Tribal villages in land row

Times of India, March 16, 2010
BHUBANESWAR: Sample this at a time when farmland and industry conflicts are sweeping villages. A tribal village in Kalahandi district refuses to give away its agricultural land to a private project. In return, the government asks the gullible villagers to sign an undertaking.


It reads: "The people of Rengopalli will unconditionally accept the land payment and not directly or indirectly oppose the construction of red mud pond boundary wall and the access road and whole heartedly cooperate, participate in the construction in a peaceful manner. They will continue to cooperate with the company in all its future activities for construction and operation of Vedanta's Alumina Refinery. They will not raise any future issues, which will materially affect the construction and operation of the refinery. Any demand raised by the villagers will be routed through the village coordinator to be nominated by Vedanta and they will not resort to any pressure techniques/strikes/stoppage of work."

This is one of the many incidents of state atrocities chronicled in a central government report that studied the impact of the controversial VAL project in Lanjigarh area. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the project even before it received official clearance.

The environment and forest ministry, responding to a spate of allegations had set up a three-member expert committee to separately study issues pertaining to tribal rights, wildlife conservation and violation of the Forest Conservation Act. The Union government has accepted the report.

According to the report, Rengopalli has surrendered to a settlement accord steeply slanted in favour of the company. False criminal cases, followed by arrests and detention, were among the other repressive measures initiated to suppress the voices of dissent in other villages.

"The issues of land, livelihood are being converted into issues of law and order," the report observed, taking into account the views of villagers at Kadampura Chowk, Bandhguda, Kotdwar and Dhadel.

"If the administration is unable to address the protests other than as acts of criminality, it does in fact result in a violation of the rights of the displaced and project-affected villagers," it pointed out.

The state government always painted a rosy picture of VAL, that it would change the face of the hunger zone of Kalahandi even as it faced public resistance since its inception. The findings of the inquiry, however, give a different story.

Rengopalli, a village of Kutia tribals very close to the plant, has recorded at least 13 suspected TB deaths. The situation in other villages is not very different, where people having lost their land are now left with no means of making a living, the report said.

The adverse impact of pollution has only compounded the problem, contaminating water sources and spreading diseases. Nearly 250 cattle have perished in Rengopalli village alone. "Inability to find employment and pollution is forcing them (villagers) to demand that they be displaced and rehabilitated," it pointed out.

The report noted that public hearing was manipulated to favour the project. One such hearing was held on April 25 last year at Lanjigarh for expansion of the refinery from one mtpa to six mtpa. Though 26 out of 27 speakers opposed, the official document claimed otherwise. It said: "The overall opinion of the public hearing of the project was favourable."

A CD of the public hearing testifies to the mood of the speakers being predominantly defiant, the inquiry report said. On the mining project, it said since the last public hearing was conducted in 2003, fresh public hearing has to be conducted before permitting mining. "The validity of a public hearing for a project does not extend beyond five years," it said. The report expressed anguish over VAL building two rest rooms for the collector at Viswanathpur BDO office. "This is disturbing and needs to be checked if the neutrality of the state is to be maintained," it said.

The controversy reached its peak after fears that the endangered primitive Dongria Konds would be the worst affected as their survival is linked to Niyamgiri hills where the company wants to undertake bauxite mining. The 2001 census had estimated Dongria population at only 7952, including 3,458 males and 4,529 females. Their lives are intimately connected with mountains, forests and forest produce. "These are aspects that are integral to the lives of the Dongria Konds and do not appear to have been considered while deciding to open up the mountain top for mining. Disruption of the habitat and the way of life of this PTG cannot be remedied nor compensated and may lead to the destruction of the Dongria Konds. This is too serious a consequence to ignore," the report said.

The report pointed out that despite the Supreme Court expressing serious reservations against the project and several foreign organizations disinvesting their stakes in the company, VAL continues to "interface" in all matters.

"These circumstances suggest that there is a violation of the Supreme Court's orders. It appears, from correspondence that was made available to us, that the district administration, too, has not paid heed to the Supreme Court orders," the report said.