Despite stiff opposition from villagers and anti-Posco activists, the Jagatsinghpur district administration on Saturday dismantled 41 betel vines with the help of police force at Gobindpur village for the proposed Posco project.
In the morning when the administration resumed the land acquisition process with help of police force, stiff resistance was made by the villagers and anti-Posco activists forcing the police to resort to lathicharge that left many injured. The police too arrested two injured persons, Kalpataru Mantri and Surendra Mohanty, in this connection.
District Collector Satya Kumar Mallick “clarified” that the Government lands which were illegally grabbed by the villagers were taken back into possession using minimum force. Earlier, the district administration had acquired 2,000 acres of land out of the required 2,700 acres for the mega Posco steel project.
The Collector said, “The reaming lands will be occupied within two to three days. later, it will be handed over to the (State-run) Idco for starting of constructions of a boundary wall for the Posco project.”
Sources said the anti-project outfit, the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) is organising an internal meeting to chalk out its further strategy to protest the land acquisition process, which is in its last phase.
The PPSS activists are also planning to move the National Human Rights Commission and court of law against the “police brutality”, sources said.