PRESS RELEASE
24th October 2008
POLITICAL PARTIES AND CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS CONDEMN INCREASING STATE REPRESSION OF PEACEFUL RESISTANCES
AND
DEMAND RELEASE OF POSCO PRATIRODH SANGAM SAMITI LEADER ABHAYA SAHU
Political parties and civil society groups, in a Convention organised in Delhi today, 24 October 2008, expressed concern regarding the malafide arrest of Abhay Sahu and other activists of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti and the increasing state repression in Orissa against peaceful resistance of people against anti-people steel project and demanded immediate and unconditional release of Abhay Sahu and other PPSS activists.
Abhay Sahu, the president of the PPSS (POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti), was arrested by the Orissa police near Pattamundai in Jagtsingpur district in the evening on 12 October 2008 while returning from a medical check-up. The police claim to have registered as many as 25 ‘direct’ cases against him. In all he is implicated in over 70 cases. Speakers at the Convention noted that this was the latest attempt by the Orissa government to undermine the anti-POSCO agitation. The Convention noted that while the using force to repress people’s democratic voices is not new to the state, though this method of repression has reached another high point with the arrest of Abhay Sahu.
A Joint Resolution signed by over 50 people issued at the Convention, noted that it is in exercise of their Constitutional right to dissent, and the right to a life with dignity, which includes the right to a livelihood of their choice that people of Dhinkia, Gobindpur, and Gadakujang panchayats of Jagatsingpur district in Orissa have put up a non-violent resistance for the past three years against forcible take-over of their lands and resources by the Korean steel giant POSCO. The Declaration also noted that the police after arresting Sahu, also simultaneously launched a malicious campaign against him through the already corporatised media. The sole object of employing such tactics is to prolong the process of Abhay Sahu’s release, and further intimidate people opposed to the project and such projects elsewhere in the state including Kashipur, Lanjigarh and Kalinganagar. The Convention unanimously demanding immediate withdrawal of false criminal cases against Abhay Sahu and other activists of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti and their immediate release.
The convention was convened by Manoranjan Mohanty, Sumit Chakravartty, BD Sharma, Usha Ramanathan, Ashok Agarwal, Ravi Hemadri
The speakers at the convention included Prashant Paikray (PPSS, Orissa), Sudhir Pattnaik, Activist and Editor, Samadrusti, Orissa; A B Bardhan (CPI); B D Sharma( Bharat Jan Andolan), Dr. Usha Ramanathan (Legal Researcher); D Bandopadhyaya (Former Land Reforms Commissioner, West Bengal), Aparna Sarin, CPI – ML (New Democracy) and Kavita Krishnan CPI – ML (Liberation) among others.
For the past three years, the people of Dhinkia, Gobindpur, and Nuagaon panchayats in Kujang Tehsil of Jagatsinghpur District in Orissa, under the banner of the PPSS, have also been relentlessly resisting the take-over of their resources for the establishment of a 12-million-tonne mega steel plant by POSCO, the second largest steel-making company of the world. The project, being touted as the largest ever FDI in the history of India, with an investment of 51,000-crore rupees, will have large-scale, irreversible socio-economic and environmental impacts not only on the areas under the threat of immediate acquisition but over vast numbers of the state’s people, and huge tracts of its forests and other lands. POSCO’s assertion that its project will lead to the creation of 45,000 jobs, directly or indirectly, is meaningless in the face of the fact that the proposed steel plant, port, and mines will directly dispossess many lakh people, apart from having very deleterious effects on the lives of many millions more. Further, an examination of the MoU signed by the Naveen Pattnaik government with POSCO establishes the fact that the government has agreed to transfer lakhs of crores worth resources for almost no returns to the state exchequer.
Endorsed by:
PPSS, PEACE, Sandharbh Kendra, Saheli, Pratidhwani, INSAF, Delhi Forum, SRCC, Deshbandhu College, Kalpavriksh, CACIM, Delhi Solidarity Group, National Alliance for Agricultural Worker’s Union, The Other Media, Matu Jan Sangathan, Hazards Centre, South Asian Dialogues for Ecological Democracy ,Centre for Studies on Developing Societies, AISF, AIYF, CPI, JNUTA, National Campaign for Land and Livelihood, CSD, Bonded Labour liberation Front, Himalaya Seva Sangh, Global Gandhi Forum, Bharat Jan Aandolon, Friends of the Earth, Jan Sangharsh Vahini, Teesra Swadhinta Abhiyan, Samajwadi Jan Parishad, National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers, Kashipur Solidarity Group, PWESCR.
For Further details please contact:
Subrat – 9868182363, subrat69@gmail.com
Sridevi – 9868099304, sridevi.panikkar@gmail.com
