BJD rally on Posco issue a damp squib

The much-hyped anti-Centre rally of Biju Janta Dal (BJD) at Jagatsinghpur on Saturday turned out to be a damp squib with heavy rains playing havoc and thousands of supporters of state Agriculture minister Damodar Rout, a popular leader of the area, staying away from the meet due to intra-party squabbling.

Though the district BJD unit had made elaborate arrangement to congregate 50,000 supporters from nook and corner of Jagatsinghpur district only 5000 to 6000 supporters-again most of them from outside the district- finally participated in this meeting.

The rally was organized to highlight the step motherly attitude of the Centre towards the state in general and stoppage of work on the Posco project by the Union ministry of environment and forest in particular.

Interestingly, not a single person from Posco affected area turned up in this meeting in protest against exclusion of agriculture minister Rout from this meeting. However, ten other ministers attended the rally. This apart, Rajya Sabha MP, Baishnab Parida and six legislators were present in this meeting.

The BJD leaders said, the Union government is creating obstacles in setting up of some big projects like Posco in Jagatsignhpur district which in turn will hinder the progress of the state.

On the other hand, by giving final environment clearance to the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, which is perceived to submerge a large chunk of forest and tribal land in south Orissa, the Centre has demonstrated its insensitiveness towards the tribals in the state, they alleged.

This was the third anti-Centre rally of BJD after the MoEF passed its order rejecting Stage II forest clearance for the bauxite mining project of Vedanta at Niyamgiri last month. Earlier BJD had held meetings at Lanjigarh and Malkanagiri to highlight the Vedanta and Polavaram issues.

The ruling party has said, it will organize similar rallies in all the 30 districts to highlight the Centre’s step motherly attitude.