----- Forwarded Message ----- From: alter nate <[email protected]> To: prashantpaikray <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, 19 September 2011, 19:17 Subject: Update from POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti as on 19th September 2011. Dear Friends, Over twenty seven lakh people in Orissa are continuing to reel under the impact of devastating floods. According to the government sources, the death toll in the deluge mounted to 38, 16 people have gone missing in floods and many are homeless. Though water level is continuing to recede still villages of Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Cuttack, Kendrapara continue to remain marooned. Even the villages of Kujang block here are facing a tough time. Villagers are asking for immediate relief, provision of government work and payment of wages in a transparent manner. At this high time, instead of providing relief materials to the villagers, the district administration has resumed the felling rich forest category trees for the establishment of POSCO. They include thick casuarina trees, which are natural shield against the cyclones. In 1999, when the super cyclone struck there was not a single casualty from the villages here with the trees protecting the people from the killer winds. With the tree felling the vulnerability of people to killer cyclones has increased. People are now scared as to who will save them incase of cyclone whch is quite reccuent in our area. More than 60,000 trees have already been cut down and nearly six lakh more trees are to go. Against this mindless tree cutting exercise, people came to protect trees but the police thrashed them away. People are protesting against carrying out the project work which is going on ‘without people’s consent’. On 9th of September, the police has arrested seven villagers for erecting of bamboo gates at Nuagaon and Gadakujang to prevent entry of POSCO and IDCO officials. The irony is that, the Revenue and Disaster management minister Surya Naryan Patra is making a statement in the media that "This is no complaint from my disaster management department about any threat of disaster due to cutting off of the trees," The Paradip additional district magistrate Surjeet Das is making a propaganda that "Work at the proposed Posco site was continuing smoothly. There is no tension in the area and no police force had been deployed,". You may well understand the hurry with which the administration is going ahead with the massive tree cutting exercise for POSCO projects when villagers are facing a tough time due to the flood. This is also when two PILs are being heard in the High Court on private and forest land acquisition for POSCO project. It may be reminded that the MoU between the company and the government has already expired before more a year. Meanwhile, in anticipation of forcible removal from our land, our villagers are continuing the dharana at Govindpur village and maintaining strict vigil in the area. We are requesting all of you to protest this callous and insensitive attitude of state administration of using force to crush the democratic movements and cutting the massive trees by inviting impending environment disaster. We shall inform you the further developments here. Kindly circulate this mail widely. In Solidarity, Prashant Paikaray Spokesperson, POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti Mobile no – 09437571547 E -Mail- [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send 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/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
