Violence at POSCO site

The site of $12 billion POSCO project in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha saw violent clashes on December 14 when the state administration resumed construction of a 12 km coastal road linking the steel plant to the captive port. Villagers opposed to POSCO clashed with project proponents and workers of a private construction company, Paradip Paribahan, leaving one person dead and injuring 25 others.

Land is more than just that

My article last fortnight about people’s fight against POSCO has brought me interesting responses. They call for clarifications and further discussion. The question is about the value of current livelihoods of the people of coastal Odisha. Is earning from betel nut farming being exaggerated to reinforce the romantic and misinformed view that people are fighting projects because they are better off today? The equally valid question, then, is: why are the people so apparently poor if they are earning Rs 10-17 lakh per hectare (ha) each year as I had said?

Package POSCO

On the morning of June 13, 2011, Sukhdev Sahoo of Nuagaon in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district woke up in horror. The state administration had demolished his betel farm. The betel vines were in the way of India’s largest foreign direct investment: the US $12 billion POSCO project. Sahoo was threatened: “If you don’t take the compensation money you will lose everything.”

POSCO villages resist land acquisition by Odisha government

June 11 saw 2,000 residents of Dhinkia and Govindapur—including women and children—prostrating on the scorching 45ºC degree sand, as 800 policemen stood alert trying to enter the proposed POSCO sites to acquire forestland. The villagers were protesting the land acquisition for the POSCO plant which resumed on May 18, 2011, after a 10-month hiatus.

POSCO faces fresh litigation, protest

POSCO’S steel plant project in Odisha may get stalled again. As the state resumes acquiring land for the country’s largest foreign direct investment project—US $12 billion—it faces a fresh litigation and mounting protests. Communities refuse to part with forest in the mining area and river water for the South Korean giant.

POSCO gets final clearance

THE Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, or MoEF, has given final clearance to the POSCO steel project in Odisha. While doing so, it ignored the forest rights claims of people living in the project site in Jagatsinghpur district. The gram sabhas of two of the seven affected villages—Dhinkia and Gobindpur—had written to the ministry on March 10 about their resolution not to part with their land for the project unless the process of recognising their rights over the forestland is completed.  

Land acquisition for Posco begins

Down To Earth senior editor Richard Mahapatra reports >> Government officials have started acquiring land in two villages in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district. The work started in villages Nugaon and Polang around 7:30 a.m. Situation is very tense as, 2,000 people from five other villages are marching towards Nugaon and Polang.

POSCO clearance illegal: activists

The Union environment ministry has illegally given final clearance to the POSCO steel project on the basis of false claims made by the Odisha government, a group of activists said on Wednesday and demanded revocation of the clearance.

POSCO gets final approval

The environment ministry on Monday gave final approval to the Odisha government to divert 1,253 hectares (ha) of forestland for the POSCO steel project in Jagatsinghpur district.

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