The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Wednesday issued a notice to the Orissa government and police for allegedly using a school as camp to fight the villagers opposing land acquisition by the South Korean company Posco.
The NHRC has taken a suo motu cognizance of a media report that the police have occupied a school in Badagabapur village near the plant’s site in Jagatsinghpur.
‘The report, if true, raises a serious issue of right to education of children in Orissa and in particular in Jagatsinghpur district near the proposed Posco steel plant site. We have issued notices to the chief secretary and director general of police of Orissa, calling for their reports in the matter within four weeks,’ an NHRC statement said.
The media report said the students are scared of going to the school because of the arms stocked by the police in the premises.Instead of regular teachers, contractual and ill-trained teachers were appointed, the report added.
