Frederick Douglass

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them..." Frederick Douglass

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Warren Buffet's Odisha (aka Orissa) Land Grab Update, July 21


The villagers managed to repel the latest attack by the state and their uniformed henchmen, but the day of reckoning is coming. The case is now being heard in the courts:

Orissa High Court reserves judgement on Posco hearing

Opposing the PILs, which were seeking an interim order from the court over the ongoing land acquisition and forest clearance by the state government and Centre's nod on forestland diversion, the AG vehemently denied any wrongdoing by the state government and urged the court to dismiss the petitions at admission level itself.

http://orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=28023



When the police aren't clubbing farmers over the head, they employ other methods to drive them off their lands:

The villagers protest that government has been trying to crush the protests by using violence and intimidation. Nearly 800 false cases have been put on the villagers. People are threatened by the police into signing blank papers, which as and when required, are filled with details of charges.

It is for this reason that 62-year old Kanchan Malla from Dhinkia, who has a steel pellet buried in her head from a police firing a year ago, had not left her village. "I need to get an operation but there might be a case against me that I don’t know of and if I leave the village, I might get arrested," she says.

Here's the rest of al-Jazeera's excellent account:

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/07/201171711310873319.html



Illustration: Tim Tim Rose

This is from an opinion piece:

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.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws210711Do_POSCO.asp



Posco is owned in large part by Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup, and JPMC. That's Warren Buffet, the Rockefellers, and the Rothschilds, three of the richest families in the world, can't they leave these humble villagers to their ancient vines? Can capital ever be satisfied? It hasn't happened yet.

Long live the people of the forest!