Since the day in January of this year, Veerappa Moily clearly acting as the agent of Corporate Capitalism, gave environment clearance to South Korea’s Pohang Steel Company to go ahead with the most controversial FDI project involving 56,000 Crores, there has been a drastic turn of events in the struggle against POSCO in Odisha
Anti-POSCO struggle is a 8 years saga of a valiant peoples movement against the MNC POSCO. The people of Dhinkia, Jagatsinghpur and other villages fought a do or die battle against the loot and plunder that the State and Central Governments foisted on them with utter disregard to their pleas.
Recently the Minister of Environment has surreptitiously given environmental clearance to this robbery project, which is not only bound to devastate the lives of the poor, Adivasi, Dalith peasant families, but will also lead to irreparable destruction of environment and the eco system of the area.
Even though the Odisha government is bragging about the creation of 8.7 Lakh jobs in a 30 year span, this data is ficticious and unreliable, as it is merely an exaggeration of figures by optimistically expecting that for the total headcount of 48,000 employees that POSCO is estimating, there will be an additional 1,59,734 jobs created in the trade, 5,809 in animal husbandry sector, 10,912 jobs in the food crops and 63,984 in the textiles, without taking into account the current state of competitiveness of these industries in Odisha.
We should not ignore the fact that all of these calculations does not take into account the loss of livelihood of approximately 50,000 people who depend on forest produce, 30,000 Fisher people will lose livelihood and farmers who are predominantly into betel cultivation will loose their main source of income. Added to this is the displacement of over 4,000 families from 63 villages mostly belonging to the Dalith, tribal and other backward groups and religious minorities.
We invite you to a meeting on the 10th of February, between 5 to 7 pm at Feroze’ Estate Buildings, (fifth floor) Cunningham Road. Meeting will be addressed by Comrade Abhay Sahoo, a leading activist of Posco Prathirodh Sangram Samithi (PPSS) and a National Council Member of Communist Party of India (CPI). Abhay Sahoo has had exemplary life of struggle through out his social and political life. Since the anti-POSCO struggle started he has been jailed thrice for this issue alone and is facing 61 fabricated cases an account of the struggle, and around 1643 of Abhay Sahoo’s colleagues and co-protesters including women and elderly are facing 271 false criminal cases.
Abhay Sahoo who is touring the southern states is on a mission to seek solidarity for peoples struggles that are being waged around the country.
The Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns-Bangalore demands
- This anti people, environmentally destructive POSCO project be dropped forth with.
- Stop all the Human Rights violations, Compensate the Victims of Human Rights Violations
- Immediate Health care facilities to the Women, Children and elderly who have been victimised and terrorised by the state the company goons of POSCO.
- Compensation to the peasants and farmers whose Beetle leaves cultivation has been destroyed by the Police
- Compensation to the victims of false and fabricated cases.
- Punish the bureaucrats and Police who are responsible for the fabrication of false cases.
Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns-Bangalore
Date: 10-02-2014