On 20 June, 2008 Tapan 'Dula' Mandal, aged 31, had left his home in Gobindpur village in the morning to join thousands others in the widening of the Jatadhari river mouth. His family is made of his wife Sabita and three children - one son aged 12 and two daughters aged 8 and 6. With incessant rains and floods affecting most parts of the state dredging of Jatadhari river mouth was essential in order to keep the water flowing. That fateful day Dula was murdered by pro POSCO goons who attacked him and other Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) activists with crude bombs when they were returning after a hard day's work. Many were injured but Dula lost his life and became the first martyr in the 3-year-old struggle against the proposed POSCO project by villagers of Jagatsingpur to save their land and livelihood. Ten days later, on 30 June, the work that Dula had set out to do, i.e. the widening of the river mouth was completed and now the Jatadhari flows to the Bay of Bngal with greater ease. The same day Dula Mandal was commemorated by villagers and activists with the unveiling of the Tapan Mandal memorial stone at a meeting in Gobindpur. Dula's family has been adopted by PPSS and is now collecting donations to support hr and her children. The commemoration meeting was attended by more than 3,000 villagers and several leaders of CPI-ML parties (Kanu Sanyal, Liberation & New Democracy). Villagers donated generously towards this. Local activists of PPSS revealed that the murder of Tapan 'Dula' Mandal was not the first attack on him. He had been attacked may times by pro POSCO goons who had ransacked his house and looted his belongings. It was also revealed that Mandal had been "tortured and abused several times by the goons". But despite all the oppression Dula had not given in and had continued to resist the POSCO project as part of the PPSS.
The dredging of Jatadhari river mouth was spearheaded by the PPSS and carried out by more than one thousand villagers of Dhinkia, Gada Jugang, Nolisahi, Patana, Mahala and Gobindpur. Over the last ten days, despite the sorrow that has gripped the villages after the tragic death of Dula, the people displayed extraordinary camaraderie in doing the dredging work. Originally the state govt. was to do it and had allocated Rs.24 lakh for the job. Some villagers have alleged that this was also another reason for the attack on 20 June as some of the pro-POSCO assailants were hoping to bag the dredging contract but since the PPSS had taken upon itself to do the job, they had been infuriated. The larger Jatadhari river mouth project is estimated to be of Rs.20 crore and a lot of petty contractors in the area are eyeing the contracts in the same manner they are waiting for the POSCO contract jobs. Dula Mandal has paid with his life for their greed. While all this happened, BJD MLA and former minister Damodar Rout said in a TV interview that too much hue and cry was being made over the death of Dula. The reason he cited for Dula being undeserving of the outcry over his murder was that he was a Bengali. Prasant Paikrai, spokesperson of PPSS alleges that "Damodar Rout must be involved indirectly in Tapan's murder else why does he have to make such statements? So what if he is Bengali, it does not make him a lesser citizen and it does not take away his right to live. Rout's statement is a clear sign that he too is involved." The recovery of six boxes of crude bombs and 75 swords a few days after the murder of Dula from the Gobindpur school from where the assailants had attacked him revealed that the pro-POSCO faction was not just a handful of villagers but also consisted hardened criminals who were ready to wage a war. While PPSS has continued fighting in democratic ways the pro POSCO group has resorted to violence time and again. Despite all that the resolution of the people seems stronger now with the successful completion of the Jatadhari dredging and a sense of allegiance to the cause Dula was killed for.
