NEW DELHI: Maoist prisoner Srivinas Srimalu was released from Malkangiri jail on Tuesday. Maoists were demanding Srimalu's release in exchange for Orissa district collector R V Krishna.
Srimalu had filed a bail application in the district fast track court on February 19. Srimalu was among the seven prisoners the Maoists want released in return for the district collector and junior engineer Pabitra Majhi.
Additional District Judge of the Fast Track Court P K Karna granted bail to Srinivasulu in a case involving criminal conspiracy and sedition charges on a bond of Rs 25,000 and surety of equal amount.
Sriramulu had been lodged in Malkangiri jail since 2007. In the last four years, he had been tried in six cases. All the cases resulted in his acquittal.
"After six successive acquittals, in September 2009, he was implicated in a case dating back to July 2007. The FIR of the incident did not name him. It simply said unnamed Maoists. Our contention is that he has been falsely implicated in this case, and so we are seeking bail," said Ram Patnaik, Sriramulu's lawyer.
Meanwhile, Maoist-chosen mediators held discussions with hardcore Naxal leader Ganti Prasadam on the release of the abducted Malkangiri district collector and an engineer and said they were hopeful of resolution of the six-day crisis "very soon, may be today".
District collector R V Krishna and junior engineer Pabitra Manjhi were taken hostage by Maoists while they were inspecting development schemes in Jantapai village last week.
The bail plea of Maoist leader Ganti Prasadam, facing charges in about 100 cases in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, Padma, wife of a senior Maoist leader, and three others would be taken up in the Orissa high court tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Orissa collector kidnap case: Maoist prisoner Srimalu gets bail
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Orissa may facilitate release of Maoist leaders
Bhubaneshwar: The Orissa government may give in to the Maoists demand of release of their jailed leaders in exchange for abducted Malkangiri collector and an engineer, sources said Sunday.
Sources said the government has also begun process of evaluating charges against some of the rebels lodged in various jails. To facilitate the negotiation process, the government may ask its lawyers not to object bail petitions moved by their lawyers.
R. Vineel Krishna, the district collector of Malkangiri, was abducted along with junior engineer Pabitra Mohan Majhi by Maoists Wednesday evening.
The state government Friday requested two human rights activists and academics G. Haragopal and R. Someswar Rao to mediate after Maoists suggested their names.
Although officials declined to make any comments, sources said efforts are also on for the release of Maoist ideologue Ganti Prasadam after one of the mediators said his release will speed up the process of dialogue.
'I appeal to the government of Orissa to release Ganti Prasadam,' Hargopal said in an interview from Delhi to a local television channel Saturday.
'Most of the cases against him are in Andhra Pradesh and the high court has already granted him bail,' he said.
'Once he is out, perhaps I and R.S. Rao (the other mediator) will try to intervene in the situation. Prasadam can speak on behalf of the party (Communist Party of India-Maoist). Perhaps we can find some solution,' he said.
According to sources, the state police secured a prison transfer warrant from a court and already have brought Prasadam from a jail in Andhra Pradesh Saturday night.
'He is now in Koraput jail,' senior state police official told IANS confirming the development.
Prasadam's lawyer moved a petition in a local court Saturday seeking grant of bail which was rejected. His lawyer may move the bail petition again Monday, he said.
The rebels have also sought release of their colleagues languishing in different jails in the state. At least seven of them are hard core Maoists, he said.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Condemn the indiscriminate killings and fake encounters by the police and paramilitary forces in Odisha !
January 12, 2011
Condemn the indiscriminate killings and fake encounters by the police and paramilitary forces in Odisha !
People would surely defeat the conspiracy of Naveen Patnaik to hand over the natural resources of Odisha to the Corporations by decimating the Maoist revolutionary movement !
As part of the massive offensive Operation Green Hunt being conducted in coordination by the central and state governments with the avowed aim of decimating the Maoist revolutionary movement completely, the special police and paramilitary forces have resorted to indiscriminate killings in the past two months in Odisha and have taken nearly 25 lives in cold-blood in various incidents. Of these most of them were fake encounters while others were incidents where hundreds of police and paramilitary were deployed with specific information about the whereabouts of the guerillas and fired indiscriminately on the guerillas and the people with them.
Recently on January 12, 2011, in an `encounter' in a forest area in Keonjhar district two Maoists had died and on January 9, 2011 in an alleged encounter in Bandhkamali mountains which fall under the Niyamgiri area of Rayagadha district, nine comrades were martyred. Ravi, one of the martyred comrades, is an important leader who has been working among the oppressed people of Odisha for the past few years. He hails from East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. Just one week back, on January 2, 2011 in the encounter which was said to have taken place in the Rayaghati forests under Kalinganagar area in Jajpur district, five Maoists including three women comrades were martyred. One among these martyrs was an Area Committee member of the Kalinganagar area. They were in preparation for some mass activities on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the massacre of Adivasis on January 2 when this incident occurred. On 29 December, 2010, in an alleged encounter in Talpada forest area of Keonjhar district one woman comrade was martyred. Before this in the fourth week of December the police announced that three Maoists had died in an encounter at Adaba forest area in Gajapati district. In the beginning of January, in another alleged encounter in Bargarh district two persons had died but the people had declared that they were ordinary people and that the police had killed them in cold-blood. Some days before this there were news items in the media that even the encounter in Gajapati district was also a fake one and that ordinary people had died in this. Though huge scale protests were staged by people and democrats on these fake encounters, the Naveen government is not caring a damn and is resorting to murders of ordinary people and revolutionaries unscrupulously.
Odisha is a state abundantly rich in mineral, water and forest resources but it has become the abode of dire poverty and hunger deaths. Odisha is in the first place in iron reserves and it has many other valuable mineral resources. But all this wealth is filling the coffers of the wealthy while the conditions of the poor people are deteriorating. In the past 63 years of so-called independence, the oppressed people of Odisha, particularly the adivasis are getting crushed under the feudal and imperialist exploitation. The Odisha government led by the Mining Mafia Boss Naveen Patnaik has turned Odisha into the paradise of the mining corporations by signing innumerable MoUs with them. More than 49 MoUs regarding steel plants, more than 20 MoUs regarding thermal power plants, some MoUs for alumina refinery projects and a harbor were signed. The MoU worth 55,000 crores of rupees signed with the MNC Posco belonging to South Korea is the biggest foreign direct investment in India. The Odisha government had shamelessly violated its own laws while granting permissions to Tata in Kalinganagar and Vedanta in Niyamgiri apart from Posco. All these MoUs lead to untold miseries for the Odisha people. These would lead to destruction of the forests, lands, water, ecology and all aspects of their lives. This could be one of the biggest man-made disasters in the world. That is why the people of Odisha are fighting against this atrocity and exploitation.
In the recent past, Odisha people agitated and are still agitating against the exploitation and atrocities of the MNCs and big comprador bourgeoisie companies like Tata, Vedanta, Posco etc. and also against the feudal exploitation in the Narayanapatna area of Koraput district. Government used brutal force against these struggles and killed many people. On January 2, 2006, the police fired on the adivasis who refused to hand over their cultivable lands to the Tata Steel company in Kalinganagar and killed at least fourteen of them. In many other instances, people had become injured or have lost their lives in police firings. People launched agitations against bauxite mines of Vedanta company in Niyamgiri area and against Vedanta Alumina refinery in Lanjigarh. Caving in before the people's agitations, the Central government had cancelled permission to Vedanta with the reason that it had violated rules and regulations. But the people are still continuing their agitation as they feel that as long as the Vedanta refinery exists in Lanjigarh it is detrimental to their very existence and that it would adversely affect their lands and ecology. People of Odisha are fighting against such issues in many places. The Maoist party is leading these agitations in many places and supporting them in others. More important is the fact that people are welcoming the leadership of Maoists and are aspiring for it. The Odisha people have realized that there is no political party other than the Maoist party which could put an end to feudal and imperialist exploitation. The Maoist movement is expanding to many new areas. The Naveen Patnaik government with the full support of the UPA government at the centre is resorting to these massacres precisely because the Maoists constitute the main hurdle to their blanket loot of resources. Particularly, it is obvious to one and all that the callous murder of nine revolutionaries in Niyamgiri area has happened with the aim of facilitating the wholesale loot of Vedanta and under its aegis. Similarly it is also very clear that the fascist massacres resorted to by the government in the Kalinganagar area (in Jajpur and Keonjhar districts) is to facilitate the exploitation of corporations like that of Tata and others waiting in the wings to occupy this whole area. Naveen Patnaik who is gobbling billions of rupees as the stooge of the corporations and his administrative machinery are being threatened seriously by the existence of the Maoist movement. That is why they are resorting to fascist onslaught on the people and the guerilla squads spending billions of rupees on increasing police, commando forces (SOG), SPO and informer network on a huge scale.
History has proven many a times that it is impossible to suppress the people's movements with murders, offensives and suppression campaigns. The comprador Naveen Patnaik, Vedanta ex-director and the CEO of the present Operation Green Hunt Chidambaram, other ruling class oligarchs and their imperialist masters are dreaming that they would be able to put aside all the hurdles in the path of exploitation of the feudal classes and the corporations by crushing the Maoist revolutionary movement. The people are bound to come to the fore more militantly to intensify their struggles. Though the spate of encounters in the past few days indicate the intensity of the offensive on the Maoists this should be seen as part of the overall offensive on all the people's movements fighting against their loot. We can stop these massacres only by taking up arms and fighting in a united manner against the anti-people, pro-imperialist policies followed by the blood-thirsty Naveen government and against corporate exploitation.
The Central Committee of the CPI (Maoist) is appealing to all the people of our country and democrats to condemn in severe terms these atrocious massacres and fake encounters. We are appealing to the people to demand independent judicial inquiry into all these incidents of firings and to demand punishment for all the police officials involved in them. We are appealing to all that they should realize that these offensives are not carried on exclusively on the Maoist movement and that they are aimed at all those who are raising their voice or fighting against this corporate loot. Our Central Committee is calling upon all the democratic, progressive and patriotic forces to unite and fight against the corporate exploitation and against the massacres perpetrated by the central and state governments and against the Operation Green Hunt carried on for the incessant loot of our resources.
(Abhay)
Spokesperson,
Central Committee,
CPI (Maoist)
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Landmark fiat
in New Delhi
| The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests reverses its approach and refuses clearance to the Vedanta mining project. |
Jairam Ramesh at a press conference in New Delhi on August 24.
ON August 24, Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, uploaded on the Ministry's website the text of his detailed decision rejecting the application from Vedanta Resources for forest clearance to start bauxite mining in Orissa's Niyamgiri hills. The decision is a rare instance of how the executive can use its powers to correct a perceived injustice resulting from its own earlier decision and directions of the Supreme Court. Jairam Ramesh's decision reversed the Ministry's first-stage forest clearance granted to the Orissa government in December 2008 and made inoperative the Supreme Court's August 8, 2008, clearance to Vedanta's Indian affiliate, Sterlite, to divert forests for bauxite mining.
The crux of the controversy is the Centre's powers to stop diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes. Ever since the subject of forests was transferred from the State List to the Concurrent List under the Constitution in 1976, the Centre's powers to act directly in managing the country's forests have been recognised. The Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980 conveyed Parliament's intention to arrest the rapid decline in forest cover which had, until then, averaged one million hectares a year. The Act prevented the cutting of trees in forests without the Central government's approval. However, interpretation of the Act's provisions gave rise to legal problems. The meaning of the word ‘forest' used in the Act was contested, and the need for prior approval of the Central government in all activities in the forest area was questioned before the Supreme Court. Although the Supreme Court resolved this issue of definition easily in terms of the dictionary meaning of ‘forest', the cases before it presented an opportunity for it to assume a much more active role than it had been assigned originally. Thus, the Supreme Court began to issue, from December 1996, sweeping directives to oversee the enforcement of forest laws across the country. It aimed to regulate the felling and use of trees and the movement of timber in all States to promote sustainable use of forests. It sought to do this through a Special Bench and a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to examine the technical issues, whose advice has not always been binding on the Bench.
Jairam Ramesh's decision is significant because for the first time since the Supreme Court began playing an activist role in forest matters the Central government has asserted its powers and felt bold enough to render a Supreme Court decision irrelevant. In this the Minister was helped by legal opinion, tendered by Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati, that the Supreme Court's direction is not binding on the government if it rejects an application for forest clearance.
How it all started
On February 28, 2005, the Orissa government forwarded a proposal to the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (MoEF) for the diversion of 660.749 hectares of forest land for mining bauxite in favour of the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts.
The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) in the MoEF recommended “in principle” approval on October 27, 2007, stipulating certain conditions such as concurrent reclamation, minimum tree felling in a phased manner and modified wildlife management plan. Although the August 24 decision does not elaborate, it is relevant to know how the FAC arrived at the decision to recommend “in principle” approval.
In September 2005, the CEC recommended to the Supreme Court that mining should not be permitted on the Niyamgiri hill. The CEC report was a scathing indictment of the project and questioned the integrity of the authorities involved. It also recommended that the environmental clearance granted by the MoEF for the alumina refinery plant on September 22, 2004, be revoked and all work be stopped.
Yet, in February 2006, the court referred the matter to the FAC and sought a report. The FAC requested the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL) to assess the project for soil erosion and impact on water resources. The CMPDIL cleared the project of all water-related concerns. The WII's report, submitted in June 2006, warned that bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri plateau would destroy a specialised wildlife habitat. However, following a special presentation by Orissa forest officers, the institute, in October 2006, recommended a Rs.42-crore plan for mitigation of impact on wildlife. When the Supreme Court heard the matter on May 16 and 18, 2007, the CEC argued that the FAC had acted irresponsibly and with “undue haste” in granting Vedanta clearances. On December 11, 2008, the MoEF granted in-principle clearance to the State government.
On August 10, 2009, the State government applied to the MoEF for the final clearance. The FAC recommended on November 4, 2009, that the final clearance be considered only after ascertaining the community rights on forest land and after the process of establishing such rights under the Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, also known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA), is completed.
On January 1, 2010, the FAC constituted a three-member expert group to carry out a site inspection. When this group recommended further examination on various grounds, Jairam Ramesh set up a four-member committee of specialists, chaired by Naresh Saxena, former Secretary, Planning Commission, to facilitate a holistic investigation. This committee submitted its report on August 16.
Saxena Committee's report
Some salient findings of the Saxena Committee, which influenced the MoEF's decision not to grant the final clearance, are:
The project would severely disturb important wildlife habitat that has been proposed as part of the Niyamgiri Wildlife Sanctuary.
THE CONVEYER BELT to supply bauxite ore to the Vedanta alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa's Kalahandi district was built without any formal approval.
More than 1.21 lakh trees would need to be cleared for mining besides many more lakh shrubs and herbal flora.
The grasses are breeding and fawning ground for the four-horned antelope ( Tetracerus quadricornis), barking deer ( Muntiacus muntjac) as well as spotted deer ( Axis axis). A rare lizard, golden gecko ( Callodactylodes aureus), is found on the proposed lease area. The populations of all these species will decline if mining is allowed.
Mining on the scale proposed in this habitat would severely disturb elephant habitats and threaten the important task of elephant conservation in south Orissa.
The mining operations involve stripping of more than seven square kilometres of the Niyamgiri hilltop, which would drastically alter the region's water supply.
The proposed mining lease (PML) area is intimately linked, by way of economic, religious, and cultural ties, to 28 Kondh villages with a total population of 5,148. The affected include 1,453 Dongria Kondhs, who constitute 20 per cent of the total population of this tribe. Loss of forest cover will cause a substantial decline in their economic well-being. Landless Dalits who are dependent on Kondhs will also suffer.
Mining-related activities will deny Dongria Kondh access to their cultivable lands. Mining activities will also adversely affect the surrounding slopes and streams that are crucial for agriculture.
The Orissa government did not follow the Forest Rights Act and disregarded the legitimate and well-established rights of the Kondh Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs).
The Orissa government is not likely to implement the Forest Rights Act in a fair and impartial manner as far as the PML area is concerned.
The MoEF cannot grant the clearance unless the process of recognition of rights under the Forest Rights Act is complete and satisfactory; the consent of the concerned community has been granted; and both points have been certified by the gram sabha of the area concerned. All of these conditions, not any one, must be satisfied.
If mining is permitted on this site, it will not only be illegal, but will also destroy one of the most sacred sites of the Kondh PTGs. It will make the area easily accessible to poachers and timber smugglers, threatening the rich biodiversity of the hills.
The mining activities at the PML site will have limited relevance to the refinery now under a sixfold expansion as the 72 million tonne ore deposit here would last only about four years for the increased needs of the expanded refinery. In balance against this are the adverse consequences on the primitive tribal people, the environment and the wildlife of these forests.
Vedanta Aluminium Limited was accorded clearance under the Environment Protection Act (EPA) on the condition that no forest land would be used for the establishment of the refinery. But now it is clearly established that the company has occupied 26.123 ha of village forest land within the refinery boundary with the active collusion of the officials concerned. Hence, the environment clearance already granted is legally invalid. Allowing mining in the PML area would shake the faith of the tribal people in the laws of the land and have serious consequences for the security and well-being of the entire country.
FAC endorsed the report
The FAC on August 23 endorsed the Saxena Committee report, accepting that there was lack of diligence in safeguarding the rights of the PTGs in the adjoining forest areas, and found it a fit case for applying the precautionary principle to obviate the irreparable damage to the affected people. This principle requires the government authorities to anticipate, prevent and attack the causes of environmental pollution. It imposes the onus of proof on the developer or industrialist to show that his or her action is environmentally benign.
The FAC, therefore, recommended temporary withdrawal of the in-principle/stage-1 approval accorded by the MoEF for the diversion of 660.749 ha of forest land in favour of Orissa Mining Corporation Ltd. After giving due opportunity to the State government to present its views on the Saxena Committee report, Jairam Ramesh elaborated on certain factors that he considered while arriving at his decision.
read more at http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20100924271902200.htm
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Vedanta’s Orissa project nixed
After five long years of court hearings, violent public protests, Centre-state wrangling and media coverage, the government denied permission for bauxite mining at Niyamgiri in Orissa, settling the dispute in favour of the tribe that’s indigenous to the area.
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s announcement on Tuesday will mean that an integral part of the Orissa Mining Corp. Ltd-Sterlite Industries India Ltd project will have to be scrapped. Sterlite is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Plc, a London-listed company, which also owns Vedanta Alumina Ltd, operator of the Lanjigarh alumina refinery, which was to have been fed by bauxite from Niyamgiri.
The Orissa government can move the high court or the yet-to-be-established green tribunal.
In 2005, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Orissa and Vedanta to set up the complex, including the alumina refinery and a captive power plant. It also included the supply of 150 million tonnes (mt) of bauxite for Vedanta’s alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, for which the state had identified the Niyamgiri mine as the initial source of the material’s supply to the extent of 78 mt.
“There have been serious violations of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), the Environment Protection Act (EPA) and the Forest Conservation Act (FCA),” Ramesh said. “We have also issued show-cause notices to the company. This is not an emotional decision. There is no prejudice and no politics. This is not because Niyamgiri is sacred (the hill with the bauxite deposits is held sacred by the primitive tribal group known as the Dongria Kondh). This is purely a legal approach.”
According to the firm’s statement released after the decision: “As at 31 March, Vedanta had invested $5.4 billion (`25,272 crore today) in its aluminium projects in Orissa. Around 10,000 people are employed at the Lanjigarh alumina refinery plant. Vedanta is currently operating its alumina refinery with outsourced bauxite.”
The company said the state government is trying to make sure that it can supply bauxite from alternative sources.
“In view of the ongoing delay in approval of the Niyamgiri mining, the government of Orissa is actively considering allocation of alternate source of bauxite to Vedanta’s alumina refinery, from the state of Orissa,” said the statement.
The state government could not be reached.
“In response to the certain allegations raised in the report, Vedanta Resources reconfirms that there has been no regulatory violation of any kind at the alumina refinery,” the statement added.
The company said in a revised statement that it sent out later, “We are not in possession of Niyamgiri mine and no mining activity has been or will be undertaken till all approvals are in place.”
On Tuesday evening, Sterlite lost 3.97% to end at `152.40 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The key Sensex fell 0.53% to 18,311.59 points. Vedanta closed 7.07% down in London.
The environment ministry has relied on a recent report by former bureaucrat N.C. Saxena, the recommendations of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) and the attorney general’s opinion, according to Ramesh.
The Saxena report, in its investigation of the implementation of FRA, found that the legitimate claims of the Dongria Kondh have been discouraged and denied without the due process of law, which is illegal on part of the district or sub-divisional committees. The report further said that the Orissa government is not likely to implement FRA in a fair and impartial manner since it has gone to the extent of forwarding false certificates.
Under FRA, rights (individual and community) of tribals and forest dwellers have to be recognized and settled, and consent must be taken from the concerned community before any project can go ahead in the area.
Ramesh, however, clarified that the environment ministry was not taking congnizance of this. “The Saxena committee made a number of observations on state officials. I don’t agree with that and believe that they were acting to the best of their ability. There will not be any witch-hunt,” he said.
The committee report also found serious violations by the company’s alumina refinery in its illegal expansion from 1 million tonne per annum (mtpa) capacity to 6 mtpa. The report said that “this amounts to a serious violation of the provisions of EPA” and “is an expression of the contempt with which the company treats the laws of the land”.
The environment ministry has issued two show-cause notices to the company. One asks it to explain why environment clearance for the 1 mtpa alumina refinery should not be revoked. The second asks why the terms of reference (ToR), which are equivalent to approval for a project, for the environment impact assessment report for the expansion should not be withdrawn. Ramesh added that ToR and the appraisal process for the expansion stand suspended.
“This seems like a full stop for this proposal. But the refinery issue still remains,” said Ritwick Dutta, an environment lawyer. “The pollution problem from their operations still needs to be resolved. We’ve stopped something that was about to happen, but haven’t undone the illegalities already done.”
The panel’s conclusions and recommendations, which were accepted by FAC and forwarded for the final decision, also mention instances of violations under FCA. Mint reported this on 24 August.
The ministry’s note on the factors that have dictated its decision said that the Saxena panel went into great detail highlighting various instances of violations under FCA.
“All these violations, coupled with the resultant impact on the ecology and biodiversity of the surrounding area, further condemn the actions of the project proponent. Not only are these violations of a repeating nature, but they are instances of wilful concealment of information by the project proponent,” it said.
The environment ministry is in the process of examining what penal action should be initiated against the project proponents for the violations. Moreover, the Jharkhand mines from where the refiner is sourcing the bauxite do not appear to have the necessary clearances, the ministry said.
Regarding the other high-profile project awaiting the environment ministry’s approval—the Posco integrated steel plant in Orissa—Ramesh said he has asked the Meena Gupta panel to submit its report by September-end, after which he will consider the case.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Orissa HC rejects government’s recommendation on Khandadhar mines to Posco
The Hindu
Correspondent
CUTTACK: In a setback to the Rs.51,000-crore Posco steel plant planned at Paradeep, the Orissa High Court on Wednesday set aside the State government’s recommendation for granting the South Korean steel major a licence for prospecting in the Khandadhar iron ore mines in Sundargarh district.
Allowing a writ petition filed by Geomin Minerals and Marketing (P) Ltd, a Bhubaneswar-based company, a Division Bench of Justices B.P. Das and B.P. Ray directed the State government to take a fresh decision on the licence giving preferential right of consideration to the petitioner. In January 2009, the government recommended that the Centre grant Posco a licence for prospecting on 2,500 hectares of the Khandadhar mines. The recommendation was based on Section 11(5) of the Mining and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act.
Terming the decision “arbitrary” and “illogical,” Geomin Minerals challenged it in the High Court, claiming that it had made the first application for a mining lease in the area way back in August 1991.
The Bench said that the preferential right for consideration was available to the petitioner, and the recommendation made in favour of Posco was not valid.
Urging the court to restrain the government from considering applications for mineral concessions filed by the latter applicants until its application was disposed of, Geomin Minerals also sought an order to dispose of all its applications pending with govt.
Holding that the writ petition was not premature and was maintainable as there was no alternative remedy, the High Court directed the government to dispose of all pending applications of the petitioner in four months.
A dozen other petitions, including an intervention petition filed by Visa Steel Ltd, were tagged to the petition of Geomin Minerals. The Bench, however, rejected Visa Steel’s contention and asked it to file an independent writ petition if it had any cause of action.
The Real Story of the POSCO Project
This is not just a “dispute over land acquisition for development.” The POSCO project is illegal and will not bring any benefits for the local population or the country’s economy. Rather, it is simply plunder of lives and resources:
- The POSCO project is illegal as it violates the Forest Rights Act of 2006. Under that law, no forest land can be given to anyone until 1) all the rights of the people in the area are recognised and 2) their consent is given to the project. This is the requirement of the law, acknowledged further by an Environment Ministry order of August 3, 2009. This has never been done in the area despite the people demanding it. The Central and State governments have no legal right to hand over this land to POSCO. In law, not just in public view, this is daylight robbery.
- The project is nothing less than a robbery of the country’s natural resources by a multinational. There is no conflict between people’s rights and “development” here. Despite grand talk of 51,000 crores of foreign investment, what is not mentioned is that POSCO is getting a huge amount of:
- land: 4,000 acres for the plant, 2,000 acres for a “township”, 25 acres in Bhubaneshwar for their office, plus an unknown amount in the mining and port areas;
- water: an estimated 12,000 crore liters from the river Mahanadi, threatening the water supply of Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack;
- iron ore: 600 million tonnes in the form of captive mines, and a further 400 million tonnes will be “allocated’;
- in exchange for which it will:
- pay essentially nothing for the water and the land;
- pay a pittance as royalty, allowing it to make tens of thousands of crores in profits just by the difference between market prices and extraction costs (one 2005 estimate put the net profits at 96,000 crores from extraction alone);
- practically no income and other direct taxes, as it is seeking SEZ status;
- provide 13,000 jobs – by their own estimates, which in the case of all industrial projects have proven to be gross overestimates – while displacing around 40,000 people in the plant and port sites alone (not including the mines). More than 20,000 people will lose employment in the plant site alone.
In sum, no tax revenue, net loss of employment, no royalties, loss of 15% of India’s proven ore reserves, environmental devastation and the forced displacement of 40,000 people. This is what our government considers “development.”
Today’s police action shows better than any other that the government is neither concerned about law nor resources nor development – it is interested in daylight robbery. We stand by the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, who are among the many unsung heroes of our country today, fighting not only for themselves and their homes but for the idea of true democracy in India.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Maoists attack Police station in Orissa's Keonjhar district, abducted cops
Report by Orissadiary bureau; Keonjhar: The Maoists have attacked on Daitari Police station, and Brahmanipal forest beat house under Keonjhar district in the late night of Wednesday and abducted two persons including one police ASI.
As per the information, Around 80 Maoists, including 8 womens armed with automatic weapons, stormed into Daitari town. At that time a cultural function was going on in the Community centre. The Maoists locked the peoples in a room and told that they will free them after finishing their work.
Then proceeded to the Police Station. One ASI and one Constable were present in the Police Station. They beaten the ASI and Constable. Then started firing on the Police Station and set fire and set bomb in the police station and flew away to the Brahmanipal forest beat house.
The ASI Umesh Chandra Marandi and another man has been absconded since Maoist attack , it is suspected that they might have abducted by the Maoists. Then fled away from the spot. In the way, they have blow down a Mobile Tower. A dead body found in front of the Police Station. The Maoists might have killed him.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Battle for survival
source - frontline
| The tribal people of Niyamgiri hills in Orissa are determined to prevent Vedanta Aluminium Ltd from mining the area for bauxite. |
Nearly 8,000 of the Dongria Kondh Adivasis, who revere the Niyamgiri mountain as their king and god, fear displacement and disruption of their centuries-old culture once the company gets the clearance to mine the hills.
Niyamgiri in Orissa is all set to become a scene of local community resistance to corporate interests. The hills of Niyamgiri, a Fifth Schedule area under the Constitution of India and home to Dongria Kondh Adivasis, are allegedly under threat from the proposed mining activities of the Mumbai-based Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL), a subsidiary of the British mining giant Vedanta Resources Plc, which owns the majority stake in the now privatised BALCO. VAL is awaiting the second stage of clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for its Niyamgiri project. It got the first-stage clearance from the MoEF in September 2004.
The company has already started operations at its refinery in Lanjigarh, a town downhill from the Niyamgiri forest. The bauxite for the refinery is brought chiefly from Vedanta's mines at Bodai-Daldali in Chhattisgarh. The refinery requires three million tonnes of bauxite a year. Naturally, Niyamgiri is extremely important for Vedanta because getting the required amount of bauxite transported from outside would not be viable for the company.
Bulldozer regime
PRAFULLA DAS
in Bhubaneswar
| Protests against displacement by industries in Orissa show no sign of losing steam. |
Kabita Sahoo inside her house, burnt during clashes between anti-Posco activists and the police at Balitutha village, on May 16.
In a State where more than two-thirds of rural families live below the poverty line and other social indicators are as dismal, the process of industrialisation that began at the turn of the century ought to have been a cause for optimism. But, of late, people have been fighting tooth and nail the many proposed industrial projects in Orissa because they threaten to take away their fertile lands and livelihood sources. The latest flashpoint was on May 15 at Balitutha, the main entry point to the project area of Posco-India Private Limited in Jagatsinghpur district, where the police fired rubber bullets and resorted to lathi-charge against hundreds of men and women who have been holding a dharna against the South Korean company's steel project since January 26 this year.
The protests against displacement in the State have shown little sign of losing steam despite publicity campaigns by private companies “to be partners in progress” or Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's frequent statements on television about peaceful industrialisation. Highways of the State are replete with billboards of private companies announcing sponsorships, scholarships, health camps or skill development programmes.
The hard sell is no more evident than in capital Bhubaneswar where workshops and seminars on Orissa's ‘development' in various sectors have become a regular feature. Both the government and the private sector feed the media with information that suits them the most. Leading editors in the State are invited for exclusive briefings or meetings with corporate bigwigs.
In the far-flung districts where there is much opposition from people to industrial projects, company executives seem to have won over many local journalists; it is not surprising for a visiting journalist to find scribes canvassing for the projects. The Internet is a major tool used by corporate communications departments and public relations firms to issue press releases that squarely blame people's organisations for the delay in the implementation of industrial projects.
The major projects facing strong anti-displacement protests in the State are Posco, Tata Steel, and Vedanta Aluminium Limited. In Jagatsinghpur district, Posco faces opposition from the people of three gram panchayats for its proposed steel plant with a capacity of 12 million tonnes. In Kalinganagar, Tata Steel is trying to acquire 3,200 acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare) for a six-million tonne steel plant.
Vedanta has plans to extract bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills at Lanjigarh for its alumina refinery situated near by. Besides, a foundation run by Anil Agarwal, the founder-director of U.K.-based Vedanta, is making all-out efforts to establish ‘a world-class university' alongside the Puri-Konark marine drive. The State government, however, is nonchalant about the anti-displacement agitations. Indeed, the administration seems to have been left free to help the companies acquire land through various means. Using police force against the agitators has become the order of the day.
On January 2, 2006, 14 tribal men and women opposing ground-levelling work on the land allotted to Tata Steel in Kalinganagar were killed in police firing. Later, criminal cases were registered against those leading agitations against various companies in different regions, and many of them were arrested.
The next phase of action against those opposing industry-induced displacement started in Kalinganagar in March this year when the people of affected villages and activists of the Bisthapan Birodhi Janamanch were attacked indiscriminately. More than 700 armed policemen were deployed in the Kalinganagar area to facilitate the construction of a common corridor road. The local people say the road will primarily be of use to Tata Steel if the plant is established there. On March 30, hundreds of policemen entered Baligotha village in Kalinganagar and fired rubber bullets at the residents and beat them up for opposing the construction of the road. Apparently, many people who were injured did not go to hospital fearing arrest. A few days later, members of the pro-industry group attacked workers in the same area. A local journalist was hurt while covering the incident, and his camera was snatched away.
The police action then shifted to villages where people refused to vacate their land and homes for the Tata project. On May 12, the police opened fire in Chandia village and a tribal person was killed. The body of the victim, Laxman Jamuda, was cremated under mysterious circumstances, and the police refuted the villagers' claim that the death was caused by police firing.
Rabindra Jarika, secretary of the Bisthapan Birodhi Janamanch, is, however, firm about continuing the protest. “We will not allow destruction in the name of development at any cost. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik cannot carry out industrialisation at gunpoint,” he said.
Balitutha incident
As efforts were on in Kalinganagar to carry forward the displacement process, on May 15, hundreds of policemen went berserk at Balitutha when they tried to chase away people who were holding a dharna against the Posco steel project. Many people were injured in the incident, which occurred in the presence of senior administration officials. The police were acting under the instructions of the State government, which was making a desperate attempt to facilitate the implementation of the project, already delayed by five years.
Those sitting in dharna at Balitutha had created a ‘laxman rekha', resolving to prevent the entry of any official, the police or Posco employees to the gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakunjang. The proposed project is likely to affect 20,000 people in these villages.
The local residents who ran for their life on May 15, however, returned to Balitutha on May 19 with the same resolve to resist the project and attended a public meeting organised by the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. The Samiti has been opposing the steel project since the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the company and the State government in June 2005.
The leaders of six opposition parties – the Communist Party of India (CPI), which is backing the Sangram Samiti; the Communist Party of India (Marxist); the Samajwadi Party; the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Forward Bloc – addressed the meeting. CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan condemned the police repression and warned the State government against using police force to acquire land for the Posco project, which would affect thousands of families. “Use of force will only add strength to the agitation,” he said.
Rabindra Jarika, Bisthapan Birodhi Janamanch leader, leading a rally of tribal people against displacement in Kalinganagar area, on May 22.
Sangram Samiti president Abhay Sahoo criticised the State government for not taking the village committees into confidence and for submitting wrong information to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests with regard to the use of nearly 1,200 acres of forest land in order to help the company get the final forest clearance for the project. The government said no one lived on the forest land when there were tribal people living there and cultivating the forest land. Under the existing laws, villagers living on forest land have genuine rights over the land on which they have been living for generations together, he added.
A day after the meeting, the Chief Minister held a discussion with the Lok Sabha Member from Jagatsinghpur, Bibhu Prasad Tarai of the CPI, and four legislators of the ruling Biju Janata Dal from the area. He gave them a proposal that Posco would be asked to exclude 300 acres of private land under Dhinkia panchayat from the 4,004 acres of land earmarked for the steel plant. The CPI rejected it.
Bardhan, who was camping in Bhubaneswar, told the media the next day that the State government should shift the project to another place. Although he welcomed the government's willingness for talks between senior officials and those opposing the project, he said there would not be any deviation from the demand for the shifting of the site.
He also demanded that the State government issue a White Paper on the Rs.52,000-crore Posco project stating how much Orissa would lose in terms of land, captive iron ore and water from the Mahanadi river; the impact the project would have on the people and their livelihoods; and the impact of the proposed captive port of Posco on the existing major port at Paradip.
Vedanta's projects
As for the agitation against Vedanta Aluminium's proposed bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills, which is considered sacred by the Dongria Kondh tribal community, and the pollution the company's alumina refinery is allegedly causing, the Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti is hopeful that the Centre will deny mining clearance to the company in view of the latest reports by three experts who were sent to the area by the Union Environment Ministry. The tribal people of Niyamgiri had failed to resist the construction of the company's refinery, but they are now united in their fight to save Niyamgiri from being mined (see “Battle for survival”, page 37).
Similarly, hundreds of families and many people's organisations in Puri are strongly against the acquisition of 6,000 acres of land for the Vedanta University project. While there are many cases pending in different courts against the project, those opposing the venture are sticking to their stand against handing over a vast expanse of land for the establishment of a university in alleged violation of coastal zone management rules. Acquisition of land for the proposed steel plant project of ArcelorMittal with a capacity of 12 million tonnes also faces opposition in mineral-rich Keonjhar district, which has been in the headlines for large-scale illegal mining.
But even as protest continues in different places against the handing over of thousands of acres of land, displacement, diversion of water meant for irrigation to industries, illegal mining and pollution of the environment, the companies, with the help of the local administration and political leaders, are trying hard to divide people in the name of development in order to achieve their goals. The main opposition parties in the State, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which express their opposition to displacement now and then, have not been able to force the government to resolve the issues of land acquisition and displacement. Meanwhile, the district administrations concerned are making serious efforts to facilitate land acquisition for the industries.
The Chief Minister reiterates that his government favours peaceful industrialisation and warns that no one should take the law into their hands. He has also been saying that not a single drop of water meant for irrigation will be diverted to industries. He has been attending most of the ceremonies organised at the State secretariat for the signing of MoUs to set up new steel plants, alumina refineries, ports, thermal power plants and other such ventures.
He has also been assuring companies and promoters of all cooperation from the government. He also reviews regularly the progress on different industrial projects such as Posco.
But he has not visited any of the villages opposing the industrial projects – even the tribal hamlets of Kalinganagar since the 2006 police firing or Lanjigarh or the coastal villages in Jagatsinghpur where innocent people have been facing the wrath of the police and pro-industry groups.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Tata sponsored ‘Green Hunt’ in Kalinga Nagar to destroy democratic tribal movement
For more than 3 months now the resistance villages of Kalinga Nagar have been besieged by police forces who have randomly arrested dozens of villagers who stepped out of their village. People have been framed under false charges. There has been repeated midnight attacks by policemen and Tata goons to annihilate key activists of the BBJM. Hired assassins have also tried to eliminate the tribal leaders of the movement and one such attempt caused the death of Amin Banara of Baligotha village. Recently large number of police forces had been deployed on the pretext of building a road through the villages. Every attempt of the police and administration to quell the dissent of the people has been countered in democratic and non-violent ways by the BBJM.
Monday, April 05, 2010
10 policemen killed by maoist attack in Orissa.
Another 10 policemen were injured in the attack that took place in the Koraput district of the state of Orissa on Sunday.
The police officers were killed when a landmine planted by Maoist rebels struck the vehicle they were travelling in.
"We are confirming 10 deaths, but it may go up," senior police official Sanjeev Panda told reporters.
Sources said the security personnel were on patrol as part of anti-insurgency operations.
Maoist rebels have stepped up attacks in response to a government offensive that was launched late last year.
The Maoist insurgency began as a peasant uprising in 1967 and has now spread to 20 of India's 28 states. Over 6,000 people have died in clashes over the decades.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Inside Maoistan
By Shafi Rahman
Dinesh Manji is a local libero hero. In volleyball, libero is a defensive player position and allowed only underarm passes. In a clay court off Orissa's Deomali mountains, Manji jumps and smashes every oncoming serve. I give a second to attune myself to the motion of the ball. The unruly libero is my first exposure to the liberated zones, where Maoists are changing the rules of the game and setting up Janathana Sarkars - People's Government - a Maoist Xanadu, a vital building block of the Maoist society based on ideological rhetoric. Janathana Sarkars collect "taxes", decide on local disputes, fix prices of local products, run local amenities and provide basic healthcare. In the huge region of mineral-rich forests in eastern and central India from West Bengal through Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, these committees, mostly managed by local villagers, but with severe Maoist mentoring, control all things in life - even tippling habits to eternal supply of volleyballs.
"Instead of explaining to you what we intend to do if we assume power in the country, I can show you what we do in the areas we hold power over," says a Maoist leader, before sending me off on a bike of one of his cadres, my destination uncertain. Two hours into our journey, through narrowing road, often slipping down side-alleys, I ask him which village we are heading. He smiles with a glint of mischief.
In fact he has no clue. Before I conclude my journey on motorable road, I was made to travel with two other bikers - the last one with a spider tattooed on his chest, which gave him an air of defiance. As abruptly as the hellish ride began, the journey ends four hours later. I was handed over to the last "contact", Lakshman Manji's village is at one of the areas within the Maoist compass in Mahendragiri Mountains -- foremost of the seven Kulagiris or principal mountains of India -- in the district of Gajapati, 51 km to the south-west of Brahmapur. The river Mahendratanaya flows down the mountain in the east through Mandasa and joins the Bay of Bengal at Barua. Off Mandimara, Mahendratanaya flows like a guide along cracked mud road to Manji's village. One is easy to get lost in the path overgrown by shrubs and twists upwards in relentless climb. At his village, the muddy river drops its suspended silt and gains glass-like clarity.
The village with over 29 tribal hamlets recently changed its ways and got into collective farming. Manji is the village's representative in Janathana Sarkar and is the pointsman of Maoists in the village. With heavy-lidded eyes and a broad sweep of forehead, he is without the weathered looks of a war-zone commander. "For the first time in ages, we have done collective farming last year. We have stopped approaching police over disputes and the committee decides over the disputes," says Manji.
The CPI (Maoist) is not a top-heavy outfit. It is led by general secretary Ganapathi and13 other Politburo members with a clear division of tasks which includes 'military' operations, intelligence and budgeting. But it is Janathana Sarkars that have been helping them to focus more on overall armed offensive rather than on the nuts and bolts of administering their strongholds.
The "liberated zones" are not gated districts within the districts. These are the areas were Moaists have loose military control but have made strong roots among the villagers by engaging them in their life and livelihood - albeit under the vigil of guns. Without actually pitching tents at these places, they run their writ here. Most of these committees are in the Dandakaranya Special Zone, the vast forest area situated between the borders of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Orissa. Around 59 work teams with up to 70 members in each were set up last year to prepare land for millet, paddy and dal. In Bastar alone, around 1,436 acres of land were seized from landlords. Of this, 1,057 acres were distributed to 482 families and 310 acres was put under the control of the Janathana Sarkar and 65 acres were given to the militia.
The mode of adivasi agriculture in all these divisions was primitive, rarely using cattle for agriculture. "We are now using cattle to plough the fields. We were used to building tanks in areas were water collected naturally in earlier days and water was carried manually from these tanks. Now we are using canals to take water to these points," notes Manji, before confiding that I am the first journalist he ever met, but maintaining a spokesman-like gravity. At first glance, the villages don't look daunting. The slow pace of tribal life and absence of uniformed squads free them from any appearance of wary fear. I insist upon the villagers to tell me about Maoists but many comment in single sentences. "Maoists are good people and they help villagers," is the refrain, a reminder of shared fear.
The Maoists gained control over the villagers over the years due to a variety of reasons. But the commonality here is straightforward: the Maoist sympathisers in the village are who couldn't, didn't, wouldn't -- you pick the verb -- fit in the various development plans of the state. "If we are Maowadis, you are MoUwadis," he tells me, indicating that displacement due to large scale land acquisitions resulted in the growth of Maoism in the region.
Government expenditure on health, education, child care, electricity, roads, water, etc is lacklustre in 28 of the 33 LWE (left wing extremism) districts in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Bihar. In percentage terms in Jharkhand, the expenditure for child care in the 10 worst affected districts is 15 while the state's average is 86; the seven LWE districts in Chhattisgarh spend 15 per cent on water while the state spends 83 on average. Malkangiri in Orissa has a literacy rate below 25 per cent but it spends under 4 per cent of funds under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.
There are no restraints on exercise of naked power -- both by the Maoists and the security forces. At Rai Panga, Kornoil Bodo Roito, a 27-year-old farm worker shows me marks of the bullet wound from a CRPF raid on his village in November 2008. "When the CRPF came on their raid, the villagers went helter-skelter. At first I thought someone stabbed me on my neck. Then I realised that it was a bullet which brushed my neck," he says. He insists he never had any connection with Maoists. But Junus Roito, another villager, was less lucky and was shot down by the police in a cattle shed. Though his family insists that he is not a Maoist, a memorial was erected for him by Maoists. "I approached the government for compensation after the killing. While the cattle owners got Rs 20,000, I was given Rs 50,000 as compensation for my dead son," says his father Rono Roito.
At times bronzed men with arms on their shoulders descend on the villages and preside over Jan Adalats held by these committees. I head to one of the "Jan Adalats" of Hathimunda in Gajapati district where Prasanth Bhima gets a hasty punishment. He had roughed up his neighbour over a financial dispute. The villagers gathered around are asked to give the verdict. Manji lets him off with a minor punishment - 50 sit-ups. Bhima does it smiling sheepishly. The gathered crowd breaks into laughter. But it's not laughing matter every time. In many instances, the Maoists are just rights-abusing thugs. On June 15, last year the Maoists beheaded one of their surrendered cadres at Murgaon at Gadchiroli. Beheading of Inspector Francis Induwar in Jharkhand is the latest in the line. But Jan Adalats are not an easy run. It has caused unease even within the Maoist party. Yugal Pal, who was till recently a member of powerful Special Area Committee of Jharkhand, Bihar and Northern Chhattisgarh, left the party saying that party is forcing its decision on villagers via "Jan Adalats".
But Maoists question the idea of leaving decision-making completely to the villagers. Recently in Andhra Pradesh, a village landlord was put on trial for raping a tribal girl. The villagers wanted the wife of the landlord to be raped in retaliation. "In such a situation you can't leave it to the villagers. We have to intervene in such occasions," says a Maoist leader.
As one move away from Koraput - the town hosts the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited factory which makes spare parts for the MiG jets - the land gets greener and settlements get sparser. Most of the tribal settlements here are beneath a colonnade of palm trees that offers eternal supply of toddy. Now liquor contractors across Orissa, who often pep up the brew with ammonium chloride, have been asked to stay away from selling the liquor by Kranthikari Adivasi Mahila Sanghatan, a Maoist frontal organisation. Drunk with the intrigue, I ask local carpenter Prasant Mantri about the new move. His hard face breaks into a boyish smile as he speak about prohibition. "This is our only pastime. How can we be stopped from dinking?" In Chhattisgrah, the Mahila Sanghatan also took up the task of breaking the taboos. They launched a campaign against the tribal belief that women shouldn't be allowed in certain agricultural activities like sowing seeds and reaping the harvest. The tribals are also being introduced to a new script for tribal languages, which has so far been scriptless. Chloroquine, an anti-malaria medicine, is given in packets replete with slogans - Soshiko Athanko, Soshito Shruthi (Terror for the oppressors, dear for the oppressed).
Near Hathimuda panchayat, the lone teacher at a primary school lowers the volume of a blaster, badly tuned into a radio station, to tell me about the school. "Teachers refuse to come to the school citing Maoist problem. Since then I have been deputed by the party to take classes." The curriculum here has a new addition, a script for tribal languages introduced by the Maoists and developed by its leader Dasuram. One of the chapters in the textbook explains early 19th century Parlkot rebellion by tribals and had a cover-page slogan saying, "Aaj pade, aaj lade, janata ko aage le jayen" (learn today, fight today, take the people forward).
But every financial activity in these vast tracts is helping the Maoists to enhance their financial resources. Maoists run a huge financial empire by extracting commission form contractors of government projects, mining companies and in sale of tobacco leaves. In many Maoist-controlled southern districts of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, the fragrance of pine yields to the smell of ganja.
At the night camp, the kitchen bursts with busy chefs, preparing glutinous dal, brinjal and rice. The athithis (guests) get generous portions of desi chicken. I notice two other guests getting the benefit of chicken. Soon after the dinner, I side up to them and ask about their visit. "We are officials from state revenue department. We are here to finalise sketch of the village to give patta (land deed) to the villagers," one of them says. The Maoists are allowing signposts of the state to come in, wherever it fits their plans. The NREG roads have been approved selectively, ensuring that they don't make easy passage for security forces into Maoist hideouts. Indira Awaas Yojana is widely allowed, but with a pinch of salt. "Why is the Government keen on allowing the project only in Naxal areas? It is an effort to make the Government presence here," says a Maoist pamphlet. But Rs 33,000 for constructing a home is alluring in this poverty stricken belt.
Sometimes dispensing "justice" becomes the darkest comedy. S. Dominic, a priest in Latehar district, ignored a Maoist leader who walked into a song and prayer session led by him. With his ego hurt, the leader later picked up the priest from the street and made him dance on hot rocks under the blazing sun for four hours. When the locals objected, the Maoist leadership brought the commander to the village and he was made to dance four hours on roasted sand.
On December 27, Maoists set ablaze four passenger buses of the Orissa State Road Transport Corporation near Nalaghat in Gajapati district late in the night during its Orissa bandh. Though passengers were not harmed, the Maoist attackers had taken mobile phones from passengers to stop them from calling police. After the operation, Maoists couldn't return the mobile phones to villagers while they were fleeing in a hurry. "We are not petty thieves, we are revolutionaries. We never wanted to take it along with us," says a Maoist leader. I rub further salt into the wound: "For the passengers, you may look like petty thieves."
"We want media to help us return the phones. But nobody is ready be an intermediary," he complains.
And then there is a world of sleaze. Barely twelve hours after Maoists blew up two police stations and an outpost in Koraput district, a former divisional commander of the rebel outfit surrendered before the Orissa police in June last year. Ghasiram alias Akash, a resident of Kharikapadar village in Rayagada district, joined the Maoist ranks seven years ago and rose to become the outfit's Ghumusar division commander a few years ago.
"Akash was twice demoted in the party and pulled out of its armed unit for his "womanising habits". He threatened to quit unless he was asked to return to the military unit," says Manji as he gives first bits of Akash's life. Ghasiram alias Akash, a resident of Kharikapadar village in Rayagada district, joined the Maoist ranks seven years ago and rose to become the outfit's Ghumusar division commander a few years ago. I probe further on escapades, but the Maoist leader refuses to open up. "He believed in bigamy and refused to eat beef," he says reluctantly.
As the face-off stiffened, he surrendered to Orissa police. Now, the Maoists have brought out a circular saying that without Akash the party has become cleaner like "gold without dust".
The gaps in governance and a host of other state failures have helped the Maoists to make fresh inroads in many areas -- Orissa's Narayanpatna, West Bengal's Lalgarh and mining towns in Jharkhand are the latest examples. The long shadow of Maoists is visible in Telangana, where they wish for a smaller state, which could bolster their chances as in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. In communal violence-hit Kandhamal district, many young Christians are leaning towards the Left extremists. Now there are many fresh recruiting areas. Uper Kandy, the last village in Similiguda near Andhra Pradesh border, has been bypassed by politics and signs of modernity till recently. As the vehicle approaches the village, the taxi driver throws his handkerchief over the miniature national flag on the dash board. "The Maoists are moving into the area," he warns me. The 200-year-old got a road connecting it to the city just recently. "Now we are given notices to vacate so that the Government wants to hand over the place to a mining company here. We are ready fight to any extent to keep our land," says Hanak Tading, a resident of the village.
Policing these vast tracts of land has become almost impossible with the lack of security force presence. Inspector in-charge at Adhaba police in Gajapati district, Devendra Mahapatra, is well-protected in his station with a cathedral-like gate and a platoon of CRPF stationed in the premises. As Maoists established grip over local dispute handling, the number of criminal cases filed in the station have come down from over 300 five years ago to 48 last year. Outside the station, he and his colleagues go around in civil dress to escape the Maoists' attention. "After waiting for years, the station got a satellite phone recently. We are yet to fill up posts of two more sub-inspectors. We live in nearby irrigation guest house and are always under threat of attacks," says Mahapatra. Though the CRPF makes routine route march to nearby forests, the terrain makes the task tough.
It's not a bad prison, but it's hard to be stuck here in the anteroom of Maoism. Like many of his buddies, Prakash was trying to adjust to passive life as farmers to active life as a squad member patrolling mountains, with combat gear complete with Insas rifles and butt bags. As we rumble through the forests, he moves close enough to whisper in my ear to say that it is fatal to wander from the routine path. "Mines are all around to trap the police," he confides. In rotating shifts, the soldiers spent 14 hours on duty, mostly on patrolling neigbourhoods.
The CRPF rarely surprise the Maoists. "We get information the moment CRPF moves towards the forest. In many occasions, we don't put up a fight. We retreat deeper into the forests, forcing the CRPF to camp in one of the hills and go back after a day or two," he says. A combination of measures has helped Maoists to control the vast stretches of land - making their presence known by simply marching through villages, setting up strong intelligence system among villagers and resisting all forms of civil administration with stray attacks.
"Most of the beaten paths are mined. We avoid these roads, move forward using GPS in favour of a tougher journey by setting up new paths. The moment we enter into these forests, the Maoists light up torches and give signals to their counterparts around, making it easy for them to retreat," says HK Jasoria, Officer Commander at CRPF station in Gajapati district.
You don't need a crystal ball to recognize that the Government will face a list of tough tasks to clean up the menace. The Maoists are trying to outstrip the existing system with quick-fix solutions for people living on narrow margins of survival. While they are carrying out their plans with alarming ease, the state is on a retreat (see box). The Government is getting increasingly pre-occupied with military action and the Maoists are responding with fits of terror and competing with their own version of "democracy", tearing down and constructing social and economic models.
In many instances, the Government is confused how to bring the people it once offended into its big-tent political system. In last February, police in Gajapati district decided to reach out to the villagers as a part of its 'public-police contact programme' by distributing volleyball kits in Kattama village. While the forces were on the way, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), planted under a culvert, blew up before the bus could pass over it at Andharighati village in Mohana block. But the impact was such that it injured eight persons.
The police since then have abandoned the contact programme. Now, the Adhabha station sports a volleyball court and, of course, a lot of spare volleyballs. As I leave, policemen were preparing for a game of volleyball. I don't wait to see whether the libero here follows the underarm rules.
Courtesy: India Today
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