Following the intervention of the state minister for women & child development Anjali Behera on the use of women and children as human barricades to stop Posco land acquisition work, the Jagatsinghpur district administration has sent a team to Gobindpur village on Monday to conduct an enquiry into the matter.
The use of women & children as human shield by the anti-Posco brigade to halt land acquisition work at the project site had evoked sharp reaction from the minister who had asked the district administration to probe into the matter and submit a report within 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the District Child Welfare Committee led by its chairman Ramnrayan Das visited the area and found thin attendance at the schools as majority of the students were busy in opposing the Posco land acquisition work along with the anti-Posco activists.
The parents have allowed these children to participate in the protest and they should be penalized as rights of the children have been violated, Das said.
Nearly 500 children have been mobilized by the anti-Posco brigade to form a barricade on the outskirts of Gobindpur village and bar the entry of officials to carry on land acquisition work.
Four government run schools- Dhinkia High School, Dhinkia Primary school, Patana Primary School and Gobindpur High School wore a deserted look due to absence of children of Dhinkia panchayat.
Similarly, another team led by district social welfare officer, Kumuduni Sahu also visited Gobindpur today to conduct an inquiry about this matter.
They also visited the schools and asked the school teachers about the absence of teachers. They also interacted with the school students and their guardians to know the use of their children on this movement. Sahu has explained that hundreds of kids and children are staging an agitation at Gobindpur for the past 15 days to prevent police and other officials to start land acquisition process. The guardians who have been involved in the Posco movement have deployed their children in this work while majority have been forced lie prostrate on the sand.
Sahu said that this team will submit the report to the district administration and department of women and child development to conduct inquiry, urging action against errant people for use of children on this movement.
