Even as land acquisition work on the Posco project was halted due to heavy rains, a host of political parties, including Congress, NCP, RJD, Samajwadi Party, CPI, CPM and Forward Bloc urged the state government to refrain from forcible land acquisition for the project.
AICC general secretary Jagadish Tytler said his party, as desired by Rahul Gandhi, was opposed to ‘forcible’ land acquisition anywhere.
In an interesting twist, the leaders of NCP, which had entered into a seat-sharing arrangement with the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) before the last assembly elections, criticized the government for ‘forcible’ acquisition at the Posco site.
NCP leader Arun Dey, who visited Gobindpur, joined the social activists, members of civil society and the Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS), giving a call for the formation of an enquiry committee to know the reality about the villagers who had given their consent for dismantling of betel vines by the district administration.
The NCP leaders alleged that of the demolition of 500 betel vines, 300 were fake and officials had misappropriated lakhs of rupees by showing the false ones in pen and paper. Led by president Abhaya Sahu, PPSS conducted a meeting wherein all leaders reiterated their resolve to continue their opposition to land acquisition by force at any cost.
Former legislator and Congress leader Bijaya Nayak, who hails from Gobindpur village, has criticized the district administration's move to acquire land forcibly.
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In a parallel protest, the activists of five political parties — CPI, CPM, Forward Bloc, Samajwadi Party and RJD staged a dharana in the city to oppose the alleged forcible land acquisition.
The acquisition work, scheduled to resume yesterday a five-day break, had been postponed till on Saturday due to heavy rainfall.
Earlier, the administration had deployed at least seven medical teams and 10 platoons of armed policemen at the Posco project area to start land acquisition process at Gobindpur.
Hundreds of villagers, including women and children, had formed a human barricade at the project site to bar the entry of officials.
Agnivesh demands immediate shifting of project site
Noted social activist Swami Agnivesh has demanded immediate shifting of the Rs 52,000-crore Posco project, three km from the trouble-torn Gobindpur village, where nearly 7,000 acres of barren land is available.
Agnivesh has also decided to meet PM Manmohan Singh and environment minister Jairam Ramesh, demanding an end to the forcible land acquisition and shifting of the project site.
Agnivesh, who spent the last night with panic-stricken villagers at Gobindpur, realised the villagers of three P anchayats, including leaders of the anti-Posco outfit Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS), were not protesting the mega steel project but demanding shifting the same three km from Gobindpur. Shifting the project site would ensure there is no displacement and loss of cultivation.
He sat on a dharana with the school children, women and villagers of Dhinkia Panchayat on Saturday, protesting forcible land acquisition.
Later, PPSS conducted a protest meeting where Agnivesh and Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee leaders attended the meeting to stop forcible land acquisition and express solidarity with the agitating villagers.
Addressing the gathering, Agnivesh said, "About 4,000 families had been earning their livelihood by undertaking cultivation on forest land in three panchayats since generations. The government has no right to evict them forcibly".