Left demands pulling out of police from POSCO site

KalingaTimes Correspondent Bhubaneswar , Dec 2: Orissa units of four prominent Left parties on Sunday demanded immediate withdrawal of police from the area earmarked for the proposed POSCO steel project in Jagatsinghpur district. Addressing a press conference here, senior leaders of CPI(M), CPI, Forward Block and CPI(M-L) alleged that the Naveen Patnaik Government was now trying its best to crush the agitation by the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti by using police and anti-social elements.

A total of 16 platoons of police were deployed in the area to `terrorise' the villagers opposing acquisition of their land for the POSCO steel project, they said. The people of Dhinkia gram panchayat, who were peacefully opposing the government's attempt to hand over of their land to POSCO-India, have been virtually kept under house arrest with police restricting their movement from all sides, CPI leader Dibakar Nayak said. Condemning the Thursday's attack on the Sangram Samiti activists at Balitutha locality, Nayak announced the launch of a statewide to condemn the attack on anti-POSCO activists and the attempts of the authorities to acquire fertile land for the POSCO steel project. CPI(M) leader Subhas Singh said those who hurled bombs on the peaceful agitators at Balitutha were not supporters of the steel project, but anti-socials and people brought from far off places. The government was trying to create a divide among the people in the region to acquire land for the project, he said. The Left leaders demanded that the government should convene a meeting of all political and the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti to resolve the controversy over the POSCO project. Questioning the administration for not arresting those who attacked the anti-POSCO activists on Thursday, the leaders expressed apprehension that the anti-POSCO activists could be attacked again by the so-called supporters of the steel project. Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar district unit of the CPI(M) staged a road block agitation at Jayadev Vihar locality of the Capital city to oppose the attack on the anti-POSCO activists. http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news1/20071202-left-demands.htm