A farmer arranges betel leaves in a basket in Gobindpur village. (Reuters)

Paradip, July 4: Land acquisition for the Posco steel project will resume tomorrow after a three-day break. Following negotiations between the district administration and a section of agitators, the authorities expected the land acquisition and development of land “will continue with the co-operation of local people”.

“We are hopeful that the process will continue unhindered,” said additional district magistrate Saroj Kanta Choudhury.

In a related development, a four-member panel of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) today visited the project villages to ascertain the alleged violation of rights of children. The team had received complaints that local children were participating in protests and had been boycotting their classes. Besides, there were allegations that government schools in the area are under the control of security forces as the policemen deployed in the area have been housed in school buildings.

Contingents of Orissa armed police are back on the outskirts of the proposed steel project with redeployment at Balitutha, the entry point to the project villages. “Police forces are being brought back to the temporary camps as the administration will be resuming project-related work,” said Shantanu Kumar Das, sub-divisional police officer, Paradip.

A four-member NCPCR panel headed by Yogesh Dubey went round the project villages to see whether rights of children are being infringed upon. The panel took stock of the situation with regard to the status of children in the villages after a Delhi-based forum of Oriya students had drawn its attention on use of children as human shield by anti-Posco activists.

“We made an extensive tour of villages. The panel assessed the situation from the ground zero. We talked to the tiny-tots and teens in Gobindpur and Dhinkia villages. We visited project area schools. There was interaction with guardians, parents, village elders and resistance movement activists. We have also visited the Posco transit colony and heard the children housed in the resettlement colony,” said Dubey, member-secretary of the national panel.

“Later we held discussion with officials of the state government at Paradip. Our findings and observations on the status of children in the proposed Posco steel project villages would later be submitted with the Union ministry,” Dubey said.

Majority of children with whom the panel members interacted maintained that they sat on human barricade dharna ‘voluntarily’ said an official. The Balitugha primary school on the outskirts of the project was crowded with armed policemen as the panel made their way to the village school. The panel found the classroom teaching getting affected due to police presence, said sources.

During its visit to the agitation spot at Gobindpur-Dhinkia border, the panel found children on the forefront of three-tier human barricade formed by the protestors. Women formed the second tier of human chain. As children had skipped the classes, the government-run Dhinkia primary school wore a deserted look. The panel members also interacted with teachers present in the school.