Cops leaving school-shelter near Posco site

KENDRAPARA (Orissa): Chastised by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), the Jagatsinghpur district administration is now vacating the school building accommodating armed cops for about two years to maintain law and order in the proposed Posco steel plant site.

NCPCR had paid a visit to project villages earlier this month and asked the Orissa government to take immediate steps to withdraw police forces who were being given shelter in schools in the Posco project site area.

Earlier the matter relating to use of school buildings for police shelter had come under judicial scrutiny with the Orissa High Court serving show cause notice to the state government. The matter is sub-judice with verdict awaited.

With the project locked up in a resistance movement, a section of guardians had sought the high court's intervention while stating that the presence of police is adversely affecting the academic activities.

The government-run Balitutha primary school had become temporary home for armed constabulary since the past 19 months when the resistance movement against the steel project was at its peak.