(15 Jan 2014) Dozens of demonstrators gathered in the Indian capital New Delhi on Wednesday to protest against plans by the South Korean steel giant POSCO, to build a 13 (b) billion dollar plant in eastern India.
The rally, outside the Ministry of Environment and Forests, coincides with a four-day visit to India by South Korean President, Park Geun-hye.
Some of the protesters carried banners and placards and yelled "South Korean President go back".
They complain that the plant in Orissa threatens the rights and livelihoods of those living nearby.
"We chose this day to register our opposition, our protest, on the issue of negligence of human rights in the area of Orissa," said Shweta Tripathione, an activist from the Delhi Solidarity Group.
The Orissa project requires about 4,000 acres (1,620 hectares) of land for the plant which is expected to produce 13.2 million tonnes (12 million metric tonnes) of steel per year.
The project has been met with fierced opposition by human rights groups.
In October last year a UN panel of experts urged POSCO to suspend plans because it threatened the rights and livelihoods of tens of thousands in the area.
In June, a New York-based rights group said land seizures threatened to displace 22,000 people.
POSCO denied that anyone had been forcibly evicted from private land.
The company said the government was clearing only encroached land and giving due compensation for removing crops and aquaculture ponds.
It said 90 percent of the project area was government owned.
Mineral-rich Orissa as been trying to woo investors, both foreign and Indian, by giving them mining rights, and utlities at low prices.
But the move to acquire farm and forest lands has run into violent protests, with many farmers and forest-dwellers saying the project would leave them without homes, jobs and possible access to clean water.


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