om e 's Ali a - Land ss De elo en - Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, India Office

into a meeting. According to Rashmi
many women from Baiga community
took leadership and came forward
to explain their sorrows in front of
the officials.
Orissa
Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex
– An Ongoing Struggle
It was in the 1990s with the advent
of economic reforms in India, that
the Orissa state government also
proposed to set up an industrial
complex at Kalinga Nagar. Since then,
it has become one of the steel hubs
of the country. With more than 40
MoUs that have been signed by the
state, Kalinga Nagar, which comes
under the Sukinda and Danagadi
blocks of Jajpur district in Orissa, has
been one of the most recommended
sites. It is ideally situated since it falls
on the NH-200, which connects the
iron ore/chromite belt of Jajpur and
Keonjhar districts, with the Paradeep
port also close to the location. The
industrial complex also has other
benefits such as proximity to the
Brahmani river (the second largest
river of the state), as well as a lot
of other rivulets and nullahs in the
area. Agriculturally, an acre of land
produces three to four quintals of
Organised Response
rice only. Some pulses are also grown
in this region.
Industrial Infrastructure Development
Corporation of Orissa (IIDCO) was
entrusted with the task of developing
the industrial complex. It started
acquiring land during 1992-1994.
Till date, IIDCO has acquired around
13,000 acres of land, of which 6,900
acres is private land and the remaining
area is community/government land,
which is being farmed by people
who don’t have pattas (land papers).
According to the People’s Union
for Civil Liberties (PUCL) report on
Kalinga Nagar, ‘the land survey and
settlement in the area was done since
1928. After the passing of the Orissa
Estate Abolition Act in 1951, the
estate of Sukinda King was vested
with the government. But the tenancy
rights weren’t conferred upon the
local people who were in possession
of land. Even after the passing of the
Orissa Survey and Settlement Act of
1958 (rules framed in the year 1962)
no settlement has been done in the
area. The continual promises made by
the government on varied aspects of
land reforms and land rights has never
been brought forth into action thereby
jeopardising the whole system’.
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