Students join rally to protest POSCO project

Bhubaneswar, Oct 27 (UNI) Hundreds of college and school students participated in a protest rally to oppose the establishment of a mega steel plant by South Korean steel major POSCO at the proposed site near Paradip yesterday.

Carrying placards and shouting slogans, the students from the nearby schools and colleges in Paradip area, under the aegis of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samitee, joined the rally from Dhinkia village and proceeded to Patna to lodge their protest.

Anti-POSCO women leader Manorama Khatua and AISF state president Jyoti Ranjan Mohapatra led the rally which culminated at Patna where the anti-POSCO leaders announced to intensify the agitation to oppose the project on their land.

The Rs 52,000 crore mega steel plant project by the POSCO has been facing stiff resistance from the people in three panchayats - Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Gobindpur - ever since the MoU with the state government was signed in May 2006.

The rally was organised to pay tribute at the memorial of Dula Mandal, an anti-POSCO agitator, who was killed in a clash between the pro and anti-POSCO agitators.

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