After a lull of one and half years, the Odisha government has resumed the land acquisition drive for the beleaguered Posco steel project near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district. But with the project opponents stiffly opposing the move, tension prevailed in the area.
Aided by 12 platoons of police, the officials of state revenue department and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) on Sunday entered the trouble torn Gobindpur village in the Posco site to acquire a patch of 700 acres of land, crucial for start of work on the project.
Out of 4004 acres required for the 12 million tonne plant, the company has said, it can start work on the first phase comprising 8 million tonne if it is handed over a contiguous patch of 2,700 acres. The state government already has 2,000 acres in its possession.
The officials of Jagatsinghpur district administration and Idco, along with police forces, moved into Gobindpur village in the wee hours of Sunday. Hearing this, hundreds of villagers, belonging to the camp of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), tried to prevent their entry leading to a scuffle between the two sides.
Police later resorted to lathicharge in which 18 anti-Posco activists were injured. Four of the injured including three women were reported to have been seriously hurt.
For the last two weeks, PPSS had intensified its agitation and formed a human shield involving women and children to thwart any attempt by the administration to enter the Gobindpur village. But they were taken off-guard by the on Sunday’s early morning operation.
“The police entered the site about 5 AM on Sunday and started beating the protesters who were sitting there since Saturday night”, said Sisir Mohapatra, a PPSS leader.
The district administration, however, denied the charges. “There was no clash at all at the site. About 20 people tried to block our way. But they left the place after police warning. There is absolutely no disturbance in the land acquisition process,” said Sujit Das, additional district collector, Paradip.Continuing its land acquisition drive, the administration on Sunday dismantled 13 betel vines constructed on the government land and disbursed compensation of about Rs 20 lakh to the farmers.
Later, hundreds of anti-Posco activists led by local CPI MP, Bibhu Prasad Tarai conducted a rally at Patanahat and squatted on dharna demanding withdrawal of police force and halt to forcible demolition of betel vine.
The Jagatsinghpur district collector Satya Kumar Mallick said, “The land acquisition process in Gobindpur was going on peacefully with the consent of villagers and we have deployed police force to protect the villagers from the threat of PPSS”.
The leaders of six political parties-Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD, CPI, CPM and Forward Block on Sunday held a meeting at Gobindpur where they severely criticized the administration for “forcible” acquisition of land for the Posco project.
