Five political parties — CPI, CPI (M), Forward Bloc, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party — on Thursday launched an indefinite dharna here in the state capital demanding withdrawal of security forces from Dhinkia, the proposed Posco steel project site near Paradip in Orissa.
The dharna will continue until “the last policeman deployed in the area was called back to the barrack,” declared the participating leaders. The Left parties and its allies — through their continuous protest rallies in the project as well as the state and national capitals — have strategically managed to refrain the Naveen Patnaik government from using force against the local villagers to acquire their land.
Justifying the joint-dharna programme, CPI state general secretary Dibakar Nayak said deployment of 30 platoons of armed police in the area was flagrant violation of human rights and displayed the colonial mindset of the chief minister Naveen Patnaik.