4 hurt in tribals, police clash
Tension gripped the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex (KNIC), the emerging steel hub of Orissa in Jajpur district on Tuesday when the tribals under the banner of Visthapan Virodhi Jana Manch (VVJM) clashed with the police forces opposing the construction of the 7.5-km long common utility corridor road at the site.
The clash led to four tribals sustaining minor injuries and one of them, a tribal woman, Gurubari Gagrai, being hospitalized. Her condition at the Danagadi Hospital in Jajpur is stated to be stable.
Official sources said, the construction work on the road is underway and the situation is normal at the site.
The flare-up at KNIC began when around 250 tribals armed with traditional weapons pelted stones at the police personnel, opposing the construction work on the common corridor road at about 9:30 am, barely two hours after the work had kicked off.
Police retaliated first with lathicharge and then firing rubber bullets and tear gas cells at the mob. The construction work was going on in the presence of the Jajpur district collector; the district superintendent of police and 590 police personnel.
D S Kutte, superintendent of police, Jajpur, said, “The tribals under VVJM pelted stones at the police force deployed at the spot. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells to disperse the mob which subsequently fled to Baligotha village, about half a km from the site”.
Police is said to have chased the agitators into the village and destroyed an illegal armoury of the tribals where they had stocked their traditional weapons like bow and arrow, spears and other sharp instruments.
The construction of Rs 16.5 crore common corridor, considered to be lifeline of KNIC, is a key infrastructure project for a number of steel projects coming up in the area including that of Tata Steel, JSL Ltd, VISA Steel, Mesco Steel and Neelachal Ispat Nigam.
The road is being built by the Jajpur Cluster Development Ltd (JCDL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV), formed by the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) and Kalinga Nagar Industries' Association (KNIA).
However, work on this project was disrupted on many occasions due to the resistance of the local tribals.
“The work on the common corridor road had continued between December 23, 2009 and January 16, 2010 but thereafter it had to be stopped due to the opposition of the tribals. After a gap of over two months, the work on the road had started again on Monday” Kutte informed. The negotiations between the district administration and the tribals on the issue had become a fruitless exercise with the tribals refusing to give up their demand for land in lieu of land acquired for the project, a condition unacceptable to the administration.
P K Mohanty, the Jajpur district collector said, “We cannot accept the tribals' demand to give land in lieu of the land which has been acquired for the common corridor even though we may consider giving them a higher compensation. Around 80 per cent of the tribals have already got their compensation at the rate of Rs one lakh per acre and the remaining have been asked to take their compensation.”
He pointed out that it is inappropriate for the tribals to raise the demand for land now when they have already received compensation for the road project, the land acquisition for which started in 1993.
Meanwhile, the VVJM leader Rabi Jarika said, the police action on the tribals is a betrayal by the administration with whom his group was holding discussion on resolution of issues. He warned that VVJM would intensify its agitation in future to safeguard the land of the tribals.
