POSCO project: Orissa govt ready to hear villagers' voice

Bhubaneswar: After fresh trouble at the proposed POSCO plant in Orissa, the ruling BJD has told NDTV it is ready for a referendum in villages around the site to find out what the people want.

Speaking on the NDTV show The Buck Stops Here, BJD MP Jay Panda said that "Orissa government has learnt its lessons from West Bengal."

India's largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) project, POSCO has been paralysed by protesters agitating against the takeover of their land. The human barricade by protesting villagers has been in place for over two weeks at the site.

And now, the proposed project has hit another roadblock with a major group that was staunchly backing the plant earlier doing a U-turn and turning hostile.

Pro-POSCO United Action Committee members have stopped all work in Polong where the government had started building roads and a compound wall for the project. Yesterday, they also prevented the police from reaching Govindpur and Dhinkia.

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"People of Dhinkia and Govindpur have been protesting for the past six years. The government should speak to them and find an amicable solution," said Tamil Pradhan, a member of the group.

Sources say the pro-POSCO group, mostly comprising local contractors and real estate developers, was eyeing major construction contracts. But they are now angry as the contract was handed over to a builder from outside.

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The anti-POSCO faction isn't budging either. The human barricade has been declared illegal by the police but protesters say this won't deter them.

"If they fail to deal with the dharna, they can resort to guns. If they resort to guns, that will be the end of the government, not the end of the battle," says Abhay Sahoo, chairman of POSCO Partirodh Sangram Samiti.

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The administration has moved in platoons of policemen to take on the villagers who have barricaded the site.

With trouble clearly growing, the Chief Minister says the decision to send in the police after a 15-day lull wasn't his.

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"These decisions are taken at the district administration level. These are routine decisions and I understand that this has been done a few times in the past as well," said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

With all Opposition parties joining in the protests and now pro-POSCO groups turning hostile, the government certainly has reasons to feel isolated.

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