Adivasis Force Mittal to Quit

Adivasis of Jharkhand forced Mittal out of their territory. His dreams of establishing Rs.40,000 crore Greenfield integrated steel plant project goes kaput when the villagers retaliated. The proposed plan would have displaced 40 villages. Villagers under the banner of Adivasi Moolvasi Astitva Raksha Manch (AMARM) together with Chotanagpur DBSS and Jharkhand Initiative Desk (JID) strongly opposed this industrialization and succeeded in their struggle compelling Mittal to reconsider the project’s location.

The Company had made an agreement with the Government to buy 11,000 acres of land, of which 8,800 acres would be required to set up a 12-million-tonne steel plant and 2,400 acres for establishing a township. But Arcelor Mittal does not want to take the project out of the state and has zeroed on an alternative site in Gumla district one of the three districts we are working in. The exact location has not been specified and so we are unable to assess the impact of this decision. Thus the struggle continues as we have a very strong hold in Kamdara (a block in Gumla) by virtue of being involved in people’s struggle. We have broken the culture of silence and given the corporate giant a taste of defeat at the hands of united people. The first step has been successfully taken but many more challenges lie ahead.