[Attachment(s) from Syed Tanveeruddin included below]
Subject: dastardly attack on peaceful anti-posco protestors in jagatsinghpur, orissa/odisha
To
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg,
New Delhi-110001
A. Complainant's Details
1. Name: Syed Tanveeruddin
2. State: Karnataka
3. Full Residential Address: , , , Siddharthanagar, Mysore - 570011 Karnataka
4. District: Mysore
5. Pin Code: 570011
B. Incident Details
1. Incident Place: Jagatsinghpur
2. State: Orissa / Odisha
3. District: Jagatsinghpur
4. Date of Incident: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 01:30 PM
C. Victims' Details:
1. Name of the Victims: People of Jagatsinghpur (district in Orissa / Odisha State)
2. Number of victims: People of Jagatsinghpur (district in Orissa / Odisha State)
3. State: Orissa
4. Full Address: Jagatsinghpur district, Orissa / Odisha
5. District: Jagatsinghpur
6. Pin Code:
D. Brief summary of facts/allegations of human rights involved: As mentioned in full detail below.
G. Designation & addresses of the public servant against whom Complaint is being made:
01) District Collector, Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa / Odisha
02) Superintendent of Police, Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa / Odisha
H. Designation & address of the authorities / officials to whom the public servants are answerable: Chief Secretary (CS), Government of Orissa/Odisha.
I. Prayer / Relief sought: Backing off of the Orissa Government backs from the POSCO project and saving Orissa and the country from loot and plunder of non-renewable iron ore and destruction of thousands of livelihoods of natural resource dependent communities and wildlife, which the POSCO investment comprehensively represents. Stopping / Stoppage of the dastardly attacks on communities resisting POSCO. Scrapping of the POSCO project to protect the economic and ecological security of India. Stern action against the goons who attacked the villagers, and those who actively and complicity supported them in the police and Orissa administration.
The emails from the Environment Support Group (ESG) and POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi / PPSS (POSCO Resistance Struggle Committee) have been reproduced below in a sequential order for reference.
Subject: Call your MP: Demand action against the dastardly attack on communities peacefully resisting POSCO investment
From: ESG India <esgindia@gmail.com>
To: esglist <esglist@lists.esgindia.org> bangalore_issues <bangalore_issues@lists.esgindia.org> envtl_justice <envtl_justice@lists.esgindia.org>
Cc: ecwatch <ecwatch@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 15, 2011 1:07 am
Request Urgent Action: Please share with friends, family and colleagues
Dear Friends,
We share with you the horrible news of a dastardly attack on the people of Jagatsinghpur district in Orissa earlier today. These communities have been peacefully resisting for over 6 years now against the proposed POSCO project: the single largest steel-power-mining-township-port infrastructure project conceived in recent decades. (Please review the email received from POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi that provides details of this attack, below.)
Absolutely designed to loot the natural iron ore wealth of the country to support the prospects of POSCO, a South Korean enterprise predominantly held by American corporations and wealthy individuals including Warren Buffet, this project will destroy some of the most sensitive coastal and forest ecosystems of Orissa, and simultaneously decimate the livelihoods of thousands of natural resource dependent families.
Former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh controversially approved the project's environmental clearance, even when the expert committees that he appointed advised him against it. The experts had argued on carefully constructed grounds that all evidence provided by Orissa Government and POSCO to justify the project's positive outcomes were found to be comprehensively wrong. Even so, Mr. Ramesh justified his highly questionable and controversial stand by claiming that the project served the "strategic" interests of India, admitting as well that he was under pressure from the Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Orissa.
The High Court of Orissa was approached subsequently to set right the wrongs committed by the Central and State Governments, as they had effectively created a "rightless people" out of the communities affected by POSCO's investment. But the Hon'ble Principal Bench which heard the matter over three weeks chose not to intervene in an interim direction. Several months later, final arguments on pending cases are yet to be initiated.
The consequence has been that communities who have been justly resisting this absolutely scandalous project, and peacefully so for over 6 years now, have been repeatedly attacked by goons. This while the police and Government representatives have simply stood by and watched.
Abhay Sahu, the leader of the resistance, was recently arrested on several trumped up charges (at least three dozens of cases have been falsely filed against him), and he languishes today in prison. This is the second time that he has been so jailed; the previous time he was in prison for 11 months based on trumped up charges that he is a threat to the nation.
Earlier today (on Wednesday, December 14, 2011), over 500 goons have attacked the hapless women, children, youth, the elderly and the men with weapons and bombs injuring many. At least one is dead, apparently one of the goons. Once more the police watched all this without intervening to protect women and children, and the elderly, and to establish order.
As people across the nation work to rid it of corruption, it must be realised that the worst form of corruption is to engage in violence against peaceful communities who are only fighting for their just rights and for the protection of wildlife and the environment. Any amount of economic development is simply not worth the price if it creates more poor, destroys sensitive ecosystems and benefits foreign corporations and the 1% of the world who are wealthy. In addition, such projects only benefit those with overseas slush accounts to our common detriment.
It is time we troubled the conscience of each and every Member of the Parliament to raise this issue in the august body which is now in session. They are duty bound to ensure that the Orissa Government backs off the POSCO project and saves Orissa and the country from loot and plunder of non-renewable iron ore and destruction of thousands of livelihoods of natural resource dependent communities and wildlife, which the POSCO investment comprehensively represents.
You can find the contact details of our MPs by clicking their name at the following links:
and Rajya Sabha: http://164.100.47.5/Newmembers/memberlist.aspx
You can choose to call any MP, but do call and demand that they must raise this issue in Parliament which is in session. Urge them to pressurise the Chief Minister of Orissa and Prime Minister of India to stop the dastardly attacks on communities resisting POSCO. Demand that they in turn demand that the POSCO project be scrapped to protect the economic and ecological security of India. Ask them to demand stern action against the goons who attacked the villagers, and those who actively and complicity supported them in the police and Orissa administration.
Even as we send this appeal, which is several hours after the dastardly attacks (on Wednesday, December 14, 2011), the news has hardly been picked up by major news channels. Please spare some time and call up your newspaper and TV channel and urge them to cover the issue, actively, as actively as they have covered the debates on the need for the Lokpal Bill.
And please do spare some more time and write to the PM and all others as PPSS has requested below.
People of Jagatsinghpur have valiantly and peacefully resisted this extremely controversial Foreign Direct Investment, day in and day out: over 2200 days. We must spare at least an hour to demonstrate the voice of the people matters, and that our Parliamentarians must pay heed when people urge them to and make Governments accountable.
We urge you to act now!
In solidarity, and expecting your immediate action.
ESG Team
On behalf of the communities affected by POSCO project
PS: Evidence why you should oppose the POSCO investment is available in "Tearing through the Water Landscape: Evaluating the environmental and social consequences of POSCO project in Odisha, India" accessible at: http://www.esgindia.org/resources/reports/resources/tearing-through-water-landscape.html
Please mark a copy of the letters you write to PPSS (address below) and to the following email IDs: esgindia@gmail.com and noposco@gmail.com
PPS: For media evidence of what is the character of this struggle, please watch this video:
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/battleground-posco/206589 (Somewhat dated, but still comprehensive and relevant)
Appeal from POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi (POSCO Resistance Struggle Committee)
Dear Friends,
We are in terrible shock and disbelief having faced more than 500 armed goons engaged by one Mafia don Bapi Circle under the banner of Paradip Industrial development Council and patronized by the police and administration who forcefully entered the sile of our peaceful and non-violent protest around 1.30 pm today (on Wednesday, December 14, 2011) and started attacking us by using bombs and weapons.
As a result, at least eight villagers of PPSS were injured and one of them has got serious injury. From the morning (of Wednesday, December 14, 2011) onwards, more than 2000 villagers were making a peaceful demonstration against the construction of a coastal sea road for POSCO. The private goons who had created a scene of terror yesterday (on Tuesday, December 13, 2011) did a repeat show today (of Wednesday, December 14, 2011). Their own bombs apart from injuring our villagers did also result in killing a member of their own team.
We strongly condemn the conspiracy hatched by the Nabin Patnaik government to engage private militia in order to create a situation of crisis which would demand police intervention. We consider the act as cowardice and no democracy worth its name should tolerate such an act of violence perpetrated by hired goons.
Though the situation is grim and our people are shocked, we are waiting with the same determination to protest peacefully even if the police after creating such a scene tries to enter the village to bulldoze our peaceful and democratic movement.
We request you to please stand up and expose the unethical, unjust and undemocratic means that the state has been using to crush the movement and to make the movement discredited in the eyes of public who don't have a chance to know the real truth behind any act of conspiracy the police and the mafia are hatching everyday.
Please join hands with us, stand by us and support our cause. Please circulate the message as widely as possible. We shall inform you the on-going development here.
Hoping for more solidarity from you.
Prashant Paikary
Spokesperson,
POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti
Mobile no: - 09437571547
E -Mail- prashantpaikray@gmail.com
Please Write and Call.....
1. Mr. Shri Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of India,
Prime Minister's Office,
Room number 152,
South Block,
New Delhi,
Fax: + 91 11 23016857;
Email: manmohan@sansad.in
2. Mr. P. Chidambaram,
Union Minister of Home Affairs,
Ministry of Home Affairs,
104-107 North Block,
New Delhi 110 001 India,
Fax: +91 11 2309 2979 / 23094221
Email: hm@nic.in
3. Justice K. G. Balakrishnan,
Chairperson,
National Human Rights Commission of India,
Faridkot House,
Copernicus Marg,
New Delhi 110001,
Fax: +91 11 2334 0016,
Fax No. 23384863
4. Naveen Patnaik,
Chief Minister,
Odisha,
Fax 0674-2535100
Tel: CM's Pvt. Sec: +91-674-2536762
5. Mr. S. K. Patnayak,
Chief Secretary,
Government of Odhisa,
FAX: 0674 – 2536660
Tel: +91-674 – 2536700, 0674 - 2534300, 0674 - 2322196
6. Mr. Narayan Chandra Jena,
District Collector,
Jagatsinghpur,
Cell+919437038401
Fax No : +916724220299
7. Mr. Debadutta Singh,
Superintendent of Police,
Mobile No: +919437094678,
Email: dmjsp@ori.nic.in
[Environmental, Social Justice and Governance Initiatives]
1572, 36th Cross, Ring Road
Banashankari II Stage
Bangalore 560070. INDIA
Tel: 91-80-26713559-61
Fax/Voice: 91-80-26713316
(The above email from the Environment Support Group - Trust (ESG) and PPSS ends / concludes here itself.)
Evaluating the environmental and social consequences of POSCO project in Odisha, India
Written by Leo F. Saldanha, Bhargavi S. Rao for Environment Support Group (ESG)
27 May, 2011 (Friday, May 27, 2011 / 27-May-2011 / 27-05-2011)
When Indian Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh cleared POSCO project in India based on his "faith and trust" in the Orissa Government's claims that the Forest Rights Act did not apply to the project affected communities, he became a party to one of India's greatest planned environmental and economic disasters.
ESG has produced a comprehensive critique of the weak review of the environmental and social impacts POSCO project, and how this has resulted in making project affected communities into a 'rightless people'.
Download the study: "Tearing Through The Water Landscape" (in 3 parts above, for a total of 2.6 MB) http://www.esgindia.org/resources/reports/resources/tearing-through-water-landscape.html
POSCO
|
Is a South Korean enterprise predominantly held by American corporations and wealthy individuals including Warren Buffet
Proposed POSCO project in Orissa / Odisha
|
single largest steel-power-mining-township-port infrastructure project conceived in recent decades in India
|
absolutely designed to loot the natural iron ore wealth of the country to support the prospects of POSCO
|
will destroy some of the most sensitive coastal and forest ecosystems of Orissa
|
will decimate the livelihoods of thousands of natural resource dependent families
Former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh
|
controversially approved the project's environmental clearance, even when the expert committees that he appointed advised him against it
|
justified his highly questionable and controversial stand by claiming that the project served the "strategic" interests of India
|
admitted that he was under pressure from the Prime Minister of India and Chief Minister of Orissa
Abhay Sahu, the leader of the resistance
|
was recently arrested on several trumped up charges (at least three dozens of cases have been falsely filed against him), and he languishes today in prison
|
he has been so jailed for second time
|
the previous time he was in prison for 11 months based on trumped up charges that he is a threat to the nation
Tanveer
Syed Tanveeruddin __._,_.___
Attachment(s) from Syed Tanveeruddin
1 of 1 File(s)
MARKETPLACE
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