We earnestly appeal to all the concerned citizens, friends and well wishers to join us in the struggle against forceful land acquisition by the state government of Odisha planned on 18th of May 2011. The Government of Odisha, is all set to forcefully enter and acquire our land on behalf of South Korea based Pohang Steel Company (POSCO). The state government has started deploying security personnel at Balithutha, a strategic point allowing entry to our area.
We are determined to continue and intensify our democratic struggle till POSCO Company withdraws from the area in view of the illegal order of Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh granting final clearance for diversion of over 1253 hectares of forest land to the POSCO steel project on 2nd May 2011. We have re-erected barricades in our villages to restrict the entry of officials into the area. On 6th of May 2011, more than 100 villagers came together to begin a dharna at Balitutha. Around seven platoons of security personnel reached Balitutha and threatened to arrest us if we started the dharana. Again on 7th May 2011, hundreds of people march together
to Balithutha in protest against the illegal decision of the government. We are holding now series of meetings at the villages of Nuagaon, Gobindpur, Trilochanapur and Dhinkia to finalise our strategy to intensify our struggle.
At this critical juncture, we urge you all to join us on 17th and 18th in the democratic struggle, show the solidarity and extend your support to fight against this injustice and build mass opinion against the POSCO project.
We will soon declare our modus operandi of our struggle to be taken up soon.
In solidarity,
Prashant Paikary -09437571547
Spokesperson, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS)
May 10, 2011
