by Santosh Digal

A new plant should be built in the Indian state by South Korea’s POSCO steelmaker. It is expected to create new jobs and generate industrial development. However, the local Church insists that neither should be achieved at the expense of local residents.

Bhubaneswar (AsiaNews) – Industrialisation “is a good thing but it should not be done on the back of people. It is not right to think that, in order to build plants and create jobs, we can expel people from their land using force. The government cannot do that. The Church supports the right to protest peacefully, also because those who endure such abuse are marginalised communities of farm workers and labourers,” said Fr Ajay Kumar Singh, an activist in the archdiocese of Cuttack- Bhubaneswar.

The clergyman spoke to AsiaNews about plans by a South Korean steel maker, POSCO, to build an integrated steel plant in the state of Orissa at the cost of 53 billion rupees (US$ 12 billion).

According to Mgr Lucas Kerketta, bishop of Sambalpur, “the government should be more concerned about the needs of its own people rather industrialisation.” For him, “solutions to issues like relocation, resettlement and employment can found amicably”.

In order to get the project off the ground, Orissa’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told the Union (federal) government and POSCO executives that the state would provide about 4,000 acres of land, including 3,500 that are publicly owned. However, the residents of the three gram panchayat (villages) of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujanga located in the remaining 500 acres are opposed to giving up their land.

Today, police was deployed in the Kalinganagar where it demolished some houses. In the afternoon, a rally was held to protest this kind of action.

According to the chief minister, this is a unique opportunity and should not be lost. The steel plant will bring jobs and development to the entire area.

According to a National Council of Applied Economic Research study, the POSCO project would benefit Orissa.

“The project is expected to generate 29.760 billion rupees in additional output for the state. In terms of value addition, it would contribute 11.5 per cent to the State Gross Domestic Product by 2016-17,” the report said.

The study also says that over the next 30 years the project would generate 870,000 additional jobs across all sectors of Orissa’s economy.

However, for Fr Singh, all this is being done “on the back of locals. The Church is on their side and reminds the government that human, not industrial development is the first objective to pursue.”

“The state of Orissa is acting like an agent for the company,” he lamented. “The affected land is being farmed; it is already productive. Why give it away?” he asks.

• india
• orissa
• posco
• south
• korea
• steel
• company
• dhinkia
• nuagaon
• gadakujanga
• kalinganagar
• lucas
• keretta
• sambalpur
• industrialisation
• development