Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Tuesday demanded a
CBI probe into the police operations at the Kalinga Nagar
industrial hub and Posco`s proposed plant site near Paradip.
"We want CBI to probe both the Kalinga Nagar incident,
in which a tribal died, as also police action against
anti-Posco activists at Balitutha near Paradip last week,"
Rajya Sabha member Balbir Punj told reporters after a BJP
parliametary delegation led by him visited both the areas.
Punj said since the man Laxman Jamuda died under
mysterious conditions and his body was not handed over to his
family, a CBI probe was needed. He also demanded Rs 10 lakh in
compensation for the next of kin of the man.
"The two incidents show that the Naveen (Patnaik) government is
acting as an arm of corporates and promoting their interests
ignoring people`s wishes," he said.
Claiming that the police cracked down in unprovoked
manner on peaceful agitators at the proposed Posco site near
Paradip and Kalinga Nagar, the BJP leader said "instead of
trying to evict people forcibly to grab their land for
industrial projects, the government should talk to people."
BJP, he said, would raise the issue in both houses of
Parliament and also in the Orissa Assembly, besides
launching a country-wide campaign and taking up the matter
with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
He said the BJP team, which included MPs Nishikant
Dubey and Rudranarayan Pany and was accompanied by Orissa
party president Jual Oram and party`s national secretary
Dharmendra Pradhan, would give a report to the central
leadership.
PTI
