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Companies accused of stifling anti-displacement stir

BHUBANESWAR: Activists here on Sunday alleged that the police administration was providing shelter to anti-socials, who were reportedly hired by companies to stifle anti-displacement movement in the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex, the upcoming steel hub, that was tense following the murder of a tribal.

Presenting a report of a fact-finding team that visited the industrial area after the murder, activists said companies were trying to establish a threat-mechanism under which there would be no scope for any dissent.

“This is not the first incident of murder. By threatening to wipe out, company-hired goons appeared to be overseeing rehabilitation and resettlement programme in Kalinga Nagar while police administration has become a mute spectator,” Prafulla Samantra of Loka Shakti Abhijan said.

On May 1, Amin Bamra, a supporter of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Manch (VVJM), which was spearheading anti-displacement movement in the Kalinga Nagar area, was shot dead by security personnel of Arbind Singh, a contractor. However, VVJM supporters on Sunday moved away from Express Highway, an important route for transporting minerals to Paradip Port, which they had blocked since Thursday.

Separate road blockades, those were staged along alternative routes to Express Highway by people reportedly aggrieved by blockade by VVJM at Ambagadia, were also lifted.

Indian steel major Tata Steel, which is coming up with a six-million tonne capacity steel mill in Kalinga Nagar, was the target of activists.

“At least three formal complaints have been filed with the police naming Tata Steel, but no action is being initiated in this regard,” Mr. Samantra alleged at a press conference here.

“The Kalinga Nagar incidents have further raised fundamental questions – who own guns, who shoots and who are becoming the victims? Therefore, concrete step must be taken against all those who are responsible for unleashing terror in the area, particularly on innocent tribals,” Radhakant Sethi of CPI-ML Liberation and member of the fact-finding team, said.

When the contractor openly admitted that his personnel had fired the shots, why then instead of sending him to jail, he was kept out of the case in other pretexts, the fact-finding team members questioned.

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