Indian multinationals eyeing bauxite, the white gold, of Rayagada: Peace is doable in Sijimali Kashipur, through a stakeholders dialogue in true spirit
Dr.Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Associate editor
Rayagada, April 9: In the recent violent tussle between the police and local communities in Kantamal & Sagabari villages of Kashipur block in Rayagada district, blood oozed from both sides. Activists on behalf of the communities claim that hundreds of villagers including old women got wounded by scores of police force firing of tear gas shell, lathi charge and blank firing just to nab a single person named Subash Singh Majhi, whom the police falsely termed as criminal behaved like an extremist. And that to in a midnight operation.
On the other hand, SP Swathy S Kumar made counter allegation that fifty eight police personnel were stone pelted and manhandled by the villagers of Kantamal and other villagers unlawfully assembled.
They even attacked the police including the Sub-divisional police officer of Rayagada, IIC Kashipur & Rayagada with various lethal weapons. All the injured were admitted in District Headquarters Hospital at Rayagada out of which six were referred to Vishakhapatnam for grievous injuries.
The bone of contention is construction of a road passing through forest land in Kantamal village leading to bauxite mines leased out to Vedanta. While the villagers of Kantamal assert that the their livelihood depend on the said forest land and they are entitled to ownership of that land, which is used by them since ages. Though they have filed claims over the said forest land under Forest Rights Act(FRA), govt has unscrupulously not settled it because of obvious reasons. Nevertheless Collector Asutosh Kulkarni went to the spot and tried to convince the people assembled there to leave that land as they have no record of right(ROR-Patta) under FRA. At a later stage Kulkarni and people had heated agreement where, according to people, Kulkarni terrorized the assembly to allow the road work & disperse or face the rule of law. His body language during mike announcement corroborated the heated argument of which a video went viral. Later on Sub-Collector Rayagada and Chief Development-cum-Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad went to the spot to pacify the agitators. According to activists, there has not been any gram sabha or palli sabha for the said purpose in obtaining consent of the villagers. But according to Govt, as the entitlement rights have not been issued to villagers under FRA, any development work can be done over the said land. “There are some urbanite ‘Andolan jibis’ instigating the innocent tribals & dalits for their bread & butter & vested interests.
The communities in their respective villages raised slogans supporting activists like Prafulla Samantara & against Mohan Govt, local MLA Appalaswamy Kadraka, MP Saptagiri Ulaka and Collector Kulkarni for their pro-mining & anti-people stand. Ulaka & Kadraka, in their social media handle, have condemned violence from both side, police excess, appealed the govt to follow rule of law in true spirit and appealed the villagers for a peaceful dialogue. Saptagiri and Appalaswamy, who belong to Congress Party, are in Assam for a political campaign supporting Congress.
In the mean time a ten member team from BJD has met the villagers in Kantamal and Sagabari and they will submit their investigation reports to Naveen Patnaik. Similarly Congress also has formed a ten member team, which will visit the affected villages on Friday and report to Bhakta Charan Das. DIG South West Range Kanwar Vishal Singh has met the injured police in the hospital and been monitoring the situation. Sources say that they are preparing to deploy more police in the area to contain untoward incidents.
Denizens opine that the issue was not handled properly by the district administration. In stead of exerting force, it should have initiated a dialogue with the affected communities. Help of third parties namely local intelligentia, senior citizens, traditional leaders, PRIs, media and other civil society leaders could be dovetailed to such dialogical process. It seems, it is in a hurry to realize the unwritten orders of their political master in Bhubaneswar and Delhi.
Few multinational companies earlier barged into the bauxite mining rich Kashipur block of Rayagada district. One of them was Tata-Alcan-Norsk Hydro conglomerate in nineties: Alcan company being Aluminium Canada, Norsk Hydro company from Norway & TATA is a well known Indian enterprise. Around 35 years back similar tussle and struggle between the state and mainly local tribal & dalit people. Due to sheer people’s resistance, activists support and international lobby, all these three companies withdrew. Then Utkal Alumina International Limited(UAIL) under the aegis of Birla Company’s Hindalco chipped in. On December 16th, 2000, while agitating against this company, three tribal died in police firing at Maikanch & the rest is history.
Now other multinational companies, apart from Vedanta & UAIL, namely Aditya Birla Refineries, Larsen & Tubro, Adani, Oswal, IMFA, etc are eyeing on the white gold bauxite, only in Kashipur block. There also corporate rivalry. History repeats itself. With the advent & operation of more than seven mega companies, there will be a devastation. People first, not the company. Ethical mining eading to balanced development is need of the hour. Peace is certainly doable in Sijimali with a stakeholders dialogue though the process is bit difficult, bout not impossible.
