Satyagraha Against Focefully Land Aquisition in Posco Project

Ekta Parishad and several civil society organisations of Odisha including Odisha Nagarik Samaj[ONAS] Odisha Janasameelani, Lok Shakti Abhiyan ,Gandhamadan Yuva Parishad etc. staged a weeklong Satyagraha against illegal land encroachment and atrocities on anti-posco villagers of  the proposed South Korean Posco project in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha.

The Dharana started from 17^th June 2011 at Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Bhubaneswar and culminated on 22^nd June 2011, the day in which the MOU was signed between the Odisha Govt. and POSCO has been completed six years.

 Mr P.V.Rajagopal, eminent Gandhian, member of National Land Reform Council and President of Ekta Parishad addressed the public including media after visiting the proposed project site. In his speech he vehemently opposed the illegal land acquiring process by the Odisha Govt. and told the movement against the proposed project by villager is purely non-violent means but the district administration and police is continuously oppressing on the people who are denouncing to hand over their land to the South Korean Steel Plant. The govt. is violating its own forest rights laws; he suggested the Odisha govt. the land acquisition should be stopped and cancel the MOU immediately. Answering a question of media person about the involvement of children in the protest, he clarified no violation of child rights if the children protest with their parents to save their livelihood. It’s a kind of new training for them to save their livelihood by restoring their land, cited few examples how children were participated in the freedom struggle.

The enigma of allowing private port, captive mines and SEZ for a foreign company like POSCO needs to be disclosed publicly by the State Govt. where no single instances has seen in case of any nationalized steel ventures questioned Manoj Jena, a well known human rights activist of Odisha.

An action plans were suggested to continue the satyagraha in various ways by involving the affected people, rights activists, civil society members, taking the issue in different levels and platforms.

Among others who participated and spoke in each day are Swami Agnivesh, Prof Banwarilal Sharma of Azadi Bacho Andolan, Amarnath Bhai, former president Sarva Seva Sangh, Jatish Bhai,Mumbai, Prafula Samntara,convenor of Lok Shakti Abhiyan, Rabi Das, president, Odisha Janasameelani, Er Lalitmohan Pattnaik of Odisha Nagarik Samaj, Umaballav Rath, leader of Vedant Viswavidyala Sangharsh Samiti.The entire dharana was well managed by Bijay Pradhan,the state convenor of Ekta Parishad and  Sneha Mohanty, Kanhu Bhai, Basant Bhai, Lenka Bhai, Dolli Apa, Nihar Bhai, Sandeep Mohanty.