WIO Issue Brief – II

29th August 2010

Water Initiatives Orissa1

Dear All,

Ever since the Vedanta group has been forced to eat dust by the MoEF, there is a constant effort by the company
to promote a campaign against the tribal leaders who have been instrumental in taking the struggle to this
successful step. We all know how these companies operate and how they flout all rules of the land for their own
profit. The Lanjigarh case is just a tip of the iceberg and a victory for the time being only. So long the refinery will
remain in the area, it will continue playing all sorts of tricks to weaken the people's movements and keep on trying
to mine Niyamgiri.

These billionaires can wait for years to get a favourable political back up or to create one but the poor communities
fight for long. They have already started the dirty game by terming Lada Sikaka Majhi a 'Maoist' and unfortunately
the BJP has also fallen into the trap of this well designed campaign. Please read the below pasted HT articles on
Lada and you can easily guess why Lada is being termed a Maoist. (http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-
Feed/orissa/The-man-behind-the-fight-against-Vedanta/Article1-593205.aspx),
(http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/orissa/I-told-them-I-was-not-a-Maoist/Article1-590065.aspx)

The BJP, which has earlier taken on the government against such moves (of terming innocent tribal people as
maoists without any proof) in Sundergarh and other places, is suddenly finding the same government's 'alleged
allegations' against Lada an instrument to blame Rahul Gandhi. Is it not surprising? Have the fallen into the
Vedanta trap as our government has?? Or, its a mindless irresponsible political blame game??? At a time when
the state is advocating for the corporates and not for people who have voted it to power, an opposition party
playing such games is really unfortunate. Saving Niyamgiri from the jaws of Vedanta is a victory for the people
and the environment and ultimately for the state. Time we all support the the people's struggles against
destructive industrialisation and for a just and dignified existence on the mother earth.

The Vedanta and other such companies will continue to lure the people, NGOs, media, intellectuals, politicians,
government officials and almost every one with numerous lucrative benefits because they know they are here to
earn profit at any cost. For us, who are from this state, should understand that they profit out of our resources
and bloods. We are here forever and the companies till they extract everything out of us. Falling prey to their
dirty tricks will only destroy our state and dignity of our people. So, beware!!

In solidarity with the people and environment of the great state!

Ranjan

========================

The man behind the fight against Vedanta

Gautam Chikermane, Hindustan Times

Lanjigarh, Niyamgiri Hills and Bhavanipatna (Orissa), August 28, 2010

First Published: 22:50 IST(28/8/2010)
Last Updated: 22:52 IST(28/8/2010)

1
Water Initiatives Orissa is a network of civil society organizations, academia, researchers, media, farmers and others concerned
working on water, environment and climate change issues in the state of Orissa in Inda for more than two decades now. Please
contact Ranjan K Panda, Convenor at ranjanpanda@gmail.com or waterinitiativesorissa@gmail.com for further details.
The blackish-blue welts of the beatings on his back are as clear as the yellow-blue-red set of beads around his neck.
But more than his pinned hair or two nose rings, it is his eyes that hold you. Brown, with an inner strength, there is no
arrogance or celebration of the victory he engineered a day before. If one word could describe them, it is "dignified".
And 20 days after a four-day beating, Lada Sikaka Majhi, a Dongria Kandha tribal in the middle ranges of the
Niyamgiri Hills, speaks as his community does: in a matter-of-fact way.

"We were on our way to Delhi for a meeting," he said as we waited for Rahul Gandhi's rally in Lanjigarh, a village in
the Niyamgiri foothills. Suddenly, 15 plainclothes men with machine guns stopped the car and took me away. They
beat me up. 'You are a Maoist,' they said. They took me to Rajgarh police station, where I was further beaten."

Majhi was picked up because he was a leader of Niyamgiri Suraksha Parishad (NSP), a loosely-organised group of
tribals and activists fighting the Orissa government and the Anil Agarwal-managed Vedanta Aluminium Ltd over
extraction of bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills, home to 8,000 Dongria tribals.

"I have talked to Majhi," Kalahandi police chief Sudha Singh told HT when he was released on August 12.

"He will reach home by tomorrow."

Majhi, however, stands by his ordeal.

Go 64 km northeast from Lanjigarh to Bhavanipatna. Green Kalahandi president Sidhartha Nayak, who has fought
with the tribals, remembers that day.

"When I asked them why they were taking Majhi away, one of them put a gun to my forehead. 'Why are you against
the company (Vedanta)?' he asked me. He told us to stay where we were, else they would kill us and took Majhi
away. I was scared."

Vedanta chief operating officer Mukesh Kumar denies this.

"Ask the people here about the development work we have done and you'll see for yourself," he said, armed with
data that suggested Vedanta was the victim.

"The day we leave, you will see the reaction of the people who have benefited from development. We have been
waiting for the bauxite and bleeding... We are going to ask the Orissa government to give it to us from somewhere
else."

The environment ministry statement that prevents Vedanta from mining is seen to be partly in tune with the religious
sentiments of the Dongria and partly political. Two days after the statement, Rahul flew down to address a rally of
tribals and Congress workers.

"I am your soldier in Delhi," he told them.

"Our government in Delhi will fight for you."

The fight is not over, though.

"Our mountain has been saved," said NSP president Kumti Majhi.

"But the rakshas (Vedanta factory) too has to go. The dust from the factory is spreading, killing our cows and goats."

=================

'I told them I was not a Maoist'

Priya Ranjan Sahu, Hindustan Times

Bhubaneswar, August 22, 2010

First Published: 00:23 IST(22/8/2010)
Last Updated: 00:25 IST(22/8/2010)
Both the SPs of Rayagada and Kalahandi deny that anti-Vedanta activist Lada Sikaka Majhi (35)
was tortured in custody. But the deep injury marks on Majhi's body have something else to say.
Majhi is associated with the Niyamgiri Surakshya Parishad, which is opposing the Vedanta
Group's proposed mining lease in Niyamgiri hills, spread over Kalahandi and Rayagada districts,
both about 550 km south-west of Bhubaneswar.

It is meant to be a captive unit of the group's R8,400-crore, 500,000-tonne aluminium plant in

Orissa.

On August 9, Majhi was on his way to Raipur in Chhattisgarh in a vehicle, along with two other
anti-mining activists, to board a train to New Delhi. They were to attend a meeting on the Forest
Rights Act.

As their vehicle was passing through the Niyamgiri forest, more than 12 armed men with AK-47
rifles stopped their car, snatched the car key and a mobile phone, and dragged out Majhi, his
companion Sana Majhi and a woman activist. The men packed them into another vehicle and
drove towards Rayagada. They threw Sana Majhi and the woman out of the vehicle on the way.
"I could not see where they were taking me because I was blind-folded. After about four hours,
my blind-fold was removed and I found myself in a police station," Majhi said.
"There they started beating me with bamboo sticks. They accused me of being a Maoist,
organising Naxal meetings on the Niyamgiri hills and uniting the Dangria Kandhs (tribe) to
protest against Vedanta.

"I told them that I was not a Maoist and organising meetings of the Niyamgiri Surakshya
Parishad, fighting for the protection of the hills. But they did not listen to me and beat me."
This continued for the next three days, he said. The police then coerced out of Majhi a statement
saying that he had sheltered Maoists. On the fourth day, they took his left thumb impression on a
blank piece of paper and let him off with a warning: "No further meetings."

When asked why Majhi was taken into custody, Rayagada SP Anup Krishna said: "We had
information that he had Naxal links. We let him go the day after we found that he was just
organising meetings for the Niyamgiri Surakshya Parishad."Kalahandi SP Sudha Singh and
Krishna denied that Majhi was beaten up. "He is lying," Singh said.
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Ranjan K Panda

+91- 9437050103
ranjanpanda@gmail.com

Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader

Water Initiatives Orissa: Fighting water woes, combating climate change....more than two decades now!