Four employees of the South Korean steel giant POSCO, taken hostage by villagers opposed to a proposed 12-billion-dollar plant, were released unharmed, police said Saturday. The four - three South Koreans and an Indian - had gone to the village for survey work when they were snatched by anti-POSCO campaigners, police said.
The kidnap was the second such incident this year in the coastal state's Jagatsinghpur district, where the plant is planned. "The four were released by the anti-POSCO campaigners following written assurance by the seized officials that they would not visit the villages in future without prior clearance," police official Amarendra Panda told AFP.
"No force was used. The officials were treated well by the protesters and not harmed," Panda said by telephone from Dhinkia village, 180 kilometres (112 miles) from Orissa state capital Bhubaneshwar.
Residents of Dhinkia armed with bamboo sticks guard the entrance to the village, to keep out what they call the three Ps - police, POSCO and prashasan, the Hindi word for administration. In May, villagers held three POSCO employees captive for 10 hours, releasing them after an appeal from a senior company official, activists said.
Activists say up to 4,000 families would be displaced by the 4,004-acre (1,600 hectares) plant, but POSCO says only 500 families will be affected. POSCO, the world's fourth largest steelmaker, says it is confident that construction will begin this month, but some villagers say they will fight for their land to the end.
The conflict among villagers facing eviction here is part of a growing and often violent discontent in India over land acquisition as the government in New Delhi pushes for industrial development.
The POSCO project represents India's largest foreign direct investment, dwarfing the 2.9-billion-dollar Enron power plant in Maharashtra state. It says the plant will create 18,000 jobs over the next 10 years. But the South Korean firm has struggled to acquire the land it needs amid the continuing protests by villagers. Opponents say plants should not be set up on fertile land.
POSCO has tried to sweeten the deal, insisting that displaced families will get "preference" for employment and other forms of compensation in exchange for their land. But activists say most of the 4,000 families who they say face displacement in this coastal district remain opposed to the project.
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