Vandana Shiva joins agitation against land acquisition for Posco

The anti-Posco agitation gathered steam as activist Vandana Shiva today joined the dharna against land acquisition policy for the mega steel plant even as the Orissa government stepped up work on the construction of a boundary wall around the land already acquired for the project.

Noted environmentalist and agricultural scientist Vandana Shiva participated in the ongoing dharna against the proposed Rs52,000-crore project at Gobindpur in Jagatsinghpur district and extended her support to the agitators.

She said there was no justification for putting up the steel plant in the fertile land in the area where rural economy had prospered with multi-crop farming and other economic activities like fisheries and plantation.

Charging the state government with attempting to oust the villagers from the area and deprive them of their livelihood to favour the South Korean steel major, Shiva said the vast forest cover and ecology of the area would be destroyed if the project were to come up.

Justifying the participation of children in the agitation, she said kids had every right to participate in the stir as the issue involved their very existence and future.

The government has, however, fast-tracked the work of building a boundary wall around the land already acquired in Gadakujang panchayat area with the help of high-tech machinery and equipment, according to Jagatsinghpur district collector N C Jena.