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Paradeep (Orissa) : Tension continues to prevail in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district for the second day on Friday with locals stepping up their agitation against the South Korean steel major Posco.
The company is planning to come with a USD 12 billion project in the district, close to Paradip port.
Late night on Thursday, the locals, had released four Posco officials, who were held hostage at the project site.
"We released them after these officials gave a written assurance that they will not enter into the project site anymore," a leader of Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti said.
The villagers had taken the officials hostage when they were doing some survey work near the project area and detained them in the village for hours before releasing them.
This was the first protest by villagers in the area after the Union Environment and Forests Ministry last month gave final clearance to the state for acquiring required forestland for the Posco project.
Posco, one of the world's biggest steel makers, signed a deal with the state government in June 2005 to set up the plant near the port town of Paradip in the coastal Jagatsinghpur district, some 100 km from here, by 2016.
The steel maker requires about 4,004 acres of land for the project of which, 2,900 acres is forest land. The project has been facing delay since past over two years due to various reasons including due to local protest.
There has been little progress on the ground as the villagers launched large-scale agitation against the project, the largest foreign direct investment in India, saying it will displace over 20,000 people from around 15 villages and ruin their betel-leaf farming.
However, the supporters of the project say the plant will bring prosperity and employment. According to Posco, the project would affect only 500 families but would create thousands of jobs.
