Peddling POSCO
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COMMENTS 
On June 10, a barricade of women and children prevented Orissa state forces from entering Govindpur and Dhinkia to begin land acquisition for the POSCO steel project. Elsewhere, the acquisition is going ahead, and all dissent is being silenced. Javed Iqbal reports from the ground
“Yeh bhi jail gaya tha” (He also went to jail) – That’s how I was introduced to every other person in Govindpur and Dhinkia villages of Jagatsinghpur district, handed over to the Pohang Steel Company by the state of Orissa.
It was May 20, 2011 in Dhinkia, and there was an uneasy calm. The Orissa government pledged to begin land acquisition on May 18, after Jairam Ramesh’s infamous May 2 order giving clearance for the POSCO project.
So far the government hadn’t claimed any private land, and were only taking land from project supporters who are “willingly” handing it over. They were far away from Dhinkia and Govindpur, where they were aware the opposition would be fierce. And both the state of Orissa and the environment ministry would know about the opposition, even if they don’t follow their own laws that are meant to respect it.
According to the Forest Rights Act, the palli sabhas of Dhinkia and Govindpur had rejected POSCO, and the state of Orissa had called the palli/gram sabhas dated 21.2.2011 and 23.2.2011, “fraudulent”.
The minister of environment believes the state of Orissa, that says both palli sabha resolutions were invalid, that there are no tribals in the project-affected area, and no “other persons has established his/her claim regarding residing in the forest area for 75 years prior to 13.12.2005 or having credible dependence on the forest land for bonafide livelihood needs for 75 years.” (See Jairam Ramesh's May 2 order granting Forest Clearance to POSCO)
Jairam Ramesh will not institute an independent inquiry into the claims and counter-claims, because “faith and trust in what the state government says is an essential pillar of cooperative federalism”
To Ramesh, only 69 people have signed the palli sabha resolution of February 21, and only 64 have signed the palli sabha resolution of February 23.
Some papers have allegedly gone missing. Probably those showing that there were 1,632 people from Dhinkia who signed, or 1,365 people from Govindpur who signed.
The POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti replied to Ramesh stating: “Hard copies of the full resolution – with more than 70% quorum in both Dhinkia and Gobindpur villages – were sent by registered post A/D to all Odisha government authorities and to the ministry.”
“We believe that the Odisha government has deliberately used the scanned electronic copies sent to you, whose covering letter explicitly stated that only the first page of signatures was being included. The hard copies are already with you, and the veracity of their statements can easily be checked.”
But no, the Forest Rights Act 2006, a law meant to give the forests back to forest-dwelling communities, to allow them access to livelihood, isn’t a priority of the environment ministry which probably finds hard copies a waste of trees, and would rather believe in the scanned copy, which is also proof of the “fraudulent” manner in which the Sarpanch of Dhinkia, Sisir Mahapatra, conducted the palli sabha. Ramesh is asking for “stringent action” against him for violating the Orissa Gram Sabha Act of 1964.
“I believe as a minister my responsibility is not just to do the right thing but to do the thing right,” wrote Jairam Ramesh in his MOEF order. Apparently, checking one’s mail isn’t a ‘thing’ that can be done right for a minister.
The acquisition
Six bureaucrats sat in a circle, eating fruits near Noriya Sahi, a project -affected village. One works for the Industrial Corporation of Orissa (IDCO), another is the block development officer; then sits the additional divisional magistrate, two resettlement & rehabilitation officers, and the sub-divisional magistrate, who asked me if I knew what an ‘SDM’ was. These were people who’d be in serious trouble if they were ever surrounded by a gram sabha. Thus they came with the police.
“We should manage to acquire all the land in a month,” said the R& R officer.
“Are people from POSCO a part of the process?” I asked.
“Yes, they are there,” replied the IDCO man.
“What do you do?” I asked a young man accompanying the demolition team.
“I work with POSCO.”
“What’s your name?”
“R K Rout,” he said.
“You can see it’s all very peaceful, there is no opposition to the land acquisition,” said the R & R officer.
Since May 18, all the acquisition that the government has done is from Gadkujang panchayat, where project supporters have willingly allowed their betel vine cultivation plots to be demolished, and others who’ve never had a voice haven’t been able to resist. The pro-POSCO United Action Committee had spoken up against the fact that none of their six-point demands for rehabilitation were met, and they’d oppose land acquisition. But they relented, leaving many people dissatisfied and betrayed.
A local journalist, on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the consent to demolish isn’t entirely painless – wives cry while husbands take cheques.
Land acquisition is a destroyer of families. And platoons of armed policemen saunter across homes and villages, while children play and villagers who pledge ‘they’d rather die’ than give their land to the government are awaiting the day when the confrontations with them will begin.
Basu Behera is one such man in Noriya Sahi, who lives in a divided community – where there are project supporters and those like him.
“I cultivate betel vines, kaju, about 50 quintals of rice yearly and I get coconuts, pineapples, mangoes. They can take my land over my dead body.”
I must have heard that a thousand times in three years. Self-sustaining communities may have the economics, the logic, the truth on their side, but industrial development has a mad virulent greed. And guns.
Back amongst the six bureaucrats, about to finish land acquisition for the day, I had brought up the issue of the Land Acquisition Act 1894 and why there is so much opposition to it, taking the recent confrontations in Bhatta Parsaul where four people were killed as an example.
“The people in this area aren’t economically well-off,” said Sangram Mahapatra of IDCO, “In places like Bhatta Parsaul in UP, farmers themselves are so rich they would not even part with their land if you give them Rs 1 crore.”
“The people here are more economically deprived, that’s why the project is here,” he continued.
“We believe in maximum happiness for the maximum number of people.” He then spoke about John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham and that the POSCO project follows the principles of Utilitarianism, which is the founding principle of modern democracy.
“What about the opposition?” I asked.
“In a democratic country, there will always be disagreement,” continued the R&R officer.
“That’s why the government is there,” said the SDM.
“A cross-section of people always misguide the people.”
“Kalinganagar was an aberration,” continued the IDCO man, who also works on Tata’s project there. “See, we are ground level workers, we know a lot of what happens.”
“I was there a few days ago in Kalinganagar,” I said, “to report on the little girl from the project-affected village who was killed as a Maoist.”
“About that issue, you should spend the whole day with me and I shall tell you,” said the IDCO man.
“In many places in Orissa, there is no opposition to land acquisition. There was none in Ongole, Dhenkanal, Baleshwar, or Bhubaneshwar.”
He did not speak about Kashipur. He did not speak about Gandhamardhan. He did not speak about Niyamgiri. He works on the ground, but did he even go across to the people?
Five minutes away in Noriya Sahi, Dibya Prakash Behera’s only betel vine plantation was broken down and she received Rs 1.8 lakh for it. Her entire family depends on betel vine for sustenance. How long is Rs 1.8 lakh going to last her?
To most people, compensation is not just inadequate, but the very idea of compensation is inadequate.
The prison
While the state of Orissa and the environment ministry does not care about the letter of the law, it’s interesting to note the number of (false) cases against the people protesting against the project.
The land acquisition process involves the building of false cases upon everyone who has the voice to say No. From Kashipur, Kalinganagar, Lohandiguda, to Jagatsinghpur, the police has acted with remarkable ingenuity when it comes to creating virtual prisons to cordon off the struggling people of the country.
“I have 37 cases against me,” said Ranjan Swain of Govindpur village, “Apart from section 302, I think they’ve put everything on me.”
“I was travelling to Paradip by motorcycle, accosted by pro-POSCO goondas, beaten up and sent to hospital. And from the hospital I was arrested,” said Prakash Jenna of Govindpur. He was released from jail after eight months.
“They killed one of our people, and put the murder charge on me,” said Sisir Dalai, regarding a bomb-throwing incident on June 20, 2008, when pro-POSCO goondas hurled bombs onto the PPSS members, leading to the death of Tapan Mandal, and injuries to at least nine others. The project supporters were then taken ‘hostage’ by the PPSS members after they gherao-ed the building they escaped into, and were only rescued/arrested by the police from the angry PPSS mob, and then released after three months in jail.
None of the project-affected persons who are openly anti-POSCO are free people. None of them would leave their villages as the risk of re-arrest is understandably high. Abhay Sahoo, the leader of the agitation, had spent 10 months in jail. There are a total of 173 cases slammed against the people protesting the project, according to Prashant Paikray, spokesperson of the PPSS.
“The confrontation will come, when they start coming to Govindpur,’ said Prakash Jenna, “and we’re not afraid.”
On May 28, the confrontation did begin when a police jeep came into Dhinkia. The people quickly responded and drove the police away, who left, promising retribution.
Update: The confrontation of June 10
After days of anxious wait, the administration and the policemen tried to enter the stronghold of the PPSS – Govindpur and Dhinkia -- on June 10. A human barricade of women and children prevented the policemen from entering the area, even after the administration announced Section 144, making it “unlawful” for so many people to be gathered in one area. The police eventually retreated after four hours, according to the spokesperson of the PPSS.
Meanwhile, the writ petition against POSCO in the High Court, filed by the villagers, has been repeatedly delayed.
“We have no faith in the courts,” said Ranjan Swain. “Today was a small victory,” he continued, referring to the human-wall of women and children who stopped the police and the administration, who stopped POSCO, who stopped displacement, who stopped dispossession.
(Javed Iqbal is a journalist who has been reporting on tribal issues in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. He worked for The New Indian Express from November 2009 to April 2011, documenting state and Maoist atrocities in undivided Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, and people’s movements in Orissa. He has also written extensively on people’s movements and slum politics in Mumbai)
Infochange News & Features, June 2011