12 Engineering Students Detained For Vandalising JSW Office In Paradip

Paradip: Paradip Police picked up 12 more engineering students late on Tuesday for interrogation in connection with ransacking of the office of JSW Steel here over its ‘failed promise’ to provide jobs to locals.

Earlier in the afternoon, 10 engineering students of Student Organisation of Biju Patnaik University (SOBU) were arrested and forwarded to the court.

Notably, the members of the SOBU on October 15 this year had staged a dharna at the JSW demanding jobs for the local youths in its proposed multi-projects in Jagatsinghpur district. They had even met the Paradip ADM on December 16 and given him an eight-day ultimatum for immediate recruitment.

As there was no response either from the JSW or the ADM, about 200 students of SOBU barged into the JSW office on Tuesday and ransacked the office properties.

The irate students later went to Model Police Station to lodge a complaint against the company. Police had to resort to mild lathi-charge to disperse them from the police station.

Following a complaint by the JSW officials, police arrested 10 students in the afternoon on the basis of the CCTV footage and forwarded them to the court.

“We have detained 12 more students for indulging in the violence. Nearly 70 were involved in it and efforts are on to trace the rest,” additional SP, Paradip, BC Mishra told the media on Wednesday.

The multi-project of the JSW include an integrated steel plant of 13.2 MTPA crude steel, 10 MTPA cement grinding unit, a 900-MW captive power plant and an all-weather multi-cargo greenfield jetty for handling capacity of 52 MTPA at Jatadhari.

The state government had allotted the land acquired for the Posco steel project in Jagatsinghpur district to JSW Steel in September last year for its proposed mega steel plant in the state.