[Reader-list] prytest against the hired goons of posco in Jagatsinghpur Orissa

Sat Jun 21 16:20:57 IST 2008

*Dear Friends and Comrades*

                          Neoliberalism has tasted blood in this era of
ruthless accumulation through violent dispossession where direct producers
are brutally divorced from their means of production and sustance. The past
era has seen sadistic decimation and devastation of Iraq, Afghanistan,
Kosovo and so on, the list is endless.

                       The postcolonial dirigste regimes of the third world
gave up all their pretensions of the social justice and self reliance to
transfer the mineral wealth and fertile agricultural lands to the
Imperialist transnational corporations and local monopoly houses. Specially
economic zones are the latest weapon of   Neoliberalism to usurp the natural
resources and forcibly uproot  the farmers during an unprecedented agrarian
crisis.

               Farmers all over India are up in arms  to protest  this
onslaught on their livelihoods.For the past three years the farmers of  Jagat
Singhpur in Orissa are up in arms against the proposed  Posco SEZ in their
area. Naveen Patnaik govt shamelessly connived with Posco to brutally
suppress  the voices of farmers. There is one dangerous thing to be noted in
the brutality of the neoliberal regime in India. The state which had the
monopoly of legal violence has shamelessly transferred the right to kill to
Multinational companies, the Indian big bourgeoise and their hired hoodlums.
Last November the hired goons of Posco had brutally attacked Men and women
sitting in a Dharna at Balitutha in Jagatsinghpur District  where many
people including elderly men and women were injured. Few days ago the hired
goons had killed a person in Kalinganagar the killing spree goes on. Last
night the hired goons of Posco threw bombs and killed Dula Mandal and
critically injured five others of Gobindpur village of Jagatsinghpur
District. Shri Kalindi Sena and Subha Saini are battling for their lives in
Cuttack Medical College.

                 We call upon all the progressive democratic and patriotic
forces to demand the dismissal of Naveen Pattnaic govt and punish the hired
goons of POSCO in Orissa.

Regards

Asit

*Details of the attack of the posco goons on farmers is attached below.*

Update from Surya, Bhubaneswar (21 June 2008)

Dula Mandal, aged 35, an activist of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti
succumbed to injuries late last night. He was amongst the five people
admitted in SCB hospital, Cuttack after being seriously wounded in a crude
bomb attack by miscreants supporting POSCO in Gobindpur village. Kalindi
Jena, 65 and Subha Saini, 40 are also battling for their life in the
hospital.

Meanwhile the situation continues to be tense in Gobindpur where thousands
of villagers have surrounded the school building where the miscreants are
hiding. Yesterday when the people were busy with the widening of the river
mouth the miscreants took advantage of the situation and sneaked into the
desolate village in a car and took over the first floor of the village
school.

They are armed and yesterday they attacked with crude bombs from there on
PPSS activists returning from Jatadhar. It is said that they hurled at least
4 bombs at the people. Though there is no clear count of the number of
miscreants hiding inside the building it could be anything from 10 to 20
people. The villagers who have surrounded the school have not yet tried
gaining entry into the school building as they are afraid the miscreants
might attack again.

The PPSS has condemned the attack and is preparing for widespread agitation
with the following demands -

- POSCO project be scrapped immediately

- Rs 1 crore be paid as compensation to the deceased's family

- Rs 50 lakh be paid as compensation to those injured

 This came last night.

Six injured as anti and pro-POSCO activists clash

Friday, June 20, 2008 22:39 [IST]

Paradip (Orissa): At least six persons, including a child, were injured in a
clash at Gobindpur near here today between supporters and opponents of
POSCO's proposed steel project,
police<http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/06/20/0806202241_posco-clash.html>sources
said.

The incident took place when a group of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti
activists were returning from work to prevent water-logging near the
mouth<http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/06/20/0806202241_posco-clash.html>of
Jatadhari river where the South Korean major has proposed to set up a
steel plant, they said.

As the PPSS activists neared Gobindpur School on their way back to Dhinkia
village, a group of nearly 200 armed supporters of POSCO confronted them,
leading to the clash, the sources said.

Three POSCO opponents and an equal number from the rival camp were injured
in the incident, they said adding the injured were taken to a nearby
hospital and two of them were later shifted to SCB Medical
College<http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/06/20/0806202241_posco-clash.html>and
Hospital in Cuttack.

Water-logging near Jatadhari mouth had affected vast areas of
agricultural<http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/06/20/0806202241_posco-clash.html>land.
Members of a government team which had gone to the area to clear
water-logging last year had been attacked allegedly by PPSS activists,
sources said.

Source : *PTI*

http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/06/20/0806202241_posco-clash.html
  Orissa villagers dig river mouth to drain out floodwaters

June 20th, 2008 - 9:00 pm ICT by IANS –

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/orissa-villagers-dig-river-mouth-to-drain-out-floodwaters_10062516.html
Jagatsinghpur (Orissa), June 20 (IANS) Over 2,000 people from seven Orissa
villages dug a channel in a river
mouth<http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/orissa-villagers-dig-river-mouth-to-drain-out-floodwaters_10062516.html>in
Jagatsinghpur district Friday to drain out floodwaters submerging many
villages. They also protested the proposed port in the region by South
Korean steel major Posco. The floodwaters of Hanusa river were not flowing
into the sea through the nearby Jatadhari river because of silt deposits at
its mouth. Villagers cut a channel in the river mouth themselves after the
state government failed to clear the silt despite repeated calls.

The villagers also said they were also opposed to Posco's plan to set up a
captive port at the mouth of the Jatadhari river as this would lead to more
floods<http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/orissa-villagers-dig-river-mouth-to-drain-out-floodwaters_10062516.html>in
the area.

The villagers, mostly members of the Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti
(Anti-Posco Agitation Committee), crossed the Hanusa river in four
mechanized boats and using crowbars and spades, dug out silt from the
river's mouth near the Bay of Bengal, Samiti leader Abhaya Sahu told IANS.

"We dug the mouth because the floodwater was blocked and we wanted to clear
it. Besides, we also want to send a message to the government and Posco that
we are not going to allow Posco to set up a port here," he said.

"More than 200 villages have been submerged with floodwaters of Hanusa and
thousands of residents have lost their property and paddy crops," Sahu
added.

Residents of the area repeatedly requested the state government to de-silt
the mouth of the river, but all in vain, he said.

"We dug the river mouth and helped the water flow into the sea smoothly," he
said.

Posco, the world's fourth largest steel maker, signed a deal with the state
government in June 2005 to build a $12 billion steel plant near the port
town of Paradip by 2016. It also later announced plans to develop a captive
port at the mouth of Jatadhari river, 10 km from Paradip.

However, there has been little progress on the ground as activists and
villagers have been agitating against the project, which they say would take
away their homes, lands and livelihood.

The company says the plant would affect only 500 families, but would create
thousands of jobs.