Tension in Bastar over Tata steel project

Jagdalpur, Feb 28 (UNI) Tension prevailed in Bastar area of Chhattisgarh today as several hundred tribals, armed with bows and arrows, assembled on the Jagdalpur -Chitrakote road near village Takraguda, 23 Km from here, to protesting the acquisition of land for the Rs 10,000 crore steel plant of the Tata group.

The local tribals were agitated over yesterday's incident when the police used force to disperse a crowd which indulged in heavy stone throwing, injuring about 50 people, including an Additional Superintendent of Police.

The agitators said eight of the injured villagers, including two who were critically injured, could not be taken to hospital for treatment as the police had threatened to arrest them once they reached the district headquarters.

Meanwhile, official sources claimed that a close vigil was being maintained in the area and security arrangements had been tightened to avert any untoward incident.

Trouble began in ten villages of Lohandiguda block yesterday after a survey team, comprising revenue and other officials, paid a visit there in connection with the land acquisition for proposed mega steel plant of the Tata group. The villagers, however, chased them away.

Later, the villagers also clashed with a police party at Takraguda village and indulged in heavy stone throwing.

Police used force to disperse the crowd, leaving many people injured.

Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee President Charan Das Mahant told newspersons at Kanker that it was not proper to forcibly acquire land owned by the tribals for any such industrial project. He said Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh should personally intervenue to find an amicable solution to the problem.

The Tata group had proposed setting up of an integrated steel plant, costing about Rs 10,000 crore, in tribal Bastar after the state government impressed upon the industrial group to locate their plant there-one of the most backward regions in the country.

The state government is of the view that setting up of such a mega steel plant would boost economic activity, generate employment and help contain naxalite activities in the region.

UNI