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Reporter's Diary
POSCO, a better tomorrow?
8 Comments
Issue Date: Jun 18, 2011
Sayantan Bera captures the mood at Jagatsinghpur, Odisha (Photos from June 16 and 17)
A heavy presence of media alongside social and political activists have dithered the administration to carry out further demolition at POSCO site.
 I found 73 year old Sukhdev Sahoo scrounging his betel vine three days after it was demolished on 13 June, 2011. To make space for POSCO, India’s largest foreign direct investment in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha. Sahoo broke down while speaking, ‘I did not cry as much when my son died of a snake bite.’ The compensation money he received was what his vine earns in less than 3 years. According to the state government Sahoo is a ‘consenting’ farmer since he agreed to the demolition. He did say yes, after being surrounded by more than 150 armed policemen inside Nuagaon, a labeled ‘pro-POSCO’ village. |
 Oblivious to the spate of demolitions, a stubborn Siva Bardhan waters his reconstructed betel vine. Since May 18, 2011, the state administration has demolished 643 betelvines but farmers like Siva from Govindapur village have held ground. |
 As protesting villagers lay on scorching hot sand forming a human barricade at the entry to their villages, the administration sneaked in from behind and demolished 37 betel vines of Govindapur village on 11 June, 2011. A day later Odisha’s steel minister said, people were voluntarily offering their betel vines for demolition. |
 20 kilometers away from the POSCO site and next to Paradeep, a worker from an oil refinery scrounged for fish. Jagatsinghpur has seen a spate of industrialization over the past decade at the cost of a thriving agricultural economy. |
 On the morning of 17 June 2011, villagers- with children at the forefront- resumed their protests at the POSCO site. The administration gave them a miss citing inclement weather. |
 The same day, a man rested at the demonstration site, as it drizzled. |
 Meanwhile a cameraman got his bytes from a vantage point. |
i Even as some looked tired- the villagers have been protesting for 6 long years. |
 Women kept their vigil with a symbolic offering to the land on the foreground. |
 Sisir Mahapatra, sarpanch of Dhinkia looked on. The final clearance order from the union Environment minister Jairam Ramesh had asked the state government to take legal action against Mahapatra. The state government accused him of fudging documents to prove the villagers’ dependence on forest lands. |
 Living at the POSCO transit camp on a Rs 20 per day per person dole, residents were unsure when they will be able to return to their villages, ever. More than 250 people have been living at the camp for the fifth year now, after the administration pitted villagers against each other. Labels like ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ POSCO were manufactured, leading to an internecine conflict between villagers. |
 On my way back, I saw a man fishing adjacent to the walls of an oil refinery. |
 Even as workers rested after an 18 hour ‘overtime’ shift. |
Tags: Reporter's Diary, Compensation, Forests, Mining, Orissa, Conflicts, Dhinkia, Forest Rights Act of 2006, High Court, Iron And Steel Industry, Jagatsinghpur (D), Land Acquisition, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Naveen Patnaik, Nuagaon, POSCO, Public Interest Litigation (PIL), Rivers, Sundargarh (D), Supreme Court, water
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Now we know that in the name of " a resettlement plan", the government only unsettles and freely tramples and crushes. Its a pathetic condition not because we're allowing India's largest FDI to set shop but because we have always celebrated growth at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. The government vacates village folk by crushing and burning down their entire lives... much like using a one-time spray cockroach repellent. Can someone please airlift Naveen Patnaik and Jairam Ramesh to govindpur and give them 2 lakh rupees (the equivalent of compensation that a small beetle vine owner will get from POSCO) and ask them to start a life from scratch?
Good photos Sayantan. I only wish they were displayed larger. I look forward to reading your story on POSCO in greater detail in the DTE magazine.
Anonymous
Excellent Reporting..
Navneet
had a look at the pictures.....like them, especially the image of the old man with the staff standing in his ruined betel grove, there is something stark and epic about his posture..
saumya
Excellent reporting. It's very difficult to say whether Sayantan Bera is a better reporter or a better photographer. Good work.
Amitava Gupta
In an snapshot, the photo-narrative captures a lot. i
Srestha Banerjee
A photo tells a story… Every single photo of this series has a story of its own. I specially like to mention about 3 photos- 1st, 6th and 8th… The 7th photo is very funny. :) Really a great effort Sayantan.
Biswarup Ghosh
good work.keep it up
Anonymous
Govt should make an arrangement for job for those who lost their land and livelihood. Hyderabad airport settlement is the best example for this...
RAKHESH MOHAN
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