Tension prevailed on Tuesday at the proposed Posco project site near port town Paradip as eight platoons of armed police conducted flag march apparently to create a fear psychosis among the local people ahead of the survey work at Dhinkia and Nuagoan panchayats.
Dhinkia and Nuagaon are two of the three panchayats where the 12-million-tonne plant is proposed to come up with an investment of Rs 52,000 crore. Meanwhile, six political parties — CPI, CPM, Forward Block, Samajwadi Party, Forward Bloc and Rashtriya Janata Dal — on Tuesday made a representation to the chief minister Naveen Patnaik urging him not to use force against the local people to evict them. “Posco issue is completely a political one. The state government should find a political solution to it. Instead of suppressing the voice of the local people, it must pay patient listening to their grievances,” the memorandum submitted to the chief minister said.
The chief minister, while responding the six-party memorandum, said “the government will examine their suggestions.” Reports from the project site said the situation was extremely volatile in the evening as the local people led by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti leader Abhaya Sahoo vowed not to give an inch of land to the South Korean steel major. “We have decided not allow the surveyors to enter the project site. This is our native land. No government or any company has got any right to evict us from here,” Mr Sahoo said. He announced that — “if required, the local people would lay down their lives to save their birthplace.”