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Do Posco differently by Mahtab Alam

Mahtab Alam examines the trouble with the steel project and suggests a way out

THE PROPOSED mega Posco project and the anti-Posco movement are back in the news after the violence at the proposed site on 16 July. According to the reports I got, on that day, eight platoons of police attacked and lathicharged peaceful protesters in the village of Nuagaon, Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha. The protesters, despite being mostly women, were attacked by an entirely male police force, resulting in injuries to several and serious injuries to one woman, who has now been hospitalised. The protesters were seeking to protect their forests and trees from being cleared by the police as part of the government’s land grab for the Posco project. After the lathicharge the entire village joined the protest, eventually driving the police back and forcing them to retreat. But this not the first time that violence has been used against the people resisting the proposed project.

In May last year, one hundred villagers were injured, the condition of five persons is serious and eighteen persons, including five women, were arrested. Last month, at least twenty-six platoons of riot police, over 1,000 police personnel, were deployed to beat down women, children and the aged. On 3 June, seventeen people – including five children – were arrested and beaten by the police because they refused to allow the destruction of their farms. However, this time the violence is being unleashed after repeated assurances by the state that it would acquire land for the project in a peaceful, non-violent manner.

Hence, given the circumstances, it would be better for both the government and the people to either relocate the site of the project as suggested by the agitators or scrap the project. The agitators have proposed two alternative sites for the project, Ambili village and Budha Garia. In case the government does not opt for these, it would only further a perception that the government has vested interest in the project. So, it might be better for the government to rethink its land acquisition plan for the project before it is too late.

Posco India is a private limited company, essentially a subsidiary of the Korean Company Posco, which is world’s fourth largest steel producer. Posco signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Odisha to set up a 12 million tonne per annum steel plant in Jagatsinghpur, at an estimated investment of $12 billion, around Rs 54,000 crore. This project is considered as India’s largest foreign direct investment. It would also include three mines in Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts, for which separate MoUs would be signed, even to the extent of permitting the company to export iron ore. Posco had initially sought 2,025 hectares to build a steel plant and a captive port, 10 km north of Paradip port. It subsequently settled for 1,620 hectares to reduce potential displacement. Of this, 1,439 hectares is government land, while the rest is private. Initially, officials assumed that 341 hectares of forest land would go for the project but they soon realised that more forests would have to be razed. This led to a tussle between the state revenue and forestry departments.

However, on 2 May 2011, the then environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, gave a final clearance to the project ignoring recorded evidence of mala fide by the state government in furnishing false information, particularly on the settlement of Forest Rights Claims in the area. Also, the MoU signed on 22 June 2005 is no more valid as it was signed for the initial period of five years, which is over. The MoU has not been renewed as both the parties are in a final stage of negotiation on settling the necessities.

According to estimates, the proposed plant would displace nearly 22,000 people from 3,700 families residing in Dhinkia, Nuagaon, and Gadakuganj gram panchayats. Most of the people here, especially from Gobindpur and Dhinkia, are opposed to government land being promised to the company because it is highly fertile and used by 10,000 betel vine owners; the crop fetches up to Rs 50 crore annually. The betel crop ensures that no one is unemployed in the area. Nobody dies out of hunger and starvation, a serious problem in Odisha. During my visit last month to the Posco area, I was told by dozens of villagers that the land is their livelihood and no compensation can substitute that. Even landless villagers are opposed to the project as they earn far higher wages here despite being non-skilled.

REPORTS SUGGEST the daily wage rate is Rs 200 or more along with a good meal. And it is the highest in Odisha’s agrarian sector, higher than what construction labour get in Bhubaneswar and close to two times what is paid under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. According to senior journalist P Sainath, who has done much work on this, “It can go up to Rs 450 plus a meal for specific tasks in the vineyards. A tiny vineyard on a tenth of an acre can produce 540 labour days or more in a year. That is apart from 600 days of family labour. Some landless workers earn more by being fishermen as well. That source of income collapses if Posco’s captive port comes up at Jatadhari.”

Contrary to the government’s claims of creating thousands of jobs, the locals point to labour shortages and no major demand for employment. Because of this, the promises made by the government and Posco are seen as false and misleading. During my visit to the Badagobapur Erasama Transit camp run by Posco India, which is home to 53 families of displaced from Nuagaon, I found no basic amenities. Since five years, they are forced to live in subhuman conditions. There is only one tubewell for 53 families, comprising of around 260 people, and the toilets are nonfunctional. In the name of compensation, they get Rs 20 a day, which is not on a regular basis. Most of the youngsters and the aged are unemployed. The nearest public health centre is 11 km away and the transit camp has poor hygiene.

They are still waiting for the compensation in lieu of the land given for the project. Therefore, who would like to give their land for the project? Why should they, when it might ruin their livelihood? And yes, there are some people who are pro-Posco but they are mostly local contractors and real estate developers, who are eyeing major construction contracts, or a few landless villagers who are influenced by these contractors. But reports say even these contractors are now angry as the contract was handed over to a builder from outside. Moreover, the anti-Posco movement does not look like it is dying. The people say they are prepared to die to protect their land.

Mahtab Alam is a Delhi-based activist and journalist.