By IANS
Jagatsinghpur (Orissa) : Steel maker Posco India’s chairman Soung Sik Cho Friday visited the company’s proposed plant site in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district amid protests.
Anti-Posco protesters claimed that at least a dozen of their activists sustained injuries in an alleged attack by pro-Posco activists. The police and Posco officials however denied any such attack and said the visit was peaceful.
It was Cho’s first visit to the area after Posco, one of world’s biggest steel makers, signed a deal with the Orissa government in June 2005 to set up a $12 billion plant near the port town of Paradeep in Jagatsinghpur district.
Cho visited three villages – Nuagaon, Gadakujang and Noliashai where residents are opposing the project and are not ready to give up their land.
He also visited some local temples. Many villagers welcomed Cho and other Posco officials, local liaison officer of Posco, Basanta Jena told IANS.
“Twelve villagers were injured when both the pro and anti Posco groups clashed at Dhinkia, one of the villages visited by Cho,” anti-Posco leader Abhaya Sahoo said.
“Over five hundred villagers including women protested his visit,” he said.
Over 20,000 people from around 15 nearby villages including Dhinkia, Gada Kujanga and Nuagaon are protesting the project, saying it will displace them and ruin their betel leaf farms. Posco says the plant would affect only 500 families but it would create thousands of jobs.