Ranchi, Oct. 20: Around 5,000 villagers today gheraoed Kamdara block officials against the state government’s move to allocate land for an ArcelorMittal project, the latest in a series of protests against land for industrial use.

The gathering was a reaction to an October 4 notice issued by the local revenue circle office informing those residing in 10 villages of the area about the state’s move to allocate gair mazurua, or government, land to ArcelorMittal that is coming up with a 12 million tonne steel plant and a 1,500MW power project with an investment of over Rs 40,000 crore.

Today was the last date for the villagers to record their opinions and objections to the move.

“A majority of the government plots in question are settled in favour of villagers since ages. They either enjoy khutkatti rights (they use the plots for agriculture) or were allotted land under Bhudan (a movement championed by Acharya Vinoba Bhave). Many plots are in name of villagers in government records too wherein they enjoy mutation rights and pay annual land revenue,” claimed social activist Dayamani Barla, who is at the forefront of the campaign against the company’s bid to acquire land in the area.

She claimed it was “apparent” the government acted in haste under pressure from ArcelorMittal as the people were “totally against the project”. Eyewitnesses said the villagers, armed with traditional weapons like bows and arrows, began arriving in huge groups from the morning under the banner of Adivasi Moolvasi Ashtitva Raksha Manch at Kamdara block in Gumla district. They laid siege to the block headquarters from 11.30 to 4.30pm and both BDO Dilip Tirkey and circle officer C.Murmu were confined to their chambers during the time.

Tirkey said the local circle office had issued notices for government plots in 10 revenue villages to allocate them to ArcelorMittal. “It wasn’t acquisition of private land and we never imagined such an uprising by the villagers who claimed a majority of the government plots belonged to them. Though the villagers were armed they did not harm us,” he said.

Today’s protest sets the clock back on progress made days ago when a group of around 200 villagers agreed to meet officials of the government and ArcelorMittal to discuss what was on offer after a series of meetings held there at the behest of Khunti MP Shushila Kerketta.

These meetings were addressed by ArcelorMittal’s vice-president (mining, mergers & acquisitions) M.P. Singh, state industry secretary K.K. Khandelwal and deputy secretary A.K. Mishra among others. It also now amply clear, as Tirkey admitted, that the villagers were a divided lot – one group willing to talk while the other vehemently opposed to any industrial activity in the area.

The local administration has also planned a public meeting at the block headquarters to provide details of benefits of state government’s Resettlement & Rehabilitation (R&R) to villagers. But Barla claimed they would boycott the meet.

Vijay Bhatnagar, the CEO of ArcelorMittal, India, said in a press communiqué issued yesterday, that the company’s focus was to rehabilitate first and then develop the project. He also pledged to comply with the R&R policy.

Barla, however, spurned the offer, saying there was no question of resettlement or rehabilitation when villagers did not want to move, irrespective of what offered.

She also feared that once the government was able to allocate “so-called government plots” in favour of the Mittals, it would be easy for the company to acquire private land. “If it happens, villagers would not get any benefit of the R&R policy as the policy clearly says it has no bearing on plots directly purchased by the company,” she claimed.