1. POSCO
• Dhinkia, Nuagaon,
Gadkujang; Jagatsinghpur
District, Orissa -POSCO
Pratirodh Sangram
Samithi, a peaceful
movement of affected
communities, has been
systematically raising the
deep, inter-generational
and irreversible impacts of
allowing a massive project
to come up in the
ecologically sensitive
Jagatsinghpur district of
Orissa.

2. Anti Posco Movement, Orissa
This struggle began with the inking
of a most controversial MOU
between Orissa State and Korea's
Pohang Steel (POSCO) in 2005,
proposing to establish the largest
industrial project ever conceived in
human history:
A 12 MTPA steel plant backed
by captive power plant; a captive
port
(described as "small" but designed
to receive the largest commercial
ships ever built - of CAPESIZE
variety); a large township to
accommodate over 100000 people;
a large captive mine in Kandadhar
(600 MT for local processing and
400 MT for export over 30 years);
fresh water intake from over 100
kms. away (while denying many
towns and cities drinking water)
and extensive road and rail
infrastructure to support the project.

3. Ecosystem
• The 4000 acres of land
chosen for the plant site
comprise of pristine coastal
and deltaic ecosystems,
with active nesting sites for
the critically endangered
Olive Ridley Turtles and
the Horse Shoe Crabs.
Over a third of this land
comprises of coastal
forests. Over 22000 people
will be directly displaced by
the steel plant alone, a
number that has been
repeatedly disputed by
Orissa Government based
on its spurious claims.

4. Amid betel vines, Orissa villages draw battle
lines
• Absolutely no impact
assessment of any academic
rigour worth its salt or regulatory
review of value considering the
mega scale of this project, has
at all been conducted to support
the project is environmentally
and socially useful. In fact, the
so-called Rapid Environment
Impact Assessment reports
prepared by M/s Dastur for
POSCO India, was only for 4
MTPA steel production and not
for the entire project as is
required by law.

5. Traditional livelihoods threatened
• Cultivators of betel vines, rice and
cashew nuts in Dhinkia village, in
the coastal part of the state, are
protesting the steel plant because
they fear losing their livelihoods. A
cultivator at present earns between
25,000-30,000 rupees ($561-$673)
a month by selling betel vine
leaves, which are used to wrap
paan, a bundle of spices and
sometimes tobacco that is chewed
as a digestive. They consider this a
job better than the one promised
as a laborer at the proposed steel
plant. “Work in the steel plant won’t
be as good as betel vine farming,
which gives us a decent earning by
just working eight to 10 days a
month,” says a cultivator

6. Fraudulent clearances
• Clearly against statutory
standards and norms, the
project was still accorded
environmental, forest and
coastal regulation zone
clearances in 2007. In
addition, the Orissa
Government engaged the
National Council for Applied
Economic Research
(NCAER) to cook up data
claiming the benefits from
the project as phenomenal,
which when verified even
cursorily proved to be junk
statistics supporting
desperate political games
promoting the project.

7. Review of clearances
• Mr. Ramesh agreed to constitute a sub-Committee
under the N. C. Saxena Committee reviewing Forest
Rights Act implementation, to also enquire if the
POSCO project's forest clearances were compliant
with the Forests Rights Act enacted only in 2006.
• Producing their report the Committee put beyond any
reasonable doubt that the forest clearances
accorded were in comprehensive violation of the
Forest Rights Act. A right step taken soon after by
the Minister was to stay the forest clearance
accorded - a decision taken that was taken at a time
when brutal dislocation of forest dwelling
communities was underway by the Orissa
Government.
• Subsequently, Ramesh ordered an independent
enquiry into all aspects of the project's clearance
coordinated by Ms. Meena Gupta, former MoEF
Environment Secretary, with Mr. Devendra Pandey
(IFS, Retd.), former Director of Forest Survey of
India, Mr. V. Suresh, Advocate and PUCL activist
and Dr. Urmila Pingle, expert on tribal affairs, as
members.

8. Review of clearances
• Following three months of deliberate and
extensive consultations, and also detailed
investigation into all aspects of the
clearances accorded, and on the basis of
detailed verification of compliance review
files the Committee by a majority decision
(3:1) comprehensively rejected all the
clearances granted to the project. Ms.
Meena Gupta who stood up for the POSCO
project, dubiously recommended additional
conditions to adjust against serious statutory
violations and fraud in the decision making
process
• In the subsequent review by Statutory
Appraisal Committees of the MoEF, the
Committees reviewing the Forest and
Coastal Clearances recommended
withdrawal of clearances granted. The only
Committee that proposed a go-ahead was
the one reviewing the environmental impacts
under the EIA Notification.

9. Villagers resist Posco land acquisition drive
• POSCO, though a Korean company, is held
largely by American corporations, and no less
than Warren Buffet holds 5% stake in this
transnational corporation. For the single largest
project FDI investment in India at 2005 prices
(Rs. 51,000 crores or USD 12 billion capital
cost), analysis reveal that this investment can
be recovered in less than a decade given the
pittance of a royalty that POSCO will pay for
iron ore extracted. (Rs. 30/tonne at the official
ore valuation of Rs. 300/tonne, compared with
the commercial value of Rs. 7,000/tonne).
• It is to make such unprecedented profits from
the plunder of India's natural resources that
POSCO demanded a coastal location for its
super large CAPESIZE ships to be berthed to
cart away our precious iron ore.
• What India would be left with is the toxic
residue of its dirty ore processing, while the
refined ore (perhaps not even the finished
steel) would be exported to Korea and
elsewhere to add more value to POSCO's
profits.

10. The struggle continues
• Since May, over 2,000 children,
men and women have been
forming human barricades around
Dhinkia village, in the coastal
district of Jagatsinghpur,
according to local activists.
• The struggle against POSCO in
Jagatsinghpur will continue. The
struggle against exploitation of
tribal, farming and fishing
communities of Orissa will
continue. The battle to expose
corruption in the Orissa
Government and the Union
Government (especially MoEF)
will continue.
• This is a struggle to expose the
most corrupt and socially and
environmentally disastrous deal
ever legitimised in India's history.