Four Posco officials held hostage by villagers

BHUBANESWAR - Four officials from South Korean steel major Posco were Thursday taken “hostage” in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district, by villagers protesting against the company’s proposed $12 billion project, police said.

Sub-divisional police officer S.K. Das said a group of villagers took the officials hostage when they were doing some survey work near the project area. The villagers have kept them at Patna village, he said, adding that efforts are on to rescue them.

Posco India’s general manager (external relations) Simanta Mohanty, however, told IANS that the officials of the company had gone to distribute New Year calendars and greetings to the villagers, when they were forcibly detained by some people.

“Our officials are holding discussions with them to sort it out,” he said.

“Four officials of Posco were moving inside the forest land. Those who were guarding the forest took them away to their village for democratic detention, anti-Posco leader Abhay Sahu told IANS.

“This is a democratic detention and we demand Posco should withdraw,” he said.

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 forest land 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.