Opposing handing over the 10 MTPA capacity Bailadila Iron-ore Deposit-13 at Kirandul in Dantewada district to Adani Enterprises Ltd as Mine Developer-Cum-Operator (MDO), over 10,000 Tribals under the banner of Sanyukt Panchayat Jan Sangharsh Samiti, gheraoed the NMDC check-post paralysing the day’s work at NMDC Bailadila.

Thousands of Tribals from almost all villages in Dantewada district and adjacent areas flocked the NMDC check-post and staged dharna and demonstration since wee hours on Friday which continued throughout the day. The Tribals have support from political parties like Congress, Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi), Aam Aadmi Party, Communist Party of India, etc apart from several social organisations like Sanyukt Panchayat Jan Sangharsh Samiti, Chhattisgarh Pahad Bachao Andolan, etc.

 

Talking to mediapersons, the tribal organisations have stated that they would intensify the agitation and obstruct rail movement of wagons coming out of NMDC Bailadila mines as well.

 

As per eye-witnesses, the villagers had started gathering at the NMDC-CISF outpost since Thursday night. In fact, the villagers which included women and children as well, who had come from far flung areas to participate in the agitation were rested at villages adjacent to Bailadila and they started gathering early morning. These villagers are stated to be travelling with ration. Due to the agitation, NMDC employees and workers working in first shift (from 5 am) and second shift (from 1 pm) were not allowed to go inside the plant. At the same time, movements of buses were also disrupted. The loss suffered by agitation is estimated close to Rs 10 crore.

 

Sanyukt Panchayat Jan Sangharsh Samiti President Nand Ram Kunjam said Deposit-13, the mines in contention here, is a place of worship for them and they have been worshipping this place even before NMDC came here and under no condition they will allow mines to function here while adding that water, forest and land are the rights of Tribal. Also their main contention is that when mining will start, the forests covering the hill will be totally destructed and the tribal staying in and around these forests will be displaced. The opposition has been continuing since long and they had earlier taken out ralklies to press for their demands.

 

Meanwhile, SP Dr Abhishek Pallav said that the agitation has the tacit support of Maoists since it was staged without any permission and in an arbitrary manner. 400 security personnel have been deployed to avoid any untoward incident. Arrest will be made if any chaos situation is created, stated the SP. The local administration fears that the agitation may continue tomorrow also since the management has reportedly not taken any remedial steps so far.

 

Coming in support of the tribals, Chhattisgarh Pahaad Bachao Andolan, a social organization, stated that the Deposit-13 is called Nandaraj hill, which is worshipped by the Tribal. Gautam Bandopadhyay and Kumar Gaurav, who represent the organisation, stated that not only the tribals worship the hill but in South Bastar, it is the livelihood of tribals. They said both the central and state government should come forward in saving this hill which is habitat for thousands of tribals. They demanded that the allocation should be cancelled with immediate affect.