Villagers confront the country’s biggest minerals project
Last week we reported on the resistance by hundreds of villagers, seeking to prevent seizure of their land and betel nut groves in Orissa. They are literally lying down in the face of the biggest proposed foreign industrial enterprise India has seen (or suffered) since the British “Raj” – that of South Korea’s POSCO iron and steel corporation. See:- http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10964.
Breaking news appears to say that India’s Orissa state has stopped acquiring land for the steel plant because of these protests, further delaying what is the single largest foreign direct investment into the country. “It has been halted indefinitely,” S.K. Chaudhuri, the official in eastern India, told Reuters. “We are waiting for further instructions from the (state) government.” See: http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFDEL00390920110621
Two recent articles expose several comparitively hidden aspects of this issue, which has grabbed attention throughout India, and explore how these protests are part of the time-honoured Gandhian tradition of nonviolenct direct action. See: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10990