CM to review Posco project progress on May 20

Opposition parties meet on Saturday

With tension still simmering at Kalinganagar and Posco project site following police crackdown on anti-displacement activists last week, the administration and opposition parties have gone into overdrive to devise strategies to push their respective agendas.

Visthapan Virodhi Jana Manch (VVJM), a tribal organization spearheading the agitation against Tata Steel's upcoming greenfield steel project at Kalinganagar, has invited all opposition political parties in the state for a meeting to be held there on May 22.

This is seen as a move by VVJM, which till date was mostly drawing its support from ultra left CPI (ML), to broadbase its agitation by involving mainline political parties.

Similarly, chief minster Naveen Patnaik has convened a high-level review meeting on Posco tomorrow to take stock of the situation at the project site which had turned into a warzone last Saturday with police using force to evict anti-Posco protesters from Balitutha, the entry point of the project site, which was under siege for last four months.

Interestingly, Naveen has invited the local CPI MP to the meeting who was arrested the night before the police action at Balitutha. Besides top officials, local MLAs and peoples representatives are expected to attend the meeting. “We want to expedite the project work through negotiations”, Patnaik said.

At Kalinganagar, VVJM has convened the all party meeting to pay tributes to Laxman Jamuda, a villager who was allegedly killed in police firing at Chandia on May 12. VVJM intends to apprise these opposition parties on the alleged atrocities against the innocent tribals and has also decided to intensify its stir against the Tata project after the meeting, said Rabindra Jarika, secretary VVJM.

VVJM was formed after 14 tribals protesting the forcible construction of boundary wall by Tata Steel were killed in a police firing back in January 2006.