[Commons-Law] Kasipur Issue

[esparun]

esparun at bgl.vsnl.net.in
05.02.2005 18:00

Subject: Fwd: Memo and Press Release on Kashipur!


MEMORANDUM
To:
The Resident Commissioner, Government of Orissa,
New Delhi
1 February 2005
Sir,
Re: Police Repression of Movement Against UAIL, Kashipur

We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, are extremely concerned
by the continued and ongoing police repression in Raygada district, Orissa.
As you know, local tribals, and individuals organized under the banner
Prakrutika Sampad Surakhya Parishad (PSSP) have for many years now been
intensely opposing the setting up of an aluminium plant, UAIL, in Kashipur.
The situation has deteriorated for local residents recently with intensified
police presence in the area, and with plans to set up a police post and
police barracks in village D. Karol near Kucheipadar. On 1 December, a group
of about 300 protestors peacefully opposing the setting up of this police
post were targetted by assembled police. The protestors were abused,
tear-gassed, and lathi-charged. A number of them were injured, some
seriously. And instead of being treated for injuries, a number of these
protestors were sent to police custody. All of this happened in the presence
of the District Collector, Rayagada, Pramod Kumar Meherda, and the
Superintendent of Police, Rayagada, Sanjay Kumar. 
Following this incident, protests have been held in the area. Once again,
instead of engaging with the people’s demands, a hallmark of a healthy
democracy, your government has simply been using fear and intimidation. The
CRPF has been deployed and has been holding flag marches in the area. The
Indian Reserve Battalion  and the Orissa State Armed Forces have also been
deployed. Huge numbers of police have been deployed for the last few weeks,
at Tikri police station and at Karol near Kucheipadar.
Police have been roaming the villages even at nights and picking up people,
hence causing fear in the area. Private goons employed by the company have
been terrorizing people in the area. A number of people have been picked up
and detained from the villages around, both on 1 December and in the days
that followed. For instance: 1. On the night of 2 December, the police force
picked up Naveen Nayak and Loknath Nayak , both committee members of PSSP
>from their homes.   2. Bulka Miniaka, president of PSSP and convenor of the
Basundhara Suraksha Samiti, was picked up from his village Barigan, Laxmipur
Block, Koraput district. 3. On 5 December, Duryodhan Dora of Tikrapada and
Bhobani Goud of Lachhuguda were picked up by the police from Dongasil market
place.  They  are still in custody.  4. Later, Jagannath Sahu and Chitrasen
Bag of Bagrijhola were arrested from Tikri and Rayagada respectively. On 18
Jan 2005, Trinath Majhi, Umashankar Majhi and Samrendra Majhi of Kucheipadar
were detained by the police while returning from a local market. In short,
people have also been detained both in democratic protests and in everyday
situations of daily existence. People are now terrified even to go to local
haats, an age-old market institution central to people’s economic
lives and well-being. To the best of our knowledge, eighteen people from
Kashipur and Laxmipur are still in custody. 
Sustenance, and the environment. 
Historically, such mining both in India and abroad has only benefited
corporations and urban elites, and local tribals and the poor pay the price.
PSSP, local tribals, and other supporters have instead been articulating a
completely different vision of development, an understanding that places
locals and the poor at the centre. For instance, the movement has instead
been demanding from your government schools and hospitals, surely a
reasonable demand in a country that claims to be one of the largest
democracies in the world. 
Hence, we demand:
1. All those who have been taken in custody in Kashipur and Laxmipur be
released immediately.
2. Any charges placed against them be dropped unconditionally.
3. An enquiry be held against the lathi-charge and police repression in
village Karol on 1 December and subsequently in the area. Cases be launched
against the police and the company’s goons who have been terrorizing
people around.
4. All the police and paramilitary forces currently deployed in the area be
withdrawn immediately and the police post and barracks be dismantled.
5. That your government cancel the MOUs given to UAIL to carry out mining
operations in the area. Such permission also be withdrawn to
Sterlite’s alumina project in Lanjigarh. 
Rabi Shankar (PSSP), Yogendra Yadav, Harish Dhawan, Ranjana Parhi
72, Deshbandhu Apts, I.P. Extension, Delhi 110092

And the following organizations present at the demonstration:
1. Prakrukika Sampad Surakhya Parishad (PSSP), Orissa
2. People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), Delhi
3. Saheli
4. Sandhaan
5. All India People’s Resistance Forum (AIPRF)
6. Jagori
7. The Other Media
8. Democratic Students Union (DSU)
9. Amnesty International (India)
10. All India Coordinating Forum of Adivasi/ Indigenous Peoples (AICFAIP)
11. Samajwadi Jan Parishad

PRESS RELEASE

New Delhi, 1st February 2005: Protesting against the state-sponsored
violence against indigenous and dalit peoples in Orissa to facilitate the
entry of mining companies into bauxite rich forest lands, members of
Orissa-based struggle group Prakrutik Sampada Surakshya Parishad (PSSP),
alongwith New Delhi-based youth and human rights activists, writers and
intellectuals today submitted a memorandum to the Resident Commissioner of
Orissa after a peaceful demonstration in front of the Orissa Bhavan in New
Delhi this morning. The memorandum demanded the immediate and unconditional
release of 18 PSSP members who have been illegally arrested since December
2004 and to stop the human rights abuses by the state police on the
villagers around Kashipur who have been for years peacefully resisted the
moves by bauxite mining consortium Utkal Alumina International Ltd (UAIL) to
take over their land and forests for a 100% export oriented alumina mining
and refinery project.
The Rs 4500 crore UAIL is a joint venure of Indian company HINDALCO (55%
share) and Canadian company ALCAN (45%). TATA, HYDRO (Norwegian) and ALCOA
(America) who were earlier part of the venture, were forced to withdraw from
the project due to the mass struggle and opposition by the villagers. The
project will source bauxite from a 195 million ton deposit in Baphli Mali, a
sacred hill for the adivasis. The promoters also plan to set up an  alumina
refinery near Kucheipadar, from where it will be exported. At the
refinery’s capacity of consuming 9 million tonnes of bauxite per year,
the Baphlimali deposit will be exhausted within two decades.

The mines and refinery are slotted to come up in adivasi-majority areas that
are protected by the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. The Fifth Schedule
guarantees the right of land to adivasis, and prohibits the transfer of
these lands to non-tribals for any purpose. "The Government of Orissa is in
the hands of the mining companies. Since early December, the Government has
unleashed a reign of terror in the villages near the proposed mining
project, and is keen on evicting the people at gun-point," said Rabi Shankar
of PSSP.
On November 25, 2004 Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was quoted as
saying that anti-mining struggles will be firmly dealt with. From late
November, villages that are protesting the Utkal Alumina project proposed on
their lands have been under siege by the police.
On  December 1st , 2004, the state police launched a brutal lathi charge on
400 adivasis, mostly women, who had gathered to protest the inauguration of
a road to a proposed bauxite-mining site in Baphlimali owned by ALCAN. As a
result, 16 people were critically injured and three women were beaten
unconscious. Since this incident, platoons of armed police with firing
orders have occupied Kucheipadar village - the center of the adivasi
struggle. Eighteen activists of PSSP, the umbrella organization of adivasis
spearheading the struggle against bauxite mining have been picked up from
their villages mostly in the night in separate incidents and are now in jail
without access to bail.
"This is not the first time that adivasis of Kashipur are facing such state
repression and police brutality," said Rabi Shankar. On December 16, 2000,
three adivasis were killed in Kashipur when police fired on unarmed
villagers associated with the people's struggle against bauxite mining.
Following international outrage at the incident, one of UAIL's original
stakeholders, Norsk Hydro of Norway, withdrew from the project in a move
that clearly implicated both the UAIL and the Orissa government.
The situation in rest of Orissa is not very different. As many as five
bauxite mining and alumina projects are in the pipeline, covering 5 blocks
of 3 districts -- Kashipur ( Rayagada district) , Luxmipur and Dasamantpur (
Koraput), Lanjigada and Thuamulrampur (Kalahandi). Sterlite is proposed to
source bauxite from Sasubohu mali of Kashipur block. Larson and Tubro from
Sijimali and Kutrumali ( Kashipur block), Birla from Kodinga Mali ( Luxmipur
block) and Vedanta from Niyamgiri and Khandual mali of Kalahandi district.
"The total investment in the Orissa bauxite projects is to the tune of Rs
20,000 crores. Taking into consideration the present price of even just
UAIL, the joint venture will reap a profit of at least Rs 2,88,000 crore
during the 22-23 years of the project life, whereas the government will get
Rs. 1300-1400 crores as royalty during that period. And the adivasis and
dalits of these villages will get state repression, and a lifetime of misery
and slum life," added Ranjana Padhi of Saheli Women's Resource Centre,
Delhi, a group supporting the Kashipur peoples' struggle.

For more information, contact: 
Ranjana Padhi 9811150884; 
Harish Dhawan 9811667776 
Visit: “Alcan't In India"  http://www.saanet.org/alcant


(on behalf of the Core Committee) 
Coordinator, 
All India Coordinating Forum of the Adivasi/Indigenous Peoples (AICFAIP) 
Secretariat 
AA-1/125 (First Floor) Safdarjung Enclave 
New Delhi 110029 
India 
Tel: +11-51652451/51652452
Fax: +11-51013382 
Email: aicfaip at rediffmail.com 
email: admin at del3.vsnl.net.in


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