BHUBANESWAR - In a move to sabotage the resistance towards land acquisition for POSCO project, Government of Odisha has deployed 26 platoons of police. The Odisha police have called in heavy reinforcements and are moving into positions all evening around the villages of Dhinkia and Gobindpur in Jagatsinghpur District of Odisha state. These villages form the epicenter of over 6 years of successful peaceful resistance to the scandalous POSCO steel-mining-power-port project – India’s biggest FDI. This project is being pushed through by Odisha and Indian Governments in blatant violation of fundamental rights and a variety of environmental and economic laws of India.
Speaking to newzfirst.com, Prashant Paikray, Spokesperson of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi (PPSS), said, “We three thousand and odd people have confronted police force with four layers of human chain surrounding beetle vines; it comprise children, women, elders and young men. Armed Police have imposed section 144 and have warned the villagers to vacate or to face the police action. But we will not...” “An alarming aspect of such abuse of police powers is that over 26 platoons of police have been mobilized around these villages over the past two weeks. Such heavy police presence betrays the Odisha Government's claims that the acquisition of land for the project is peaceful.” According to statement issued by PPSS, The current Senior Police Officer in charge of the operation is the former Superintendent of Police of Kalinganagar, who had ordered firing on villagers protesting the Tata Steel plant, killing many tribals and injuring scores more. Under this officer's ruthless leadership, the Odisha police have effectively declared an emergency on the resisting villages, completely halting normal life over the past several weeks. It is more than likely now that a needless carnage will result because of the strong arm tactics of the police. Last month Jairam Ramesh-led Environment Ministry gave the go-ahead to the Korean steel giant to build the steel plant, but the farmers are still agitating against land acquisition. Earlier, to obtain the clearance from environment ministry, Government of Odisha had sent ‘categorical’ assurance to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, claiming that no one in the proposed POSCO project area is eligible under the Forest Rights Act. The Ministry's request for a "categorical assurance" had come after two Committees had already exposed that the Government of Odisha had lied on this matter. Brutal police tactics, criminal intimidation and illegal methods are being employed here to wrest from these peacefully protesting villagers 4000 acres of extraordinarily fertile agricultural and forest land to establish the single largest industrial foreign investment conceived in recent times. The project involves the establishment of a mega steel plant (12 MTPA), backed by a massive coal-fired thermal power plant (400 MW expandable to 1,100 MW), and a major captive port for handling the world's largest cargo ships (Capsize, usually more than a quarter km. in length). The project involves further land acquisition for a captive iron ore mine requiring 6,100 acres of predominantly forest land in Khandadhar Hills of Sundergarh district and at least 2,000 acres more for a massive gated township to house POSCO employees. In addition, there would be dedicated water, road and rail linkages that will further exacerbate the displacement and environmental destruction caused by the project. The statement of Samiti has also requested concerned citizens and authorities for earliest attention to this impending disaster. http://www.newzfirst.com/web/guest/full-story/-/asset_publisher/Qd8l/content/posco-resistance-intensifies-as-forceful-land-acquisition-begins?redirect=%2Fweb%2Fguest%2Fhome -- Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal +919820749204 skype-lawyercumactivist * * *The UID project i**s going to do almost exactly the same thing which the predecessors of Hitler did, else how is it that Germany always had the lists of Jewish names even prior to the arrival of the Nazis? The Nazis got these lists with the help of IBM which was in the 'census' business that included racial census that entailed not only count the Jews but also identifying them. At the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is an exhibit of an IBM Hollerith D-11 card sorting machine that was responsible for organising the census of 1933 that first identified the Jews.* * * *http://saynotoaadhaar.blogspot.com/* *http://aadhararticles.blogspot.com/* *http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_162987527061902&ap=1*<http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_162987527061902&ap=1> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to humanrights-movement@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to humanrights-movement+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
