Four Posco officials held hostage by villagers released

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

“We released them after these officials gave a written assurance that they will not enter into the project site any more,” said Pratap Paikray, the spokesman of Anti Posco Summiti.

According to police, a group of people from Patna village took 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.

Though Posco India’s general manager (external relations) Simanta Mohanty says that the officials had gone there to distribute New Year calendars and greetings to the villagers, the anti-Posco leaders claimed the officials were doing some survey work despite the state government’s declaration that land acquisition will not be done there.

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.