UNWARRENTED BRUTE FORCE

KALINGANAGAR The upcoming steel hub in Orissa's Jajpur district is a classic case of how the rehabilitation & resettlement policy 2003 has failed to be complied with.The 12,000-acre Kalinga Nagar complex, some 100 kilometres from Bhubaneswar, has about 10 industrial units and steel plants.While development of backward states to reduce disparity among various states of our country is the right thing to do,the methods followed by the authorities in place & the motives too are questionable.the high handedness of the district administration in using brute police force to deal with the anti-displacement agitations taken up by hundreds of tribals, who were opposing the construction of a common corridor road to give access to Tata Steel's six million tonne proposed steel mill shows lack of sensitivity in dealing with the marginalized sections of our population.the police opened fire at the protesting tribals, injuring about 50 men and women, living in the tribal hamlets. isn't mainstreaming our tribal population to be part of our "inclusive growth" strategy also a major dimension of development? if so how do we justify this brutality ? were there not better ways to bring about infrastructure development in these backward regions? agreed that most administrative decisions are tough ones where the axiom of "greater good" should be applied at the cost of a few.but what is hard to digest is the fact that the very development of these regions is against the interests of the very people whose well being the government is considering.

the basic paradigm in tribal administration & development is the framing of sustainable policies bearing in mind the attachment which the tribals develop towards their land.unless this is followed the authorities would be in no position to negotiate & assure them of the benefits which would accrue to them due to development projects.because for a tribal, his land,his culture & customs/traditions/beliefs figure in the top of his priority list.a suitable way could have been to by pass tribal localities in construction of the road or the governor of the state applying his discretionary powers with regard to regulating administrative action & overlooking the effective implementation of the rehabilitation policy before any work was started.instead all that the administration could muster was the use of brute force against a largely peaceful protest.

the tribals claim that they have lost all faith in the administration since no discussions were conducted with them by the authorities before the road project could be started.further they allege that the administration is out to prove that they were maoists. to compound the problems of the tribals,the local police seemed to have gagged any aattempts to voice the concerns of the tribals by denying entry to politicians and representatives of different organisations into the villages since the police action. it is high time that the government of orissa & the central government proactively prevent such attrocities from happening lest it could detoriate into another situation like what happened in lalgarh.