Lock on Posco land acquisition by Manoj Kar

Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district administration today indefinitely put on hold the land acquisition process for the 12-million-tonne Posco steel plant.

“The dismantling of betel vineyards for land acquisition in Dhinkia gram panchayat has been suspended till further instructions. However, officials have gone ahead with other work such as clearing the fruit-bearing trees from the project villages in two other gram panchayats,” said Paradip additional district magistrate Saroj Kanta Choudhury.

On the other hand, an official inquiry into the use of children in the anti-Posco movement has hauled up the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS), the anti-plant outfit, for violation of child rights.

“Children did not turn up voluntarily. Rather they were prompted by the Samity leaders. We have recorded the statement of some sections of parents. A section of children told us that the PPSS leaders forced our parents to join them in the movement,” said members of the inquiry committee.

“The civil society groups also encouraged such blatant misuse of child rights as the children were made to lie on hot and sandy ground to form a human barricade against the land acquisition,” said Tilottama Das, a member of the district child welfare committee.

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