At a time when the fate of Posco’s Rs 54,000-crore mega steel plant hangs in the balance, the Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organization spearheading the movement against the project in the state, has urged the Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh to think hundred times before taking any decision on giving green signal to the project.
PPSS has also threatened to conduct a mass rally and pada yatra from Dhinkia to Erasama tahsil in Jagatsinghpur district and launch fresh agitation demanding immediate withdrawal of the project from the proposed site.
Thousands of villagers would join pada yatra and would take part in the agitation in front of the tehsil office ahead of the meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) scheduled for January 18-19, said Abhya Sahu, president of PPSS.
Addressing the media persons, Sahu alleged that the forest and CRZ (Coastal Regulatory Zone) clearances granted to the project earlier were illegal.
“The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) had sent two teams-one led by Ashish Kothari and another by Meena Gupta last year to check the violation of Forest Rights Act (FRA) at the Posco site. Both teams interacted with the villagers at the site and reported about the violation of Forest Right Act and CRZ norms by the state government”, he said.
Stating that the district administration had acquired land for the project forcibly with the backing of the police forces, he said, PPSS has voiced strong opposition to use of police force and filing of false cases against the innocent villagers. “Police had registered 172 false cases against one thousand villagers for no cause”, he added.
‘We are aware that the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the MoEF is going to meet on January 18-19 for reviewing the proposed Posco project and there is speculation that the environment minister is likely to give green signal in favour of project by January 31. PPSS has drawn up elaborate plans to oppose the MoEF’s attempt to clear the Posco project”, he stated.
Sahu alleged that police terrorized the villagers on Tuesday for suspecting the entry of Maoists at Gobindpur village.
“The district administration had conducted pallisabha for the acquisition of 16 acres of land for the oil refinery project of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) in Paradip and now the administration has issued letters to panchayats to conduct palli sabha and Village Forest Rights Act committee to acquire another two and a half acres of land for the project but no meeting of palli sabha and FRA committee has been conducted at Dhinkia and other panchayats for the Posco project”, Sahu pointed out.
