June 6, 2011
This morning (6 June) over 10 platoons of riot police have been stationed face to face with thousands of villagers rightfully and peacefully resisting forcible takeover of their lands for the POSCO project in Jagatsinghpur district in Odisha.
The communities are resisting brutal police action that is being engaged to illegally and wrongfully dispossess communities from their farming and forest lands against their will and also in violation of assurances made by the Odisha Govt before the Odisha High Court.
POSCO is the single largest FDI in India and is being aggressively promoted by Odisha and Indian Governments to advantage some of the biggest American Banks and Warren Buffet who form key investors of this investment. It is critical that the POSCO investment is exposed for what it truly is: the unprecedented legalised loot of our natural resources, a crime far worse than the 2G and Commonwealth scams.
Addressing such concerns and to request the media to focus on the blatant violation of human rights being engaged in to promote POSCO, a Press Conference is organised as follows:
PRESS CONFERENCE
on
Ongoing Repression and Forcible Land Acquisition for POSCO in Odisha
and
Release of Report of Environment Support Group on Environmental and Social Consequences of the POSCO Project
Date: 7 June 2011
Venue: Indian Women’s Press Corps, Janpath (near Le Meridian Hotel), Delhi
Time: 11.30 AM
To Be Addressed By:
Leo F. Saldanha, Environment Support Group, Bangalore
Shankar Gopalakrishnan, Campaign for Survival and Dignity
Rajendra Ravi, NAPM
Mamata Dash, NFFPFW
Kavita Krishnan, CPI(ML) Liberation
And other social activists and political leaders
Organised by ESG (Bangalore), NAPM, Delhi Forum, Campaign for Survival and Dignity, National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers (NFFPFW), All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) and All India Students’ Association (AISA)
