The complete rehabilitation of people displaced due to the establishment of HEC,  the first industrial venture undertaken after independence for ‘development’ of Ranchi, Jharkhand, has not done by either the State Government or the Central Government. Thirty six villages were displaced for the setting up of the HEC factory, of which thirteen were completely demolished, and the remaining partially.

(By Dayamani Barla; Translation from Hindi by Vidya Jonnalagadda)

The complete rehabilitation of people displaced due to the establishment of HEC,  the first industrial venture undertaken after independence for ‘development’ of Ranchi, Jharkhand, has not done by either the State Government or the Central Government. Thirty six villages were displaced for the setting up of the HEC factory, of which thirteen were completely demolished, and the remaining partially. Before acquiring the land, the Government had promised that the people of all the displaced families would be given jobs. To reconstruct their religious shrines, space would be allocated in each rehabilitated village for akhada(playground), sarna, masana (cemetery/cremation ground) and hadagadee. In addition, one of the conditions for resettlement was the provision of amenities like schools, hospitals, water and electricity. These conditions have not been fulfilled by the Government till today. Also, no land was given for the masana, hadagadee, sasandiri or churches. Therefore, each displaced family, given between 0.10 and 0.15 acres of land, has constructed their house on one portion of the land and are using the other portion of their land as a graveyard to bury their dead. The people have simply made their samana in their own houses, yards, and gardens. Since sarana and akhada have not been made available, the social, communal, cultural, and economic spirit of the aadivaasi (tribal) community in the displaced villages has drawn its last breath. The people are being compelled to forget their language, culture, traditional festival and celebrations, as well as customs and practices.

The HEC (Heavy Engineering Corporation) was set up in the Hatiya region in 1962-63 with collaboration from Russia and Germany. Land from 36 villages was appropriated for this project. The people living in these villages belonged to the Uraanv, Munda and Khadia aadivaasi tribes as well as to communities such as sadan, turi, lohra, kumhar and ghaansi. After being uprooted from their farms, fields, forests, lands, homes and yards, the displaced were not resettled in a single region as they used to live before. People from a single village were ‘scattered’ haphazardly in several spots. The Government had no model policy for resettlement. That is why, to build the resettlement villages, some villages were given 0.10 acres of land, some, 0.20 acres, and others, 0.25 acres. All the displaced were not given the same acreage of land for resettlement.

The people of the displaced villages Naya Lata, Choreya Toli, Satranji, Naya Saray, Kute, Bhusur, Lasdeb, Tiril, Jagaranathpur, Aani, Modama, Nachiyatu, and Kachnartoli say that the Government had talked about giving jobs to each displaced family generation after generation. family But the reality is just the opposite. Each displaced family did not receive employment. Let alone the matter of giving employment to the entire family goes, if in the beginning one member of a family was given a job at all, then a second member of the family was not given a job after that. The Government had also promised that young men or women of employable age from all families that would be given training at CTI and then employed in the Plant. The displaced people said that some young men and women were given a chance to avail this opportunity. But, they say that now the villages of the displaced are mired in fundamental problems of unemployment, poverty, illness, and lack of education. The stranglehold of unemployment had forced the displaced people to flee to other States. Mangtu Uraanv and Champa Uraanv told us that five families have left Naya Latma village many years ago in search of a livelihood.