Posco land acquisition runs into protest hurdle

Land acquisition for the Posco steel project at Gobindpur and Dhinkia villages may be postponed indefinitely due to stiff resistance from villagers.

The district administration’s dilemma on whether or not to resume land acquisition at the trouble-torn villages is compounded by the recent beeline of political leaders, civil right activists and anti-land acquisition proponents to the project site.

While Swami Agnivesh and a delegation of the state Congress visited Gobindpur yesterday, a team of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from the state had gone there today. Among those scheduled to visit the site over the next few days to express solidarity with the anti-Posco agitators are Medha Pathekar, all India Sarvodaya leader, Amarnath Bhai, chief of Ekata Parishad B C Rajgopal, Banmalilal Sharma of Azad Bacchao Andolan and Radha Bhat, president of Gandhi Peace Foundation. According to sources, the administration did not want the visit of these activists and political leaders to be marred with any trouble. It thus, decided to put on hold the land acquisition process for some time.

Additional district magistrate (Paradip) Saroj Kant Chaudhry said the administration was still undecided about resuming the land acquisition at Gobindpur from tomorrow. “We are waiting for the instructions from higher authorities,” he said.

State industry minister Raghunath Mohanty, however, blamed the weather for the halt in land acquisition. He said the land acquisition would be resumed when the weather conditions became conducive. The administration had already acquired 2,100 acre of the 4,004 acres required for the project.

Of the three panchayats-Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadakujang-in the Posco project site, the administration's land acquisition at Nuagaon and Gadkujang panchyats were almost incident free. It, however, met with stiff resistance at Gobindpur on the boundary of the Dhinkia panchayat, known to be a stronghold of anti-Posco brigade Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS).

A human wall, with children and women at the forefront, blocking the path of revenue officials and police at the boundary of Gobindpur village, the administration has stopped land acquisition there since June 12. However, before discontinuing the drive, the officials demolished 37 betel vines on the fringe of Gobindpur and paid Rs 8.25 lakh compensation to eight people who had lost their land, while 29 others refused to receive compensation as a mark of protest. These people have, since then, rebuilt their betel vines with the help of 40 PPSS volunteers.

Other factors which compelled the administration to stay away from an aggressive posture on land acquisition was the absence of district collector Narayan Jena, who is on leave, and a petition filed by Nishakar Khatua and five others of Gobindpur village in the Orissa High Court seeking the quashing of a forest clearance granted to the project by the Union ministry of environment and forests and stalling the acquisition. The next hearing on the matter is scheduled for June 23.

A team of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, led by its state vice-president Bimbadhar Kunar, visited Gobindpur and interacted with people who had lost their land. They also held discussions with PPSS leaders and extended their support to anti-Posco agitation.

PPSS, on its part, held three different meetings among children, women and young boys separately, to arrive at strategies to stop the back-door entry of police and officials to acquire land in the area.