The Kalinganagar Tragedy: A Shadow Haunting Odisha's Development

Taj Poshi Media जनवरी 07, 2024

Kalinganagar Goli Kand


The day of January 2, 2006, is etched in the history of Kalinganagar village in Odisha as a day of immense sorrow and a day without wounds. On this fateful day, a peaceful protest by local tribals against land acquisition in a major project by Tata Steel turned into a bloody massacre in which a total of 13 people were killed and several others injured. This mindless incident of that day is etched as a dark shadow in the hearts of the people in the name of the Kalinganagar massacre and the Kalinganagar firing incident. In this article, we will try to tell you what happened that day.


 

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Kalinganagar Massacre/Goli Kand (2 January 2006):

Kalinganagar is a tehsil and an industrial town in the Jajpur district of Odisha. A huge plant of Tata Steel is installed today. Since the tribal people here had been settled on this land for generations, this ancestral land was the only means of livelihood for them. In 2004, the Odisha government acquired tribal land to set up Tata Steel's 60 lakh per annum steel plant. The government had promised proper compensation and rehabilitation to the people, but it was never fulfilled. 

 

This behavior of the government toward the tribal people was like making the people feel cheated. On which the tribals started a peaceful protest under the banner of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS). On January 2, 2006, a large gathering of tribals marched to the construction site to express their disagreement. The police responded with brutal force and opened fire on the unarmed crowd. According to official figures, 13 people were killed and several others injured in the firing that day. However, many locals believe that many people were killed on that day. 

   

The Kalinganagar tragedy had sent shockwaves across India, raising several questions on land acquisition, displacement, and people's rights. Several inquiries were later made about the killings in this firing incident, but no clear answer was given. 

 

 

The system's cruelty to the tribal dead:

The bodies of 13 innocent people killed in the Kalinganagar massacre were taken into custody by the police. The bodies were handed over to the families of the deceased after the post-mortem the next day.

But when people saw the bodies of the deceased, it was said that the claws of many people were missing, and the penis of some corpses was also cut off.

The palms are still preserved with chemicals inside an ark at a community center in Ambagadia village in Odisha's Jajpur district. The tribal people are still struggling to identify these palms.

 

The government says that it was done to cut the claws of the dead so that the dead could be identified. But this fact satisfies nothing, because then the face of the dead was not disfigured. So that the peoples could be easily identified, but what was the need to match the fingerprint by cutting the claws of the peoples? To inflict such cruelty on the bodies of the tribal dead was like chilling their wounds and humiliating them.


Three doctors were charged. After the horrific incident of January 2, 2006, the government was being targeted, and the claw-cutting incident put more pressure on the government. Under pressure, the government suspended the three doctors. Later, the Odisha High Court ruled in favor of the doctors and also revoked their suspension.

 

   

 

Kalinganagar tragedy


People celebrate "Saheed Divas" every year on 2 January:

This picture is of the memorial built in the memory of the tribals who were martyred on January 2, 2006. Every year on January 2, the tribal people gather at this memorial to remember the martyrs, which they observe as "Shaheed Diwas." Apart from this memorial, there are different stones of the people killed in the firing on which the names of the martyrs are written. This monument is built over the graves of those people. The incident that took place on that day still evokes anger in the minds of the people towards the government and the judicial system.

 

   


We must remember the Kalinganagar tragedy not just as a tragic event but as a call to action. We must strive for a development model that respects the rights of all, ensures environmental sustainability, and prioritizes the well-being of the most vulnerable communities. Only then can we heal the wounds of the past and build a future where all Indians can flourish.


 

Taj Poshi Media

प्रस्तुतकर्ता Taj Poshi Media