State faces acid test to open dialogue with Posco-hit villagers

With the anti-Posco activists blocking the entry point of the Posco project site in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa, it is going to be an acid test for the district administration to enter the site to hold talks with the villagers on the issues of compensation and rehabilitation as scheduled on Friday next.

The anti-Posco activists under the Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS) have drawn a lakshman rekha (border line) on the Balitutha bridge, the entry point of the Posco project and have demarcated the site as the no-entry zone for the police and the company officials.

The district administration is now in a quandary to cross the Balitutha Bridge to attend this meeting and is apprehending law and order problems.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the district administration has planned to invite the villagers of the Posco affected areas to another location for the meeting in order to avert law and order problems.

When contacted, Nrusingh Swain, the special land acquisition officer, Paradip said, the district administration has not yet planned to attend this meeting as the officials are busy in the Paradip civic elections.

Meanwhile, Nirvaya Samantray, secretary of the United Action Committee (UAC), purportedly a pro-Posco outfit, has categorically stated that there is no question of attending the meeting in any location other than the Posco affected villages as the compensation package has to be finalized in the presence of the villagers.

Earlier, the UAC members had invited the officials of the district administration to hold talks on the rehabilitation and compensation of the Posco affected villagers on April 9 at 10 am at the Gadakujang panchayat office.

This followed the district administration's initiative to start negotiations with the project affected villagers. The district administration had sent a letter to UAC, asking it to select the date, place and time to hold discussions with the villagers.