Orissa government should publish a whitepaper on the Industry : Janata Vikash Manch

By Our Correspondent/
www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar: Janata Vikash Manch, a leading forum of intellectuals on Thursday urged the Orissa government to come out with all the details on how many memorandum of understandings (MoUs) has been signed since 2000 and how many of them have materialized till date.
The forum also sought details on how many people will lose their land and livelihood and how many jobs will be created through these MoUs.
In an interaction with the media, office-bearers of the forum said the Saxena Committee and Meena Gupta Committee report on Posco project in Jagatsinghpur and Saxena Committee on Vedanta project at Niyamgiri and Orissa High Court order on Vedanta University land issue show that the ecological impact of these plants needs to be properly assessed by the independent authorities before giving clearances to any project.
While interacting with the media persons here recently, the JVM members Sai Prasan, Pritikant Panda, Devi Prasad Tripathy, P. Deepti Rani and Manoj Jena said that Orissa government may resolve the problems it is facing in projects like Posco and Vedanta.
“It should take the people of the area into confidence and democratically sort out the issues in a transparent manner. The rule of law should prevail. It may hold referendum too, if necessary, to seek a public opinion in the project affected areas like it has been done in the RIL’s SEZ project in Rayagada district of Maharashtra,” they demanded.
The JVM Team said that only paying the compensation to the people against their land and offering them jobs may not be enough. Apart from this, the state government should explore other options too. The valuation of the land can be done. And, the value of the cost of the land can be converted into an equity which can also make the land owners shareholders / stakeholders in the project. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) can be created for this purpose.
The political leadership both at the Union and Odisha government/s should rise above the party lines and work together to resolve all the issues concerning these projects in interest of the people of the state. They should follow the rule of law and work in a democratic and transparent manner in the interest of the state, they said.
The industrial scenario of the state in the last one decade clearly shows that few people have got jobs and more people have lost their livelihood. Hence, the development of the agriculture sector is necessary for the development of the 85% of the population living in rural Orissa. However, the continuous suicides of the poor farmers show the health of the agriculture sector is also not good.
The Farmers Commission has submitted its interim report. The Commission needs to address several important issues in its final report to be submitted in February or March next year. The farmers are mainly committing suicides recently two in due to the higher interest rates, weak irrigation facility and absence of the land pattas. Absence of pattas deprives the farmers of availing the benefit offered by the governmental agencies.