Kalinga Nagar project hangs fire

Orissa declares an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the carnage victims, reports Soumyajit Pattnaik.

A year has gone by, but families of 12 of the 13 tribals killed in the police firing at Kalinga Nagar while protesting against the construction of a boundary wall by Tata Steel, are yet to receive their Rs 10 lakh cash compensation.

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Orissa had declared an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the carnage victims. The Centre had announced Rs 5 lakh more and transferred it to the state government. But till date, only Sukumari Gagarai, whose husband Rama Gagarai was a victim, has received the compensation.

The administration says the leaders of the movement against the displacement of tribals are to blame for the rest of the families not getting their money.

Jajpur district collector Arabinda Padhi said the "Bistapan Virodhi Janmanch, spearheading the agitation, is opposing our moves to pay the ex-gratia. Perhaps, its leaders fear their movement will be hurt ".

Gagarai said her family has been almost ostracised for having taken the compensation. The class-IV employee at a health centre said she and her two school-going sons are "staying in the temporary rehabilitation colony of the Tatas".

But secretary of the Bistapan Birodhi Janmanch, Rabindra Jarika, claimed the "families are voluntarily spurning the compensation money".

Ranjit Bankira, whose mother Mukta Bankira was a victim of the firing, said they "don't want to surrender our land to the Tatas. The land gives us food. We cannot surrender it and take the compensation".

Even a year after the incident, the tension does not seem to have subsided as hundreds of activists joined the displaced people at Kalinga Nagar on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of the incident.

The displaced people seemed as resolute in their opposition to the Tata Steel project at Kalinga Nagar as they were last year. Rabindra Jarika said they did not want the Tatas"to build a plant here at all". The district administration, however, claimed most of the people at the protests were outsiders.

Email Soumyajit Pattnaik: soumyajit.pattnaik@gmail.com