October 16, 2008

Anti POSCO activists protest through Bol Bom Yatra

KalingaTimes reported that as thousands of people across Orissa were going on the annual Bol Bom Yatra, which was organized under the banner of Udyam Yuva Sangathan, a youth organization to worship Lord Shiva in different temples. The report added that another group of youths from Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa recently took out a similar journey to the Lingaraj temple opposing the proposed 12 million tonne steel plant of POSCO India in the State.

Calling their protest journey as Sanskruti Suraksha Bol Bom Yatra, the youths collected water from Gadagadia Ghat on Mahanadi River at Cuttack and walked barefoot towards Bhubaneswar. They took a vow to continue their opposition to the POSCO steel project. However, unlike the Bol Bom devotees who wear traditional religious clothes, the anti POSCO activists wore T shirts with slogans such “No to POSCO” and “POSCO Hatao, Desh Bachao” the activists said the Korean company should leave the country.

The activists who hailed from the three gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang, where people were facing displacement due to the proposed steel plant, said that they would continue their opposition the steel project in the days to come. The activists said it would not only displace thousands of people and affect their livelihoods, it would also create severe water crisis in their district by using the water from Mahanadi. The activists further said the POSCO steel project would also affect the livelihoods of thousands of tribal in Keonjhar district as the Korean company had plans to extract iron ore from Khandadhar hills.