Posco land takeover to resume today, protest intensifies

Bhubaneswar, June 18 (ANI): With the Orissa Government gearing to begin the land acquisition for Posco's mega steel project in Jagatsinghpur District, protests at the site intensified on Saturday with villagers refusing to move from the project site.

Massive police forces have been deployed at the site to control the protesting villagers.

The government had planned to resume the land acquisition drive after a gap of five days on Friday but inclement weather stalled the operations.

Earlier, Steel and Mines Minister Raghunath Mohanty said: "We are not acquiring land forcibly for the Posco project. Land acquisition work is being done peacefully by the district administration and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (IDCO)".

Posco had signed a memorandum of understanding with Orissa in June 2005 for the 12-million-tonne-capacity steel plant to be built in three phases by 2016, with production scheduled to begin by the end of 2011 at the completion of the first phase.

However, from 2005, continuous local opposition delayed the project amid allegations the Union and state governments had been illegally trying to acquire land and forests for the project. (ANI)