At least 20 homes belonging to people of the Dhinkia hamlet in Odisha, where a steel mill is planned, have been destroyed, seemingly in an effort to transfer ownership of the property to the Jindal firm that will build the facility.
Over 4,000 people live in the village, the bulk of whom are Santhal tribe members and members of the Dalit group. Fishermen and betel leaf farmers live there.
The community has been the scene of major land disputes for about ten years. First, the residents of Dhinkia successfully resisted POSCO’s plans to build a steel factory in the area by organising a protest. They are currently opposing the transfer of approximately 1,174 hectares of land for JSW’s 65,000 crore steel mill.
According to activists, there have been several arrests and building demolitions in an effort to give the firm the land.
“On October 22, a few officials of the proposed JSW Utkal Steel Limited project, led by human resources official, and some local goons with the help of eight to ten police officials forcefully demolished the houses of Dhinkia villagers,” a spokesperson for the anti-Jindal, anti-POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti told the media. “They were not even given the opportunity to take their belongings including – their food supplies or rations.”
“The folks whose homes were destroyed have long since been residing in the forest since they are landless. They have no other means of subsistence than these forests, he said.
Nearly 20 homes have been forcibly demolished, a resident whose home was destroyed told The Media. Everything we own is still in the house. They claim that Jindal owns the land where our house is located, yet we have lived there for the past 20 years. This is our zameen (land), jal (water), and jangal (forest).
“My field, where I grow betel leaves, has been damaged. My field was ruined, and I was transported to the police station after being arrested. They were attempting to eject us by using force. If anyone attempted to record the demolition, they even shooed away media representatives and tried to seize their phones, the man claimed.
A little child called, according to the spokesperson, was seized by the police after recording the incident on camera and sharing it with others. He said that the local police have threatened him with serious consequences after he was allegedly physically assaulted.
The Pratirodh Committee claimed in a statement that in this instance, “development-based evictions” were not conducted in accordance with UN criteria.
The Dhinkia villagers also claimed that they were denied access to information about their legal rights and that no notice of the evictions was given to them.
The statement said, “Many villagers are already evicted and do not know where to turn for redress due to the lack of information and legal counsel.”
Earlier, POSCO had intended to invest Rs 52,000 crore in the construction of a 12 million tonne steel facility at the location. The project was met with fierce opposition from the locals, and the South Korean steel company abandoned it in 2017.
In January of this year, locals protesting the proposed JSW Steel plant in Dhinkia were lathi-charged by police, who also detained activists. Many activists, including Debendra Swain, who have been speaking out against the ongoing tyranny in the Dhinkia region of Jagatsinghpur over the past year have remained imprisoned.
Prasanta Patnaik