If a relatively small incidence of an accidental death of a worker, can lead to a mob of workers setting fire to scores of vehicles, and attacking the administrative office and the blast furnace of a major upcoming steel plant in Orissa, there are reasons to believe that violent resistance to land acquisition has a much deeper root, than mere fear of losing one?s livelihood or not being adequately compensated for the lost land. Such instances have become common in the country and raise strong doubts, whether one should follow an active industrialisation policy in the face of such resistance, or wait till the local population comes up with alternative development models for itself. The point here is not to get into a political debate on industrial development, but to see the prospects of the steel industry in the East, where opportunities have no bounds.
If JSW Steel has been able to handle, very effectively, all the land acquisition issues for their plant in West Bengal, it is an example for others to follow. One does not expect others to be unaware of it. Most will be readily accepting a ready-made model such as this outright, even if it is expensive, instead of wasting precious time and money and all the opportunities in the world of Indian steel today.
However, conditions have been different for each. One wonders even if the steel makers individually are willing to go another few yards, whether political and social forces will allow them to do so. That is where the steel industry?s future is stuck today.
Many who have been intolerant to the new projects believe that opportunities for the locals are very few and mostly on paper. The steel industry is no longer labour intensive – only a small number of people are required to run a massive plant, to add huge value to the locally available raw materials. It is true.
Steel makers today need to follow the models of Tata Steel or public sector giants SAIL or RINL, who have created mammoth opportunities for the local in each plant, needless be told , at great costs and remaining recognised as cost inefficient globally, at least for a long time. They have to employ and spend more on township development, and devote more attention to peripheral development. There are more reasons to do so, especially if you are getting captive mines and thereby have a ready-made source of immense profit. Piecemeal measures have no takers, especially among those who are agitated.
Farmers, who are to lose land, believe they have no other skill for which an industrial enterprise can employ them permanently or effectively. They believe that promises of jobs may not be fulfilled. The fear of losing whatever they have currently is strong and may be justified too.
?The author is Strategy Consultant: Steel, Minerals, and Coal