Bhubaneswar: An uneasy calm prevailed in the proposed Posco site in Orissa

Sujay Mehdudia

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Sunday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to review the mega steel project awarded to South Korean steel giant Posco in Orissa and urged him to immediately withdraw the environmental clearance accorded to the project in light of the continued violence and atrocities against the local population.

Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR: Several Opposition parties and mass organisations of Orissa on Sunday condemned the police action against villagers opposing the Posco-India's steel project in Jagatsinghpur district. They also warned the Biju Janata Dal government against using police force on innocent people to acquire land for different companies.

PARADIP: Police on Saturday fired rubber bullets and teargas shells to evict anti-Posco agitators, including women and children, from the entry point of the project site at Balitutha, leaving 30 people injured.

Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR: About 100 people were injured when police fired rubber bullets and teargas shells, and lathi-charged hundreds of villagers in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa on Saturday afternoon to help the administration acquire land for the steel project of Posco-India.

Police on Saturday fired rubber bullets and teargas shells at Balitutha to evict protesters, mostly women and children, opposing the setting up of POSCO steel plant, leaving 30 people injured. The police had ordered the 1000odd protesters opposing land acquisition to leave but had to crack down when 50 crude bombs were thrown at them, said Jagatsinghpur Superintendent of Police Debadutta Singh.

The activists of the United Action Committee, a purportedly pro-Posco outfit active in the Posco steel project site near Paradip, have threatened to oppose the project if the district administration deploys police force in the

CPI leader and MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai was arrested today while trying to enter the proposed steel plant site of Posco-India ahead of a rally to protest the project, police said.

"Tarai was arrested as a preventive measure to avoid any law and order problem as a large number of anti-Posco activists have gathered in the area," SP Jagatsinghpur Devdutta Singh said.

STUNG by inordinate delays in getting greenfield projects off the ground, global steel majors Posco and ArcelorMittal appear to be shifting gears in their India strategy.

STEEL Authority of India