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Orissa tribals demand land back, burn trucks
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
PTI
ROURKELA: Armed tribals took to the streets of this steel city and its neighbourhood and set ablaze three trucks and two dumpers on Tuesday demanding that surplus land acquired by the Rourkela Steel Plant about 50 years ago be returned to its owners.
Carrying bows, arrows and axes, the tribals fanned out in different locations in the wee hours and stopped the traffic, official sources said. The tribals set vehicles on fire at Panposh and Beldih areas, they said.
Two local organisations had given a call for an economic blockade from Tuesday in support of their demands.
Rourkela Local Displaced Association and Anchalik Surakhya Committee, which have given the call for the protest, had been agitating for the last 18 months demanding that the Rourkela Steel Plant authorities should restore the surplus land acquired for the project.
The Anchalik Surakhya Committee had also alleged that Rourkela Steel Plant had provided jobs to about 3,000 persons by virtue of false displacement certificates produced by them.
All of them should be identified and thrown out of jobs, while the plant should consider the claim of genuine oustees for employment, Committee president Anand Lakra demanded.
The two organisations had resorted to an economic blockade on April 4, 2004 which had been withdrawn following intervention of the state government. But nothing had happened thereafter, he said.
Lakra also demanded that the land acquired by the Railways and not used so far should also be returned to its owners.
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