Posco survey work begins today

With the talks between the leaders of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organization spearheading the anti-Posco agitation in the state, and the Revenue Divisional Commissioner yet to take off, the Paradip MP Bibhuprasad Tarai has sought the intervention of chief minister Naveen Pattnaik to stop the socio-economic survey for the Posco project which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

The district administration, meanwhile, has geared up to start the survey work at the proposed Posco site and the process is expected to continue for about two weeks.

The district collector Narayan Jena, however, clarified that the survey work will not be taken up in Dhinkia, the stronghold of PPSS. The survey will be conducted in the rest areas for which the United Action Committee, a purportedly local based pro-Posco organization, has agreed to extend its cooperation, he added.

The local MP, Tarai said, “There was proposal that 5 representatives of PPSS would hold talks with the RDC but this has not yet started. I have requested the PPSS leaders to list the names of representatives to meet RDC on this issue”, said Tarai.

“I want smooth discussions between the PPSS leaders and the district administration to find out the solution. The decision of the administration to start survey from Tuesday without the consent of the villagers would aggravate the situation. The discussions between PPSS leaders and the administration would be meaningless, if survey would start before the talks”, he added.

Earlier, the chief minister had convened a meeting with the local MP and MLAs to resolve the Posco issue and had requested Tarai to negotiate with anti-Posco activists. It was decided that RDC and the district administration will meet the representatives of PPSS in the presence of Tarai to sort out all out all issuesregarding the Posco project.

When contacted Special Land Acquisition Officer of Paradip, Nrusingh Swain said, “The administration has taken all arrangements to start survey work at Nuagaon and Gadkujang panchayats from Tuesday. No information has come from the chief minister’s office to stop Posco survey work till now”.

The administration has formed six teams to expedite the survey work. Each team has 5 members under the supervision of either a tahsildar or additional tahsildar.

They will verify the last survey conducted by the district administration in 2008 and assess the valuation of betel vines and other crops.