Click to play videoNew Delhi: CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhatacharya at Dhinkia, one of the eight villages at the proposed POSCO steel plant site in Jagatsinghpur, Orissa. Bhattacharya's Hindi speech might have been lost in translation to his Oriya listeners, but his message was clear.
Bhatacharya says, “We are against SEZ and where ever in India the problem exists we extend our support. The people here and we are against POSCO and like in Nandigram here too we will win."
But while Bhattacharya's words were warmly received in Dhinkia, in neighbouring Nuagaon village, where POSCO conducts mobile health camps, people are all for the steel plant.
Grampanchyat coordinator of POSCO Nalini Kanta Behera says, “90 per cent people here take the service of the health camp of POSCO. Even many people who oppose the steel plant come and take medicine from the camp."
Running the health camps hasn't been easy. Just days after three POSCO executives were taken hostage by agitating villagers, the company was told to stop the camp.
Villagers are divided on the health camp issue, and with political leaders and a heavy police presence in the area, things could get ugly quickly. POSCO on its part is putting up a brave face.
“When there are any such mega projects, such small hurdles do come. We are not upset by it, but we will go ahead with our project with more seriousness," POSCO-India Spokesman Sashanka Patnaik says.
But POSCO's project has already been delayed. The construction of the plant was scheduled to begin in April, but the acquisition of the 4000 odd acres isn't complete yet. Clearly the Rs 51,000 crore steel plant isn't out of the woods by a long way.
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