Police in India fired teargas to disperse a violent protest against the construction of a steel factory in the east of the country, officials said on Wednesday. More than 250 armed policemen held back hundreds of protesters at Bhushan Steel plant in Dhenkanal district in Orissa, the latest in a series of clashes between industry and the rural poor threatened with displacement. “They tried to enter forcibly into the prohibited area,” said Arun Sarangi, a deputy inspector general. “When police tried to prevent them they turned violent and pelted stones forcing police to disperse them by beating them up with batons and burst tear gas.” A dozen protesters and six policemen were hurt, police said. Villagers said about 50 protesters were injured. Villagers are obstructing the completion of the boundary wall at the plant, which is already partially operational and will produce 6 million tonnes of steel a year when completed. They say they want jobs and better compensation for giving up their land for the factory. In 2005, Bhushan paid displaced families 60,000 rupees ($1,400 at the current exchange rate) for each acre of land, said Rudra Narayan Pani, a member of the India's parliament who is leading the protests. At other projects in the state companies have paid a much higher rate of compensation, he said. A Bhushan spokesman said the company had paid adequate compensation in keeping with government guidelines. Thousands of villagers in another part of Orissa have been protesting, sometimes violently, against a steel plant planned by South Korea's POSCO, and last year briefly kidnapped POSCO officials on two different occasions.
