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| Farmers at Posco project site threaten suicide |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar Nov 09, 2009, 00:46 IST |
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Hundreds of farmers who have been unable to cultivate paddy in their fields for the past four years at Dhinkia and Gobindpur villages in the proposed site of Posco’s mega steel plant near Paradip in Orissa due to the ongoing clashes between anti and pro-Posco activists have threatened to commit suicide.
Sources said, they have been driven to desperation because of their inability to pay back the crop loan due to abject poverty.
Dhinkia and Gobindpur villages in Jagatsinghpur district have been the hotbed of conflict since the signing of MoU (memorandum of understanding) between the Orissa government and Posco in 2005.
More than 51 families of Patana village under Dhnkia panchayat have left their village due to alleged torture by the anti-Posco activists. They have been living at the Posco transit colony for the past three years.
Similarly, 30-40 families have quit Gobindpur in the past one year due to the clashes between the pro and anti-Posco activists.
“I had availed a loan of Rs 25,000 from Allahabad Bank and a cooperative bank but I am unable to repay the amount as my six-acre plot has not been cultivated due to the attack by the anti Posco activists”, says Sarat Swain of Dhinkia village.
Nirvaya Samantray, Sarat Swain and other farmers of Dhinkia village said that more than 200 acres of land have been rendered barren due to non cultivation of paddy crops in the past two to three years.
The woes of the farmers have been compounded by the fact that neither the state agriculture minister nor the administration has made substantial efforts to restore normalcy in Dhinkia and Gobindpur villages.
The efforts of district administration to finalize packages through Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) meeting would not be successful until normalcy is restored at Dhinkia and Gobindpur villages, said Samantray.
Hundreds of poverty stricken farmers led by Samantray have submitted a memorandum to the district sub collector at a grievance meeting held in Erasama on Saturday. These farmers have threatened to commit suicide if the administration does not take steps for cultivation of their land.
Murlidhar Mallick, the district sub-collector said the administration has received their complaint relating to non cultivation of land and steps are being taken to solve the farmers' woes. Meanwhile, the incident of bomb hurling on Saturday at the trouble torn Gobindpur village, the proposed site of the Posco steel project has left the villagers panic stricken.
Sources said two bombs were hurled at Gobindpur village in the state's Jagatsinghpur district last night. No case of casualty has been reported but the pro-Posco activists claimed that the incident was the handiwork of the anti-Posco activists.
Anil Mishra, the inspector in charge of the Kujang police station said, “No one is yet to lodge an FIR on the bomb hurling incident. The possibility of storage of bombs by the anti-Posco activists cannot be ruled out.”
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