The Hindu : Front Page : Rally against Posco steel project

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Wednesday, Apr 02, 2008
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Rally against Posco steel project

Special Correspondent

Protesters will oppose land acquisition for the project

— Photo: By special arrangement

Defying prohibitory orders: Police chase away anti-Posco activists in Balitutha on Tuesday.

BHUBANESWAR: Hundreds of people defied police and participated in a rally on Tuesday to reiterate their opposition to the setting up of a mega steel plant by Posco-India in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa.

Armed with traditional weapons, the locals and their sympathisers from other parts of the State reached the rally venue at Balitutha, close to the area earmarked for the project.

Although the administration restrained groups of protesters at some points, others marched to the venue from all directions, violating prohibitory orders. At some places protesters broke the police cordon.

It was at Balitutha that a large number of activists of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti were attacked by locals supporting the steel project on November 29.

Addressing the rally, president of the Sangram Samiti, Abhay Sahu, criticised the Naveen Patnaik government for dancing to the tunes of the South Korean steel company.

Mr. Sahu reiterated that the villagers opposing the project would continue their agitation and oppose acquisition of land.

Two legislators, Narayan Reddy of the CPI and Sambhunath Nayak of SUCI, and several prominent social activists, including B.D. Sharma, participated in the rally and expressed their opposition to the project.

It should not come up in the locality at the cost of people’s land and livelihood sources, they said.

Earlier in the day, police detained over 100 anti-Posco activists. But they were released in the afternoon.

Jagatsinghpur District Superintendent of Police R.K. Sharma told The Hindu that the rally passed off peacefully without any clash between the police and protesters or the locals opposing and supporting the project.

The Sangram Samiti, opposing the steel project from the beginning, organised the rally in the wake of the company’s announcement to hold the groundbreaking ceremony on April 1.

However, the company recently said that it would organise the function at a later stage after obtaining all sanctions required for the project.

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