Other States - Orissa   

Anti-POSCO activists up the ante

Staff Reporter

AITUC demands immediate scrapping of the MoU entered into with the South Korean major

BHUBANESWAR: Stepping up its agitation against the South Korean steel major POSCO’s India venture, the Communist Party of India (CPI) affiliated All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) staged a huge demonstration in front of the Assembly here on Thursday.

Shouting slogans against the proposed 12 million tonne per annum steel plant near the port town of Paradip, the activists occupied every inch of the Mahatma Gandhi Road.

Vehicles were diverted to alternative routes as the demonstration continued for several hours.

“We oppose the entry of the POSCO in Orissa.

The trans-national company will colonise the State and utilise all our natural resource to its advantage,” AITUC general secretary Souribandhu Kar said.

He said: “The Memorandum of Understanding signed between the POSCO and the government is totally against the interests of the people and violation of all laws of the land and the Constitution.

Our demand is that the MoU should be scrapped.”

In May last, the AITUC launched a series of protests, including lobbying for a special discussion on the POSCO venture in Parliament.

As part of its ‘No-POSCO’ movement, it already organised a number of public meetings in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Paradip.

Speakers demanded that the special economic zone status should not be accorded to any corporate house, including the POSCO, the Tata Steel and the Vedanta Alumina Resources and reiterated that under no circumstances the organisation would allow agricultural land to be utilised for industrial purposes.

If the government and the company went ahead with the proposed project, activists would disrupt railway and other essential services to reinforce their demands, the leaders warned.

AITUC president Dyutikrishna Panda said instead of concentrating on big industries, there should be greater emphasis on small-scale industries, which churned out comparatively more employment.

Among others, CPI legislator Narayan Reddy, central deputy general secretary H. Mahadevan, State secretary Bijay Jena and others took part in the demonstration.

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