[Reader-list] Coke for Land - notes from a dharna outside Jindal's factory in Angul, Orissa

[asit das]

 Coke for Land - notes from a dharna outside Jindal's factory in Angul,
Orissa
by Faiza Khan <https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=507005642> on
Friday, 17 February 2012 at 00:35 ·

Villagers have been sitting outside the Jindal factory in protest for the
last 3 weeks.

Sudham Bishal, 51 who injured his head in the attack. As per the rehab
offered to him, he was employed at the factory, only to be fired 3 months
later.

Ashok was fired after a year and a half, and told that the company was not
going to hire any more locals.

Babli Naik 'sold' 12 acres of his land but hasn't received a single rupee.

Villagers allege that the police vehicles were a gift to the police by the
Jindals. The Jindals also built the police station down the road from the
factory.

Villagers demand the jobs, schools, roads, medical facilities they had been
promised.



On the eve of Republic Day, residents of about 40 villages had stormed the
Jindal factory in Angul, Orissa. The land that this 'Jindal Nagar' stood
on, had belonged to them and when Jindal had started to acquire it for its
steel plant and power plant in 2006, the villagers were promised
compensation and rehabilitation packages that, as these packages go, turned
out to be an eyewash.



The protesting villages were brutally attacked by the security guards as
well as the local police and 230 people were hospitalised, many with head
injuries. A 2-year-old girl had her leg broken.



 A video of the attack was shot by a villager and uploaded on Youtube
titled 'Blood Stains in Jindal Steel, Orissa. 25th January 2012'. Here's
the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tU7uphTnLw



Mysteriously, the video vanished a few days later, only to re-appear as
'Adult' content, for which you have to sign in and state that you are over
18 years of age.  A quick Google search revealed that the incident went
largely unreported in the national media.



The villagers have been sitting outside the gates of Jindal Nagar on a day
and night dharna since then. One of them, 51-year-old Sudham Bishal had
injured his head and arm in the attack. He is a farmer who had to give up 4
acres of his land. In return, along with monetary compensation he was
promised a job. For 3 months, he worked as a daily wage labourer, in the
horticulture department, carrying stones. He was paid 90 rupees a day,
which was raised to 100. Then he was fired. Reason given- old and
incapable.



Similarly with 25-year-old Ashok Bhoi. He was hired as a security guard in
2010. He was promised 15,000, but paid 4,000. A year and a half later, when
they sacked him, they told him they didn't want to employ locals.



Babli Naik, another farmer who had to sell 12 acres of his land to the
Jindals has yet to see any compensation. Apparently, Jindal has given the
money to the district administration but where it went from there, is
something he has been trying to trace since 2006. And there are another 100
like him, he says.



Huge tracts of forests were cleared, apparently over 3,00,000 sal trees
were hacked with dubiously acquired forest permissions. And just last week
there was a report in the Wall Street Journal claiming that tribals are
responsible for vanishing forests in India.



The local police is practically controlled by the Jindals. The villagers
point to a police jeep parked outside the gate and tell me that these jeeps
were presented to the local police by the Jindals. As was a police station
down the road.



Naveen Jindal flew in this morning and met the villagers outside the gate.
They asked him about their compensation. He offered them cold drinks. The
largest Indian flag I have ever seen fluttered behind him.