1) The document describes how industrial development in Chattisgarh, India has negatively impacted local villages and displaced residents from their land. 2) A company called Jindal adopted villages with promises of jobs and prosperity but ultimately took over vast tracts of land through deceit and coercion, displacing many villagers. 3) Affected villagers like Tushar Patel describe how their lands and livelihoods were taken without adequate compensation, and how the pollution from mines and factories has ruined their quality of life. They are now fighting to protect their rights and demand proper resettlement.

1. September 15, 2010
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Rs. 15
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‘Let not the grains
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Volume 2 Issue 9
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The Gods took our land
What industrialisation has done to the villages of Chattisgarh…
Puja Awasthi, Chattisgarh
“M
y name is Tushar Patel.
I am a resident of
Tapranga (in Tamnar
BlockofRaigarhDistrict,Chattisgarh).
When Jindal first came here in 2001,
this area was completely rural and
untouched. There was malnutrition
and hunger. When the company came,
it ‘adopted’ adjacent villages like
Nagramuda, Janjher, Dongamuha,
Kosampali and Tapranga. In their
words it meant: “We are adopting
you and your happiness and worries
are our concerns now.” It started with
distributing food in the villages. If
there was a function, whole villages
were invited. People were so starved
that they began to see Jindal as God.
That God had made it to Tapranga
and the neighbouring villages in
search of the rich coal reserves.
Today the Jindal Open cast Mines
and Jindal Steel and Coal Products
Limited have a presence in the area
that has dwarfed the likes of Tapranga.
ThestoryofTaprangaistypicalina
state where industrial development at
the cost of indigenous rights has been
the norm. Where an industrial policy
has been made only by consulting
industrialists and which has turned the
‘rice bowl of India’ into a dust bowl.
This is the story of Chattisgarh’s
industrial ‘development’.
The state, with 44% forest cover
which is 12 % of the country’s entire
forest area, is a rich source of iron ore,
diamond, coal, limestone, bauxite,
granite,alexandrite,corundumbesides
Shani Ram’s battle with the sericulture department is yet another story of government apathy.
The plight of Odia labourers ... 6
The Fourth National Convention
on the ‘Right to Food’ ............ 4

2. September 15, 2010
continued from page 1
2
being the only Indian state to yield tin.
Since Chattisgarh came into
being on November 1, 2000, it has
been dedicated to rapid industrial
development, of its own admission
on the website of the state’s Industrial
Development Corporation. Its’
latest Industrial policy, 2009-2014
was made, as per the document’s
preface, after consultation with
“industrial federations, major
industrialists, officials, heads
of departments connected with
industrial development” while
state government officials were
also sent on outstation study tours.
“After a few months of such
displays of largesse, Jindal started to
ask for land in lieu of sums as paltry
as Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per acre in
villages and succeeded in buying large
portions of the hamlets as it was for
‘God’. People soon began to realise
that they were being cheated by the
small compensation and the food.
They began to protest after which
the company upped the rate to Rs
60-70,000 per acre for buying entire
villages. Dongamuha and Tapranga
have been brought over almost
entirely.Barely100acresofmyvillage
remains while the mines have spread
to almost 3,000 acres,” rues Tushar.
The land acquisition continued at
a compensation of Rs 45,000 per acre.
People thought this rate was too low
and wanted more. A settlement was
then reached and villagers, depending
on who could bargain for how much,
were given Rs 20-30,000 extra. The
company transferred the land in its
own name for a lease of 30 years.
“When Jindal had first started
operations here, it promised to give
jobs to every home. In my own
village with a population of 700
however there are barely five people
working for Jindal. When these
people complain about the fact that
they are yet to be paid in full for
their land, they are threatened that
the land has been registered in the
name of Jindal and the employee
can choose to leave his job if he so
desires. Having lost their land, the
fear of losing the last remaining
source of livelihood compels them
into silence,” informs Tushar.
Devji Bhai Patel, a ruling party
MLA points out that even while
the policy is loaded against those
most affected like Tushar Patel; its
faulty version too is being violated
with impunity. “A Central Pollution
Board survey placed Raipur among
the 75 most polluted industrial cities
while Korba was placed 5th in the
list of polluted industrial clusters.
Despite a ban by the Central Pollution
Board that no new industries will be
sanctioned in Raipur, many industries
have been given additional land in the
name of expansion. Similarly just in
the duration of the last Vidhan Sabha
session more than 14 big power
plants were sanctioned. There is no
policy for disposal of fly ash. In the
last few years almost 200 patients
of cancer, tuberculosis and other
diseases have come to me for help.
The situation is critical,” he says.
“My family owned 50 acres of
land in the village. Our land was
also brought over by Jindal and the
company deposited money at the
rate of Rs 45,000 per acre under
the Land Acquisition Act with the
District government. It has been 10
years since and 30 acres of our land
has been split open to scour for coal.
We went to the SDM and demanded
our money. The SDM asked us to
get someone from Jindal before the
government pays you. Jindal in turn
told us that they would take our land
in settlement. In 2007, the settlement
was reached at Rs 5 lakh per acre.
(This was not the first time that such
a settlement was reached. In 2005, we
had reached a settlement of Rs 1 lakh
per acre. In 2006, they had settled for
Rs 3 lakh per acre) Finally in 2007,
they promised us that the registry
will take another one week, but that
week stretched to one whole year. For
one whole year, I made trips to the
Tamnar Power Plant but when nothing
happened I stopped going there.
Now the mines stand right next
to the village. The trenches of the
mine form the village boundaries
and everyday three to four cattle
heads fall into these and die. Initially
Jindal would not even compensate
for it but when the villagers protested
they started paying Rs 1,000-2,000
depending on the animal lost.”
Alok Shukla, coordinator of the
Chattisgarh Bachchao Andolan,
points out that permission has been
given for the operation of 100s of
sponge iron plants, the most polluting
of industries. “It is a contradiction
that after NEERI’s (National
Environmental Engineering Research
Institute) 2007 announcement that
pollution in Raipur had reached
saturation point and the State
Government’s subsequent promise
that no coal-based industries would
be set up in the area, pollution levels
in Raipur continue to rise as the
State Government is setting up new
industrialzoneatTilda,nexttoRaipur”.
The state’s industrial policy is
oriented towards development of the
“core sector”. That translates into iron
ore followed by thermal power for
which MOUs for the production of
60,000 Mega-watt of electricity have
already been signed. These units will
require 72,000 acres of land and in
turn ruin lakhs of acres of agricultural
landduetothepollutiontheygenerate.
Water requirement of thermal power
industry is 3,420 litre per hour to
produce 1 mega watt of electricity.
This adds to crores of litres of water
fromriverswhicharethemainsources
of water for many villages for both
drinking and agricultural purposes.
According to an estimate, around
32.56 lakh families are dependent on
agriculture for their livelihood. Out
of this, 76% are small or marginal
landowners who have little power to
stand up to the might of the industry.
“The mines are now so close to
our village. There are no toilets in the
village, so we use the fields. But now
even the fields are gone. Our lands are
gone. If the government is hell bent on
taking them for free what can we do?
But do re-settle us somewhere else
where we can live a decent life and
have clean air to breathe. A few weeks
ago,around200youthfromthevillage
went to the factory to protest. There
was a 50 men strong police force in
attendance which receded on seeing
the numbers that had come out. The
local administration was also there.
Then on the 18th of August, in
the presence of the ASP, SDM and
about 200 policemen, the factory
started digging the only three acres
of land which lies on the outskirts
of the village. The village turned
up to protest. They were threatened
with rifles and dandas. The tahsildar
said that the land was already with
the government and said that if
there was any land which has been
forcibly taken we could go there. So
we proceeded to a six acre pocket of
land which belongs to my family,
which the company has not acquired
despite promises of a handsome
compensation and where it has
forcibly built a residential colony.
We had just reached the colony
to protest when about 70 guards
employed by Jindal came to us and
asked us to go back. They were
armed with batons. When we refused,
we were beaten up. Even women and
children were not spared. When my
sister raised up her hand to shield
me, a baton landed on her palm. One
person was so badly injured that he
developed a clot in his brain and had
to be referred to Raipur. My uncle is
vomiting blood and is also in a Raipur
hospital. About 20 women were
seriously injured,” informs Tushar.
Patel’s village, like the
neighbouring ones gobbled by the
industry is handicapped by the fact
that no civil society organisation or
NGO has reached there to help the
people despite the fact that they have
a strong case. Where NGO’s help has
come, villagers have found a way to
revolt against the offending parties.
Take the case of Ladukhet in
Korba. In front of a brightly painted
house, Shani Ram (50) de facto
leader of the movement that ousted
the sericulture department of the
state tells the story of his village.
In 2007, the state’s sericulture
department made an appearance in
the hamlet and announced its plans
to take over 27 hectares of land for
sericulture and lured people with
promises of jobs, diesel pumps and
Rs 15,000 for every hectare of land
taken over. It did not take long for
Shani Ram and others to realise that
they had been trapped. And then the
demands for return of the land began.
The department, unrelenting at first
submitted an inch when the farmers
threatened to vacate the entire village.
It announced that it would henceforth
plant its’ trees only on the boundaries
of the farms. “Then how will we get
to our farms?” asked Shani Ram at
one such meeting. Three rounds of
meetings were held with the district
machinery camping in the village to
convince its residents. Finally it was
a joint threat issued by the village
that it would send a representation
to Chief Minister Raman Singh if the
department continued its’ tactics that
did the trick. However not all farmers
have gotten their land papers back.
Ladukhetwashelpedbythefactthat
the Gram Mitra Samaj Sewi Sansthan,
a local NGO supported by the British
charity Find Your Feet, FYF, (and
subsequently by the European Union)
had started capacity building through
self help groups in 2008. The fallout
of the groups (of which 150 are to be
formed with different local NGOs
across 90 villages of Korba, Raigarh
and Kanker) was a greater awareness
of rights and the subsequent
determination to fight for them.
The focus of FYF though has
shifted to activist mode of late.
“Initially we thought a socio
economic empowerment of the
tribal community would solve their
problems. But the community is so
severely marginalised that it needs to
be brought on one platform to vocally
fight for its’ rights at the district and
state level through liaisoning with the
stateanddistrictadministration,media
and civil society”, explains FYF’s
country director Savitri Sharma.
Tushar Patel and his village
are thinking on the same lines.
“We will not allow any work
to take place at the mine now. We
have decided to resort to chakka
jaam (forcible stopping of work).
If we have been so magnanimously
adopted, what is wrong in us asking
for a decent place to live? During
blasts at the mine, such intense
vibration is generated that it feels our
home will topple over any time. All
we want is decent compensation and
resettlement. We will buy land with
the money and become land owners
again. Now we are beggars on our
own land. We are three brothers,
forced to live off agriculture done
over a slice of three acres. There
are seven members in the family.
Under the ‘Right To Information,’
we got to know that every home in
the village, on papers, has someone
working in the Jindal Plant. While
non-tribal land has been blatantly
seized, tribal land has been brought
in the name of tribal stooges of the
Jindals. Almost 700 acres of land
have gone this way. We are finished.”
The mining ruins of Chattisgarh are a stark reminder of the situation.
The villagers are willing to fight it out to protect their rights over the
land.
Photos:PujaAwasthi