Posco site survey from today

The Jagatsinghpur district administration has made elaborate arrangements to start socio-economic survey of the site area of the Posco's proposed 12 million steel plant near Paradip from Tuesday.

The survey, however, will leave out the Dhinikia revenue village, the epicenter of anti-Posco agitation in the area.

Meanwhile, the revenue inspector office in the Posco project site area which was closed since February 22, 2006, because of the protest of anti-Posco activists, expected to reopen tomorrow for start of survey work.

It may be noted after receiving five charters of demands including 29 sub demands from United Action Committee formed by the Posco project affected villagers, the district administration and Posco company authorities had sought cooperation of the local villagers to conduct survey work in the project site to assess the compensation packages.

Responding to their request UAC had decided to cooperate district administration in survey work after due consultation with the villagers.

UAC held meetings with the villagers of Gobindpur, Nuagaon, Gadakujnag and Noliashai between Saturday and Monday in the course of which the concerned villagers gave their consent to the start of survey work in the project area.

UAC member Tamil Pradhan said, the villagers have agreed for survey work to ascertain the forest areas, extent of encroachment of government land, number of families affected, number of trees, institutions, ponds and other assets standing in the project site.

However, the villagers have put restriction on the entry of Posco officials and opposed the land demarcation process during the survey.

Meanwhile, the district administration has made all arrangements for the smooth conduct of survey work smoothly in project area.

As villagers of Dhinkia are protesting against the project, this village will be left out from survey in the first phase.

Earlier, the district administration had formed 12 teams consisting of five officials with additional tahsildars, revenue inspectors, and amins under the team leader of Kujang tahsildar to carry out the survey, which will continue for 15 to 20 days.

On the other hand, police has tightened security in Posco project area to make the survey incident free. It is learnt that 18 platoons of police forces have been deployed in Posco project areas since 19th November violence to avert any untoward incident in the area.

Anti-Posco leader Abhya Shaoo said, people opposing the Posco project in Gobindpur, Noliashai, Nuagaoan and other villages will protest against the socio-economic survey in the site area being conducted by the district administration with the help of pro-Posco supporters.

Contacted, Kujang tahsildar Debasis Singh informed that sixty revenue officials including revenue inspectors will be engaged to complete the survey work within 15days and it will cover all three panchyats Gadakujang, Nuagaon and Dhinkia leaving Dhinkia revenue village.