Of late, big projects with huge investments to the tune of nearly Rs. 4, 00,000 crore are lined up for Orissa in the mineral based industrial sectors like iron and steel, aluminum, energy etc. As a spin-off this holds good prospects for a boom in the services sectors like banking, insurance, education, telecommunication etc.

Around 55 MoUs have been signed by the Govt. of Orissa including mega projects like POSCO envisaging an investment of around Rs. 52,000 crore and Arcelor-Mittal around Rs. 40,000 crore for setting up Green-field Steelworks of 12 mtpa each. Now, people of Orissa need to hold their nerves tight and move ahead with determination to accelerate growth in per capita income as well as the State GDP.

The brighter side of this industrialisation drive by the government is that it would create direct and indirect employment in the state in both skilled and unskilled manpower category. Meanwhile, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has come out with an economic impact study of the proposed POSCO-India Steel Project, the biggest FDI of India so far which forecasts creation of employment opportunity not only in the primary sector but also in various stimulated sectors by mega industrial projects. This includes direct employment in iron ore mining and iron and steel production; indirect employment in sectors like agriculture and forestry, agri-business, mining, manufacturing, construction, banking, insurance, healthcare, education etc.

In spite of having adequate natural resources like land, water, long coastline (480 km) and abundant mineral resources, Orissa is still one of the backward states of the country. Around 47 percent of its population lives below the poverty line. The main reasons behind this bottleneck are lack of political consensus on developmental policies of the government and the absence of professionalism by the government itself.

It is rather unfortunate that when Orissa is now poised for rapid developments through industrialisation, vested interest groups are creating impediments on the way. The opponents of ‘development through industrialisation' opine that poverty would be removed from Orissa only by developing agriculture/agro-based industry and not by large scale industrialisation. Some political parties and NGOs are also fueling the local people to protest against proposed projects in the state. It's to be understood that in the $854 billion economy of India only 1/5th contribution comes from agriculture and farming. So, there is a need to have a balance between the two – industrialisation and agriculture.

A strong political will and sound management is the need of the hour to pacify the opposition and redirect it for generating support in favour of industrialisation.

There are a number of instances of huge infrastructure and industrial projects seeing the light of the day just because of strong political will and determined effort by various governments at different times in the country. The Sardar Sarovar and Tehri Dam projects and NALCO project like many others have been proved as people's projects at the end.

A vivid example of political will winning over misleading anti-industry protest is closer home. At Kalinga Nagar, Orissa, it was the political motivation of the ruling party leaders who came openly in support of industrialisation during the recently concluded panchayat elections in the state showcasing benefits of industrialisation. This in fact created confidence in the minds of the local people and cleared the mess rooted in the now famous Industrial Complex in Orissa.

The end of the Kalinga Nagar impasse has proved that political motivation is crucial in driving mega projects and hence could drive the growth of Orissa.

Big projects like Vedanta's Alumina project in Lanjigarh and International University in Puri and POSCO-India's 12 mtpa Green-field steelwork in Jagatsinghpur are entangled in a series of hurdles by people's protests on displacement issues.

Protests to mega projects is increasing either due to the failure of the people to understand these policies or for the failure on part of the government to present the policies meant for development before the people in proper perspective.

As a proactive measure the State Government has decided to go ahead with its industrialisation drive in the State by taking people into confidence and making them aware about the benefits of the mega projects. In this line, it has suggested the POSCO authorities to directly talk to the locals for land acquisition. This step would surely help as the company people would get a first hand knowledge about what the people want. This would in turn help finding solutions to the deadlocks.

As a supportive measure, the government has come out with the new R&R Policy, 2006 which promises more benefits for the to-be-displaced people. But, strategic effort must be made by the authorities to effectively communicate to the people that all the lands and property of the displaced will be properly evaluated and will be justifiably compensated. Further, a determined step should be taken to maintain the general law and order situation in the proposed project areas to smoothly implement the process of industrialisation without hampering the interest of people.

But, this is yet to be pursued by the government for which unwarranted delay in the economic planning and target of both the government and the concerned companies creating complications at both levels.

The need of the hour is strong political will cutting across party lines to take forward the industrialisation drive in the state. The Orissa Government, instead of reeling under red-tapism, can always look up to its counterpart in Gujarat to draw some inspiration after seeing at what breathtaking speed investment is being pumped into the State, entirely due to the efforts of its dynamic governance.

(The writer is Researcher, Educational Initiative, Ahmedabad)