Posco Pratirodh Samiti highlights how ex Post Master of Dhinkia village is being hounded by Government Of India for refusing to give his land for Posco.
Dear Friends,
In the mid-night of 9th January, the police filled in two vehicles entered into the Dhinkia Village secretly in order to arrest Mr. Babaji Charan Samantary aged about 65 years, of Dhinkia village in false cases. However, once our villagers became aware about it, they readied for defense. The vehicles went away.
Mr. Samantary who worked as postmaster in Dhinkia for 28 years, was suspended on 14/12/2007 on the ground that he was not willing to give his land for the proposed POSCO project. Despite of the suspension , Mr. Samantary voluntarily continued his work and delivered the post everyday, for about 7 – 8 months. However, around July, 2008, the bag of post was not sent, and since then the basic service delivery like post office has been arbitrarily closed in the Dhinkia village and villagers are not receiving any letter to their area.
From 9th January 2013 evening onwards, the government has deployed 10 platoon of polices near to our villages. We came to know that the government is bringing another 8 platoons of police to deploy today.
Apprehending the police operation at any time, the villagers are united and erected barricades, refusing entry to outsiders to their village. Both Men and women have kept a strict vigil 24 x 7 and disconnect all the village connecting road to Dhinkia and Govindpur village.
Friends, as you know, the National Green Tribunal have put the project on hold on environmental and forest rights ground project on 30th March 2012. It is completely illegal on part of the state government to announce resumption of the process at the proposed plant site. But since elections are approaching both the Congress in the centre and BJD in Odisha are trying their best to mobilize election funds which will be held at 2014.
At this juncture, we earnestly appeal to all our friends to express the solidarity with our villagers and request our media friends to rush and cover the government’s illegal activities from the ground zero.
In Solidarity,
Prashant Paikary
Spokesperson, POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti