Bhubaneswar, March 1 (Odisha.in) POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) on Tuesday announced to hold a massive rally on March 13 at Dhinkia in Jagatsinghpur district to protest the South Korean steel major POSCO's project in Orissa.
The rally will be attended by leaders of various political parties, and organizations who are opposed to the displacements, PPSS spokes person Prasant Paikray told ‘the odisha.in’. Leaders of political parties including Congress, NCP, RJD, CPI, and CPI-M attended a state level one-day protest convention here on Tuesday and announced their support to us, he said.
PPSS has been spearheading the movement against the project in the district of Jagatsinghpur since the Orissa government singed a pact with company on 22, June 2005.The $12 billion project-the biggest foreign direct investment in the country, has received conditional approval from central environment ministry in January this year.
The 12 million-tonne-capacity plant which was to be built near the port town of Paradip, 100 kms from here, in three phases by 2016 has already faced years of delay due to local protest who do not want to give up land saying that it will ruin their agriculture based livelihood.
Paikray said his organizations will intensify the agitation further by organizing rallies across the state. “We will also soon organize a massive rally at New Delhi” he said adding that the date has however been not finalized yet.
“Displacement is not a local issue; it is a major state and national issue. We expect people from all walks of life will join us in this fight” he said.PPSS has been protesting the project- the biggest Foreign Direct Investment in the country, erecting wooden gates and barricades in more then eight places in the site to prevent company and government officials from entering. Separately a senior state official said the government is likely to constitute an expert panel soon to begin the process of project work in the area.
Odisha.in
