The
Orissa government on Saturday deferred land acquisition for the proposed
mega steel project of Posco till Monday, as pressure mounted on it for
withdrawal of armed policemen from three gram panchayats in
Jagatsinghpur district.
The authorities announced the postponement owing to bad weather,
hours before social activist Swami Agnivesh visited Govindpur to express
solidarity with the agitating villagers who have formed a human
barricade at the entry point to their village, with children and women
at the vanguard.
Addressing the villagers who have been opposing the land acquisition
and demanding the shifting of the project to any other location, Swami
Agnivesh said the impasse could be ended through talks between the State
government and the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. He urged Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik to visit the villages and talk to the people who
opposed the project to save their land and sources of livelihood.
Forcible land acquisition should be stopped forthwith.
Expressing concern at the Centre’s clearance for Posco to set up a
captive port close to the site chosen for the steel plant, the Swami
said he would take up the controversy with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh.
A team of senior Congress leaders of the State also visited Govindpur
to express solidarity with the agitators. They also condemned forcible
land acquisition.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and many prominent anti-displacement activists will visit Govindpur over the next few days.
In Bhubaneswar, many activists took part in a dharna during the day
against the forcible land acquisition. Activists of the Socialist Unity
Centre of India (Communist) staged a demonstration demanding that the
land acquisition by use of force be halted immediately.
The State government has been facing growing criticism as it is going
ahead with the exercise though it was not able to renew the memorandum
of understanding signed with Posco in June 2005, which expired in June
last year.