The Orissa police staged a flag march in the proposed POSCO site on Saturday. The Jagatsinghpur district administration is reported to be all set to conduct the socio-economic survey in the area on Saturday despite promises to the contrary Patnaik made to representatives of six opposition parties. The chief minister is reported to have agreed to hold direct talks with PPSS Sunday afternoon.
Orissa Police stage flag march in proposed POSCO area
Saturday, June 12, 2010

Paradip: The police on Thursday staged a flag-march from Nuagaon to Govindpur Hanuman Temple for restarting the survey work in the proposed Posco area. Seven armed platoons of police staged the flag marched.

However, there was no untoward incident or any opposition by villagers or anti-Posco project activists, reports said.

But after the flag march Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samtiti (PPSS) president gathered around 1,000 people at Badadhihamatha and held a meeting to oppose the survey work at Govindpur village at any cost.

School students and women will be in the front line to oppose the survey. A woman activist Sabita Swain said that when the state government wants to solve the problems by mutual discussion at that time the administration is flexing its muscles to scare the locals.

PPSS general secretary and Dhinkia gram panchayat sarpanch Sishir Mohapatra said that the state government does not have any positive attitude in favour of the Odia people.

Contacted, PPSS president Abhaya Sahoo said that the Samiti will protect its motherland and birthplace at any cost and won’t allow the survey team to enter Govindpur village.

School students, women and senior citizens will oppose the survey team. The situation is going to very critical as the chief minister has called an all-party meeting to discuss about Posco, but the real situation and the basic problem have not been ascertained till today.

After five years the CM wants a discussion only. He also said that the policemen are beating and firing on our people on the directions of the democratic government for a foreign company.

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Posco survey at trouble-torn Gobindpur to start tomorrow
BS Reporter | 2010-06-12 01:21:00

The district administration of Jagatsinghpur has made elaborate arrangements to resume socio-economic survey for the Posco project in the trouble torn Gobindpur village on Saturday.

Security has been beefed up and ten platoons of armed forces have been deployed at Gobindpur and Nuagaon to conduct this survey peacefully.

When contacted by Business Standard, the district rehabilitation officer Surjeet Dash said, “The administration has planned to conduct the survey on Saturday. All preparations have been completed and the survey teams have been alerted to start survey from Saturday morning.”

The administration has completed the Posco survey at Gadkujang and Nuagaon panchayats barring few families due to protests of the villagers. The survey teams conducted their socio-economic, forest and horticulture survey at Nuagaon on June 4 but failed to conduct it in Gobdinpur due to protests. Meanwhile, 80-100 harijan families of Gobindpur village met district collector Narayan Jena and requested him to conduct survey in their village.

After getting support from a few villagers, the administration chalked out strategies to undertake the exercise in this village. Earlier, the police had staged flag-marches from Nuagaon to Gobindpur on two occasions. On the other hand, Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organization spearheading the anti-Posco agitation in the state, has decided to oppose the survey work in Gobindpur village at any cost.

PPSS has formed a ‘Sangharsh Bahini’ with school students and women. The anti-Posco leaders informed that villagers including women and children are sitting at the entry gate of Gobindpur village to restrict the entry of police and survey teams.

PPSS general secretary and sarpanch, Sisir Mohapatra said, “Discussions between Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik and the six opposition political parties on Posco related issues would be meaningless because the state government is going all out to back the Posco project.

The elaborate preparation being made to conduct the survey by the district administration on Saturday has demonstrated that the outcome of discussions between the Chief Minister and the Left parties would be a failure.”

The villagers are committed to protect their land and livelihood at any cost and won’t allow the survey team to enter Gobindpur village, he added.

Meanwhile, police has registered cases against around 800 villagers of Gobindpur for their alleged involvement in incidents of violence against the Posco survey. Police is trying to nab these accused villagers.

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Orissa CM meets left parties’ delegation, agreed to hold direct talks with anti-POSCO activists
Friday, June 11, 2010

Report by Dipti Ranjan Kanungo; Bhubaneswar: Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today meets delegation of six parties comprising CPI, CPI(M), Forward Block, RJD, SJP and JMM on Friday evening. CM agreed to hold direct talks with POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) representatives on Sunday afternoon.

The state government also decided to stop the ongoing socio-economic and forest land survey work at the proposed plant site villages near Paradip pending discussion with the PPSS activists.

The Chief Minister has accepted the demand of the six parties and agreed to have direct discussion with the representatives of PPSS and also promised not to conduct survey work and keep police force away from the villages till the discussion.

CPI-backed PPSS is spearheading agitation against the South Korean steel major since it inked an MoU with the state government on June 22, 2005 for setting up a 12mtpa steel mill at an investment of Rs 52,000 crore.

This was for the first time that chief minister met a delegation of different political parties comprising CPI, CPI (M), RJD, Forward Bloc, SJP and JMM on the issue.

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BUSINESS_STANDARD
Patnaik to meet Posco opponents on Sunday

BS Reporter | 2010-06-12 01:20:00

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today said he would hold direct talks with the opponents of a steel plant that Korean steel major Posco proposes to set up in the state. The meeting will be held in the chief minister’s office on Sunday afternoon.

The Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) has been spearheading the protests against the 12-million-tonne project of Posco for the last five years.

“I have agreed to meet PPSS members on Sunday. There was no proposal to shift the site of the Posco project during the discussion,” Patnaik said, following his meeting with the leaders of six political parties — CPI, CPI(M), Forward Bloc, Samajwadi Party, RJD and JMM — in the state secretariat this evening.

All the six parties are sympathisers of PPSS, whose leader Abhay Sahu is a state secretariat member of the CPI.

Patnaik’s announcement comes at a time when the state government needs to renew the memorandum of understanding (MoU) it had signed with Posco’s Indian subsidiary on June 22, 2005, as the term of the pact is coming to end this month.

There was more ‘desperation’ behind the decision, as the chief minister had assured South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who had visited India in January, that the state government would provide land to the steel major in six months.

Sunday’s meeting is also significant as it will be the first time Patnaik will come face to face with the anti-Posco brigade, which has been opposing land acquisition for the plant in Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang panchayats of Jagatsinghpur district.

The chief minister never visited the plant site and held direct talks with the opponents to work out a solution though there had been demands from various quarters.

Dibakar Nayak, the state unit secretary of CPI, said: “We demanded that the chief minister should talk directly to the PPSS leaders on issues relating to the Posco project and he has accepted our proposal.”

He added, “We have urged the chief minister that no police force should enter the Posco site and the on-going socio-economic survey of the project should be suspended till he talks to the PPSS members.”

Related posts:

1. Police enter villages opposed to POSCO project
2. Orissa administration to begin survey in proposed POSCO plant area within week
3. URGENT: Police gears up for yet another onslaught despite FRA Committee in proposed POSCO site