Orissa tribals join anti-Posco protests

BHUBANESWAR: A group of tribals belonging to primitive Dangaria Kandh community from Orissa's Niyamgiri area on Thursday joined the villagers' protest against land acquisition for the $12 billion Posco steel project in the state.More than 20 tribals visited the protest site in Jagatsinghpur district and expressed their solidarity to the villagers, a protest leader told IANS. The Dangaria Kandh tribals from Kalahandi district have been fighting for past many years to protect the Niyamgiri hills in their region from mining operations.The tribals, armed with traditional weapons, came in a procession to the protest site near Govindpur village and joined the villagers who have formed a human barricade to prevent entry of governemnt and company officials to the proposed site of the 12 million tonnes per annum capacity steel project.Thousands of villagers, including hundreds of women and children, have blocked the entry point to the site for several weeks even as the government declared their assembly as illegal.Bari Pidikaka from Dangaria Kandh said his community will extend all necessary support to the villagers who have been fighting to protect their farms and home lands from Posco.The union environment ministry last year rejected London-listed Vedanta group's bauxite mining project at the Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district, saying it would affect the Dangaria Kandh tribals living in the area."The support of the tribals who have successfully fought the Vedanta mining project in Kalahandi has given us moral strength," an anti-Posco agitation leader said.Orissa signed a pact with the South Korean steel major in 2005 for the 12 million tonnes per annum steel project near port town of Paradip, about 120 km from here, the largest foreign investment in India.At least 2,900 acres of the total 4,004 acres required for the project is forest land. The state officials claimed they have already acquired half of the required land where the construction activities are in progress.While the project continues to face opposition from thousands of people led by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), an anti-displacement group, the government which halted land acquisition in the trouble area June 14 said it will now focus on the lands already acquired.