The mineral-rich state of Orissa, once a magnet for big-ticket investments, is now a deadlocked destination for projects worth thousands of crores. Four days in and around Bhubaneswar were enough to catch a glimpse of the ongoing war between the state government and a determined green brigade. On 25 June, the Orissa High Court stayed work on a 1,050 MW thermal power plant of the Hyderabad-based KVK Nilachal Power, which had been accorded clearances to operate within the prohibited 10-km zone around a wildlife sanctuary. The company’s defence was that the Kapilesh elephant sanctuary, in Cuttack district, had not been notified when permission was given. But the high court reasoned that the state government was aware of the proposed sanctuary and should have taken it into account while doing its due diligence. The matter has been referred to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for its response. On 27 June, screaming headlines in Bhubaneswar’s newspapers announced that displaced families from eight villages in Sunabeda, in Koraput district, had forcibly occupied several acres under the possession of Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), and had begun tilling and sowing. While HAL insisted the land was legally acquired by the state government and handed over, the farmers claimed they had been displaced without proper compensation. This is but a snapshot of the excruciating logjam Orissa faces. In 2000, Orissa, a state rich in minerals such as bauxite, coal and iron ore, and with a long coastline offering possibilities of port operations, kicked off a flurry of MoUs, with several companies keen to tap the resources. Soon, the who’s who of heavy industry were flocking to the state — South Korea’s Posco, Tata Steel, Vedanta Aluminium, Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL), Sahara Power, to name a few. A decade later, some projects have gone on stream; but most big ones are stuck over land acquisition, raw material linkages or environmental concerns. Are these just teething troubles, or is Orissa now a graveyard of industrial intentions? MoUs And After Orissa, a state with 85 per cent of its population in rural areas and with Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste groups contributing 38 per cent of its numbers, has always looked to industrialisation as the route to high growth. Biju Patnaik, the father of modern Orissa and a chief minister many times over, sought to set up the private sector, Rs 300-crore Brahmni Valley Steel Project with French collaboration way back in the 1950s. But Nehruvian socialism would have nothing of it. He also shepherded Posco through Paradip in the early 1990s, but the Korean steel giant felt it was too early to make a foray. “Biju Patnaik sought the good things in life, including a modern Orissa. He owned a bungalow in Mumbai’s posh Malabar Hills and in Lutyens’ Delhi. But he also had the vision to build Orissa’s first 100-km expressway to Paradip port in the 1960s to link the rich iron ore blocks to the port city. It also served as a highland rescue point for locals during frequent floods,” recounted Lalitmohan Pattajoshi, a senior Bhubaneswar-based writer. The real push came in the new millennium. Industries were looking to expand and needed raw material. Orissa offered the opportunity with 27 per cent of India’s coal reserves, 33 per cent of its iron ore, 55 per cent of its bauxite and over 90 per cent of its nickel and chromite reserves. The state rolled out the red carpet. In 2000 — the year Naveen Patnaik, Biju Patnaik’s son, and founder of the Biju Janata Dal, became the state’s chief minister — as many as 50 MoUs were signed with those seeking mining linkages. In 2002, Orissa began acquiring 12,000 acres for a steel city, Kalinganagar, in Jajpur district. Central to this was Orissa’s dream of a second mega steel plant after Rourkela — a 6 million tonne per annum (MTPA) facility to be built by Tata Steel. Soon after came the Posco MoU, in 2005, for a 12-MTPA plant at Paradip with a dedicated jetty and an investment of Rs 54,000 crore. GUJARAT The state’s chief minister Narendra Modi may be damned for his ‘communal’ past but there is no denying that he has made Gujarat tick. Investors and industry see the state as the epitome of quick clearances and hassle-free operations. The shifting of Tata Motors’ Nano plant to Sanand from Singur, in West Bengal, was a boost; and the icing on the cake was the recent announcement by Osamu Suzuki that the future of the Japanese auto giant would be in Gujarat. In the showpiece biannual business meets, branded ‘Vibrant Gujarat’, Modi has garnered a record investment commitment of Rs 39.6 lakh crore. The latest initiative has been a textile policy that promises concessions to those who want to set up spinning and weaving units in industrial parks around the state’s cotton-growing regions. With Gujarat growing 35 per cent of the country’s cotton but exporting 90 per cent as raw material, Modi hopes the value-addition will save farmers Rs 14,000 crore. In urban infrastructure, too, cities like Ahmedabad and Surat are being renewed. Success can be measured by the fact that Ahmedabad has been voted ‘the most livable city’ in recent surveys. But the Gujarat success story is not in industrial growth and urban renewal alone. Farm income increased from Rs 14,700 crore in 2001 to Rs 96,000 crore in 2011, growing 11 per cent every year. Milk production ballooned 68 per cent; cotton output went from 2.3 million bales in 2000-01 to 10.5 million bales in 2010-11. To attract investments to the state, Orissa passed the Industrial Facilitation Act creating the Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Orissa (IPICOL) as a single-window clearing point for new industries. “In eight years, we have signed up Rs 16 lakh crore of investment in the state, of which Rs 2 lakh crore has come in so far,” says IPICOL’s CMD, C.J. Venugopal. To provide land and infrastructure, the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) was set up and headed by IAS officer Priyabrata Patnaik, who had the unenviable task of acquiring and handing over a whopping 150,000 acres of land. And herein lay the snarl. After eight years, the state’s acquisition plan is in tatters. Just 36,000 acres, signed up and paid for, have been acquired. Even less has been actually handed over. Police firings and local resistance have given the Naveen Patnaik government a demonic reputation; and many, like ArcelorMittal, have packed their bags and are on their way out.