Anti-Posco protest intensifies in Orissa

The anti-Posco agitation on Saturday intensified with women and children in the forefront even as Orissa government, which had declared the protests as "unlawful", re-deployed police force but it returned for the second day without entering the plant site.

The six-year-old agitation against the setting up of the steel plant, which reached a flashpoint after government of the east Indian state of Orissa tried to acquire land forcibly, on Saturday saw political leaders and civil society activists rushing to the dharna site at Gobindpur to express solidarity with the protesters.

As the villagers, refusing to give away their land for the steel plant, formed a three-tier human barricade at the entry point, 23 platoons of police (about 800 personnel) were re-deployed in the area, official sources said.

Police had been withdrawn from the place on Friday as the district administration of Jagatsinghpur made efforts to persuade the agitators to allow movement of officials in the area for land acquisition work for the project, they said.

READ: The roadblock that hit Posco in Orissa

Communist Party of India (CPI) MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai along with members of CPI-M, Forward Bloc, RJD and SP reached Gobindpur area and sat on a dharna protesting forcible land acquisition by the state government. "The people are being beaten up, threatened and forced to receive cheque as compensation," Tarai alleged.

Jagatsinghpur district Rehabilitation and Resettlement officer Surjit Das, however, termed the MP's allegation as "false and baseless".

"We acquire land of the people who volunteer to give it," Das said, claiming there had been absolutely no use of force so far.

Not ruling out use of police force, Jagatsinghpur SP Devdutt Singh said, "It is unlawful to claim ownership over government's forest land. We will do whatever is lawful."

The administration has declared assembly of protesters at the site as unlawful. "We have been requesting people to cooperate with the government. As they are not ready for talks we will see what best can be done to retrieve government land in their possession," Collector N C Jena said.