Fwd: Report about Kalinga Nagar in Orissa Matters

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Apr 11, 2010, 10:55:28 AM4/11/10

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Corporate-State Foul-play in Kalinga Nagar: A Firsthand Report from
Prasanta Pattanaik

Posted on April 11, 2010 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

A team of journalists from Bhubaneswar virtually demolished the
invisible iron wall created by the Government of Orissa through its
district administration for the benefit of corporate houses and barged
into the tribal villages that had become out of bounds for any
outsider for past many months.

Eminent journalist Prasanta Pattanaik, who led the team, gives us a
firsthand narration. Here is what he says:

Journalists Expose Corporate-State Nexus in Kalinga Nagar

Indian Express reporter Mr Amulya Pati and many other working
journalists were attacked on 5th April when they were covering the BJP
team led by its State unit President Jual Oram that was trying to
enter into Gobarghat and other tribal villages to have a spot study of
how the inhabitants there were brutalized by the Police and Corporate
goons combine on 29th March, 2010.

Earlier a team of Congress leaders headed by former MLA Mr Sarat Kumar
Rout was also prevented from entering into the area.
No journalists were allowed to meet the affected tribals who were
physically attacked by the police and corporate goons, their houses
looted, personal belongings damaged and livestock taken away.
Every body was prevented from meeting the tortured tribals of Kalinga
Nagar as the corporate-Government nexus did not like the picture of
their plight to come to light.
Inspired by MUFP, Bhubaneswar based journalists had taken a decision
on 7th April 2010 to go in a team to the “prohibited and deprived”
villages on 8th April, decrying all prohibitory orders and to meet the
people to bring the truth to light. Accordingly a team comprising
Prasanta Patnaik, Ramesh Chandra Mohanty, Sudhir Patnaik , Vivekananda
Dash, Bhabani Parija, and Bhimsen Kumar had left for Kalinga Nagar.

The local journalists were so much intimidated by the perpetrators of
state-terror that some of them even tried to persuade us not to meet
the affected tribals. It transpired that they ware not daring to
accompany us in fear of the S.P. and the Collector! However some young
and energetic journalists of Jajpur district who came by motor cycles
joined us. A team of the former category, traveling in a brand new
white Innova bearing registration number 3333, driving ahead of us
from Chadhei Dhara square stopped in front of Kalinga Nagar police
station and did not proceed ahead while the bike riding team led us
further.

After we drove about 100 meters from the police station we found the
road was blocked with stones and branches of trees. Such blockages we
found in three places. However our young friends from the locality
removed all the blockades in order to facilitate our movement further.

Gobarghat and 12 other tribal villages which have been branded as the
fortress cluster is virtually kept out of bound for civil society
bodies, politicians and even mediapersons for past many months by the
police and local administration allegedly under instructions from the
State Government and particularly from Finance Minister Prafulla
Chandra Ghadei, representing the Assembly constituency.

Over 8,000 tribals residing in 13 villages near Orissa’s most talked
about steel hub Kalinga Nagar live in confinement and fear for past
many months as their villages are surrounded by large contingents of
armed police, who terrorize them at frequent intervals. Their only
“crime” is that they oppose acquisition of their fertile agricultural
land for construction of a mega steel plant by the Tatas. They were
opposed to construction of a so-called “common corridor road” leading
only to the proposed site of Tata’s steel plant. Though they had
announced to go on “peaceful demonstration” to press their seven point
demands, the corporate-Government nexus was determined to crush them
by using brutal police and hired goons.

On 2nd January, 2006 13 tribals were killed in police firing and one
policeman was also killed when the tribals resisted against
construction of boundary wall for the Tatas with heavy police
deployment. The tribals under the banner of “Bisthapan Birodhi Jana
Mancha ” were protesting against their displacement from their home
lands, agricultural lands and forests to pave way for acquisition of
land for Tatas and other industrial houses. They were pleading that
since over ten thousands acres of barren lands were available near
adjacent Sukinda area, there was no justification on displacing the
tribals of Kalinga Nagar, where they were living from time immemorial
depending on agriculture and forest products.

When Tatas and the State Government are bent upon acquiring the land
of the tribals, the tribals are also determined not to leave their
land at any cost. Dabar Kalundia, one of the leaders of Bisthapan
Birodhi Mancha, says, “We will not spare an inch of land for the
purpose of establishment of industry. That will be like selling our
own mother.We will not allow our mother soil ( mati maa ) to be raped
before our eyes…One Govt. officer had approached me and had persuaded
me to sale my land at a higher price for industry, I had asked
him:what price will you demand to sell your mother?” The officer went
back”. Interestingly enough, the administration has declared Dabar
Kalundia as an ” absconder “, though he is moving freely in his
village and talking to the media on camera.

Some of the tribals of the area alleged that, only to assist Tatas to
construct their plant on the lands of the tribals, the State
administration has started constructing a “corridor road” by
forcefully acquiring the lands of the tribals.

As the local villagers were protesting against such activities of the
corporate-Government nexus, their villages have been surrounded by
large contingents of armed police for months together and they are not
allowed to come out of the villages for marketing, to go to hospital
or even to attend the schools.

The only primary school in the village with a student strength of 120
have been abandoned since past two years as a result the students have
been denied right to education. No developmental work is taking place
in the area as the Government officials have branded it as “disputed
area.”

No mediaperson was allowed entry into the area to meet the people and
bring their plight to light. The villagers alleged that recently a
group of policemen and goons had forcibly entered into Gobarghati and
Chandoli villages after opening fire at the villagers who had gathered
near the village. They set ablaze their straw heaps and paddy stocks.
Whosoever was a little prosperous amongst them attracted ransacking of
their households. Gadgets like TV, electric fans, sewing machines,
chairs, tables, dish antennas, utensils, etc. were destroyed and
valuables were looted. The police-goon-combine set ablaze a number of
bicycles, motor cycles etc and took away chickens, goats, and other
domestic animals and birds. All this happened when prohibitory orders
under Section 144 of Cr.P.C. were imposed in the area.

Even though the local scribes were covering on duty the BJP team’s
visit to the area the Corporate-State was determined to hide from
public eyes, one of them, Amulya Pati, was deliberately beaten up by
four of the goons quite close to the Minister hailing from the
concerned constituency. A seriously injured Pati has named those in
his F.I.R. But no action is yet initiated against because of their
proximity to the Minister.

The villagers exhibited the rubber bullets and pellets fired at them
that has injured and incapacitated around 30 of them.

A Sarvodaya activist, Dr.Biswajit, showed us the pellets which he had
brought out from bodies of some injured persons by operation.

We were the fist team of scribes to visit the area on Friday. Earlier,
though some TV and print media journalists had tried to enter the
villages following the assault by the police and the anti-socials,
they were prevented both by the police and goons. The cameras, cell
phones and personal belongings of some scribes were snatched away and
some of them were beaten up mercilessly.

We met Mr Amulya Pati at his house where he is undergoing treatment
for injury. It may take about a month more for his recovery. Amulya
informed the team that his main assaulters were henchmen of Finance
Minister Mr Prafulla Ghadei and his M.L.A. son. Though he has
mentioned the names of his assaulters in his F.I.R., the police so far
have not cared to arrest them. We gathered from reliable sources that
there were attempts to pressurize Mr. Pati to drop the names of two
assaulters from the F.I.R.

Filed under: actionscript, administration, law and order, media, news,
orissa, politics | Tagged: tata, MUFP, kalinga nagar, prafulla ghadei,
displaced tribals, bhubaneswar journalists | Leave a Comment »

See the Unseen Condition of Orissa’s Indigenous Tribes against Whom
the Government is helping the Tata Empire

Posted on April 10, 2010 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
The tribal people whose natural habitat is being hijacked by the Tata
empire and similar corporate houses under the design called Kalinga
Nagar in the district of Jajpur are ruined.
They are being killed by the Corporate-State; their cottages
ransacked, belongings destroyed, livestock looted.
The world is obstructed to see their plight as journalists from
outside are disallowed entry into the cursed land even as local
scribes are too intimidated to report the reality.
A team of Bhubaneswar based journalists had to dare all dangers to
reach the poor children of the soil to see their condition in their
own eyes. The report will follow.
But here we post a few pictures for you to see how wretchedly poor are
the people against whom the Government run by Navin Patnaik is helping
the Tatas and CHs.