Please sign the petition: Release Abhay Sahu and scrap the POSCO project!

Dear all,

Please sign and circulate widely this petition.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freeabhaysahu

You may

Shri Naveen Patnaik,
Chief Minister of Orissa,
Naveen Nivas, Aerodrome Road, P.O. Bhubaneswar
Distt. Khurda, Pin -751001
E-mail cmo@ori.nic.in
Office Phone 0674-2531100, 2535100, 2531500
Office Fax 0674-2400100
Residence Phone 0674-2590299

Principal Secretary to the CM, BK Patnaik: 2536682, 2322164
Email: cmo@ori.nic.in
Shri M.C. Bhandare
Governor of Orissa
Raj Bhavan
Bhubaneshwar
Phone: 0674-2536111, 0674-2536582

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/freeabhaysahu

Release Abhay Sahu and scrap the POSCO project!

We the undersigned strongly condemn the arrest of Abhay Sahu, the leader of the anti-POSCO movement in Orissa and condemn the attack of the Naveen Patnaik government on democratic people’s movements.

Abhay Sahu, the visionary leader of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti was arrested unwarranted by the Orissa police near Pattamundai in Jagtsingpur district in the evening on 12 October 2008 on his return from the hospital after a medical check-up. The same night he was sent to the Central Jail in Choudwar in Cuttack district. Despite his fragile health condition, he was not given any medical help till the evening of 15 October 2008.

The motive of the state government behind Abhay Sahu’s arrest can clearly be seen as an attempt to repress people’s fight over their traditional and constitutional rights to lands and livelihoods and to divert public attention from attacks on Christians in the state so that it goes on unabated.

Orissa has been reeling from crisis lately. The bare statistics reveal that 180,000 people have been displaced by recent floods because of the ‘presence’ and mismanagement of dams; at least 50,000 Christians made refugees by Hindutva hate campaigns and killings.

It is shocking how the anti-POSCO movement has been virtually censored from the media and has faced titanic odds during the past three years. Nevertheless, the movement has succeeded in delaying the construction of a gigantic steel plant along with a new port on Orissa’s coast, which will render thousands of people landless and jobless.

The main aim of the POSCO project is to get iron ore from a magnificent mountain in North Orissa called Kandadhara (Sword’s Edge): an extraordinary peak with dense primary forests and rich biodiversity inhabited by adivasis for millennia, where one of India’s highest waterfalls falling down a cliff face is visible from miles away. The mining giants , through the eyes of the state’s myopic vision, can only see the reserve of iron ore underneath. The fact that so much forests and wildlife and so many tribes have already been devastated by mining in North Orissa does not seem to count!!!!

It’s a well-known fact now that the Naveen Patnaik government is selling Orissa for a song, caring little about the gross human rights violation and environmental crimes associated with it.

The POSCO project is a gigantic corporate crime, an attempt by a multinational corporation to seize the land and resources of the people and of the nation. The POSCO project will hugely benefit no one except POSCO itself. Moreover, the state government’s moves to hand over the land are illegal and a criminal offence under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

When serious violence erupted, on 29 November 2007, and bombs were thrown by goons at a crowd consisting largely of women, senior IAS officer, Priyabrat Patnaik, made a statement on TV, “Those people [who oppose the project] have been taught a lesson.” Shouldn’t he have been immediately dismissed from service for inciting and glorifying violence in a democracy while holding a responsible position???

By arresting Abhay Sahu, does not Naveen Patnaik send out the message that Orissa and its innocent people be damned, no one will be allowed to stand in the way while metal and mining giants plunder the state’s natural resources and pauperise its people with the help of the government?!?!

The police had filed numerous false cases against the leaders of non-violent struggles, while taking no action against those responsible for several violent attacks on the people of the area. The malafide cases against Abhay Sahu will now be used to unjustly detain him, in order to silence him and to intimidate those opposed to the project: a practice the state administration has been scrupulously displaying wherever there is dissent against its destructive development agenda.

It seems that silencing Abhay Sahu is more important than containing the ensuing communal violence by the state government.

It is extremely essential, for the survival of Indian democracy, that Abhay Sahu be freed immediately and the POSCO project be cancelled.

We call on the Naveen Patnaik government to

————————————————————————-
In solidarity,

Subrat Kumar Sahu
New Delhi

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October 17, 2008 | Filed Under solidarity 

Comments

One Response to “Please sign the petition: Release Abhay Sahu and scrap the POSCO project!”

  1. Jagdeep Singh on November 29th, 2008 1:52 am

    Please release the people who are struggling for the benefit of the nation and arrest those who are fighting against the interest of the country

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