From: *Arnab Sen* <[email protected]>
As many of you are aware, the Korean Steel giant, POSCO (Pohang Steel) is touted to be moving forward with its plans building a steel mill in Jagatsingpura in north-east Orissa. The mill, also involves mining at Keonjhar and a new port just north of Paradip. In all, over 30 villages are targets for forced displacement and have been in continuous protest in one form or the other for the last two years or more under the leadership of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. Currently the govt of Orissa has issued a Feb 10th deadline on filing for compensation and there has been a rapid build of police forces over the last 48 hours. A PPSS dharana is in its second week now and the threat of an attack on the people and forced entry into the lands and occupation by govt forces looms large. Please call the Chief Minister Orissa - Naveen Panaik and the Chief Sect Environments and Forest Govt of Orissa, Mr U N Behara ASAP. Ask them to immediately stop all plans of forced occupation of� land and instead seek the immediate implementation of the Forest Rights Act. Remind them that the project will effect both adivasis and non adivasis, a delicate eco system with a rumenurative betel leaf cultivation system and a unified movement against POSCO. We would like to hear the responses and so write back to us�with a brief note on the response. Attached below is a Press Release from PPSS and a brief article that appeared in the mainstream press three days ago. ONCE AGAIN, Please make ur calls ASAP. Best time to cal would be 10 30 Pm -- 7 AM. CALL: Naveen Patnaik Cm, Orissa Tel. No.(O) 011 91 674 2531100,011 91 674 2535100, 011 91 674 2531500, Epbax 2163� Tel. No.(R) 011 91 674 2590299, 011 91 674 2591099, 011 91 674 2590844, 011 91 674 2591100, CALL: U N Behara Principal Sect Environment and Forests Phone: 011 91 674 2595503 / 011 91 674 2536822 ------------------ PRESS RELEASE: ������ URGENT! Fear of attack on Anti-POSCO movement Balitutha, Orissa: The threat of state and company sponsored violence looms large over hundreds of farmers sitting on an indefinite dharna at Balitutha in Jagatsinghpur district against the Orissa government�s pet POSCO steel project. Since 26 January this year the farmers have been carrying out their peaceful protest against fresh attempts by the Naveen Patnaik regime to acquire their land on behalf of the South Korean steel corporation. �We are expecting police action any time soon including an attack on our leader Abhay Sahoo by goons hired by the company,� said a spokesperson of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi (PPSS), which has spearheaded the agitation against the project for the past five years. Over 30,000 farmers are expected to lose their lands and livelihood if the US$12 billion project, billed as India�s largest Foreign Direct Investment, is implemented. POSCO signed an MoU with the Orissa government in mid-2005, for the setting up of an integrated steel and power plant, a private port and mining of over 600 million tonnes of Orissa�s high grade iron ore. For the steel and power plants alone the project needs around 4004 acres, of which 3566 acres is government owned forest and revenue land but 438 acres belongs to local farmers who are refusing to part with it. The PPSS apprehends that over 25 platoons of police are being brought in to surround the farmers sitting on dharna at Balitutha, which is at the entrance to the land that belongs to them. As per a letter issued by the Collector of Jagatsinghpur District on January 19 this year Palli Sabhas in the project area have been asked to obtain approval of local bodies about the �diversion of their lands under forest category to POSCO� by February 10th. On February 3 however, at a meeting of Palli Sabha of Nuagaon village all the 700 participants unanimously disapproved of the move. In a resolution passed at the Palli Sabha they said� that such lands were being used by people for cultivation and housing since last 300 years and in no case they can be handed over to POSCO.� Other Palli Sabhas in the area are expected to pass similar resolutions. PPSS activists say, faced with the firm opposition to the POSCO project and land acquisition the Orissa adminstration is getting desperate and plans to remove the farmers by force. On February 1 the state government issued a notice in various newspapers that if the people fail to file� their claims for compensation within fifteen days, they will get nothing at all. The PPSS dharna has found support around the country with leaders of trade unions and people�s movements visiting the protestors sitting on dharna. Those participating in the dharna include leaders of leaders of the All India Trade Union Congress from different states� and the Orissa Bidi Workers� and Domestic Workers Associations. For further information contact: Prashant Paikray, spokesperson, PPSS at Ph: (0) 9437571547. ---------------- Ground Zero http://orissaconcerns.net/2010/02/ground-zero/ Dilip Bisoi Financial Express Posted online: Feb 07, 2010 at 1959 hrs >From Bhubaneswar, it takes us five hours to reach Patna village, at the heart of Posco-India�s planned 12-million tonne steel plant. We find children playing with pebbles, but they aren�t at an innocuous game�they arrange tiny stones across the road when they see an approaching vehicle, imitating elders who routinely put up road blockades or gates to prevent entry of unknown vehicles. Patna falls within the core area of the proposed 4,004 acre plant site, and villagers, who are against the project, keep round-the-clock vigil on the movement of outsiders. Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik may have assured South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak that the land acquisition process for the $12-billion plant in Orissa�s Jagatsinghpur district will be speeded up, but at Ground Zero, things don�t look so easy. Posco-India still doesn�t have an inch of land, though the final forest clearance came through in December, on the eve of Lee�s visit to India as chief guest for Republic Day. Of the 4,004 acres identified for the project, 2,958.79 acres is forestland. He was keen to visit the Posco site, but was told the ground situation wasn�t conducive. There�s stiff resistance to the project from locals, but Posco-India and the Orissa government is hoping to win over the opposition with the promise of a better rehabilitation and resettlement policy. �The resettlement and rehabilitation package of Posco-India for the plant at Jagatsinghpur is in line with the Orissa government�s R&R Rules 2006, which is regarded as one of the best R&R policies in the country,� says Posco-India General Manager (external relations) Simanta Mohanty. �We are confident that everybody in our project area will be at an advantage with our package. Our package is specially oriented towards landless labour and we have made special provisions for employment of those needing jobs. We are compensating those who have planted betel vines on government land and we are sure they will see that we are giving them a fair deal,� he adds. Over the past three months, the Patnaik government, too, has given a push to the land acquisition process, but villagers will need a lot of convincing before they give up their land. In neighbouring Govindpur, children play cricket, imagining the ball to be Posco-India. Every time a batsman hits the ball hard, a cheer goes up. The villagers of Govindpur are quite militant in their opposition to the project, considered to be the country�s largest FDI. Four years of agitation have changed the lives of villagers living in Posco�s proposed site. For villagers, guarding the gates has become a daily chore. All their discussions revolve around the Posco project. Womenfolk do their household work, but with an eye on the main street for Posco executives or government officials. Posco officials are often detained for a few hours by villagers. The two villages of Govindpur and Dhinkia are at the heart of the site and this is where the dictates of the Posco Pratirodha Sangaram Samiti (PPSS), the organisation that is spearheading the anti-project movement, runs. PPSS has virtually converted the 4,004 acres into a fort, with 17 gates plugging all the roads to the core area. No gates open without the permission of PPSS. The PPSS chief, Abhaya Sahoo, guards the main gate at Balitutha, the entry point to the Posco site. The PPSS network is quite strong. When government officials or Posco company executives start from Bhubaneswar for Jagatsinghpur, Sahoo gets the information, and villagers are alerted immediately. With the forest clearance coming through, and Lee�s visit putting the project onto the fast track, the Jagatsinghpur Collector has put out ads asking betel vine owners to claim compensation and give up the land. Interestingly, the 4,004 acres is part of a vast stretch of land that was added to the mainland when the sea receded, so the landscape is dotted with huge sand mounds. The government says the reclaimed land is government land but people have lived here for generations. Over the years, the forests too have disappeared�first the mangroves and then the casuarina plantations, destroyed by a super cyclone. Now, villagers grow betel vines and cashew on the high lands and have converted the low laying areas to paddy fields. �The paddy field gives us rice for the whole year and the betel vines the cash to buy other items,� says Ramesh Mohanty. �We will not allow the Posco project to come up on this site,� says PPSS chief Abhaya Sahoo. �No rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy is acceptable to us,� he points out. When you argue that Posco-India has promised to give a better package than the R&R package announced by the state government, Dhinkia sarpanch Sisira Mohapatra, who is also the general secretary of PPSS, shows you the R&R package of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for the oustees of Paradip Refinery project. A vacant plot of seven acres, earmarked with concrete pillars outside village Dhinka, is the so-called rehabilitation colony. The abandoned, dilapidated facility centre (hospitals, schools and temples) isn�t assuring villagers. �We have seen the R&R package of a public sector company. How do we trust a foreign private company?� Mohapatra shoots back. The stories of promises not kept and the success of people�s movements like the anti-missile test range agitation of Baliapal have kept the resistance against Posco alive. But the Orissa government too has made a heap of promises to Posco-India which it will find very difficult to walk away from. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
