Villagers and elected representatives of Dhinkia Panchyat in the proposed Posco project site near Paradip on Wednesday conducted Pallisabha at Dhinkia to stake claim the rights of traditional forest dwellers under the Forest Right Act and their inclusion as beneficiaries in various government sponsored programs.
The villagers also rejected the proposed diversion of forest land for establishment of the Posco project saying it was a major source of their livelihood.
As per the directive of the state government, Pallisabha was conducted at Dhinkia where hundreds of villagers including women participated. Local ward member Gadadhar Samantray presided over the meeting. Panchyat officials, who were present in the Pallisabha, highlighted the purpose and different rights of villagers under FRA. Later, villagers presented the list of projects under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Employment Scheme and beneficiaries of Indira Awas and Moo Kudia and old age pension schemes. Former sarpanch cum leader of Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS) Sisir Mohapatra presented a proposal not to divert the forest land to facilitate the establishment of Posco project. He placed land records dating back to 1930 when the area was part of the Burdhwan Estate and was described as forest land in the government record.
The land had been given to the people who were in possession since then. They were also paying land taxes for the area, he pointed out. Mohapatra demanded that villagers should be treated as traditional forest dwellers as they were dependent on this land and its produce. Majority of the villagers were farmers, illiterate and had failed to apply for land documents or claims their rights as per FRA. Similarly government had not taken any adequate steps to create awareness among the villagers. In the Pallisabha, villagers strongly protested the proposed diversion of forest land and decided not to hand over the land for the steel project. It may be recalled that Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) had cleared the proposal for diversion of forest land in the Posco project site on January 31st, 2011.
Dhinkia village has 342 hectares of forest land. Pallisabha adopted a resolution protesting diversion of this patch of land. Executive Officer of Dhinkia Panchyat Sridhar Swain said, “Pallisabha was conducted at Dhinkia peacefully as per the guide lines of panchyat raj department. Villagers adopted a resolution protesting diversion of forest land under Forest Right Act and decided not to give up 342 hectares of forest land, which was source of their livelihood.”
It may be noted, the government had earlier decided not to acquire 284 acres of private land from Dhinkia panchayat, the epicenter of anti-Posco agitation. This had brought down the land requirement for Posco plant from 4,004 acres to 3719.22 acre of land. Out of this, the private land was only 152.69 acre while the rest 3,566 acres were government land. Of the government land, 2,958.79 acres are categorised as forest land and 607.74 acres non-forest revenue land. So the government had made all-out efforts for diversification of forest land before handing it over to the company for starting work.