The Orissa government, after successfully evicting tribal residents from Kalinga Nagar industrial estate in Jajpur district by use of force, on Saturday made a similar attempt to turn out local people residing in the proposed Posco steel project site at Paradip, nearly 130 km from here.
According to reports, at least 20 platoons of armed police who were camping at Kujanga area Thursday tried to force enter the project area even as the local people vehemently opposed them. As the situation turned violent, the police fired teargas shells and rubber bullets at the agitating villagers. The locals, in retaliation, allegedly pelted stones and hurled crude bombs at the police. At least 25 people from both sides were injured in the clash.
According to eyewitnesses, the trouble started at around 9 am when the security personnel, as per the government, tried to cross the lakshman rekha (boundary line) drawn up by the CPI-backed Posco Pratirodh Sangaram Samiti (PPSS) at Balituth to reach the project site.
Over 1,000 people, most of them women and children, blockaded the road by putting big stones on it and started shouting slogans against the government. Although the police asked them to disperse, they did not move, prompting the former to fire teargas shells.
As the news of the police action reached Bhubaneswar, Congress leader Umesh Chandra Swain rushed to spot. He was, however, arrested on the way.
Earlier on Friday night, the police took into custody Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha member Bibhu Prasad Tarai.
Mr Tarai is detained at circuit house, Jagatsinghpur.
Following the incident, the administration has clamped prohibitory orders in the project site. The police action comes as a part of Orissa government’s efforts to begin forest survey and land acquisition at the plant site. “No one should indulge in violence,” chief minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters in Bhubaneswar.