POSCO In Paradip & An Echo Of Nandigram

Manoranjan Mohanty
Erasama block near Paradip that had suffered nearly ten thousand deaths in the 1999 supercyclone is in the news again awaiting another Nandigram-like onslaught. The pattern of state-aided assault by one group mobilised against a people agitating in defence of their land, natural resources and environment, is again swiftly unfolding itself, this time in Orissa over the South Korean company, POSCO’s steel project in the same cyclone-affected region, once again with enormous cost. Unless the forces of peace and human rights intervene another round of bloodshed may be in the offing. On 29 November as the daily mass sit-in by the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) in a village called Balitutha entered its sixtieth day a large mob arrived in procession and attacked the demonstrators brutally. Five bombs were hurled at them injuring a number of people. Police put it at 17 while the PPSS says 40 were injured, some seriously.Having failed to persuade the Orissa government to reconsider the decision on the project the PPSS had started the mass sit-in at the entry point to the three villages whose inhabitants faced displacement by the construction of the steel plant.Mob attacksThey had stopped allowing vehicles belonging to the police, POSCO and the administration while allowing other trade and communication activities to go on. After a week long programme of big rallies at Balitutha the PPSS had decided to have groups of 100 to 200 men and women to be present there daily to carry on the agitation. They were attacked by the mob while the Orissa armed police stood by at a short distance as has been confirmed by several civil liberty teams which have visited the scene since. Citing the incident as a clash between pro-POSCO and anti-POSCO people and therefore a law and order problem some sixteen platoons, which had camped nearby, moved into the area where they had so far been prevented by the agitators. The police is now stationed in the Nuagaon and Gadakujanga panchayats ~ two of the three to be taken over for the project. The other one, Dhinkia panchayat where the PPSS has its stronghold remains determined to resist. The large single-village panchayat has erected gates to monitor entry points and has remained united during the agitation against the project which has continued for more than a year. Dhinkia village is now encircled by armed police where some 12,000 people are denied access to basic services. The Orissa government has said that the police was deployed there to prevent ‘Maoists’ from entering the area. This has been the usual ploy to resort to indiscriminate repression by the state all over the country.In fact, the PPSS is a collective movement of local people from a wide range of parties and groups opposed to the project and is led by the CPI state secretariat member Abhay Sahoo. The local Congress too is part of the resistance movement which has remained peaceful throughout despite much provocation. As in Nandigram the ruling BJD organised a group of villagers and a large number of goondas from outside to launch the attack and ‘occupy’ the struggling villages and have indeed succeeded in ‘capturing’ two panchayats ~ Nuagaon and Gadakujanga. Operation Dhinkia is on the cards and what form it will take is unpredictable. But in view of the determined opposition by the villagers one cannot rule out violent confrontation. The opposition to the POSCO project was also spearheaded by two sarvoday-oriented groups ~ Rashtriya Yuva Sangathan and the Nav Nirman Samiti. They had been actively engaged in many action programmes of non-violent protest during the past two years and even before in the post-cyclone reconstruction of Erasama.On 4 December Yuva Sangathan convener Biswajit started an indefinite fast at Balitutha. On 5 December when a peace delegation led by the well-known poet Shailaja Rabi visited him they were again attacked by a mob of over 50 people.The police forcibly evicted Biswajit and the members of the delegation and moved them to Jagatsinghpur where the Yuva Sangathan leader continues his fast even now protesting against the violent attack on the peaceful struggle. CompensationAt a press conference on 8 December the former Lok Sabha Speaker Rabi Ray condemned the attacks and called upon the Orissa government to scrap the mega steel project together with its SEZ and the captive port proposals. The first ever “talks” between some selected villagers and the administration and the POSCO officials took place on 6 December to discuss compensation and rehabilitation plans. The local BJD MLA Damodar Raut who was earlier dropped by the Chief Minister reportedly for not fully supporting the project has become very active to make up and earn the CM’s favour. Raut has announced that POSCO had agreed to raise the compensation for each household from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. What Chomsky had called ‘manufacturing consent’ is in full swing with POSCO announcing scholarships for students, taking journalists to Korea for tour and building a paid cadre of ‘project promoters’. Bharat Jan Andolan leader B D Sharma encountered a group of the latter after a press conference on 7 December in Bhubaneswar. (To be concluded)(Formerly of Delhi University, the writer is currently Durgabai Deshmukh Professor at the Council for Social Development.)