Yet another struggle

For the last seven years, the local people in the state of Odisha, had lost their land to government's land acquisitions(about 2000 acres). Government had acquired the land of the local people and had given it to a foreign company.In an agro based land, steel industry is going to be set up,  ruining livelihoods of many farmers. This would make the land barren and poison the water table.A steel plant(POSCO) was to be made here with an investment of twelve billion Dollars, which the government wants.Protesters have suffered acutely in their struggle to get back their land.Many have been jailed; false accusations have been framed on the innocent people.Even if one had gone to police station to complain about an attack by criminals, one would be arrested. Such is the reign of terror. Many fresh cases are brought against the tribal persons, to keep them in jail for longer and longer terms.Police target activists and ordinary citizens to create terror; so that no one will dare to protest.In several cases the entire village has been charged with myriad charges.1400 of same village had been charged and arrested.The innocent people do not know what they have been charged for.This is not development, when people are harassed for protesting, there is death of democracy. Many times, people are labelled as criminals or Maoists. Like when in April this year, tribal population who were resisting attempts by 'Vedanta' to mine for bauxite in their Niyamgiri hills had been assaulted and imprisoned and labelled as Maoists. In January last year they were gunned down and killed after being termed as Maoists.Criminalizing the simple people does not give glory to our nation, our government and its policies.We Indians are intelligent people and participate in international forums with ease.We may take part in G20 meet and help other countries to develop but first we have to pay attention to our people, their problems, and their needs.