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The massive April 1 rally in Kujang, Orissa, was a critical milestone in the three-year anti-POSCO agitation

Celebrated in most parts of the world as Fool’s Day, April 1 in Kujang was far from being a day for pranks. What the 4,000-odd Oriyas did that day was serious business and will go down in history as a proud day for people’s movements.

On April 1, 2008, communities at the core of the anti-POSCO struggle, and their supporters from across the state, held a massive demonstration at the site of the proposed POSCO project, which has been cordoned off by the state administration for the last four months to curb protests against POSCO’s plans for industrial expansion.

In any other setting, a man like Suru Anna, with his salt-and-pepper beard, betel-juice-stained teeth and yellow helmet would have looked extremely out of place. But on April 1, 2008, as he and his fellow villagers prepared for the big rally, his unruffled gaze and composed demeanour hold our attention. Suresh Kumar Das, aka Suru Anna, a resident of Patna village, Dhinkia panchayat, has emerged as one of the many strong but lesser known leaders of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), a movement against the proposed operations of the South Korean Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur in Orissa (Yesterday's encroachers today's rights-holders).

The agitation in three panchayats, comprising seven revenue villages in Kujang tehsil, Jagatsinghpur district, began when the state government of Orissa signed an MoU in 2005 with the third largest steel company in the world to set up an integrated steel plant and port. The MoU promised the company an area of 1,620 hectares at the site where the plant and port were to be established.

We are standing at the very site. Four other Patna residents, along with Suru Anna, take us on a guided tour of the village to offer visual evidence of what is going to be lost. We make our way over the undulating sandy terrain, through cashew, coconut, and mango trees, and kewra hedges. Thatched houses stand on the mounds of each sand dune, with thousands of betel vines everywhere. The vines, which are tended throughout the year, provide the main source of income for the villagers. “Everything that grows here contributes to our livelihoods. All this will be gone if we let the project come up,” says Suru Anna.

A vibrant and sustainable economy

There are around 5,000 betel vines in the three panchayats, tended by almost 10,000 cultivators. The average annual income for a family from betel farms is Rs 1 lakh per acre, with another Rs 1 lakh of ancillary employment being generated.

Many landless families work as daily labourers on the betel vine farms for their livelihood. Around 30 lakh paan leaves are plucked, bundled and transported to Mumbai, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, every year.

In summer, cashew cultivation is the main livelihood activity in the area. A family engaged in cashew cultivation earns around Rs 20,000 per season.

Almost 50% of families are also engaged in pisciculture. An acre of farm ponds yields prawns worth Rs 7 lakh a year. Other families fish in the Jatadhari estuary -- all 108 families in Nolia Sahi hamlet of Gadakujang village depend on estuarine fishing for their livelihood. Apart from catering to the local market, a significant portion of the catch is transported to Cuttack town for sale.

We are barely 10 km from Paradeep port where several industrial units have come up over the past few decades. We marvel at how the villagers’ way of life and economy still thrive despite heavy industrial activity in the vicinity. Surely the youth are opting out of agriculture? “We have seen the coming up of Paradeep port, PPL, Oswal, IOCL -- people have only lost their lands and gained almost nothing in return. Besides, do you think companies will hire women like her,” says Suru Anna pointing to a woman packing betel leaves back at the village.

1. While POSCO has promised the creation of 45,000 jobs, directly or indirectly, through its activities in the region, those opposed to the project calculate that the steel plant, port and mines put together will affect many lakhs of people. The drawing of millions of litres of water from the Mahanadi river is expected to affect the irrigation and drinking water requirements of five districts, apart from Cuttack city.

POSCO’s spread does not limit itself to Jagatsinghpur. The proposed mining site that will feed ore to the steel plant is situated in the pristine Khandadhar forests of Sundergarh district. Inhabited mostly by scheduled tribes, mainly the Paudi Bhuiyans (a primitive tribal group), Khandadhar in Bonai division of Sundergarh is a Schedule V area, according to the Indian Constitution. The Paudi Bhuiyans are dependent on the sal (Shorea robusta) forests of the Khandadhar hill range for their livelihood, which is based on the extraction of a variety of non-timber forest produce.

The lease for the mines and relevant clearances for the project face a number of legal challenges. It was probably this, and the PPSS’s announcement of a demonstration on the same day, that forced the company to call off a groundbreaking ceremony to be held at the project site close to Dhinkia, on April 1, 2008. The PPSS had announced that it opposed the ceremony and would hold a demonstration on the occasion of Orissa Utkal Diwas, the state’s foundation day.

Legal challenges

POSCO had initially applied for Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status so that it would not necessarily have to seek separate clearances for the project. However, till date, only in-principal approval has been granted by the Union Ministry of Commerce.

The company sought separate environment and forest clearances for the steel plant and port, which is mandatory. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) granted environmental clearance for two of the components, despite the fact that a joint public hearing was conducted for the same, and ignoring the well-known aspect of project components being linked.

Subsequently, on forest clearance, a Supreme Court Forest Bench’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) recommended comprehensive assessment of all project components, including mining, before forest clearance for the project’s steel plant was granted.

POSCO has been battling in the state high court to obtain a mining lease over the 6,200 hectares of land. KIOCL, a public sector undertaking, claims that it was promised the area where POSCO proposes to mine.

People belonging to the Kashipur, Kalinganagar, Niyamgiri and other prominent movements across Orissa, who have been at the receiving end of the state’s efforts to take over their resources for large mining and industrial projects, were expected to join the rally and congregate at Balitutha.

Balitutha is a small market town on the periphery of the affected villages in Ersama block. It was barricaded by the police in November 2007 to facilitate a socio-economic survey by the administration for the project. Although the survey was never completed, in the face of growing resistance, Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code was imposed on the area to restrict the mobility of local people.

It became evident that not every family had been able to withstand the pressures caused by the violence instigated by local goons, and the company’s efforts to woo them with promises of jobs and increased compensation. In Patna, the night before April 1, as we sat huddled in a dark hut around a lantern, Suru Anna told us how the project had fractured the village community. “In Dhinkia panchayat, of the 550 families 42 decided to back the project. Due to community pressure, they were forced to leave the village. They now live in transit camps provided by the company outside Balitutha.” A few empty houses in Patna are evidence of this. “We will take them back if they are willing to stand in unity with the rest of the village at all costs,” Suru Anna said.

1. The time for action finally arrived. At noon on the day of the rally, scores of people from Dhinkia and Nuagaon and Gadakujang walked quickly yet peacefully towards Balitutha. We saw Suru Anna’s yellow helmet disappear into the crowd. There were at least 2,000 people lining the narrow path. Hundreds of women led the demonstration. “Are you ready for the police lathis? We are not!” some of the women said. We hoped they were just teasing us! With lathis in their hands, sickles in their bags, and just a flicker of nervousness, they searched for signs of the police. “There!” Fingers pointed, just as instructions to halt reached us metres from Balitutha. Armed guards were waiting for the crowds to surge in. We sensed that this was the lull before the storm...

And then, before we knew it, the wait was over. The crowds had managed to get past the first few blockades and reach the meeting point. Within minutes, jubilant villagers and their supporters had dismantled the bamboo barricade. The entire town, district administration and police looked on. The PPSS had achieved its objective. The message was clear: The people would retain their sovereignty and would not be lured by false promises or propaganda.

The people’s movement against POSCO’s proposed project in Orissa received a huge boost by declarations of support from several Korean social organisations including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and Korean House of International Solidarity (KHIS), on February 19, 2008, and United Steel Workers (USS-POSCO’s steel workers union) in March 2008. Messages written by Korean civil society groups in support of the anti-POSCO rally were read out and applauded.

Although the April 1 rally in Kujang was a critical milestone in the three-year anti-POSCO agitation, last week the company announced that it had no intention of backing out of the project. The battle seems far from over. Suru Anna and his people have miles to go before they get a sound night’s sleep.

(Manshi Asher is an independent researcher and campaigner. Kanchi Kohli is a member of Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group and is based in Delhi)

InfoChange News & Features, April 2008