ABSTRACT
As loudspeakers announced the conclusion of a public hearing, the mob went berserk and started hurling abuse. Executives from the company ran for their lives. A 100-strong contingent of sleepy policemen, watching the proceedings till then with disinterest, rapidly swung into action to ensure that government officials were not harmed. The scene, reading like a shot from a Bollywood movie, occurred on 22 September 2011 at a tiny village named Birra, located in a nondescript district of Janjgir-Champa in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The occasion was a public hearing on a 1,320-megawatt (MW) coal-fired thermal power plant proposed by a company called Moser Baer. From early morning that day, people had started gathering in huge numbers even though the proceedings of the hearing were not to start before noon. Many youngsters clung to the temporary bamboo barricade around the open ground of the village enjoying the show of marching policemen. Village elders, too, sat huddled in small groups chatting. The air was thick with anticipation. It was the day when people from nearby villages were to assemble before a group of state government officers to discuss the fate of their land, which Moser Baer wanted to acquire. The setting for the public hearing was as good as for a marriage. A huge tent created temporary premises, where wire mesh divided the government officials from the people. An ambulance and a fire brigade vehicle also waited at a distance, prepared to deal with any kind of emergency. ‘It is for their (officials and the company executives') safety,’ said a police officer nonchalantly. 1
