Paradip, Feb. 4: Jagatsinghpur district administration has managed to take possession of 50 acres by dismantling 20 betel vines and felling over 300 trees at Gobindpur village in a resumption of the land acquisition exercise for the proposed Posco steel project.

“The administration has acquired about 50 acres of forestland in the last two days. Over 30 betel vineyard owners, who gave away their plot voluntarily, have been paid compensation. More than Rs 1 crore has been disbursed in the latest land acquisition drive for the Posco project,” said Jagatsinghpur collector Satya Kumar Mallick.

“We are hopeful of completing the land acquisition exercise in a week’s time,” said the district collector.

The betel vineyards of the “willing” owners were first measured by global positioning system. Later, they were pulled down after payment of compensation to the land losers,” said general manager of the state-run Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation Sangram Mahapatra.

As the authorities made their way to the sites of the betel vineyards guarded by armed police, the cops experienced mild resistance from the local people. A section of vineyard owners was opposed to the dismantling of their betel vines. Officials did not acquire land from the “unwilling” owners, said an official.

The people’s resistance movement spearheaded by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) against the land acquisition drive, however, continued at a place which was more than a kilometre away from the land acquisition site. The protest was reduced to a symbolic ritual as armed police outnumbered the protesters.

The entry of government officials and the personnel of Idco and Posco into Gobindpur in Dhinkia gram panchayat, which had largely remained out of bounds for officials, assumes significance and sends positive signs for the mega steel project, said an official.

Activists of various anti-displacement organisations and Left-wing parties took part in the protest at Patanahaat expressing their solidarity with the land losers.

PPSS chief Abhay Sahu, said: “The government is intent on using force on peaceful protesters. The government has unleashed repressive measures to commence the project work. There is intimidating presence of the police everywhere. But, the move will backfire.”