Paradip (Orissa), May 28 (ANI): Eight police personnel were taken hostage near Orissa's Paradip town on Saturday by a group of locals, who are opposing the Rs. 52,000 crore Posco steel plant.
Additional Superintendent of Police Shantanu Das said: "A police jeep was stopped by locals, mostly women, as it entered Patana village under Dhinkia panchayat and all the eight occupants, including the driver, were held captive. No harm was caused to the police personnel by anti-Posco activists."
Meanwhile, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Committee (PPSS) President Abhaya Sahu, who is spearheading the anti-Posco agitation, claimed that it was agreed at a meeting last year between Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and PPSS leaders that police force would not venture into Dhinkia area.
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 that the Governments had been illegally trying to acquire land and forests for the project. (ANI)
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