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Medha enters Posco area

BHUBANESWAR: Social activist Medha Patkar reached the Posco project area in Jagatsinghpur district on Tuesday evening to extend her support to the villagers who are opposing the government’s efforts to take their land for the proposed steel plant.

The entry of Ms. Patkar was opposed by a group of people present at the entry point near Balitutha. Members of the group told her not to enter the area saying that it would disturb peace in the locality. She, however, entered the locality without any trouble telling that she had come for restoration of peace in the villages facing displacement by the Posco project. Ms. Patkar was scheduled to stay overnight in Nuagaon village. She would visit Dhinkia village on Wednesday and talk to people and those leading the agitation against displacement.

A majority of people in Dhinkia is against the project and policemen have been deployed at all three entry points to the village where president of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti Abhay Sahu has been camping since the project opponents were attacked by hundreds of pro-project people at Balitutha on Nov. 29. However, Ms. Patkar was unlikely to get many a people to talk to on Wednesday in the remaining villages as a group of locals in Nuagaon who were supporting the project have announced that anyone who would interact with her would be fined.

Earlier in the day, Ms. Patkar participated in a rally in Jagatsinghpur district headquarters town in support of a ongoing Satyagraha by a group of Gandhians for restoration of peace in the gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang where the government has deployed police in strength after the November 29 violence. She also participated in the Satyagraha. Talking to presspersons, Mr. Patkar said no development work should de done without the consent of the local people.

Meanwhile, taking exception to Ms. Patkar’s visit, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters in the State capital that “she should remember about the jobs and revenue that the big industries would bring to a poor State like Orissa.”

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