State prepares for terror in Jagatsinhpur, Orissa

Sign online petition : http://www.petitiononline.com/Orissa/petition.html

Read Amnesty International Statement

* A multi-billion dollar steel MNC to take over 4500 acres of land
* A State Government determined to help the company
* 15 Platoons of Armed paramilitary forces
* Three villages that have barricaded themselves in a bid to protect their land

Villagers opposed to POSCO’s steel plant in Jagatsinhpur district of Orissa are now at the receiving end of state violence. Fearful of the consequences of allowing Government surveyors access to their lands, villagers of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Garakuchang have barricaded themselves inside their villages, thereby restricting public access to the proposed project areas.

The sentiment, very clearly, is against the setting up of the giant steel smelter and captive port. However, the State Government egged on by a Prime Minister who has extended his personal blessings to the project is keen to get on with the POSCO project at any cost.

With five days to go before the statutory public hearing – scheduled for 15 April – the Government has deployed fifteen platoons of paramilitary armed to the teeth. On 9 April, paramilitary forces staged a flag-march aimed to intimidate local opposition. The State Administration has chosen to hold the Public Hearing, as a mere formality, at Kuchang – the stronghold of the ruling BJD party.

According to local reports, the area is crawling with paid henchmen and cadre of the ruling party. With the multinational POSCO, the State Government, the paramilitary and the BJD henchmen lined on one side against farmers, fisherfolk and workers opposed to POSCO on the other, the stage is set for a repeat of Nandigram.

Local reports confirm that villagers that have barricaded themselves are prepared to sacrifice themselves to save their lands. By underestimating the
depth of opposition to the POSCO project, the Orissa Government may be committing the same mistake that the CPM did in Nandigram.

We ask the State Government to:

1. Create conditions favourable for hearing the villagers’ concerns by removing paramilitary forces and police from the vicinity of project area.
2. Announce that no project will be located against the wishes of the local people

For details contact:

Akshay Kumar
Yuva Bharat
Plot no. 849/5051
Patia, Bhuvaneshwar 31

email: yuva.bharat@rediffmail.com

Cell: 09937177794 (Ashok/Akshay- speak in hindi)

Update - April 15

Posco hearing draws a blank

DEBABRATA MOHANTY

Kujang, April 15: South Korean steelmaker Posco’s effort to garner public support for its 12-million tonne steel project and a port came cropper this
morning when thousands of villagers opposed to the steel plant boycotted a public hearing that would have paved the way for an environmental approval for the Rs 52,000 crore project.

The few hundred who could make it, though, lambasted the government and the company for not organising it “nearer” the affected site.

The hearing was organised under the Environmental Protection Act to allow a vent to popular objection to the Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment (REIA) report on the first phase of the plant and a port to be set up by the company. The written/oral objections will be sent to the Union ministry of environment and forests for obtaining an environmental clearance.

But the show turned out to be a wet blanket after more than 20,000 people from the three affected gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Gadakujanga and Nuagaon boycotted the hearing organised at Bana Behari High School of Kujanga dubbing it a “farce”.

“For us, it is useless. The hearing should have been held at a place closer to the affected site, not at a place 20 km away. Besides, the notification for was not displayed beforehand as it should have been done,” said Abhay Sahu of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti sitting at his home in Dhinkia, the epicentre of the protest.

Sanjukta Mantri, another villager, echoed Sahu’s sentiments. “It’s needless drama. What is the point of holding the public hearing when the administration is ensuring that few people get to attend it,” she said.

The villagers also seemed to be scared of the heavy security bandobast near their villages since last week. Since morning, when the hearing started, more policemen, armed with metal detectors, started pouring in and those attending the meet were being frisked with metal detectors before being sent to the shamiana, the hub of all activities.

“With more than 70 cases lodged against our people on flimsy charges, did the administration think that we would attend the public hearing? They (the company and the state government) just wanted to get over with it as quickly as possible,” Mantri further said.

The 20-odd people who managed to speak in the hearing said that the project would mean losing their livelihood and increasing pollution. The hearing
abruptly ended when villagers rose to spoke about the pollution that the project may bring. She was stopped from spelling out her fears by a group of “pro-Posco” youths.

Update 23 April 2007

KalingaTimes Correspondent, Bhubaneswar

There is a clear lack of trust on the part of the people in the villages earmarked for the proposed POSCO steel project towards the local authorities since all decisions and processes in the past two years have been based on consultation between the administration, government and the company exclusive of the affected people, according to the report of a four-member independent fact finding team.

“It is clear that the situation is tense in the area if force is used to expedite land acquisition then there is a high possibility of a violent confrontation, ” the report warned.

“In the prevailing situation there is every possibility of a confrontation breaking out; such a confrontation could lead to violence and take the shape of civil war. Every effort should be made by all concerned to prevent such an eventuality in national interest,” the team said in its recommendations.

The fact finding team comprised editor of `Mainstream’ weekly Sumit Chakravartty, Sridevi Panikkar from Delhi Solidarity Group, Bijulal from New Delhi-based Indian Social Institute and Manshi Asher from Pune-based National Centre for Advocacy Studies.

Talking to presspersons, Chakravartty and other members of the team said that the proposed steel plant project of POSCO-India should not come up against the wishes of those adversely affected by it.

A large section of the people in the villages that were to be affected by the proposed steel project were against the setting up of the venture saying that they will lose their livelihood as a fallout of the land acquisition for the project, Chakravartty said.

“Political dialogue on the concerns related to the entire project should be initiated between the people of the concerned villages and the government, in a conducive atmosphere,” they recommended.

As a first step towards building such an atmosphere, police and para-military forces, currently deployed in the surrounding areas, should be withdrawn, the team observed.

Following deployment of additional police a few km away from the project, the people who facing displacement had developed a sense of fear that the authorities use may use force acquire their land by use of force, the team members said.

The team visited Jagatsinghpur on April 20 and 21 and interacted with a cross section on the people, different organisations questioning the project, leaders from various political parties and administration officials in Jagatsinghpur.

The team contacted the POSCO office in Bhubaneswar for a meeting with the concerned officials but did not receive any response.