Indian resistance to steel works

May 22, 2011
The land acqui­si­tion for the pro­posed mega steel project of Posco in Orissa’s Jagats­ingh­pur dis­trict has been post­poned fol­low­ing stiff resis­tance from vil­lagers sup­port­ing as well as oppos­ing the ven­ture.

May 22, 2011
The land acqui­si­tion for the pro­posed mega steel project of Posco in Orissa’s Jagats­ingh­pur dis­trict has been post­poned fol­low­ing stiff resis­tance from vil­lagers sup­port­ing as well as oppos­ing the ven­ture.

The State Gov­ern­ment had to stop the land acqui­si­tion work on Fri­day after the vil­lagers sup­port­ing the ven­ture protest­ed, demand­ing that the process be com­plete­ly stopped till their six-point demands are met.

As many as 33 mem­bers of the Unit­ed Action Com­mit­tee (UAC), the group sup­port­ing the project, were arrest­ed on Thurs­day when they blocked the entry of offi­cials engaged in the land acqui­si­tion work. On Sun­day, a large num­ber of vil­lagers sup­port­ing the UAC organ­ised a ral­ly in the area ear­marked for the project reit­er­at­ing their demands.

Mean­while, Posco Pratirodh San­gram Sami­ti, the out­fit that has been strong­ly oppos­ing land acqui­si­tion for the project since 2005, has also decid­ed to inten­si­fy its agi­ta­tion in the com­ing days.

The Sami­ti has been demand­ing that the Gov­ern­ment not acquire any land till the author­i­ties organ­ised Pal­li Sab­ha meet­ings in var­i­ous vil­lages to take the con­sent of the thou­sands of fam­i­lies that were to lose their land and liveli­hood sources.

The agi­tat­ing vil­lagers, who had staged a protest on May 18 when the author­i­ties resumed land acqui­si­tion, have termed the Gov­ern­ment action “ille­gal”.

The land acqui­si­tion work had shown lit­tle progress dur­ing the three days when admin­is­tra­tion offi­cials entered the area amid heavy police pres­ence to car­ry out the exer­cise. While the 1.52 acres of for­est land was acquired by demol­ish­ing betel vine­yards on May 18, it dropped to 72 dec­i­mals on May 19 and .27 acres on May 20.

In anoth­er devel­op­ment, the High Court has issued notices to the State Gov­ern­ment and oth­ers on a peti­tion chal­leng­ing land acqui­si­tion for the project. The peti­tion will come up for fur­ther hear­ing on May 25.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/article2040318.ece?homepage=true