Police arrest anti-POSCO leader for bomb explosion that killed four

Abhay Sahoo, the person leading the stir against the proposed mega steel plant of South Korean steel company, POSCO, in Odisha, was arrested on Saturday for his alleged role in the March 3 explosions at Dhinkia village that killed four people. Sahoo heads the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), consisting of people displaced from villages in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha as a result of land acquisition for POSCO project. 

SC asks Centre to decide on grant of iron ore licence to POSCO

In a major setback to POSCO’s plan to locate its mines close to its proposed steel plant near Paradip in Odisha, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Central government to take a call on the grant of iron ore mining leases in the state. A private mining and marketing firm, Geomin, along with several other mining companies had alleged that the Odisha state government favoured Korean steel giant POSCO while granting prospecting and mining licence.

Village at POSCO site seeks community forest rights

Virtual coast guard

CAG blows lid off land grab in Odisha

A decade ago, the Naveen Patnaik government had gone all out to woo industries to Odisha by offering its three abundant natural resources—mineral, water and land. Businesss house lost no time in making a beeline to the state with projects involving thousands of crores of rupees.

Green tribunal suspends POSCO’s clearance

The National Green Tribunal has suspended the environmental clearance granted to the controversial POSCO steel project in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district. The project was cleared by the Union environment ministry in January last year. This was challenged by Prafulla Samantray, an activist from Bhoinagar in Odisha, in the tribunal.

Polavaram fraud

Fear of submergence haunts Kurturu, a village nestled in the Papi hills of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh. In 2005, a band of officials, an unusual sight in this remote village in West Godavari district, visited the place and marked a rock.

1,620.361 ha of discontent

Brazil rejected posco; why is Orissa so interested South Korean steel giant posco's proposed steel plant hangs in virtual limbo. Popular resistance by the posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti has rendered land acquisition for the Rs 51,000 crore project--hailed as a foreign direct investment coup--quite impossible.

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.

How effective are environmental PILs

In most cases of environmental litigation, the parties affected by pollution are, typically, large, diffused and unidentified groups of people. Since nature and inanimate objects cannot represent themselves in judicial proceedings, the Supreme Court, since the late 1970s, has allowed any member of the public, having sufficient interest, to initiate a legal process to ensure the protection and improvement of the environment. This has come to be called Public Interest Litigation (PIL).