Upsetting the Offset - Transnational Institute

Upsetting the Offset
! Capacity-building and empowering vulnerable sections of the rural
communities dwelling in the project area
! Conserving natural resources, including land, forests, minerals, water, and
the ecosystems
What do the Field Studies Reveal?
Sogi Village
During a visit to the Sogi village area, R Manjunath Nayak (a civil engineer), B
Hallya Nayak (a gram panchayat member of Govindpur village), and other
villagers informed us that the wind mill project did not provide the village with
any facility; the road built through the village is primarily for the transport
purposes of the wind mill project and not meant for the villagers. The project,
which is located on the nearby plateaux, usurped people’s lands without paying
the right price; while the market rate of one acre of land is 200,000 rupees, the
company has paid a maximum amount of 80,000 rupees per acre. Worse,
agricultural land lost for the construction of the road was compensated with
only 5,000 to 6,000 rupees per acre. Moreover, any damage caused to the road
by heavy vehicles of the company is now repaired using the gram panchayat
fund. Patches of agricultural land lost to make way for tower lines for
transmission of electricity were hardly compensated for – people have got a
ridiculous payment of 500 to 1200 rupees. In many cases, people have not even
been paid anything after losing land to the project.
The four power stations installed by the company occupy an area of 4/5
acres each, but the company has acquired 40 acres of village and forest lands.
The area is mostly inhabited largely by scheduled-caste and scheduled-tribe
communities, with a spattering of other communities; and for them losing land
without any alternative economic options in place is a huge economic setback.
The company has not taken the necessary legal permission from the gram
panchayat for setting up the project. Villagers said that the company gave
assurance to provide jobs to them and thus duped them into signing some
papers. However, no one has been employed in the project; a couple of local
residents who were working as security guards earlier have now also been
removed from their jobs.
Most youth in the village are educated; there are even some engineers and
diploma-holding technicians from ITIs (industrial training institutes). But, the
company shows no interests in employing them in the project, not even on
contract basis. For instance, R Manjunath Nayak, a civil engineer, has long been
trying to get a job in the project. But, the company management turned down
his request by saying that it was against the company policy to employ local
people on such type of jobs. His hope to get at least some contract works is also
shattered, as all such works go to outside contractors. While the wind turbines
were being installed, only 20 per-cent people from the village got some work.
The rest of the workforce was brought from other areas. While the construction
was on, some workers were killed in an accident. The company hushed up the
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