Posco staff detained, freed after warning

Villagers in Orissa’s Jagatsingpur district detained four Posco-India employees for five hours on Thursday. A police official said that around 2.30 pm, the four had gone to carry out survey work at Patna village in the Paradip area, about 130 km southeast of Bhubaneswar.

Villagers in Orissa’s Jagatsingpur district detained four Posco-India employees for five hours on Thursday. A police official said that around 2.30 pm, the four had gone to carry out survey work at Patna village in the Paradip area, about 130 km southeast of Bhubaneswar.

HT Image

The villagers, who had been opposing the setting up of South Korean steel giant Posco’s Indian subsidiary’s 12-million-tone integrated steel plant, as it would ruin the forests, held them hostage.

“They had to sign an undertaking that they would never step into the area again”, anti-Posco leader Abhay Sahu told HT. Simanta Mohanty, of Posco, said the employees had gone to the village for community contact.