Congress opposes forcible land acquisition for POSCO project

Bhubaneswar, May 13 (UNI) AICC general secretary V Narayan Swami today opposed the forcible acquisition of land from the farmers for mega steel plant proposed by the South Korea steel major POSCO in Paradip in Orissa.

Mr Swami, also in-charge of Orissa affairs, told reporters here that the BJD-BJP government led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had extended all facilities to the POSCO on the plea of largest FDI in the country at the cost of the livelihood of the farmers.

He strongly disapproved the ''conspiracy''of the district administration to forcibly occupy the land from the farmers in the thickly populated three panchayats in Jagatsinghpur district for POSCO project. He also warned that the Congress would resort to agitation against the government for showing undue favour to the industrial houses sacrificing the interest of the state.

Mr Swami said the party was not against industrialisation but he made it clear that the industry should not come against the wishes of the farmers, who were likely to be displaced by the project, be it POSCO, Vedant or any other project.

The extended executive of the Pradesh Congress Committee which met here today also adopted a resolution in this regard and congratulated the non-Congress opposition political parties for opposing the "forcible displacement" and decided to launch statewide movement against the "anti-people" policy of the state government.

To a question, Mr Swami said the party would like the companies to directly negotiate with the farmers on land acquisition for the industry purposes and urged the state government to implement the amended SEZ policy of against acquiring agriculture land for SEZ.

UNI