Our thousands of villagers have formed a human barricade and made
continuous slogan against these illegal and irresponsible behavior of
the administration. Our people were determined to democratically
prevent any forceful entry of officials into our areas. Our
resistance to land acquisition gained further strength when Mr. Jual
Oram, the state leader of BJP visited the protest site to lend his
support.
Meanwhile a medical team of three doctors from Delhi Jan Hastakhep are
camping in our villages Dhinkia, Govindpur which is deprived of State
health care system.
The anti-POSCO activists have been joined by the United Action Committee, which had supported the steel plant to be built by a company owned in part by Nebraska billionaire Warren Buffet, but outraged by the stealthy behavior of the government has switched sides and is now protesting.
On the other hand, the district administration went ahead with
building the project’s boundary wall besides doing ground-levelling
and tree-felling exercises in Polang, Noliasahi, Bayanalakanda and
Nuagaon villages. Today, for the second consecutive day, hundreds of
people of Pro-Posco United Action Committee (UAC), rushed to the site
and prevented officials from continuing work. The UAC people say that
the govt. is yet to fulfill the promises it made to them but starting
the work without taking them into confidence.
What did they expect?
http://www.countercurrents.org/paikray270611.htm
The Indian bourgeois press is demonizing the protesters in any way they can:
Unethical human shield...Children have no place in anti-Posco agitation
Save, of course, that it is their fields, homes, and futures that are being stolen.
Irrespective of the merits of their agitation, the appalling use of young children by anti-Posco activists as they battle the Odisha Government deserves to be condemned unequivocally. No cause, no matter how grave or vital, justifies the use of children (and women) as a human shield. It is shameful that children are being exploited by members of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the group that is spearheading the agitation against the proposed integrated steel plant by the South Korean giant Posco.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/348966/Unethical-human-shield.html
Meanwhile, the vultures circle overhead:
Larsen and Toubro plans steel and power plant in Orissa
Construction and engineering major Larsen and Toubro Ltd plans to set up another power plant and a 3 million tonne steel plant in Orissa at a combined investment of INR 30,000 crore.
The company had earlier, also planned INR 44,000 crore alumina and aluminium plant and INR 11,000 crore power project in Orissa. The new proposals have thus increased the company's total investment corpus in the state to INR 84,000 crore.
L&T's new 2,000 MW power project, the company's second in the state, would also involve the association of the state government and an expenditure of about INR 10,000 crore. L&T had earlier sought the approval to set up a 2,000 MW power plant near Dhamra port. The project would require about 1,200 acres of land.
http://www.steelguru.com/indian_news/Larsen_and_Toubro_plans_steel_and_power_plant_in_Orissa/211654.html
And they will be in good company:
See ARSS Infra as $1-bn co in few years, says Sunil Agarwal
We are about to submit two bids for ultra mega road projects. We will submit bids for ultra mega road projects one each for the state of Odisha and West Bengal. We are looking for 2-3 international players, as like all other companies in India which are individually not qualifying for such projects, our company also is not qualified to bid for ultra mega road projects.
We are talking to few companies in Spain, Indonesia, and China. Government is not forthcoming for Chinese companies but we are talking to companies that are already working in India.
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/see-arss-infra-as-361-bn-cofew-years-says-sunil-agarwal_560439.html
[Catchy website name, no?]
The sun never sets on international capital, only on the people whose misfortune it is to be in its path. In a few years the villages will be an industrial park. Odisha will be renamed New Omaha in honor of its patron, and the people who lived in that place and called it home will be a footnote in future economic textbooks, their lives, loves, and songs forgotten, lost to the whirl of relentless profit.
