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POSCO stir: Dasgupta flays State

BHUBANESWAR: Senior Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta on Saturday criticised the Naveen Patnaik Government for allegedly using both police and hooligans to suppress the peaceful democratic agitation by people against the setting up of the POSCO steel project in Jagatsinghpur district.

“Naveen Patnaik is doing something unusual by using the police for helping a foreign company to set up its business,” Mr. Dasgupta said at a press conference after returning from his visit to Dhinkia village in Erasama block of Jagatsinghpur.

“If the people of Dhinkia are attacked by the police and hooligans, Naveen Patnaik will have to face the consequences. We will not let him go like that,” Mr. Dasgupta said.

Police and anti-social elements engaged by the State Government and one Biju Janata Dal legislator had encircled Dhinkia on all sides preventing normal supply of essential items to the village, Mr. Dasgupta said.

The CPI leader, who addressed a gathering of villagers at Dhinkia, said the women present at the meeting told him they were apprehending an attack on the village by the police and the goons moving in the area.

Clarifying that he was not against the proposed steel plant project of POSCO, Mr. Dasgupta said that the State Government should shift the project from Erasama area to a place that was not under cultivation. He, however, opposed the Government’s decision to hand over iron mines to the South Korean company on lease. The company should be asked to purchase iron ore from the State-run Orissa Mining Corporation.

With regard to POSCO’s plan to set up a captive port near its steel plant in Erasama block, Mr. Dasgupta opposed the move saying it would affect the operations of the existing Paradip port that was just a few km away.

“Allowing POSCO to have captive mines and captive port would lead to looting of Orissa’s rich mineral resources. The company will suppress iron ore export figures,” Mr. Dasgupta observed.

Extending his party’s support to the villagers who were against the POSCO project in Dhinkia and adjoining villages, Mr. Dasgupta appealed to people of the State to oppose the government’s efforts to crush the peaceful agitation against land acquisition for the POSCO project. He also appealed to the opposition parties of the State to come forward in support of the agitating villagers.

Mr. Dasgupta said he would meet the Prime Minister to point out the misuse of police and use of hooligans by the Naveen Patnaik Government.

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