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On December 16 two platoons of armed police entered
Maikanch village, in the Kashipur region of Rayagada district in southern Orissa.
They beat the women asking for the whereabouts of the men who had fled to the
hills. Hearing the attack on the women, the men descended. As soon as the police
saw them, they went berserk, opening fire at random. They shot to kill. Three
died on the spot and eight others were seriously injured. This unprovoked firing
is part of the attack by the government to crush the growing resistance of the
tribals to the huge bauxite/aluminium mines planned in the region.
Ever since the rights to loot the rich aluminium
deposits of Orissa was given to the imperialist/comprador company ‘Utkal
Alumina’ in 1993, there has been a war raging in the forests of Rayagada. On
the one side stands the TNC/comprador COMPANY, backed by the entire political
spectrum [BJP, BJD, Congress(I) etc], and the state machinery; on the other side
stand the tribals organised into a fighting force.
Ever since the land was handed over to the COMPANY
in 1995, road blockades, demonstrations and dharnas were organised in front of
government offices at Kashipur and Rayagada. Survey teams of the companies were
denied access to the area. Day and night vigil was maintained to prevent the
entry of government and company officials. Every village was turned into a
fortress of resistance.
A day before the firing, gangsters of the ‘All
Party Committee’ went to Maikanch to disrupt a meeting of the tribals who
had gathered to plan a ‘road blockade.’ They were led by BJP district president,
Bhaskar Rao. The people foiled their attempts, chased the scum out of their
village, and continued with their meeting. To take revenge, these politicians
returned the next day with the armed police, massacring the tribals. This is the
real essence of the BJP’s ‘vanvasi’ project !! And, as for the BJP’s
ally, who runs the Orissa state government, the BJD, it has been holding rallies
and meetings attempting to mobilise public opinion in favour of the project. No
doubt, the commission they have received for their efforts is huge.
The COMPANY
The COMPANY, Utkal Alumina, is a mining consortium
comprising Aditya Birla’s HINDALCO and two multinationals — Hydro Aluminium (or
Norsk Hydro) of Norway and ALCAN of Canada. The entire project is of little
value to India as it is 100% export-oriented. The state government has no role
in the mining project, except to seize the tribals lands and hand it over to the
COMPANY at the lowest possible costs. It is estimated that a huge 1,750 hectares
of land will be required for mining, the plant site, a township and dumping
spots. Apart from this, a stretch of land approximately 20 km long and 50 metres
wide will be required for conveyer and corridor maintenance.
Ever since the finalisation of the project,
government officials say that the transfer of land has been made and the tribals
have to vacate. Egged on by the state government and local officials, the
TNC-Birla combine now claim that they are the real owners of the land, on which
the tribals have lived for centuries.
Massive displacement of the population, destruction
of the environment and ecology by mining and industries, with no compensatory
employment .... has been the earlier experience of tribals in the neighbouring
regions.
Besides, if unopposed, with mining being totally
opened out to foreign capital, vast tribal areas of Orissa face similar
devastation. Orissa has a substantial proportion of the country’s deposits of
chromium and nickel ores and also bauxite. The TNCs and compradors have set
their sights on the Kashipur region, which has a considerable concentration of
bauxite.
The NALCO Experience
The tribals already have the experience of the
public sector National Aluminium Corporation Ltd, which is located just 100 kms
from the proposed project site. Being a PSU it promised one job for every family
displaced and a re-settlement township. But the results have been horrifying.
The ‘re-settlement’ is a defacto slum with little civic amenities, the jobs are
the mostly menial and of a casual nature, and the simple tribals have been
ruthlessly exploited by the contractor-trader-officials combine, even duping
many of the girls into prostitution. Besides, the waste material spawned by
NALCO has destroyed the soil and polluted the water sources.
Over and above this the devastation caused by the
recent breach, in one of the ash ponds of the captive power plant on December
31, 2000, has created even greater fear amongst the tribals. The discharge of
slurry has caused a flash flood in the Nadira river destroying houses and
depositing ash on 2,400 of acres of agricultural land. En route, the contents of
the 300-acre pond swept away houses, standing crops and livestock, affecting the
lives of 50,000 villagers. Neither compensation nor assistance has been given to
the tribals for the devastation caused. The captive power plant of NALCO
continues to release about 4,000 million tonnes of ash every day. Since December
31, this is being released into the rivers Nadira, Brahmani and Kharasrota which
are being heavily polluted.
With such an example before it, it is no wonder
that the tribals of the Kashipur region are vehemently opposing the COMPANY.
The PW Example
With the CPI(ML)[People’s War] squads already
active in some nearby regions, the tribals would be aware of the successful
opposition by the PW to various mining, hydro-electric and national park
projects in the neighbouring Bastar region of MP. From experience they realise
that it is only by relying on their own organised strength and militant
struggles that such projects can be successfully opposed. They see all the
parliamentary parties acting as mere commission agents of these big COMPANIES,
and also the futility of non-violent forms of struggle like that of the Narmada
Bachao. Inspite of worldwide publicity, the dam on the Narmada continues to be
built; while the huge dams on the Indravati have been successfully stopped and
also the bauxite and iron mining projects in North Bastar have been forced out
of the area.
If the tribals of Kashipur continue on the path of
struggle they will, no doubt, be able to successfully protect their hearth and
homes. In November 1998 a team from the mining consortium was stopped by tribals
and three members of the Norwegian company, Norsk Hydro, were taken to a "public
hearing", where they were made the reluctant audience to a string of
denunciations against the project. Before, they were released, the three were
asked to sign a statement criticising their own employers.
The recent police firing has, apparently led to the
Norwegian company to re-think its involvement. Besides, people’s opposition has
already stopped two other proposed aluminium projects in the region. Hindalco’s
other proposed plant in Lakshmipur block, and L&T’s (Larsen & Tubro) project in
Sungur (also in Kashipur block) have already been stalled. It is a victory for
the tribals against ‘economic reforms.’
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