Date:03/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/03/stories/2007120359801300.htm

National

POSCO: agitators plan armed struggle

Special Correspondent

Left parties announce State-wide stir

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Orissa government is expressing confidence that the ground-breaking ceremony of the POSCO steel project in Jagatsinghpur district will be conducted on April 1 next, the people facing displacement on Sunday announced that they would take up arms to foil the administration’s plans to acquire land for the project.

“After the violent attack on our people on Thursday, the people have been forced to take up arms to protect our land,” president of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti told reporters at Dhinkia gram panchayat.

At least 15 persons were injured on Thursday when the samiti supporters were attacked by hundreds of project supporters at Balitutha locality where the Samiti had set up a camp to continue its agitation against the project and prevent entry of the police and administration officials and POSCO employees from entering the site.

They hurled bombs at the samiti activists, attacked them with sharp weapons and set the tents put up at the camp on fire. The police reached Balitutha after the attackers left the spot.

Tension started mounting in the area again on Sunday when hundreds of anti-POSCO activists — men, women and children — took out a procession in the area to express opposition to the setting up of the steel project in their locality.

They were armed with lathis, bows and arrows and other sharp weapons.

The procession culminated in an oath-taking ceremony where the protestors took a pledge to fight the project till the end.

Police sources said they were keeping a close watch on the developments.

Political support

Several Left parties have condemned the Thursday’s attack on the anti-POSCO activists and extended their support to the agitation.

At a joint press conference here, the leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) also announced the launch of a State-wide agitation against the attack on the villagers opposing the steel project.

They demanded that an all-party meeting be convened soon to discuss various issues relating to the project.