Posco land acquisition halted due to bad weather

Congress, NCP, Left urge state govt to refrain from forcible land acquisition

Even as land acquisition work on the Posco project was halted today due to heavy rains, a host of political parties including the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), RJD, Samajwadi Party, CPI, CPM and Forward Bloc urged the state government to refrain from forcible land acquisition for the project.

Meanwhile, noted social activist Swami Agnivesh, who joined a dharna in Bhubaneswar to protest land acquisition for the Posco project, said, “land should be acquired only with the consent of the farmers.” He is expected to visit the Posco site tomorrow.

The Congress has decided to sent a fact finding team to the Posco site tomorrow to show its solidarity with the anti-Posco agitators, who today continued with their dharna at Gobindpur braving heavy rains.

AICC general secretary (in-charge of Orissa), Jagadish Tytler said here that his party, as desired by Rahul Gandhi, is opposed to ‘forcible’ land acquisition anywhere.

In an interesting twist, the leaders of NCP which had entered into a seat sharing arrangement with the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) before the last assembly elections, today criticized the government for ‘forcible’ land acquisition at the Posco site.

NCP leader Arun Dey, who visited Gobindpur today, joined the social activists, members of civil society and the anti-Posco outfit- Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS) to give a call for the formation of an enquiry committee to know the reality of the list of villagers who have given their consent for dismantling of betel vines by the district administration.

The NCP leaders alleged that out of the demolition of about 500 betel vines, 300 betel vines are fake and officials have misappropriated lakhs of rupees by showing false betel vines in pen and paper.

PPSS led by its president Abhaya Sahu conducted a meeting in which all leaders reiterated their resolve to continue opposition to forcible land acquisition process at any cost.

Former legislator cum Congress leader Bijaya Nayak who hails from Gobindpur village, has criticized the district administration's move to acquire land forcibly.

In a parallel protest, the activists of five political parties- CPI, CPM, Forward Bloc, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) staged a dharana in the city to oppose the alleged forcible land acquisition work of Posco.

Meanwhile, the land acquisition work which was scheduled to resume today after a five-day break, was postponed till Saturday due to heavy rainfall.

“Though the revenue officials were ready to start land acquisition work, it had to be cancelled at the last moment due to incessant rain. If the weather condition improves, our teams will be pressed into service to start land acquisition from Saturday,” said Kujang tahsildar, Basudev Pradhan.

“Due to incessant rainfall, the land acquisition work has been suspended today and it will restart from tomorrow,” said Sarojkant Chaudhury, the additional district magistrate of Paradip.

Earlier, the administration had deployed at least seven medical teams and as many as ten platoons of armed policemen at the Posco project area to start land acquisition process at Gobindpur.

Hundreds of villagers including women and children had formed a human barricade at the project site to bar the entry of officials.