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Posco: Left, allies seek to put State on the mat

BHUBANESWAR: With the State government going ahead with the land acquisition for Posco steel project in Jagatsinghpur district despite stiff opposition from a large number of villagers, five political parties on Saturday announced that they would organise a ‘Jail Bharo' agitation in the Capital city on Monday.

The parties that would take part in the agitation to condemn the use of force by the State government to acquire land are Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India(Marxist), Forward Bloc, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal. “We are also discussing the issue with other small parties to take part in the demonstration to express solidarity with the agitating villagers who were against handing over their land and livelihood sources to make space for the Posco steel plant project,” said senior CPI leader Ramakrushna Panda. The movement against the State government efforts to forcibly acquire land in the area chosen for the Posco project will be strengthened in the coming days, Mr. Panda added.

The major Opposition parties such as Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, however, have not taken any stand over the ongoing land acquisition for Posco project.

According to political analysts, Congress and BJP were remaining aloof from the agitation against Posco project primarily because the CPI had been strongly backing Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the people's organisation that had been leading the anti-Posco agitation from the beginning. As many as 17 persons, including several women and children, were arrested and kept in custody for five hours on Friday when they opposed the demolition of their betel vineyards.

Meanwhile, land acquisition for the project continued during the day on Saturday with the authorities demolishing as many as 51 betel vines in Gadakujang and Nuagaon areas. Many villagers who were unwilling to allow demolition of their betel vines remained silent as armed policemen stood guard to facilitate the land acquisition drive.

Tension

On the other hand, tension continued to prevail in the area as a large number of people agitating under the banner of the Sangram Samiti continued to guard the entry points to Dhinkia gram panchayat.

The villagers in Dhinkia had gheraoed a team of eight policemen and detained them for several hours when a police vehicle entered their locality a few days ago.

The Sangram Samiti has already expressed apprehension about police action against their activists if the administration begins land acquisition in their locality amid heavy police presence in the coming days.

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