FAC meeting today to decide fate of Posco project

In a bid to build up pressure before the meeting of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) to decide the fate of the Posco’s mega steel plant in Orissa, the anti-Posco brigade has stepped up the ante against the project.

The project opponents, led by Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organisation spearheading the agitation against the South Korean company, held a massive rally and protest meeting at Balitutha, the entry point to the project site on Saturday. Affected people from villages such as Dhinkia, Gobindpur, Nugaon and Gadkujang attended the rally.

Referring to the adverse remarks of three of the four members of the Meena Gupta committee set up by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on the Posco project, the speakers at the meeting demanded scrapping of the project and action against the government officials who had aided the company to get various clearances.

“Legal action should be taken against errant district officials who had indulged in forcibly land acquisition violating the Forest Right Act (FRA), submitting false and fabricated report and fomenting violence in the Posco affected area”, they said.

Stating that the Saxena Committee report and majority view of the Meena Gupta panel have corroborated the allegations of violation of FRA, Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ), the speakers demanded for withdrawal of environment, forest and CRZ clearances given to the project and its captive port at Jatadhari river mouth near Paradip.

They warned about intensifying the agitation if the government allowed the company to go ahead with the project following the FAC meeting on Monday.

Among others, PPSS president Abhay Sahoo, Sarpanch of Dhinkia panchyat, Sisir Mohapatra, Panchyat samiti members, Prakash Jena, Basdudev Behera and PPSS leaders Manorama Khatua, Babuli Rout, Ranjan Swain addressed the gathering.