Home

Crowdfunding Countercurrents

CC Archive

Submission Policy

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

Defend Indian Constitution

#SaveVizhinjam

CounterSolutions

CounterImages

CounterVideos

CC Youtube Channel

Editor's Picks

Feed Burner

Read CC In Your
Own Language

Bradley Manning

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Financial Crisis

Iraq

AfPak War

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

About Us

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our
News Letter

Name


E-mail:



Search Our Archive



Our Site

Web

 

 

 

 

Government Should Listen To The Local People: A Case Of Khandadhar Hills, Odisha

By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

03 February, 2016
Countercurrents.org

As the globalisation is on march and the marginalized people are at the receiving end. The moot point is how to challenge and prevent this onslaught which is causing so much pain to the affected ones, who are already deprived and with no option except to die unsung and unclothed , as in the worlds of Marx labour is dead, in fact the marginalised ones are dead or waiting for it.

The impacts are uncountable and unbearable. The recent impacts are being born by the tribals of the Khandadhar area in the state of the Odisha where mining can be done by the big companies.

This will have adverse impact on the hills, waterfalls, and the adjoining lands where this mining is to be carried on. To face this problem the civil society organisations in the region have come together. They organized themselves recently to face the challenges. Loka Shakti Abhijan (LSA) and Khandadhar Surakhya Sangram Samiti (KSSS) have taken up the responsibility to deal with the onslaught with the support of several groups and individuals.

This is sad development in the Indian political scene that government whether of state or of the centre do not pay heed to what the local people want. The policies planners staying in the ivory towers need to understand that democracy establish the sovereignty of the general will or the will of the people. Why then such protests are needed to make aware the governments at the different level; to know about the real wish of the people at large.

This is a great tragedy in Indian system that people that too of the marginalised section are forced to take up the mechanism of the protest to let their grievances heard by the people at the helm of the affairs.

This development is not in tune with the democratic values of the country. Governments must learn at least that tribals are specific and unique category of the Indian people+ who have been accorded special protection by the Indian constitution. Hence they need to be protected at any cost by the governments.

Moreover in the name of the development, the influential forces have penetrated Indian society. This impact has not been understood properly yet. When globalisation-capitalism is presented with the logic of the development then it is another way of making things unequal. The local ones who have ancestral and legal rights over the lands and other resources are put in back benches and certain companies are allocated capacity to enhance their values by extracting the resources. The better way would have been to ask the tribals whether such projects be allowed or not. If there is no positive signal; governments should maintain the status quo.

The right way in a democratic way is to work according to the wishes of the people. It is not always possible that the elected representatives are successful to bring the local problems before the legislature. Hence there is urgent need that a decentralised system of listening the voice of the people need to be evolved. At least the voices of the civil society organisations which act in the democratic space of the state and the society need to be given more importance by the governments as they articulate the wishes of the people. Therefore government may decide to move to the local level to know the real desires of the people by interacting directly with the local ones or by discussing the matter with the civil society organisations. This is the right way to make decisions about such complex issues. This way the decision making will shift from the ivory towers to local huts for whom these issues are highly sensitive.

Therefore it is needed that the voices of the local people should be heard by the officials who are deciding the fate of such marginalised people; so far without involving them in the decision making process and not listening to their view point.

India is a country which has advocated participation based development administration. Development administration requires that in the development the people should be associated. If the people in huge quantity do not want a development programme or project as harmful to their interests then there is no need to continue with it. The decentralised decision making and participatory development administration suggest that governments must take care of such people with immediate effect.

Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava is Assistant Professor, CSJM Kanpur University (affiliated College) and Vice Chairman CSSP, e [email protected]



 



 

Share on Tumblr

 

 


Comments are moderated