POSCO land: Child protesters fail, Rain stops Orissa govt

Bhubaneswar, Jun 17: Thousands of children in Odisha have joined the struggle of youth and elders against its government over the land acquisition row for POSCO steel project. But the innocent kids failed to persuade the government to drop their decision to take over the land. Now, heavy rains have become the 'messiah' for the agitators as the officials have been forced to delay the land acquisition date.

The acquisition project was scheduled to begin on Friday, Jun 17 near Paradip of Jagatsinghpur district for the Rs 52,000 crore - POSCO project. Government officials informed that the delayed work can be resumed on Saturday if weather supports.

Meanwhile, the villagers asserted that they are ready to face any kind of government oppression if it forcefully tries to acquire the land. However, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik earlier had assured, "I have often said that we believe in peaceful industrialisation. We have not and will not use force for acquiring land for POSCO or any other industrial project."

The South Korean company, POSCO wants to start one of the largest foreign projects in India with its 12 million tonne steel plant near Paradip which is 120 km from Bhubaneswar.

Local sources confirmed that the company has already taken 2000 acres of land for the project but it needs 4,004 acres of land to further expand the area for their project.

OneIndia News