State of Siege

Angered by government support for the POSCO steel plant, hundreds of protestors stormed police barricades in Orissa’s Dhinkia.

APRIL 1, 2008. We are at Patna, a small village in Dhinkia panchayat of Ersama block in the East Coast of Orissa. Now referred to as ‘POSCO Area’, this is where the world’s third largest steel producing corporation, Pohang Steel Company, better known as POSCO, plans to build its $12 billion steel plant and a captive port.

For the last three years, POSCO, backed by the state government as well as the Centre, has made consistent, systematic, yet unsuccessful attempts to ‘take over’ this highly fertile and ecologically fragile coastal area for its projects. The company’s persistence has led the state government to thwart widespread popular resistance to the project, and lately to step up pressure by using force. For the last four months, 18 battalions of police have been deployed around these villages, occupying government school buildings. The administration had also barred the entry of essential supplies into these villages and restricted free movement of people in the region.

On April 1, celebrated as Orissa Foundation Day, or Utkala Diwas, the people of Dhinkia decided to march 4 kilometres from their village with a single agenda – to reclaim the entry point into the area at Balitutha, which had been under siege by the police and local administration. This was the day POSCO, which signed an MoU for the project with the Orissa government in June 2005, had planned to conduct its groundbreaking ceremony at the project site, only to call it off later citing administrative delays in obtaining clearances.

The cancellation of the ceremony, however, failed to deter the 2000 marchers who had gathered under the banner of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangarsh Samiti (PPSS). We walked with them along the narrow path, with striking green paddy fields on the left, a channel of the Jatadhari river on the right. A thriving local-rural economy is becoming a rarity in this country, but we saw one here, and the role it played in the lives of people. “We have no electricity and the roads are bad. Other than that we do not really have much to complain about” claimed Sandeep, a Patna resident.

POSCO has been promised 600 million tonnes of quality iron ore from the Adivasi inhabited, thickly forested Khandadhar hills in Sundergarh District. It is worth a staggering 108 billion dollars, going by the top iron ore rate in the international market (180 dollars per ton), while the investment in the plant is only $12 billion. The extraction cost would be a mere Rs 400-600 per tonne, apart from which the company only have to pay a measly Rs 25 to 27 per tonne (less than a dollar per tonne) as royalty to the Central Government. Little wonder then that the company is waiting it out, despite the protests and the difficulty in obtaining a Mining Lease as well as a Forest Clearance.

BUT THE unrelenting resistance to the project in the face of coercion, cajoling and various other pressure tactics proves that the stakes are higher for the affected people. The promise of 13,000 jobs used to lure people has had few takers here. Communities are convinced that livelihoods lost will probably be many times those gained. It is a lesson they have learnt after 60 years of ‘industrial development’ in the state that has brought little benefit to them.

At 2 pm, when the rally was barely 300 metres from the barricades and police platoons at Balitutha, the tension was palpable. The police firings of Kashipur and Kalinganagar, both of which happened in a span of ten years, were fresh in everyone’s minds. But sooner than later, the energy in the rally gained momentum. Voices roared welcoming more than 1000 protestors and supporters of the anti-POSCO struggle from all over the state who had marched to Balitutha. Before we knew it, long strides turned to leaps as protestors from both ends came together and within seconds dismantled the entire bamboo barricading. “You will have to fight us till the end, if you want this land” the voice of PPSS leader Abhay Sahu’s voice echoed in the field as thousands cheered on. It was a moment of victory for a genuine people’s struggle.

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