PRAFULLA DAS
The agitation against land acquisition for the Posco steel plant intensified in this seaside gram panchayat in Jagatsinghpur district on Sunday, with the villagers damaging an approach road to the area earmarked for the project.
Led by Abhay Sahu, chairman of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, which has been spearheading the protest since July 2005, more than 150 people from different hamlets in Dhinkia went out with spades and other tools and damaged the ‘kuchha' road leading to the project site from the Paradip port, which is a few km away.
The PPSS activists decided to damage the road, which runs along the coastline, after the Chairman of the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) and the Director-General of Police took the same road to reach the site on Saturday.
The IDCO plans to make the road a ‘pucca' one as it will act as an approach route to the 4,004 acres earmarked for the Posco's steel plant and captive port near the mouth of the Jatadhari river.
“We will continue our agitation peacefully. We will not hand over an inch of land for Posco in our locality at any cost,” Mr. Sahu said.
Talking of the visit of the DGP and the IDCO Chairman to the area, Mr. Sahu said: “It clearly shows that the State government is readying for applying force to evict people from their land and homes.”
Land acquisition
In August last year, the State government halted the land acquisition process after an order from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. But after the Ministry granted conditional environmental clearance recently, the government is now planning to resume land acquisition after giving an assurance to the Ministry about the people claiming to be dependent on the forestland.
But the villagers are in mood to allow the government to resume the work; they have erected six bamboo gates at the entry points of their gram panchayat to prevent officials, Posco employees and the police from entering their hamlets.
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