Intellectuals, social activists and environmentalists here congratulated Green Nobel winner Ramesh Agrawala from Chhattisgarh and expressed solidarity with his long fight against ‘Corporate Raj.’
At a meeting jointly organised by the Citizen’s Action Forum (CAF) and the Nature, Environment & Wildlife Society (News), Agrawala was given a warm welcome and his efforts at safeguarding the interest of the poor villagers whose land is grabbed by various companies in the name of industrialisation were praised.
The speakers included advocate Rabindra Prasad Pattanaik, Prasarna Behera, Bijay Mishra and Muktikanta Mishra. They said that Agrawala had fought against JSPl at Raigarh to protect the interest of the poor villagers.
Agrawala was also jailed for 72 days on false charges of extortion and defamation which were later dismissed. Besides, he had sustained bullet injury after being shot at by goons employed by a corporate house. It happened in 2012 three months after Agrawal won a court case that blocked JSPl from opening a second coal mine near Gare village in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh. Presently, Agrawal is educating the illiterate villagers about their rights in fighting pollution and land-grabbing by powerful mining and power companies across the country.
The speakers described Agrawala as a source of encouragement to fight against atrocities of private companies and demanded that all the false cases filed against the villagers of Chhendipada block be withdrawn as the villagers are fighting against the companies for fair compensation, employment and periphery development.
They also demanded that the Utkal B-1 Coal block be de allocated as it will consume a total of 270 hectares of land, out of which 173.64 hectares are agricultural, 24.23 are forest land and 35.08 are grazing land of Raijharan, Kausidhipa, and Golagadia villages of Chhendipada block.