Tactical retreat

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

in Bhubaneswar

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.

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.

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.