Scrap Posco Project: Binayak Sen

BHUBANESWAR: Human rights activist Dr. Binayak Sen on Saturday demanded immediate scrapping of the Posco project. He said the State Government was going out of its way to support the company. Sen was delivering the fifth Loknath Memorial Lecture here. Sen said the State Government was turning a blind eye to people’s sufferings in the name of industrialisation. He said the State Government had submitted an undertaking in the High Court that it would not use force to press its case as far as land acquisition for the Posco project was concerned. “But with beginning of the land acquisition and deployment of security forces, it has become evident that the promise has been broken,” he said. Sen also flayed the Government for suspension of Dhinkia Sarpanch Sisir Mohapatra on charges of conducting palli sabhas illegally. Sen, who returned from South Korea after receiving the Gwangju Award for Human Rights for 2011 a week back, said he had raised the Posco issue at the award ceremony which was also attended by the South Korean Prime Minister. Speaking on sedition charges levelled against him, Sen said the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has launched a nationwide campaign demanding repealing of the “black laws” in the country, including laws on sedition, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Stating that the governments use sedition provisions to target people opposing it, Sen said PUCL would submit a memorandum to Parliament with 10 lakh signatures demanding abolition of the law.“We are planning to submit the memorandum with signatures of a million people to Parliament in the Winter Session,” Sen said.