BHUBANESWAR: The Congress on Sunday reiterated its demand to stop forcible land acquisition by the State Government for the proposed Posco steel project as the MoU with the South Korean company is yet to be renewed. The Chief Minister should visit the area and discuss with the people to resolve their problems, senior Congress leader and former minister Narasingh Mishra told mediapersons here. Criticising the State Government for trying to rush through the land acquisition process in a forcible manner, Mishra described it as illegal and unconstitutional. Stating that nobody should be ejected from their land without consent, the Congress leader said the State Government was doing this for Posco with police help. The former minister said the Centre was going to bring a land acquisition bill in the next session of Parliament which would hopefully have the provision that nobody, particularly farmers, can be evicted from their land without consent. The State Government has violated the law of the land by forcibly acquiring land without taking into account the protest from women and children, he said. The Congress team, which visited the Posco project site, also found that force had been used for the land acquisition, he said. Alleging that the State Government under Naveen Patnaik never cared for the common people which resulted in several deaths in Kalinga Nagar, Mainkanch, Rayagada and other places, Mishra warned that the situation was moving fast towards such an incident in Dhinkia area. The former minister said Posco was in Orissa not for its development but for its mineral resources. The Congress leader said the OPCC had resolved in a meeting some years back that no individual or company should be given mining lease. It had also demanded cancellation of all mining leases and the mines run by Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) or any State-run corporation. The issue was also raised in the Assembly, Mishra said and added that the State would have gained ` 12,000 crore to ` 15,000 crore a year had this been implemented. But the government had ignored the resolution. Had the government implemented the suggestion many problems in the mining sector would not have been there, he said. Former ministers Nalini Kanta Mohanty and Ganeswar Behera, vice-president Sibanand Ray, spokespersons Kailash Acharya and Arjya Kumar Gyanendra were present.
Comments
0 comment