The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Saturday demanded reversal of the Government’s decision to renew the stand-alone environmental clearance for POSCO’s steel plant. In a statement, the party said: ``This has been done by a sleight of hand de-linking the proposals of `captive port’ and `mining’ of iron ore from the proposal of the steel plant.’’
Pointing out that the original proposal at POSCO was for an integrated project, the CPI said delinking the other parts gives rise to the suspicion that at a later date clearances would be given on a piecemeal basis. For more than eight years, villagers led by the POSCO Pratirodh Samiti has been resisting the acquisition of land in a designated forest area. ``It turns out that even now only 1,703 acres out of the original demand of 4,000 acres are in the possession of POSCO as claimed by it. The idea is to force the people out of their land bit by bit,’’ the statement said.
Stating that the CPI was not against development, the statement said the Government should take note of the popular resistance and also the opposition of the National Green Tribunal under the Forest Conservation Act. ``It should not ride rough-shod over all this opposition in the name of development. We are all for development with people’s consent.’’
