Click to play videoBhubaneswar: In a gruesome turn of events on the violence over the proposed POSCO steel plant project in Orissa, a pro-POSCO activist's palm was chopped off and allegedly fed to a dog by anti POSCO agitators in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa.
The situation is very tense at the POSCO site and the police unable to reach there.
Sixty-two-year old man had to pay a heavy price for supporting the proposed South Korean steel plant project in Orissa.
On Wednesday, Natabar Khuntia's palm was allegedly chopped off and fed to a dog by anti-POSCO agitators. He is now lying in hospital.
Victim’s daughter Binati Khuntia says, “The doctor asked me to bring back the chopped off palm of my father so that they can try to operate on it. When I went to the people who attacked my father, they said the palm has been fed to dog."
Back home in his Govindpur village, Natabar's family is shocked and scared. Anti-POSCO agitators have even stalled police attempts to enter the village. Khuntia's family has been under tremendous pressure from the anti-POSCO group.
Son of the victim Nirmal Khuntia says, “We are ready to give our land to POSCO after adequate compensation. But these people are putting pressure on us not to do so. If we do not agree they are attacking us."
However the anti-POSCO group claims that it was the pro-POSCO activists who threw bombs at their meeting site on the day of the incident and burnt a member's farm.
Talking about the incident POSCO pratirodh snagram samiti President Abhaya Sahoo says, "The POSCO and the district administration is instigating this violence by making our own villagers fight against us. They are responsible for such violence."
In the last one-year, pro-and anti-POSCO supporters have clashed as many as eight times.
Three years after an MoU was signed by the Orissa Government, the 12 million tonne steel plant, worth Rs 52 thousand crore, is still stuck in such everyday battles.
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