Land acquisition for Posco project suspended till Friday

Anti-project body says will intensify stir; recalcitrant villagers block government entry

Even as the Jagatsinghpur district administration has suspended land acquisition for the Posco project for the next five days (for a local festival and holidays), the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organisation spearheading agitation against the mega steel plant of the South Korean firm, says it will intensify its stir.

Saying land was being taken at gun-point, their supporters among the land losers of trouble-torn Gobindpur, whose betel vines were allegedly demolished without taking their consent, rebuilt the vines and vowed not to receive any cheque from the administration towards compensation.

The administration did not conduct any land acquisition exercise today, but sources said the women and children of Gobindpur, who have been put on the first line of the human barricade blocking the entry of officials and police into the village, continued with their vigil.

The anti-Posco activists, led by PPSS leader, Abhya Sahu, today conducted a preparatory meeting with villagers on strategies to stop forcible demolition of betel vines when the land acquisition process resumes this Friday.

It was decided that state and national leaders from five political parties — CPI, CPI (M), Forward Bloc, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Samjawadi Party — and other anti-land displacement leaders would be invited to participate in the stir.

The villagers of Gobindpur accused the police of attacking land losers and acquiring land at gun point. Said Satrughan Behera: “Police officials beat me and my wife, Rebati, when we protested forcible demolition of our betel vines. We have vowed not to give any land to the Posco project, so there is no question of receiving cheques from the administration”

The administration had demolished 37 betel vines at Gobindpur during the past two days and disbursed Rs 8.25 lakh to six land losers, while 31 land losers refused to receive their cheques.

However, the administration denied reports of forcible land acquisition. The entire exercise is being done peacefully with the cooperation of the villagers, said additional district magistrate Sarojkant Choudhury.

District superintendent of police S Debdatt Singh said, “The intention of the police is not to use force on the agitators, as they are conducting their stir democratically.”

He, however, warned that police may use force if the agitators interfered in the acquisition process on forest land.

Meanwhile, United Action Committee (UAC), a pro-Posco outfit, has stopped the sand levelling work at Nuagaon and Gadkujang panchayts for the past two days, complaining that the administration had failed to fulfill its commitment to provide contract work to locals. They alleged the administration gave the work for sand levelling to an outside contractor.

UAC president Anadi Rout has sought the intervention of the revenue divisional commissioner, central range, on this issue. Asked, Block Development Officer Murlidhar Swain said local contractors had no special class licence, so contract work haf been given to a contractor with the qualification.