Anti-project brigade hails order

The anti-Posco brigade in the project affected villages of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gadkujang have welcomed the directive of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to stop all work pertaining to the Posco steel project.

However, the resurvey work and land acquisition for the project continued today despite the directive of MoEF.

The Jagatsinghpur district administration carried on land acquisition work, claiming that they it has not received any communication from the state government to halt land acquisition work.

Sixteen betel vines were demolished at Polang village today by the district administration.

"The district administration has not yet received any directive from the government to stop land acquisition process and it is going on today. The administration has evicted the encroachers from government land after obtaining the consent of villagers”, said Narayan Jena, the Jagatsinghpur district collector.

Meanwhile, the activists of Bhita Mati Surakhya Janmanch (BMSJ), a newly formed pressure group at the Posco site, conducted a meeting at Nuagaon and demanded filing of cases against the district officials who have allegedly acquired the land forcibly from the forest dwellers after imposition of restriction by National Forest Rights Act Committee (NFRAC) during their visit to Posco site on July 24.