Dear Radhika Menon There is no denial that Tatas are in the habit of making forced entry in to the land of the poor farmers by using the political influence and in one of the most corrupt country of the world, any thing and every thing is possible if you have enough money power to get people dance around you. Be of any colour.
TATAS have inked MoU with Govt. of Orissa for a 6 Million Tons per Annum green field steel plant at Kalinga Nagar but government gave them about 1960 Acres of land. Tribals opposed but at the cost of firing live bullets that took lives of 13 and one died later on while causing serious injures to many, Tatas even though wants to build that plant with blood of tribals. The slogan that is in air of Kalinga Nagar is 13 have died and 1300 will die but not an inch of land will be given to Tatas. TATAS have also a story of making forced entry on the lands of over 1500 tribal families to snatch away their only source of livelihood. There is a strong opposition but by making mockery of the PESA act, by using state police and administrative force to conduct the village council meetings under the barrel of gun, predetermined decisions have been translated in to actions showing it as if it is the resolve of the tribals taken on their own willingly. Singur case you have already discussed. Let us see, a new development has taken place at Sanand, Gujarat also where one Mr. Devi Singh Vagela has court case pending for 1912 acres of land and has demanded appropriate compensation and expenses incurred for court cases to put off his claim. Though the authorities deny genuineness of the claim of Mr. Devi Singh, trouble in near future is not ruled out. Many ignorant faces cites the example of Jamshedpur as the perfect icon for development but they do not know the hard facts that on the soil of KALA MATI village and many other villages, JAMSHEDPUR has come up by changing totally the demography of the area. Where are those tribals who were forced to leave their land for the steel city? Only few miles drive will take you to those villages around Jamshedpur where safe drinking water is also a problem. This is the corporate social responsibility. There are many more chapters that can be added here. When we talk of Corporate Social Responsibility of the House of Tata, I must share with you that unfortunately most of our countrymen have misnomer that House of Tatas is most respected corporate house. It is now time to bring out the facts and clear the clouds to bring real face of Tatas before the world. An international organisation working on right to food is going to publish a dossier titled " GOVERNMENTS, CORPORATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA - THE HOUSE OF TATA" most probably on 16th of this month. This report carries in details how irresponsible is the corporate social behaviour of the house of Tatas. Once the hard copy is officially released, I will share with you all a PDF version of the same. With best wishes Pravin Patel
