This map is from an article called “1,620.361 ha of discontent” in the latest issue of Down to Earth that looks at the controversies over Korean company POSCO’s attempts to build a giant steel plant, an iron ore mine, and a port in the Indian state of Orissa. The state seems ready to hand over the land to POSCO despite many complaints about its environmental impact, its taking land away from villagers who farm there, its inability to live up to promises to replace their livelihoods, and the secretive and undemocratic way the project is run. A follow-up article critically analyzes the government’s short-sightedness in handing over the country to corporations:
Is India building its developmental house from the roof down, with a non-existent foundation? Arun Kumar, professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, thinks so. “The government, through its policies, is trying to replace the pre-existing agriculture in the rural areas with manufacturing and servicing industries. This is creating a huge gap in the number of people displaced by these projects in contrast to the number of people who are given employment,” he says.
While most of the many struggles on this map have been won by the corporations so far, some people have democratically organized to stage protests sufficiently powerful to push their state governments to reject the corporations:
In a sea of projects, there are a handful where people have had their way. In January 2008, Goa backed out of sez projects it had committed to. In June and July 2008, the Sikkim government pulled the plug on seven hydropower projects. The otherwise nonchalant Puducherry took to the street in April 2007 to make its government to rethink on a port project. Uttarakhand, in a flurry of dam-making activity has had to say no to large hydropower projects in the state.
