Expressing concern that the proposed POSCO project will affect the livelihood of local people, the CPI said it will take up the matter with PM Manmohan Singh.
DHINKIA (Orissa): Expressing concern that the proposed POSCO project at Jagatsinghpur village near here will affect the livelihood of local people, the CPI on Saturday said it will take up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"I will urge the prime minister to direct the Orissa government as well as the South Korean steel major to shift its proposed site to somewhere else," veteran CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said on Saturday during a visit to this village, considered an epicentre of the anti-POSCO agitation.
The project will 'snatch away' livelihood of thousands of people who eke out a living by betel cultivation, fishing and other activities, he said.
"The local people never depended on government help for their survival as they generate a good amount of money through age-old betel farming, fishing, drum stick cultivation and cashew production," Dasgupta said.
Neither government nor POSCO have any right to destroy a well developed agrarian economy by setting up a 12 MTPA steel plant, he said while asking people not to take rest until POSCO quit their area.
Dasgupta, the fourth national level CPI leader who visited the seaside village, interacted with the anti-project activists and expressed his anguish over their condition in the wake of the POSCO project, considered as the biggest FDI in the country.
"The villagers are determined not to part with their land for setting up the steel plant as they know it well that no amount of compensation could satisfy them. Why should they depend on government and POSCO for help when they are self-sufficient?" Dasgupta said.
"The villagers are kept secluded from the rest of the world by the government," he added.
The supporters of the project, however, gheraoed Dasgupta at Bhutmundai on his way to the village demanding his attention to their plight.
They consist of 42 families who left the village after being beaten up by anti-project activists. The families have been staying at a school building for more than three months, police said.
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