Priest Condemns State Land Grab

(June 16, 2011) Church people and activists have condemned the Orissa government’s compulsory acquisition of land for a South Korean company’s steel plant. “Force has been used to acquire land,” said Father Santosh Digal, secretary of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese’s commission for Social Communication. The priest alleged that the administration has falsely implicated some people and taken them to jail for resisting the land acquisition. The administration has reportedly placed 20 platoons of armed forces to maintain law and order as well as to help acquire the land for the Pohang Iron and Steel Company (POSCO). The South Korean conglomerate plans to set up a plant in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district to produce integrated steel. The project would also include a power station and a port. Father Digal wants the government to give adequate compensation to farmers whose land has already been taken. Prashant Paikray, spokesperson of POSCO Resistance Committee, pointed out that the government has forcefully acquired 200 betel leaf farms and destroyed them. The latest trouble occurred when people came together and tried to re-erect the betel farms. The administration has acquired as much as 2,000 of 3,719 acres of land earmarked for the steel plant project. With children and women at the forefront, villagers blocked the administration for two consecutive days, although the administration declared the protest unlawful. Meanwhile, the National Council of Churches in India has appealed to the chief minister to stop using force on the protesters and render justice to the villagers, who are mostly tribal and low caste groups.