BHUBANESWAR: With the growing opposition to the Posco project near Paradip, the Congress has decided to launch a Statewide campaign to make people aware of its stand on the project. A senior Congress leader alleged that the BJD is trying to create an impression that the Centre is supporting the project as it is the largest single foreign direct investment (FDI) of the country. Sources in the OPCC, however, maintained that the Centre did not want the project to be set up by forcibly evicting people from their land. Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh had also asked the State Government not to forcibly acquire land for the project. A high-level Congress team, including Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh, former Youth Congress president Pradip Majhi, former MLAs Umesh Swain and Bijay Nayak visited the Posco project site to express their solidarity with the protesting people. The team demanded Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s visit to the project site and discuss the problem with people. The picture will be clear if the Chief Minister visited the proposed site and gave a patient hearing to the people, a senior Congress leader said and expressed his surprise over the fact that he is yet to do so after so many years. The State Government and the South Korean steel major Posco had signed an MoU on June 22, 2005, to set up 12 million tonne capacity project at a cost of ` 52,000 crore near Paradip. The MoU is yet to be renewed even though it lapsed last year. The Posco project and the State Government bungling the land acquisition process will be one of the main issues to be raised by the Opposition in the Monsoon Session of the Assembly. The party will demand withdrawal of forces from Dhinkia and starting a dialogue to resolve the issue. Even though the district administration has evinced interest to resolve the issue through dialogue with the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), it has not been successful so far.
Comments
0 comment