Two days after the semi-nude protest by anti-Posco agitators, Odisha police has registered a case against three women and president of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) Abhaya Sahu on charge of obscenity in public.
“The case has been registered at Abhaychandpur police station under section 294 (a) and other sections of the IPC,” Jagatsinghpur Superintendent of Police Satyabrata Bhoi said on Saturday, adding that appropriate action will be initiated against the women and Sahu.
Meanwhile, the women belonging to both pro and anti project groups, held separate meetings to chalk out their respective strategies.
PPSS’s women’s wing -- “Durga Bahini”, at a meeting this morning resolved to take extreme steps to ensure withdrawal of Posco project.
“Now we can go to any extent to ensure stopping of the project on our fertile land,” said Durga Bahini chief Manorama Khatua, who was among the three women against whom the case had been registered. She said the women would henceforth guard the entry gate to Dhinkia area with their male counterparts to ensure no more demolition of betel vines.
The pro-project group of women at a separate meeting condemned the semi-nude protest by members of the Durga Bahini. They demanded immediate arrest of PPSS leader Abhaya Sahu accusing him of instigating innocent women to strip in public.
The meeting chaired by Anju Dalei said the women of the entire district hung their heads in shame for the semi-nude protest by a group of women belonging to Durga Bahini.
Meanwhile, there was calm in the area as the administration had stopped land acquisition activities for two days.
Though police was deployed at a distance from the proposed plant site area, the agitators feared that the personnel might target Dhinkia village, the epi-centre of anti-Posco agitation.
Jagatsinghpur District Collector who had been directly monitoring land acquisition activities, claimed the state government had been taking possession of land with mutual understanding of the dispossessed. He blamed vested interests for misleading the innocent farmers.
“Appropriate action will be taken against the mischief mongers under the law,” he said.
