Forcible land acquisition: 5 parties on dharna

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BHUBANESWAR: Demanding immediate withdrawal of police force from the proposed plant site of Posco plant near Paradip, five politic..

BHUBANESWAR: Demanding immediate withdrawal of police force from the proposed plant site of Posco plant near Paradip, five political parties on Thursday launched a daynight dharna here even as project related works were stopped in Jagatsinghpur for the fifth consecutive day due to opposition from locals. Activists of CPI, CPM, Forward Bloc, RJD and Samajwadi Party held stage a demonstration jointly before sitting on a dharna on Mahatma Gandhi Marg near the Secretariat.
Accusing the Government of terrorising antiproject protesters by deploying armed police close to their dharna site, CPI State secretary Dibakar Nayak and Dushmanta Das of the CPM said people of the State would not forgive the Chief Minister for trying to crush the peaceful movement of the people through force. "The State Government's efforts to use force in order to break the peaceful and democratic protest could prove costly," said Samajwadi Party State leader Rabi Behera adding their dharna would continue during the night also.

The five parties also criticised Chief Secretary BK Patnaik who termed children's participation in the antiPosco agitation as illegal and demolition of betel vines as routine work of the district administration.

Meanwhile, government officials were prevented by the villagers when they reached Nuagaon gram panchayat to fell trees. A Congress delegation also visited the area and extended support to the ongoing agitation saying the project should not be allowed in fertile land.