BJP central team to visit Posco area

While a BJP team plans to visit the industrial complex in Kalinga Nagar and Posco’s proposed plant site today, Left parties are planning to organise statewide protests.

The Orissa government’s “peaceful industrialisation” policy and its stand with respect to steel major Posco came in for a drubbing from political parties on Sunday.

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While a BJP team plans to visit the industrial complex in Kalinga Nagar and Posco’s proposed plant site on Monday, Left parties are planning to organise statewide protests.

The BJP’s central team members will first visit industrial complex where one tribal was allegedly killed in police firing on May 12 and then meet victims of police atrocities in Posco’s proposed plant site area.

Stating that the central team would submit its report with leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and party’s leader in RS Arun Jaitley, state BJP vice-president Ashok Sahu strongly condemned the state government’s policy.

The CPI-ML(liberation) also criticised the Orissa police action against the dharna of farmers and fishermen opposed to South Korean steelmaker. On Sunday, a shutdown called by the CPI was observed at Balitutha and nearby Kujang in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district.

With police guarding Balitutha no one was able to enter or leave the villages in the area, where shops remained closed and vehicles kept off the road in response to the shutdown.

The Left parties and certain other anti-POSCo outfit are also planning to organise statewide protests on May 20 and 21.

While six non-Congress, non-BJP and non-BJD political parties decided to observe May 21 as a protest day, the organisations opposing the project announced their plan to impose a state-wide road blockade next Thursday.