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| Sreelatha Menon: Kalinga cries and whispers | | Villages resisting the use of their land for industrial purposes, are living under seige, waiting for another bloody confrontation |
| Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi Mar 28, 2010, 00:12 IST |
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Villages in Kalinganagar, which are resisting the use of their land for industrial purposes, are living under seige, waiting for another bloody confrontation
The villagers of Baligotha in Kalinganagar are refugees in their homes, awaiting another bloody confrontation, with their cries for a hearing prompting the state to send more forces to the area.
Will more blood flow in Kalinganagar before the rulers have a change of heart? The village is not far from the place where 14 people were killed in firing by the state police on January 2, 2006.
Today, the village is tense and its residents dare not come out for fear of being arrested. About 24 platoons of police landed here a day ago. Last night, the locals kept a vigil to resist attempts by police to enter the village.
The Bisthapan Birodhi Jan Manch (BBJM), which represents the villagers’ struggle, fears police action, though it is a non-violent organisation.
People are fearing a replay of the bloody confrontation of 2006. The apparent reason for such heavy police presence is the state’s insistence on building a corridor on farm and village lands to help industry, against the wishes of the villagers. The corridor would help the industrial area, which is strategically placed between the mines of Keonjhar, the Paradip port and the expressway to Kolkata.
Baligotha is one of the seven villages which have been living under seige since it decided to resist the Tatas’ operations over 2,500 acres the company had acquired.
The government bought these 2,500 acres from the villagers for a measly Rs 26,000 per acre and sold it to the Tatas for Rs 3.5 lakh an acre.
The struggle has made villagers refugees in their own homes. They come out at the risk of being caught. Things are so bad that pregnant women avoid going to hospitals.
Police have been stationed in seven places around the area. Earlier, there was one police station in the area. Now, there are two.
On March 25, the villagers, for the first time, saw some hope. The Jajpur collector, who had been insisting on the corridor project, sent them a message through Dabar Kalundia, the tribal leader of BBJM. He said he would meet the dissenting villagers on March 28. But the next day, armed policemen arrived to suppress the movement. The villagers are fearing an attack anytime now.
BBJM is resisting the corridor, citing pollution and diseases. It says rivers and fields are becoming dumping grounds for fly ash and people are dying of undiagnosed diseases. Civil society organisations are backing BBJM, saying its gagging will drive the state towards a civil war and destroy the middle ground of non-violent movements.
BBJM is seen along with the anti-Posco movement in Jagatsinghpur as the flagbearer of people’s resistance against the extraction industry. The tribal leaders of BBJM are facing risk to their lives and civil society bodies are mobilising support for it.
When police are not there for their protection, and they are living without basic medical services, do they have any say in issues concerning their lives, despite January 2, 2006?
The answer, they say, is blowing in the polluted winds of mineral-rich states. The state, if not industry, has to decide how much mineral wealth is enough and if it represents the people or the gold diggers.
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