Vine workers at Posco site to be paid on May 1

The rehabilitation package for the project had prescribed payment of compensation to the workers at the rate of 20%

In a step that promises to improve the lot of deprived labourers who lost their livelihoods after dismantling of betel vines for the Posco project, the Jagatsinghpur district administration has decided to pay them maintenance allowance on May 1, coinciding with the Labour Day.

The rehabilitation package for the Posco project, approved by the Rehabilitation & Periphery Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC), had prescribed payment of compensation to the betel vine workers at the rate of 20% of the compensation paid to the vine owners. There was also a provision of disbursement of subsistence allowance of Rs 2250 per month to each labourer up to one year or till he is engaged by the company. But the jobless labourers were yet to get these benefits.

“The district administration interacted with Posco officials regarding the disbursement of allowance to betel vine labourers. We have decided to disburse the allowance to labourers of Noliashai in first phase on ‘Labour Day’. The rest would receive their allowance after their identification”, said Jagatsinghpur collector Satya Kumar Mallick.

After scrutiny and verification, nearly 172 betel vine labourers have been identified in Noliashai, Polang and other project affected villages under Gadkujang panchayat. Besides this, identification of the rest labourers is continuing and the process is expected to be completed very soon.

Sources said that 631 betel vines were pulled down for acquiring land for Posco steel project in Nuagaon and Gadkujang panchayats in the last three years. While the district administration had disbursed Rs 10.48 crore compensation to vine owners, those working in the vines have received nothing till date.

This had seriously impacted the livelihoods of hundreds of labourers who were languishing due to want of allowance. The workers have also been persistently demanding payment of maintenance allowance. The betel vine owners had earlier submitted the list of workers engaged in their plots.

In parallel, the district administration proceeded on its land acquisition drive for the Posco project, dismantling 14 betel vines and paying compensation of Rs 22 lakh. Also, 256 fruit bearing trees were axed and compensation of Rs 3.87 lakh was paid.

The land acquisition went ahead despite stiff opposition from the anti-Posco outfit- Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), which staged an agitation, demanding an end to what they termed forcible land acquisition.