The recent agitation by tribals and labourers which lasted for eighteen long days saw an outburst of sheer anger among locals against the Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys (IMFA) at the tribal hinterland Therubali in Rayagada district.
Some of the old employees of IMFA maintaining anonymity said that they never witnessed such a violent strike by the local tribals. “Counter violence by the local tribals, even if in miniscule, had to happen because of a series of violence by the company itself since its establishment by suppressing the genuine demands of the labourers and local people in the periphery. We, as adivasis, live in a culture of silence and IMFA has further silenced us with its muscle and money power. Corporate violence is on the rise in the area,” said Mamata Pulaka, a tribal woman leader and trade unionist.
Allegedly violating OSATIP-1956, the IMFA has forcibly occupied tribal lands and constructed an aerodrome, a concrete road leading to railway siding and is dumping charge chrome slag on the low-lying cultivable patta land of tribals at Anuguda and Geraput mouzas. No proper compensation has been paid to tribals after land acquisition and the R & R policy has not been adhered to. Forcible encroachment of agricultural patta land for non-agricultural use is done by the company.
A creditable CSR policy of IMFA is neither in place nor activities undertaken by it for peripheral development known to the local public, gram sabha, palli sabha and district administration. It so happened that during the recent strike the district Collector had to show her displeasure by writing a letter vide letter No. 300, dated 29-4-2018 asking details of CSR activities for last few years.
As per the information provided by IMFA, the amount of investment is really meagre and suggests a diminishing trend. It seems that in the absence of a CSR policy, only lip service is provided on the whims and fancies of the IMFA authorities.
“At the onset of the financial year, the percentage of dividend and amount of money to be invested on CSR activities is not declared. This confirms the non-transparent manner of the company. Any development activity in a village needs to be permitted and endorsed by the concerned palli/gram sabha.
The projects must be implemented by local youths with technical advice from the company or experts, but it is hardly followed leading to corruption at different hierarchies. This is a violation of both CSR rules and the Odisha Gram Panchayat Act. Moreover, no reality check is conducted by any monitoring authorities or third party evaluators,” said prominent social activist of the district Radheshyam Panda.
Coming to the education sector, the IMFA can be considered as a prime violator of the Right to Education Act. It collects good amount of donation for its school, Chinmay Vidyalaya. As per the said Act, 25% economically backward students should be given free education which is not happening. Unfortunately, NOC is arranged by backdoor mechanism. Similar is the situation in its ITI and Skill Development Centre. locals have been demanding reservation of certain percentage of seats in the ITI and sponsor meritorious students for higher education, but the company has not heeded these genuine demands.
Health issues of the locals are hardly addressed. The dispensary is not even in the standard of a PHC/CHC. Being a company existing for last sixty long years, lack of minimum quality standards as far as health is concerned is considered really unfortunate. Poor tribal non-employees are mistreated and often not given free medicine and assistance for ambulance for contract workers including local people in dire need. The company is not paying any heed to the demand of locals to make the hospital 24X7 with a doctor on duty. The IMFA Hospital does not run in a full-fledged manner like a PHC/CHC equipped with diagnostic, indoor and causality and burn unit. Absence of any mobile health unit for aged /disabled /pregnant/lactating/babies/chronic patients reconfirms the insensitivity to the mammoth health problems.
Security and safety of women workers in the company and with the contractors engaged under it is at stake in the absence of an Internal Complaint Committee uder the Sexual Harassments Act. This information has been retrieved through RTI Act from the DSWO office. The Regional Pollution Control Board seems to be in tandem with the company resulting in pollution of several villages directly. Due to fugitive emission of chrome dust from the automatic chrome briquetting plant, the cultivable lands within 50 to 1,000 meters belonging to Siliput, Anuguda, Geraput, RC Nagar, Therubali and Relipadar are increasingly losing their fertility.
The crops are also getting affected and the cultivators are subjected to distress sale of their products. local demand that the company take immediate steps to check the dust pollution; and till such period, the farmers be compensated at the rate of Rs 10,000 per acre every year. This cry for justice has not been addressed since years. Another very important issue is the issue of contracts and casual labour. While the GOI’s flagship programme MGNREGA has a provision for sheds for labourers, women contract workers in IMFA do not even have a shed at the briquette plant and facilities of safety items and drinking water.
Eligible local youths are not given priority in employment in the company. Absence of a database of local youths interested to work as unskilled manual labour, skilled youths and educated unemployed youths in the periphery reflects a lackadaisical attitude of the company.
Neither minimum wage is ensured, nor minimum annual increment given to all its unskilled, semiskilled, skilled and high skill contract workers engaged under its recognised contractors, thereby seriously violating the Contract labour Act. Even contact workers engaged in unloading of raw materials are not ensured payment of minimum wages as per performing man-day. Adding salt to the injury, the company goes on victimising contract workers at its mercy and pleasure leaving their families in lurch.
According to a tribal leader of the district, the MFA is now being projected as a victim of political vendetta in the context of the Panda-Pandian syndrome. “But the stark truths of several violations of laws of the land by it cannot be denied,” he said, adding, “Making resource-rich tribals suffer in the process of so-called ‘backward area development’ is certainly unacceptable.”