Letters

A place called forestland

Panel submits draft of West Bengal land use policy

An expert committee set up by the West Bengal government to draft the state’s land use policy has submitted its recommendations to chief minister Mamata Banerjee. The draft suggests, among others, that land for industry be bought directly from owners. It also does not approve of special economic zones (SEZs) in the state.

Why villages don’t opt for rainwater harvesting

In areas where pars (land pockets containing filtered rainwater reserves) don’t exist, villages have opted for tankas. In Rawli Nadi village in Dhorimanna block, every household has installed a tanka to collect rainwater. Residents say they are no longer able to get water from the river or from the ground because of industries in the nearby town of Balotra. They say the option of creating ponds and water recharge bodies is also fast disappearing because open spaces are being taken over by oil company Cairn for its oil fields.

Curse of limestone

It’s been more than seven months. Farmer representatives from 12 villages in Nawalgarh are on a sit-in protest outside the sub-divisional magistrate’s office. Their demand: do not give our fertile land to industry.

Rise of third sector

The non-government sector has come of age. Never before has it hogged the limelight as now, following the agitation over the Lokpal Bill. “Civil society has made national news for the first time. We have been in the headlines for three consecutive months,” says Amitabh Beher, executive director of the National Foundation of India, a non-profit in Delhi.

Now farmland reservation

Stop passing the buck

This refers to the editorial “When business rules our kitchens” (June 16-30, 2011).

Land is more than just that

My article last fortnight about people’s fight against POSCO has brought me interesting responses. They call for clarifications and further discussion. The question is about the value of current livelihoods of the people of coastal Odisha. Is earning from betel nut farming being exaggerated to reinforce the romantic and misinformed view that people are fighting projects because they are better off today? The equally valid question, then, is: why are the people so apparently poor if they are earning Rs 10-17 lakh per hectare (ha) each year as I had said?

Package POSCO

On the morning of June 13, 2011, Sukhdev Sahoo of Nuagaon in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district woke up in horror. The state administration had demolished his betel farm. The betel vines were in the way of India’s largest foreign direct investment: the US $12 billion POSCO project. Sahoo was threatened: “If you don’t take the compensation money you will lose everything.”

POSCO: take land but give life

The sight on television was heartbreaking: children lying in rows in the searing sun to be human shields against the takeover of their land for Korean giant POSCO’s mega bucks project. Facing them were armed police sent by the state government to assist in the operation.