Manoranjan Das BSc, LLB, MCA thought
his degrees would get him a job at the Vedanta Alumina refinery in
Orissa’s Lanjigarh block. He had more reasons; one acre of his family
land is now part of the refinery’s ash pond.
“I sent my resume several times but they didn’t reply,” says Das
who is unemployed.
Fed up with the “false promises of development and jobs”, hundreds of
local youth disrupted work at the refinery for four days starting
February 12. Blocking all gates to the complex, they refused to let in
any truck.
The protesters demanded the company should give permanent jobs to
those who had lost land to the refinery, or a compensation of Rs 5
lakh—20 years’ salary at the rate of Rs 10,500 per month—plus the
company’s shares worth Rs 10 lakh per family. Vedanta rejected the
demand, terming it illegal. The agitators lifted the blockade on
February 16 after the district magistrate promised talks with the
district revenue commissioner.
The youth were once staunch supporters of the company which acquired
land in 12 villages in Lanjigarh. They say the company and the district
administration had promised jobs to members of the displaced families
and land-losers. For this they had even fought other villagers who,
fearing displacement and loss of livelihood, opposed the plant.
“Vedanta showed us big dreams; said they would make our villages
golden. But nothing has happened,” says Niranjan Nag of Kenduguda
village.
The refinery, part of a mining complex that includes a proposed 3
million tonne-per-annum bauxite mine atop the adjacent Niyamgiri hills,
began trial operations in March 2007, violating environmental laws.
Tribal communities who hold the hill sacred also opposed the company.
The legality and feasibility of the mining component of the complex is
still being contested in the supreme court.
The give up game
The plant displaced 102 families from their home. Another 1,220
‘project affected’ families lost either all, or parts, of their
farmland. Of these, 661 have accepted the one-time cash compensation of
Rs 50,000 to Rs 100,000 as a settlement in lieu of jobs, as per a 2003
resettlement and rehabilitation policy drawn up specifically for the
project. But most of them are unhappy with the deal. The policy also
stipulates that at least one member of each displaced and
project-affected family be given “preference” for jobs “either in the
industry or in its ancillary units,” with the displaced families
getting priority.
Officials at the refinery say the company and its sub-contractors have
hired about 400 local residents as unskilled labourers, of which some
76 are from the displaced families. But the protesters say the company
has not given a permanent technical-level job to any person from a
project-affected family; not even to those like Das or any of the 110
youth who will soon complete Vedanta-sponsored industrial training
institute (ITI) courses. “They are saying that they didn’t promise any
jobs after training and that they trained us so that we could get other
jobs elsewhere and learn to be self-reliant,” says Surya Kumar Bohidar,
one of the trainees.
District magistrate P C Patnaik says the administration never promised
job security, at least not in writing. “Why should the company hire
people it doesn’t need? Everyone does business for profit,” he says.
Vedanta officials say the mostly mechanized plant needs highly skilled
workers whereas the majority of the local youth have not even cleared
high school. “They are almost zero. Even with the ITI training, it will
take several years of further training to make them employable,” says
Vikas Das, the plant’s assistant general manager for human resources,
adding, “They are not interested in hard work. They want to sit at home
and make money.”
Activists opposing the alumina complex are supporting the protesters.
“These boys come across reports on projects such as Posco and are
finally realizing they have been duped,” says Siddharth Naik of
Kalahandi Sachetan Nagrik Mancha, one of the three local outfits
fighting the project.
Vedanta in West Bengal
Vedanta
is planning a 600,500 tonne aluminium smelter and a 1,200-1,300
megawatt power plant in West Bengal’s Burdwan district. The company is
likely to sign an agreement with the state government soon. State
commerce and industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen told Down to Earth
the proposed project was “still in the talks phase” and that the
company was “looking into the corporate social responsibility aspect”
of the project. He didn’t clarify how much land would be required for
the project, but said the company’s subsidiary, Balco, has over 80 ha
of unused land in the district.
