The police on Thursday searched unsuccessfully for Abhay Sahu, president of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, which is opposed to the multi-crore mega steel project, to instill sense of security among villagers who were being allegedly threatened by him.
"Our personnel went to Gobindpur village to instill a sense of security among villagers being threatened by anti-Posco agitators," Jagatsinghpur Superintendent of Police Debadutta Singh said.
Sahu has been accused of threatening those villagers in Gobindpur area who recently urged the government to take up the socio-economic survey, which was halted by the government following opposition to it.
The police, however, failed to find Sahu, who had been released on bail and was facing a fresh charge of threatening
the people supporting the South Korean project in the village under Dhinkia gram panchayat, considered the epicentre of the anti-Posco agitation.
"We will oppose any kind of survey at Gobindpur and Dhinkia villages," Sahu said over phone from an undisclosed location.
He cautioned the administration that it would be responsible for "any repercussion" in the area.
Both Gobindpur and Dhinkia have remained out of bounds for government officials and police for past five years since Posco inked an MoU with the state government on June 22, 2005 because of opposition by the the CPI-backed farmers body.
{{/usCountry}}Both Gobindpur and Dhinkia have remained out of bounds for government officials and police for past five years since Posco inked an MoU with the state government on June 22, 2005 because of opposition by the the CPI-backed farmers body.
{{/usCountry}}In a related development in Bhubaneswar, the CPI, CPI(M), Forward Bloc, RJD, SJP and JMM staged a dharna before the state secretariat.
The dharna was to demand withdrawal of police presence from the area and to oppose displacement of people from the project site.
A delegation of six political parties is scheduled to meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday over the issue.