, Aban Power, and Nav Bharat Ferro Alloys - have finalised their proposals.

Besides, the State Government has announced that it would launch a joint venture company to produce 1,000 MW.

The projected investment in thermal power projects has crossed the Rs 1,50,000-crore mark.

With regard to aluminium, Vedanta Alumina is constructing a one-million-tonne refinery in Kalahandi at an investment of Rs 4,500 crore.

Utkal Alumina has also begun the process of construction of a one-million-tonne refinery in Rayagada district at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore.

The Aditya Birla Group has signed MoU to set up a three-million-tonne alumina complex with an investment of Rs 12,000 crore.

An L&T-Dubai Aluminium Company joint venture has also expressed its desire to put up a refinery at a cost of Rs 13,000 crore.

Development of ports is also attracting investments. The Dhamra Port Company has already initiated construction at Dhamra in Bhadrak district.

Private companies have also invested in construction of rail links and roads.

In the IT sector, Infosys and Satyam are already operating in the State. Wipro, TCS, Hexaware, and MindTree, have inked MoUs to set up facilities.

Education and tourism are other sectors attracting investments.

The Anil Agarwal Foundation has announced the setting up of a multi-disciplinary University at an investment of Rs 15,000 crore.

It will accommodate 100,000 students.

The Tata Group has completed construction of a budget hotel in Bhubaneswar and is planning four more such hotels in the State.

Hurt pride

DISINVESTMENT

Hurt pride


THE Centre's decision on Nalco was immediately opposed by the 7,000-odd employees of the company, trade unions and political parties. What added momentum to the agitation was the feeling of the common man that Nalco was Orissa's pride. While the workers of Nalco abstained from work, political parties organised rallies and demonstrations.

The workers at the company's smelter at Angul observed a 12-hour strike on June 23. Workers at the company's refinery in Damanjodi (Koraput district) stopped work for 24 hours on June 24. The officers and workers at the company's corporate office in Bhubaneswar abstained from work on June 26.

On June 25, all major Central trade unions held a State-level convention in Bhubaneswar to decide a course of action. Apart from the union leaders, representatives of various political parties and leaders of Nalco employees' unions attended the convention, which unanimously criticised the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The participants termed the Centre's decision `anti-people' and said there was no reason to sell equity in Nalco when the company's profits had been rising every year. Several of them alleged that the Centre was using Orissa as a laboratory for testing its dubious policies and promised that the people of Orissa would not remain silent spectators.

The trade unions vowed to bring to a halt all Central government establishments, including railways, ports, industries, and postal services, in Orissa on June 30. They decided that if the Centre did not change its decision after the strike, an all-party delegation would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and a State-wide bandh would be called.

Presiding over the convention, veteran trade union leader and former Member of Parliament Shivaji Patnaik warned that the agitation against disinvestment of Nalco would go on until the plan was dropped and urged political parties to put up a combined fight.

The unions that participated in the convention included the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), the United Trade Union Congress (Lenin Sarani) and the All India Council of Central Trade Unions (AICCTU).

Lalit Mohan Patnaik, chairman of the Central Coordination Committee of Nalco unions, pointed out that mobilising resistance this time was easier than in 2001 when the NDA tried to sell the company to a `strategic partner'. Clearly, the ruling Biju Janata Dal's (BJD) decision to take the fight to the Centre has given a boost to those opposing the disinvestment move.

As opposition to the move grew among workers and trade unions, the BJD led from the front. Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik wrote to the Prime Minister, urging him to reconsider the decision. The party's Koraput unit observed a bandh in Damanjodi on June 26, paralysing normal life in the small industrial town. Production was affected in the refinery that day as many workers did not turn up. The party's various wings took turns to stage demonstrations outside the Nalco corporate office in the following days.

The BJP did not want to be left out of the action. Its youth wing staged a demonstration in Bhubaneswar. A senior leader, Vinay Katiyar, while on a visit to the State, demanded immediate withdrawal of the plan. He, however, found it difficult to clarify his party's position, since a similar move had been made during the NDA regime.

Congress leaders of the State were also in a difficult situation. Instead of participating in the protests, they rushed to New Delhi to lobby with the party high command to reconsider the decision.

The Left parties were comfortably placed. Their stand on the issue had remained unchanged. Janardhan Pati, secretary of the state committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that his party had always been opposed to the privatisation of profit-making public undertakings and would continue to oppose such moves.

Prafulla Das

Orissa bans Maoists

Orissa bans Maoists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRAFULLA DAS