CPI seeks PM's intervention in POSCO issue

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Sunday appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene in the Orissa POSCO project issue and instructed the Environment Ministry to withdraw the clearance given to the steel plant.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Sunday appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene in the Orissa POSCO project issue and instructed the Environment Ministry to withdraw the clearance given to the steel plant.

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In a letter to Manmohan Singh, National Secretary of the CPI D Raja said, "the project is nothing less than an attempt to strip this country's mineral resources for a foreign multinational, with no benefit to either the people of the area or the economy of this country."

He said, "I urge upon you to immediately intervene, instruct the Environment Ministry to withdraw the illegal clearance, review the POSCO project...And halt the police atrocities against the struggling people of the area."

Raja alleged that the Orissa police attacked the peaceful protestors against the project leading to serious injury to over 100 people.

"In the first week of February 2010, all three gram sabhas of the area passed resolutions rejecting the project. As such under the law the forest clearance is now invalid and must be withdrawn, the project cannot proceed in that area. Yet the Environment Ministry has done nothing about this," the CPI leader said in his letter.