On the occasion of the World Environment Day, the State chapter of Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD) criticised the Government of Odisha for forcibly raising boundary wall over forest land acquired for Posco and demanded recognition of forest rights over those lands of the concerned villages in Jagatsinghpur district.
CSD that is campaigning for implementation of Forest Right Act (FRA) said the Odisha Government should respect the sentiments of the local people.
It said that the FRA 2006 recognizes Gram Sabha as “Gram Sabha Sarkar” over the forest land and since all the 2,700 acres of land said to have been acquired for Posco is revenue forest land falling within the revenue boundaries of 7/8 affected villages, it should be recognized as community forest resource(CFR) under FRA.
It is to be noted that three different official committees i.e., the Saxena Committee, the Posco Enquiry Committee and the FAC had found that the Forest Rights Act had been violated in the Posco area. Besides, on several occasions in the past, the gram sabhas of the area have passed a majority of resolutions against any handover of their lands.
Commenting on the recent decision taken in the High level Clearance Authority (HlCA) meeting to hand over the 2,700 acres land acquired through Idco to JSW Steel limited, the CSD said for ten years the people of the area have been struggling against the illegal seizure of
their lands. If these lands are handed over to Jindal instead of Posco, the government will be committing a further criminal offence under the FRA, the IPC and the SC/ST Atrocities Act.