The last phase of land acquisition for the controversial Posco project in Jagatsinghpur district ended on Thursday.
Paradip ADM Surajeet Das informed that on Thursday, the Jagatsinghpur district administration dismantled 25 betel vines.
In the last phase, the rest 700 acres of land from Gobindpur village were acquired. All the acquired lands will be handed over to IDCO soon, said Das.
The State Government has so far demolished nearly 400 betel vines in the proposed plant site villages and already transferred 2,100 acre of land for the Posco project. The steel major requires 2,700 acre of land to start construction of its eight MTPA steel mill in the first phase.
On the other hand, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) alleged that in spite of heavy protests by the locals, the Government continued to acquire land forcibly. The betel vine owners were beaten up and their vineyards were destroyed at gunpoint, while the police used physical force to continue the demolition drive, it charged. “Our people protested and refused to give in. However, the policemen mercilessly beat them up and pulled them away from the betel vines. Even they didn’t allow our villagers to take back our necessary tools like motor pumps and polythene sheets etc from the farm land,” said a PPSS activist.
PPSS spokesperson Prashant Paikary said, “The administration is playing double standards. They are using police force to acquire land, while making false claims that work was going on with the consent of the people. Our villagers have intensified the stir during the last few days and vowed not to hand over a single inch of land.”
The PPSS leaders alleged that Posco and the Jagatsinghpur district administration officials have managed to convince the poverty stricken farmers of the area to give up their betel vines by promising them higher compensation compared to the payments made earlier which lured even many of the PPSS activists to surrender their betel vines. However, protesting the hypocrisy, they vowed that the agitation would continue till the project gets scrapped.