"Take A Cue From Mamata, Return The Posco Land To People: PPSS", 27 March 2017

The outfit that almost singlehandedly spearheaded people’s resistance movement against Posco steel project in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district today asked the Odisha government to tread the path of Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal in returning the Posco land to landowners. The anti-project outfit-Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS)- today voiced its concern over the government move in transferring the Posco land to by Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO)-run land bank and termed it as infringement of law. Odisha government should learn a lesson for becoming anti-people. Posco has backed away from the project as the steel company could finally realise that setting up the plant amid people’s protest would be detrimental to company’s business interest, said Prasant Paikray, spokesperson of PPSS...Among other things, the people’s outfit also put forth demands for compensation on humanitarian grounds to the families of the deceased and widow who were killed in the bomb blast and proper medical help for the injured person. The government has to recognize the people’s claims on rights over forest land as per FRA 2006. Withdrawal of all fabricated and false cases against our villagers and activists, compensation to the persons whose beetle vines were destroyed by the government also figured in the list of demands raised by the PPSS.