BHUBANESWAR (India), Oct 27: Hundreds of people marched in eastern India on Monday to protest against a plant being built by South Korean steel maker POSCO, police said, the latest in a series of protests delaying the project.

Waving flags and placards, villagers and activists from several political parties demanded the release of at least three anti-POSCO leaders arrested in Orissa state earlier this month.

India’s Supreme Court ruled in August that POSCO could use large tracts of forest land to build the $12 billion plant — the country’s largest foreign investment.

Villagers say the construction will force them off farmland and displace about 20,000 people.

The protests reflect a larger standoff between industry and farmers unwilling to give up land in India, where two-thirds of the population depends on agriculture for a living.

POSCO and the state have said the plant, in the Jagatsinghpur district of the mineral-rich state, will create jobs in an impoverished part of the country.

“POSCO will start the work as soon as some administrative process gets completed,” Avinash Tiwari, a senior POSCO official in Orissa, said on Monday.

But villagers have refused to hand over land and political parties have joined them in regular protests against POSCO.

Protesters, including dozens of women, waved red flags and squatted on a road near the police headquarters in Cuttack city, close to the state capital, on Monday, police said.—Reuters