Pwg Threats Give Fresh Twist To Gopalpur Row

The district administration, which has received two threatening letters from PWG activists in the last few days, has stepped up security in the region. It is also conducting investigations to determine whether there are any links between the local Gana Sangram Samiti, which is spearheading the agitation against the project, and the feared naxalite group. The samiti leaders have denied any links with the PWG and claim that the reports of the threats which have appeared in the local press are malicious rumours designed to discredit their struggle.

The district administration has still to ascertain whether the threat was real or a ploy used by the Gana Sangram Samiti to create a scare among the officials involved in the land acquisition.

The first letter warned that the PWG activists would trigger a wave of violence throughout the Ganjam district by setting off bomb blasts at railway stations and vital buildings.

The second letter demanded the release of the Samiti leader N Narayan Reddy, who was arrested under the NSA, within seven days, failing which the administration should prepare to face the worst. Reddy is a Telugu and the villagers to be affected by the project are mostly Telugu speaking has made the administration take serious note of threats, purportedly by the PWG group, which is particularly active in southern Orissa bordering Andhra Pradesh.

However, leaders of the state council of the CPI (of which Samiti leader Reddy is a member) have dismissed the reports of a PWG threat as an attempt to divide the local populace along the regional and linguistic lines.

State CPI general secretary Abani Boral said he had recently received several anonymous letters saying Narayan Reddy was in touch in touch with Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu regarding the possibility of shifting the location of the project. There is a slander campaign against Reddy, he said and added that his party would support the agitation against the project.