District administration makes inroads into anti-Posco stronghold

The Jagatsinghpur district administration today achieved a major breakthrough in Posco land acquisition work by making inroads into Gobindpur village, considered to a be stronghold of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organization spearheading the anti-Posco agitation in the state for over six years.

Land acquisition at Gobindpur was an uphill task for the district administration as the village had witnessed clashes between the pro-Posco and anti-Posco activists.

After being convinced by the revenue officials, the villagers of Gobindpur finally agreed to demolish their betel vines and hand over land for the Posco steel project.

Special land acquisition officer, Nrusingh Swain said, many villagers of trouble torn Gobindpur have shown their interest to demolish betel vines to get compensation as a result of which our team has touched the village's boundary today and also demolished two to three betel vines village in a ‘symbolic’ gesture without any protest’.

He informed that in toto, the district administration demolished 51 betel vines at Nuagaon, Bhuiyanpal, Bayanalkanda, Polang and disbursed a total compensation of Rs 75 lakh to the beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, the Orissa High Court has deferred its hearing on the case of alleged violation of Forest Rights Act (FRA) at the project site to Thursday.

The state government and Posco India authorities have filed their responses to the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the High Court, opposing Posco land acquisition work and alleging violations of FRA at the project site.