The anti-Posco movement is gaining steam with Opposition political parties rallying behind the villagers fighting against their forceful eviction.
The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have decided to support the people’s movement against the South Korean steel major’s 12 million tonne steel project at Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district. Eminent social leaders like Swami Angivesh and Medha Patkar have also lent their support to the resistance movement.
The Congress, which had sent a team to the site last week, is going to send another team to study the situation arising out of the police action in the area. Orissa’s Congress unit president Niranjan Patnaik said the government was violating law by forcefully acquiring land for the Posco project. He said the Congress would oppose any use of force by the state government against the protesting villagers.
Similarly, the BJP has announced that a team headed by former minister Bimbadhar Kuanra would visit the site in a day or two to study the situation there. “We would decide our future course of action on the issue of Posco project after we get the team’s report,” said BJP spokesperson Ashok Sahu.
The two prominent Opposition political parties of the state, however, clarified that they would not join the CPI, CPI(M), Forward Bloc, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal in their struggle against the Posco project.
Eminent social activist Swami Agnivesh, who arrived at Bhubaneswar on Friday, said a nation-wide agitation would be organised against the forceful land acquisition in Jagatsinghpur. Agnivesh is travelling to Paradip to meet the villagers facing eviction. Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar is expected to come to Orissa in a day or two to support the resistance movement.
The Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organisation that is spearheading the resistance movement, has called a 24-hour bandh on Friday.
The district administration, meanwhile, cancelled its land acquisition programme on Friday due to heavy rain. Sources in the district administration, however, said the acquisition process would be resumed from Saturday.