No fresh survey for Posco affected people of Dhinkia

The administration has ruled out the possibility of a fresh survey at Dhinkia despite demands of the locals affected by the Posco project who had pressed for a re-survey of the village alleging large scale irregularities in the recently concluded survey.

It has also been decided to set in motion the land acquisition process for the Rs 54,000-crore project, billed as India's single largest FDI, after the finalization of the compensation package.

The compensation package for the affected villagers is slated to be finalized in the meeting of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Advisory Committee (RPDAC) at Jagatsinghpur on Thursday.

“There is no question of another survey at Dhinkia as the survey work has been completed. All the betel vines at Dhinkia have been surveyed and only the beneficiaries are to be identified. The beneficiaries could not be identified as the people did not cooperate during the survey fearing action from the anti-Posco activists”, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central Division) Pradipta K Mohapatra told reporters after a high-level review meeting on the Posco project chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The state agriculture minister Damodar Rout; Jagatsinghpur district collector Narayan Jena as well as the local MP and MLA of Jagatsinghpur were present at the meeting.

The locals had pointed out that owing to the deficiencies in the present survey, around 400 families would be deprived of the compensation package. Mohapatra said, 1075 horticulture trees have been identified during the course of survey and the value of these trees is estimated at Rs 4.71 crore. Besides, the survey has identified 1873 betel vines spread over 304 acres and 32 beneficiaries of prawn gheries over an area of 270 acres.

He stated that the compensation package for the affected villagers will be finalized at the RPDAC meet and the compensation will be worked out as per the state Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy.

On the decision of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) to boycott the RPDAC meet, Mohapatra said, “The presence or absence of PPSS members does not make any difference as they are not the members of RPDAC. The project affected people in all the villages have been consulted on the issue of compensation package.” Narayan Jena, the Jagatsinghpur district collector, said, “The RPDAC meeting will finalize the compensation package for the Posco project. Land acquisition for the project will begin after finalization of compensation.”