Five persons of Noliasahi, one of the affected villages of the Posco project, were injured when the pro-project activists clashed with the contractors of neighbouring Nuagaon village over boundary wall construction for the steel project.
In parallel, hundreds of irate villagers gheraoed the Abhayachandrapur police station by sitting on a dharana, demanding arrest of the accused persons and stopping of trench cutting for boundary wall.
While trench cutting and other Posco related work has been halted in Gobindpur, Nuagaon, Polang, Gadkujang and other project affected villages due to restriction imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and stiff resistance of the villagers, some contractors of Nuagaon allegedly started digging trench for foundation of boundary wall at Noliashai from Thursday.
Despite protest by the villagers, contractors of Nuagaon led by Saumendra Nayak forcibly dug the trench at Noliashai at wee hours today. The condition of one of the injured, Damodar Behera is stated to be serious.
“We have given assurance to the villagers to stop trench cutting work. The police have also formed a committee to restore peace and is investigating the case to take action against the errant contractors. After getting the assurance, villagers called off their stir,”, said Anirudha Routray, inspector in charge (IIC) of Abhayachandrapur police station.
The disgruntled villagers have argued that their long-standing demands including hike in the rate of compensation, job opportunities, award of contract work to local youths and raising the rate of subsistence allowance of betel vine growers are yet to be fulfilled.
They have also demanded subsistence allowance for all 172 identified betel vine labourers. Since these demands are yet to be fulfilled at Gobindpur, Nuagaon, Polang and Gadakujang, Posco related work has been completely stalled in these villages.
Nirvaya Samantray, secretary of United Action Committee (UAC), a pro-Posco outfit, flayed the contractors for trying to suppress the voices of the affected villagers.
Any Posco related work should be allowed to continue only after discussions and consultation with the villagers, he said. The Rehabilitation and Periphery Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) on Posco had prescribed payment of compensation to the betel vine labourers at the rate of 20 per cent of the compensation paid to the vine owners and disbursement of subsistence allowance of Rs 2,250 per month to each labourer up to one year or till he is engaged by the company. However, these benefits are yet to be provided to the jobless workers by the company authorities or the administration.
