On 23 January 2022 a CPIML central team visited Dhinkia village of Jagatsinghpur District in Odisha and resolved to organize a mass movement from the streets to the courts to get justice for the villagers who have been standing firm in their resistance to police repression and to build solidarity for this.
The enquiry team found factually that the atrocities against the villagers of Dhinkia by Jagatsinghpur District administration and police are still going on. The police are in complete violation of the High Court's direction. There is also a ban on the movement of villagers out of the village and they have to take permission of the police and administration even when they go out to bring essential items like rations.
The CPIML enquiry team comprising CPIML MLA from Bagodar (Jharkhand) Vinod Singh, Marxist Coordination Committee leader and former MLA Arup Chatterjee, Tribal Sangharsh Morcha national convener Devkinandan Bedia, CPIML Odisha State Committee members and prominent labor leaders Mahendra Parida and Madhusudan and others took stock of the peaceful agitation and police brutality on the villagers of Dhinkia village in Jagatsinghpur District in Odisha.
The villagers told the enquiry team that the police had launched a brutal repression campaign on the villagers. More than 40 people including women and children were injured in the police lathi charge. Taking cognizance of this, the Odisha High Court on 20 January 2022, ordered an immediate end to the repression and asked for restoration of health services and public welfare facilities.
On 23 January 2022 also when the enquiry team reached the village, they saw that the top police officers in their jeep with a platoon vehicle were trying to surround the protesting local leaders. Speaking with the people, the team came to know that the police had detained 3 local protesting leaders on that day also.
The police chased away 65-year-old Shanti Lata Malik and threatened her when she was relieving herself near a pond. She was forced to run away and hide in the forest, only half-clad. She was threatened with dire consequences if she did not appear before the police. The enquiry team asked the police tough questions, cited the High Court order and forced them to turn back.
In order to remove the prevailing fear of the police, the enquiry team built solidarity among the villagers and organized a united march through the village raising slogans against the atrocities committed by the police. Terrified villagers who were hiding here and there in fear were brought out and a meeting was held. The meeting, which instilled courage in the villagers, was addressed by MLA Vinod Singh and mass leader Arup Chatterjee, Tribal Sangharsh Morcha national convener Devkinandan Bedia and journalists Surendra Patra and Anmol.
Despite the High Court's clear direction to stop all police proceedings, the ground situation remains grim. Local people told the team that they are still being tortured by the police. During the police operation the betel plantations in the village have been completely destroyed. Now the police are pressurizing people who have filed complaints against this to withdraw their complaint and are forcing them to put their signatures on blank paper.
The police, with the help of their supporters, are still continuing to destroy the betel plantations. No treatment is being given to the people injured in the police lathi charge. The injured had to get themselves treated at a distant hospital. Many elderly people lying in injured condition have not even been able to go to hospital.
Locals allege that the police keep on patrolling the area at night and knock on their doors, creating constant fear in the hearts of the people. This has forced the villagers, especially the youth, to hide in the forests. Due to this people have to bear heavy mental and physical torture in this cold season.
The reason for the police confrontation with the villagers is the land acquisition done in this village years ago for a government project. It should be noted that more than 5 years have passed since the land was acquired for this project, but the project has not started. Under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, land not used for the intended purpose for more than 5 years should be returned to the people, whereas the government has put this illegally acquired land in the Bhoomi (Land) Bank (Bank of Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha) and is now planning to hand it over to JSW. This is being done a decade after the land acquisition.
This is a coastal region and the soil here is very fertile. Also, there is a good irrigation system here. As a result there is good cultivation of paddy, betel and fish here. These people have been settled here for centuries and they have established the village even as they struggled against natural calamities. They earn their livelihood by cultivating two crops of paddy per year, three crops of fish and three to four crops of betel leaves per year. In 2005 the South Korean company POSCO first came here to set up a steel plant. The Odisha government had made an agreement to give POSCO about 4,000 acres of land in four panchayats namely Gobindpur, Patna, Maha and one other panchayat. Some of the villagers were also given compensation for some land. But the villagers started a movement against POSCO, due to which the company had to go back. The angered the government and it did not give the villagers settled on the land ‘Bandobasti Parcha’ due to them. Instead, the land was put into the Land Bank. The Odisha government then called Jindal's company, considered very close to Chief Minister Biju Patnaik, to set up an industry on this fertile land and provided about 2,900 acres of land. At present, about 1000 acres of land in Dhinkia village has been given to Jindal for setting up a steel power plant. When the villagers protested against this, the government deployed a special police force here and on January 14, 2022, brutally lathi-charged the villagers, in which many women, men and children were injured. The police arrested the leaders of the land movement, destroyed the betel cultivation and are forcing people to leave the village by constantly terrorizing them.
