Mass fasting to protest POSCO steel project in Orissa

Bhubaneswar,Sep 25 (UNI) After a week long dharna before the Raj Bhawan and the Assembly, the activists of Rastriya Yuva Sangathan (RYS) and Navanirman Samitee(NS) today resorted to mass hunger strike in protest against the mega steel plant by South Korea steel major POSCO.

The RYS and NS activists have begun a day long dharna before the Raj Bhawan on September 18 and then sat on dharna before the Assembly urging Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to convene an open debate on the project.

They also demanded that the MoU signed by the state government with the POSCO for setting up of a 12 MTPA steel project with an investment of Rs.51,000 crores, the largest FDI in the country, be cancelled in the greater interest of the people.

Peeved over the Chief Minister's 'apathetic' attitude towards their demand for an open debate, the activists today decided to join a mass fasting to put pressure on the Chief Minister to concede their demand.

NS Coordinator Bichitra Biswal in a statement here said the mass hunger strike would continue till the Chief Minister agreed for an open debate on the issue and cancel the MoU with the POSCO.

Contrary to the POSCO's clarification that the steel project would displace only 400 families after the reduction of land required for the project,the anti POSCO activists claimed that the mega project would displace 30,000 population and affect the livelihood of nearly one lakh farmers as the Company would draw water from Mahanadi river for the project posing a serious threat to the crop production in the region.

This apart, the sanction of SEZ status and construction of a private port by the POSCO would threaten the state's economy while the consumption of huge iron ore by the company over a period of thirty years would lead to depletion of the natural resources.

Mr Biswal said several other social organisations in the state have also joined the mass fasting today to express their solidarity.

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