SNS reported that the opponents of South Korean steel major POSCO’s 12 million tonne steel project in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district seem to be determined to make their voice heard in the coming parliamentary and assembly elections in the state.

As per report anti POSCO agitators, mostly confined to two villages, Dhinkia and Gobindpur within the POSCO project site, have threatened to boycott the elections protesting against shifting of the location of the polling booths from their villages to nearby Trilochanpur and Nuagaon villages. They have also decided not to allow any candidate from any political party to enter their villages for canvassing.

POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti spearheading the agitation against the project for last four years has erected four wooden gates in Dhinkia and three in Gobindpur village to prevent the entry of different party candidates for campaigning. The two villages have about 4,000 voters.

Meanwhile, the district officials said that the polling booths meant for Dhinkia and Gobindpur have been shifted to Trilochanpur and Nuagaon as the anti POSCO activists are not allowing any government officials to enter into their villages. Though villagers in these two villages had cast their votes in the booths set up in their villages in the last elections, subsequently panchayat elections could not be held there due to law and order issues.

(Sourced from SNS)