Posco project: displaced betel workers left unpaid

While owners of the betel vines acquired for the POSCO steel project have been compensated, many of the labourers have gone unpaid in the absence of a genuine list of them.

After the process of enumeration of the labourers got underway, the administration in Jagatsinghpur district, where the mega project is coming up, is in a quandary over how to identify the bonafide betel vine workers left out of the livelihood support package. 

Doubts have been raised over the workers' list handed by the vine owners as many alleged that the growers were enlisting members of their own families to reap the benefit of compensation.

"The list is voluminous and thus suspect, frankly speaking. We reckon the owners have resorted to foul-play", a senior district administration official said.

About 600 betel growers are already receiving compensation after their vines were procured for the steel project.

We are ready with funds to make up for the loss of income suffered by betel vine workers. Once enumeration of workers is over, they will get the due sum, besides a monthly subsistence allowance," Nrusingha Swain, Special Land Acquisition Officer, said.

Forced out of work, the mainly landless workers have been pushed to the corner with their only means of livelihood snatched away.

However, the district official has assured justice for the genuine workers, promising that the multi-layered enumeration process would be made to undergo rigorous scrutinies.

After official scrutiny, the list would be forwarded to Palli Sabha (village body) for approval. The administration has also engaged agriculture and horticulture personnel in making the enumeration process foolproof.

The labourers are entitled to receive 20 per cent of the total compensation sum paid to the landowners. The sum would be disbursed in equal proportion among the labourers engaged in the plantations.

Besides, each member of the labourer's family would receive Rs 2,500 monthly subsistence allowance till the project work is completed.

After the betel vines were demolished, we are left with no work. Delay in compensation award has made our lives miserable. I do not know if I will figure in the list of compensation receivers," Dayanidhi Behera (56), a labourer from Noliasahi village, said.