Land acquisition begins at project site amid protests

The resurvey and land acquisition for the Rs 54,000 crore Posco steel project in Orissa today kicked off amidst warning from a visiting Central team that the process is ‘illegal’ and will attract action under section 7 of the Forest Rights Act (FRA).

The resurvey and land acquisition by the government officials at the Posco site is ‘illegal’ as it is being done without complying to the provisions of the Forest Rights Act, said Ashish Kothari, member of a Central panel constituted jointly by the Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to look into FRA violations in different states of the country.

The team, which visited the Posco site, is convinced about violation of FRA provisions on administering other traditional forest dwellers rights and convening of palli sabha for getting the consent of villagers on forest land diversion.

The officials, who are going for land acquisition before complying with the Act, will face action under section 7 of FRA, Kothari warned.

But defying this warning, the officials of Jagatsinghpur district administration and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Orissa (Idco) today started the resurvey and land acquisition at Bhuyianpal village under Gadkujang panchayat in the presence of police forces.

“We have begun acquiring government land in possession of individuals at the Gadakujang panchayat area after proper verification. Two persons, Rohit Behera and Basant Behera of Bhuyanpal village, were among the first to receive cheques of Rs 1.15 lakh each for their land of over ten decimal area used for cultivation of betel vines”, said Saroj K Choudhury, additional district magistrate of Paradip. The work was progressing smoothly without trouble, he clarified.

The United Action Committee (UAC), a pro-Posco outfit which had earlier agreed for the resurvey following negotiations with the district administration, opposed the resurvey for what it termed as wrong measurement of betel vines.The surveyors are measuring the betel vines from ‘fence to fence’ by using GPS, instead of ‘stay to stay’ through the traditional method. This would cause huge loss to the beneficiaries of betel vines, said Basudev Behera, panchayat samiti member and Nakula Sahoo, the sarpanch of Gadakujang panchayat.

They said, UAC had agreed to cooperate on conditions like measuring of betel vines by tape and not by machines, measurement of betel vines from 'stay to stay' instead of 'fence to fence' and enhancement of compensation, but they now feel betrayed.UAC secretary Nirvaya Samantray criticized the administration's move to demolish the betel vines forcibly and said the committee is determined to intensify its stir against the GPS resurvey.