Paradip, July 28: The Jagatsinghpur district administration is initiating criminal proceeding against farmers who are re-erecting dismantled betel vineyards in proposed Posco steel project villages.

Acting on a complaint lodged by the local administration, police have swung into action and registered criminal cases against 18 landowners of the project villages who allegedly grabbed the acquired betel vine plots.

Villagers who had given land for the Posco project have started re-occupying the same with reports of the steel project being put on hold doing the rounds. "So far, 18 cases of encroachment of land in the proposed Posco project area have been detected. FIRs have also been lodged against the encroachers," said Sarat Kumar Purohit, the Erasama tehsildar.

"Cases under Section 447 of the Indian Penal Code (criminal trespass) have been registered against persons who are named in the FIR. In accordance with the IPC provisions, they have been served legal notices and directed to vacate the land at the earliest. If they fail to do so, coercive legal action would be initiated against the land grabbers," said Subhrasu Kumar Nayak, the inspector of Paradip Lock police station.

"Earlier last year, the police had registered 32 cases against residents who had encroached upon the steel company's land and criminal cases were registered against them. Later they vacated the land following intervention by the police and administration," said Nayak.

"The administration is serious. The landowners had accorded consent for acquisition of their betel plots. They are bereft of legal rights over the acquired plots as their vineyards were pulled down after GPS measurement and they received proper compensation. The state-run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) now legally owns the acquired land," Purohit said.

"The act amounts to forceful land grabbing and breach of law. Officials have been directed to demolish the rebuilt vineyards. Criminal cases would be registered against the occupiers under the provisions of IPC and Odisha Prevention of Land Encroachment Act," said Ramakrushna Sahu, additional district magistrate of Paradip.

People on the other side of the divide had something else to say.

"Villagers here are left with little options for livelihood after the government razed their betel vines. The landowners are rebuilding vineyards for sustenance. People's movement against the Posco steel project is not yet over. People want their land back as it was acquired forcefully against their consent," said Abhaya Sahu chief of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (an anti-plant outfit).

"I have put up a fence around the plot to grow betel vines. My land was taken away three years ago. I do not know the legal technicalities. The police have registered a criminal case against me. What is wrong in using a vacant plot for cultivation?" said Ashok Bardhan, whose vineyard was dismantled for the land acquisition exercise.