Orissa steel hub pauses over tribal violence

PRICE OF PROGRESS

Widespread protest have been taking place against the police firing on tribals.

The smoke billowing from the chimneys of Nilachal Ispat Nigam belies the tension in Kalinga Nagar, an industrial complex in Jajpur district of Orissa, the scene of a bloody clash between tribals and the police on Monday.

A couple of kilometres from Nilachal Ispat's boundary, angry tribals, smarting after a police firing left 12 dead, are squatting on the Daitary-Paradip highway, blocking traffic.

"No displacement at any cost. Let the police kill me and my children, but we will not give up our land for industry," says Rama Jarika of Bamiagotha village.

This is ominous talk for an area projected to become one of the biggest steel hubs in Asia with eight steel plants planned in a cluster. Apart from Nilachal Ispat, Mid-East Integrated Steel, Jindal Stainless and VISA Steel are operating plants in the complex.

Some workers from nearby tribal villages had stopped coming to work after this week's violence. "But they have now returned," says Rajdeep Mohanty, a Jindal Steel executive.

"I have managed to run my unit undisturbed during this period," says SK Sarna, managing director of Nilachal Ispat. "But I do not know what will happen tomorrow." Sarna has managed to insulate his plant from the trouble by adjusting the shifts. But for how long?

And although the existing plants have pulled through, the managers of new units""including that of Tata Steel, whose land acquisition sparked the trouble""will have reason to pause.

The Orissa government had acquired 12,000 acres of land between 1992 and 1994 for the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex. Of this, only 5,000 acres were used, by Nilachal Ispat and Mid-East Integrated Steel, till 2002, and many tribals stayed on in the vacant land.

Two years ago, Tata Steel was allotted 2,000 acres for setting up a 6 million tonne plant. The plot had two villages, Chandia and Gadapur, and six hamlets. Their residents are opposing the allotment on the grounds that they were paid Rs 37,000 per acre by the government in 1994 for land that is now being sold at Rs 3,50,000 per acre to the Tatas.

"When we protested and demanded higher compensation, the police fired on us," says Bhagaban Gagaria of Gadapur village.

"Now, compensation or no compensation, we will not vacate our land," says another villager of Ambagadia village. "Let Naveen Patnaik come and discuss the issue with us."

The tribals in the Kalinga Nagar complex have their roots in Jharkhand from where they had migrated in the 1960s to work in the Sukinda and Daitary mines.

"That is why their agitation is being steered by Jharkhandi leaders and CPI(ML) activists", says Prafulla Ghadei, Orissa's finance minister and local MLA.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Sibu Soren and leader of the Opposition in the Chhattishgarh Assembly Nand Kumar Sai visited Kalinga Nagar yesterday to show solidarity with the local tribals.

They promised to highlight the issue at the national level and supported bandh calls in their states to coincide with that in Orissa tomorrow.

However, the local tribals are yet to form an organisation to spearhead their agitation and are still being guided by the opinion leaders in their community. But given their belligerence, it will take arduous effort by the administration to co-opt them into the industrialisation of the state.