At least two persons were injured when the police resorted to lathi charge villagers opposing the establishment of a mega steel plant by Posco India Private Limited in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district on Wednesday.
The police also arrested two persons on the charges of obstructing government officials from discharging their duties.
The incident took place when hundreds of residents of Nuagaon village staged a dharna on the main road to their village, to prevent administration officials from carrying out survey work for the proposed steel mill.
Wait till talks end
The villagers, who have been opposing displacement by the 12 million tonne capacity steel plant project for the past five years, have been opposing survey work saying that the State government should stop the work till talks between the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central) and the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti get over.
Meeting on June 5
A meeting between the two sides was held at Cuttack on May 29, and the next round of talks is scheduled to be held on June 5.
The Orissa government has earmarked 4,004 acres of land in three Jagatsinghpur gram panchayats for the proposed plant.
But no land has been acquired for the project till date due to stiff opposition from the locals, who were demanding that the site be shifted to another place.
