Locals claim they do not benefit from this mining activity. “If you are going to mine and export our minerals the world over, at least give us a chance (through education) to get there. It’s been 40 years since the mining began (here). What has changed?” asks Sachdev Sori, the head of a panchayat that oversees a region close to the Bailadila iron mines.
Sori further claims that the state’s residents rarely get to know what’s happening. “If you are going to bring projects, at least tell us what is going to happen and how.”
That seems to be a larger problem. In March, the Union government granted an in-principle approval for the new National Mineral Policy. Ten days later, the chief ministers of five mineral-rich states— Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan—protested the policy saying they had not been consulted. The five states account for much of India’s mineral wealth and are also governed by either the Bharatiya Janata Party or its allies (the Centre is ruled by a Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government).
Photos
1. Life on a street in Dornapal camp seen in the rear-view mirror of a car.
2. A memorial for a special police officer who died fighting Naxalites, in Errabore village in Dantewada district.
3. Migrants from Chhattisgarh now living in Charla village in Andhra Pradesh during an enactment of alleged torture by paramilitary forces.
4.Special police officers on a search operation near Dornapal.
5.A family at their home in the interior village of Adpal in Dantewada.
6.A pamphlet left by Naxalites on the highway near Dornapal calling for Salwa Judum to be disbanded and people living in camps to be returned to their homes.
(Photographs by Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint)