India: Update from Anti-Jindal & Anti

From: Prashant Paikray

Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2021, 14:10

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Anti-Jindal & Anti-POSCO Movement, Odisha, India!

The state government run by Mr. Nabin Pattnaik is making brutal police action against our people in order to hand over the 2900 acres of fertile agricultural land to the ruthless Indian steel major Jindal Steel led by industrialist Sajjan Jindal. After POSCO India fiasco which ended by 2015-2016, JSW Utkal Steel Ltd came with its proposal to build 13.2 MTPA crude steel, 900MW captive power and 10 MTPA cement along with 52 MTPA Captive Jetty at the same place.

All these are happening without free prior informed consent of our people and Gram Sabhas, and without following statutory legal procedures. The corporate forces have their clout over government of India as well the state government, so permission for any project is not a problem for them.

Around 2 pm on 20th Dec, 2021, the villagers of Dhinkia made a massive demonstration against the state and police repression at Mahala village border. Suddenly the police came in seven Bolero vans entered into Dhinkia village from back side and started thrashing and beating people. The police came to arrest our leader Mr. Debendra Swain. They picked up his paternal uncle, Ayodhya Swain aged 71, who is a paralysis patient and his daughter Mili Swain 22-year-old daughter. The police slapped false charge against them under Indian Penal Code Sections: 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 294 (use of obscene language), 427 (mischief causing damage), 506 (criminal intimidation). They did not even spare the passerby who asked them the reason for dragging the father-daughter duo out of their house. The police assaulted women and children after entering the village in the name of searching some accused persons.

Our villagers are facing hardships due to the police action. The situation has come to such a pass that the villagers are being asked to show their Aadhaar cards to go out and enter their village. The police have been raiding the village, break into houses, attacking the villagers causing injuries, implicating people in false cases and restricting them to their houses.

We have been witnessing tensions since December 1, 2021 when the local administration officials who had gone to