Click to play videoJagatsinghpur (Orissa): Almost two years after South Korean steel giant POSCO signed an MoU with the Orissa Government, battlelines to acquire land for the proposed 12 million tonne steel plant have been drawn.
"If the Central Government, Orissa government and the people of Orissa support us then we won't withdraw the project from Orissa,” says CMD, POSCO-India, Soung-Sik Cho.
Soung-Sik Cho’s words seemed to have pressed the panic button for Orissa government, which is now looking set to act against the locals opposing the project.
At least 12 platoons of police have been deployed near the POSCO's 51 thousand crore worth proposed steel plant site in Jagatsinghpur, and Police stations have been piled with stocks of arms and ammunition.
"These people are breaking the law, we have made them understand through dialogues and if they still do not listen we are ready to take strong action against them,” says SP, Jagatsinghpur, Y K Jethwa.
Meanwhile, at POSCO's proposed site, villagers are preparing strategies to protest the acquisition of their land. Bamboo fences have been erected at village entry points and farmers are gearing up for a confrontation with the government.
"We are ready to fight till the last drop of our blood. And for any situation like this the Orissa government will be fully responsible,” says chairman, POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, Abhaya Sahoo.
The steel plant will displace 450 families in eight villages with highly fertile agricultural lands. Many of them dependent on betel plantations for a livelihood now fear their loss.
So while the Chief Minister of Orissa has always maintained that the would deal with the rehabilitation and the resettlement issues in the most humane manner but the heavy deployment of police forces at POSCO's site suggest that he too is running out of patience.
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