Paradip, June 22: The Posco protesters today observed “black day” with anti-land-displacement leaders joining hands and expressing solidarity with local people.

Hundreds of villagers hit the streets by taking out a rally and registered their opposition to the steel venture.

Communist Party of India leader A.B. Bardhan and CPM MP Basudeb Acharia, flanked by leaders of other political parties, including the Forward Bloc, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and anti-land-displacement outfits, attended the rally.

“We are opposed to setting up of the steel project in the fertile agrarian belts of Jagatsinghpur. The Odisha government is out to mislead people by saying that Dhinkia would remain out of the project site. The protest against it would go on till the project is relocated from these areas to any other alternative site,” said Bardhan, addressing the rally.

The Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, spearheading the protest against the South Korean steel-maker, today renewed its stand to carry forward the movement notwithstanding the Odisha government’s announcement to exclude Dhinkia gram panchayat from the earmarked boundary of the steel project.

“Our stand remains the same. Under no circumstances, the project would be allowed to come up. We are told that the company is no more interested to take possession of land at Dhinkia. The company has bowed to the movement by the unarmed landlosers,” said Samiti spokesperson Prasant Paikray.

“Today’s protest is nothing but a publicity stunt. The company has agreed to part with the land at Dhinkia, the resistance movement has lost its direction as people at Gadakujang and Nuagaon are largely now in favour of the project. Their complaint pertains to compensation and rehabilitation issues. Once these are sorted out, the work would start,” said Nirvaya Kumar Samantaray, general secretary of the United Action Committee.It is widely believed that the anti-Posco movement has lost its steam with the company excluding Dhinkia gram panchayat from the earmarked territorial boundary. With Dhinkia being the epicentre of the protest, the exclusion had considerably weakened the movement.

Following December 16 clash over construction of a road between supporters and protesters of the project near Bose-Callis point, the work at the project site has stopped. The violence prompted the authorities to suspend the project work till further order.