NCP calls for withdrawal of cops from Posco site

BHUBANESWAR: The State unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has demanded immediate withdrawal of police from the Posco project site and ironing out differences on land acquisition through discussion with the agitators.In an open letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, State unit president UtkalKeshari Parida said that conditions for the revised memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Posco should be decided by the State Governmentafter taking various political parties and civil society groups into confidence.Advising the Chief Minister to visit the project site and discuss their problems, Parida said the threat issued by Women and Child Development Minister Anjali Behera against the agitating children should also be withdrawn. The NCP demanded that a high-level committee, comprising representatives frompolitical parties, various rights groups and non-government organisations(NGOs), to go through all the MoUs signed by the State Government on industry, education and port sectors. The committee should verify whether the MoUs with its conditions have safeguarded the interests of the State.General secretaries Sidhartha Das, Prasanna Lenka and Manu Choudhury andpresident of the youth wing Badri Narayan Mohanty were signatories to theletter.