PPSS rally at Posco site evokes lukewarm response

The protest rally organized today by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) at Balitutha, the entry point to the Posco project site near Paradip evoked a rather lacklustre response.

Nevertheless, PPSS, the organization at the forefront of anti-Posco agitation in the state, reiterated its resolve not to concede land for the steel project even as the district administration carried out the land acquisition work smoothly at Nuagaon and Noliasahi villages.

“The villagers have been staying in this forest land since 1930 and so they need to be treated as traditional forest dwellers. There is no question to hand over even a single inch of land to the Posco project”, said PPSS leader and Dhinkia sarpanch Sisir Mohapatra.

PPSS will intensify its stir in Dhinkia and Nuagaon villages from tomorrow to bar the entry of officials to these villages to take over land for the project, he added.

PPSS leader Abhaya Sahu said, “The anti-project activists would fight till the last breath against the government and the company till the project is shifted or scrapped”.

Leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Forward Bloc, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), SUCI, and others addressed the agitators.

On the other hand, the United Action Committee (UAC), a pro-Posco outfit being aggrieved over the non-fulfillment of its 29-point charter of demands, has vowed to intensify its stir against land acquisition for the Posco project.

UAC conducted its meeting at Gadkujang to chalk out strategies to protest the land acquisition. The meeting was presided over by Anadi Rout.

The UAC members strongly criticized the district administration which they alleged was undertaking land acquisition by giving promises to provide job in Posco and contract work to innocent and illiterate people without fulfilling the demands of the committee.

“The first beneficiary of today's land acquisition work and his brother were working in Posco and so the credit does not go to the district administration for demolishing his betel vine. Other ten beneficiaries have received contract work, liquor and money from the block development officer, Erasama for which they have shown their eagerness to demolish betel vines”, said UAC secretary Nirvaya Samantray.

In a parallel development, two leaders of Bhita Mati Surkhaya Manch (BMSM), an anti-Posco pressure group active at the project site, has extended cooperation to UAC to intensify the stir unitedly to protest the land acquisition.