The Orissa government has adopted a policy to resettle and rehabilitate people who would be displaced by new industries and other development projects. The new policy, which appears to be silent on the questions raised by those resisting displacement, has been welcomed by the industry. However, critics have termed it `pro-industry'.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Ministerial and bureaucratic colleagues were jolted out of their zeal for indiscriminate industrialisation on January 2 when 13 tribal people fell to police bullets during their protest against the construction of a boundary wall for the proposed Tata Steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district. (Frontline, February 10).
The draft resettlement and rehabilitation policy gathered dust since last July. As the struggle against the steel plant project of Korean steel-maker POSCO gained momentum in Jagatsinghpur district, and tribal resistance increased after the Kalinga Nagar incident, the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government announced its plan to implement the new policy soon.
A five-member Ministerial Committee was formed to finalise the draft policy after consulting representatives of the Opposition, non-governmental organisations, tribal leaders and experts. The Committee cleared the policy even as the Kalinga Nagar deadlock continued. The State Cabinet approved the policy after incorporating certain changes to make the rehabilitation package more attractive. For instance, the financial assistance for building houses was increased to Rs.1.5 lakh from Rs.50,000. The policy stated that gram sabha will be consulted before finalising the plan.
The plan allows a project proponent to purchase land directly from the people and promises to enhance the one-time cash assistance in lieu of employment/ self-employment to Rs.5 lakhs, Rs.3 lakhs, Rs.2 lakhs and Rs.1 lakhs for different categories against the earlier provisions of Rs.2 lakhs, Rs.1 lakhs, and Rs.50, 000. It states that industries would be asked to issue convertible preference shares up to a maximum of 50 per cent of the one-time cash assistance at the option of the displaced families and subject to the relevant laws. The cash compensation in lieu of the land would be Rs.1 lakh an acre for irrigated land and Rs.50, 000 for non-irrigated land.
"The new policy indeed has been designed to give a weapon in the hands of the pro-industrialisation forces to silence the genuine voices of protest. The framers of the policy have manipulated certain words to create an illusion that it offers more for the people," said Sudhir Patnaik, a social scientist. "Again, will it be wise to allow the private companies to buy land directly?"
As the new policy allows the government or the project authority to extend additional benefits to the displaced, keeping in view the specific nature of displacement, the State Cabinet also approved special benefits for families facing displacement by the POSCO plant in Jagatsinghpur and projects of Tata Steel and other companies at Kalinga Nagar. In the case of the POSCO project, the government promised compensation of Rs.6,000 for each decimal of land for betel growers, including those on government land. In Kalinga Nagar, where the government acquired land in the early 1990s, it decided to give an additional ex-gratia of Rs.25,000 an acre.
Both Tata Steel and POSCO have welcomed the new policy and the additional benefits announced by the government for those facing displacement. But the people are not happy. Resistance to the POSCO project is growing with the administration's failure to convince the people of their "gains" from the project. In Kalinga Nagar, the situation continues to be volatile. Despite the administration managing to create a division among the locals, those agitating since January 2 by blocking the national highway passing through their area have rejected the new policy.
"We are against displacement," said Rabindra Jarika, convenor of Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch, the organisation that is spearheading the anti-displacement agitation at Kalinga Nagar. "We will not leave our land and homes to make space for industries at any cost. We have rejected the rehabilitation policy as it favours industrialists and supports displacement of the people," Jarika said after the talks between the representatives of the Janmanch and the Chief Minister failed to put an end to the crisis.
The Janmanch has announced that the road block will continue until the government fulfils their demands, including the dropping of cases registered against their activists. It has also decided not to extend its cooperation to the judicial commission probing the January 2 firing.
Prafulla Das
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