Children the new weapon for anti-Posco activists?

New Delhi, Jun 11: The situation in Orissa seem to be escalating from bad to worse following the proposed land acquisition for the steel plant in Dhinkia village in Orissa. With the Orissa government and the villagers in loggerheads, it is the turn of women and children to take charge and are doing their bit to protect their land.

After the Orissa government installed 20 platoons of armed police ready to combat any aggression from villagers near the plant site, looks like they have employed new strategies to ward off the land acquisition process. There are reports that over 100 children are being used as human shields to halt the process for the country's biggest FDI project.

There were also reports of children lying face down in the sun according to a report on CNN-IBN. The SP of Jagatsinghpur, Devdatta Singh, commented, "The children are used as shield by the protestors which is illegal. The child rights act is violated. They are not allowing govt officials and even villagers who have their land in that area to enter. So we are trying to pursue them not to take law into their own hands."

With the standoff between the government and the villagers intensifying, the government wants to make sure that there is no force being used to calm the agitating crowd. The government's repeated requests to get matters sorted through talks fell into deaf ears.

The District collector of Jagatsinghpur, N C Jena said, "Appropriate action could be taken if repeated efforts to persuade the protesters to disperse fail. The government does not want to use force but if unlawful assembly continues in the area necessary steps will have to be taken."

OneIndia News