Dear Nandini, Thanks a lot. Sharing with others.
Sukla On 2 April 2010 12:35, Nandini Sundar <[email protected]> wrote: > *Dear Sukla > * > > > ** > > *I have actually been saying for a long time that there is no one to one > connection between sj and tata/essar or the mining., but a general one but > then have been accused of not having the right line, and recognising the > connection. > * > > > ** > > *extracting a section from a paper in wrote in 2007 > * > > * > * > > *Blood mining* > > While one history of the Salwa Judum places it within the context of a > standard counter-insurgency tactic directed against communist guerillas, the > version lately preferred by the Maoists and a number of human rights > activists is that the Salwa Judum is part of a ‘ground clearing exercise’ for > industry and mining.[1] > <https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#127bd572cbe0a964__ftn1> > The Dandakaranya region, and Dantewada district in particular, are said to > have 18% of India’s iron ore deposits, along with large reserves of graphite > ore, limestone, uranium and other minerals. They point to the coincidence > that the Chhattisgarh government signed an agreement with both the Tata and > Essar groups to invest in steel plants in Bastar and Dantewada on the same > day that Salwa Judum started, June 4th 2005. Both MoUs (memorandum of > understanding) were initially kept secret. Both the Tata steel plant at > Lohandiguda, for which the company is trying to acquire some 2161 ha, and the > Essar Steel plant at Bhansi for which Essar wants 900 ha have been strongly > opposed by villagers who will lose their lands to the project. Under PESA > 1996, a > special law for scheduled areas (areas dominated by indigenous people or > adivasis), the government is required to gain the consent of the villagers. > In both cases, villages were forced to give their ‘consent’ at gunpoint. Both > the plants, however, have the support of non-tribal emigrants, who see the > prospect of business expanding and their children getting whatever limited > jobs come on offer. > > While nationwide the anxiety about Maoists is connected to SEZs, the > connections in Bastar seem too quickly drawn. Of course, there are links in > the person of Mahendra Karma, who leads the Salwa Judum and who is acting as > an agent for both Tata and Essar in acquiring land, and in the fact that > Essar is funding the permanent > resettlement of villages. However, both the large steel plants proposed for > this region are in villages where people have not been forcibly evacuated and > elsewhere in the country, displacement is taking place without strategic > hamletting. Maoist influence had not reached Lohandiguda, and protests > against both plants are currently being led not by the Maoists, but by the > parliamentary left, the CPI. > > * * > > The real connections perhaps lie in the silence that now surrounds whatever > happens in the region and the atmosphere of impunity that has been created. > Now that villages have been emptied, there is a great deal of smaller scale > prospecting and felling that goes unchecked. In a government guesthouse on > the Andhra side of the border, waiting to cross over to Chhattisgarh, I met > a businessman from Andhra Pradesh who had just acquired 3 ha of land for a > granite quarry in a village, all of whose inhabitants had been moved to > camp. While their permission was required under PESA, they were no longer > there to give it. He said he sniffed opportunity at times of conflict, when > competition was low - his company had acquired some 100 ha in different > villages in small lots and under different names to circumvent the laws > requiring federal clearance for forest clearance. > > ------------------------------ > > [1]<https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&view=bsp&ver=1qygpcgurkovy#127bd572cbe0a964__ftnref1> > See, > e.g., Ilina Sen, Ground Clearing with Salwa Judum, *Himal Southasian*, > November 2006: 42-44. > -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
