The Hindu reported that hundreds of villagers staged a rally at Gobindpur village of Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district on Monday, to reiterate their strong opposition to a fresh move by the Odisha government to acquire land for the proposed POSCO steel plant project.

The villagers, who gathered at Dhinkia village despite heavy rains, told the administration and the company to refrain from making attempts to create divisions among the villagers.

They appealed to the state government to withdraw the project from their locality, instead of making preparations for acquiring land.

The meeting, which was organised by the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, was presided by the group’s leader, Mr Abhay Sahu.

It was decided at the meeting that the residents of Dhinkia, the nerve centre of the anti POSCO agitation since 2005, would take the lead in strengthening the campaign against land acquisition in the coming days.

According to Sangram Samiti spokesperson Prashant Paikray, the villagers decided to hold similar meetings in some other villages of the area, such as Gobindpur, Patana, Nuagaon during the next few days, to prepare for a bigger rally at Batatikira at a later date.

Source - The Hindu

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