Paradip, May 3: A day after the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) accorded environmental nod to the much-delayed 12-million-tonne Posco steel project, air of both expectancy and despondency spreads through villages coming under the mega steel project.

“Many believe that the project has got the better of the final hurdle. However, it is likely to face more barriers. The administration would have to counter the resistance movement in places like Dhinkia. The anti-plant outfit would, for sure, move the court challenging the MoEF verdict. If the court intervention goes the other way, the project might get further delayed,” said Ram Kishore Ram, Paradip-based trade unionist.

“We are not aware of the legal complexities. One thing, however, is certain that we have been in cultivating possession of land for here. We had faith in Jayram Ramesh. We thought he would rule in favour of people and not for the Posco. However, we are proved wrong,” said Gagan Behari Samal of Nuagaon village.

For sections of people living in Dhinkia and Nuagaon gram panchayats, the extension of green light to the Posco is a big setback. On the contrary, people’s mood in some other places coming under the proposed project is upbeat.

“We are the happiest people today. The MoEF has rightly ruled. We are glad. We are living a pathetic life in Gadabagapur transit colony after being driven out from our ancestral village. We are optimist that it would be surveyed for land acquisition and payment of compensation,” said Chandan Mohanty, an original inhabitant of Patana now leading a banished life in the Posco transit colony.

“We have to give up the land after yesterday’s development. I was self sufficient from the betel cultivation yield. A feeling of uncertainty is creeping into my mind. Let us hope that the government ensures best possible resettlement and rehabilitation of land-losing families here. It has now become meaningless to continue resisting movement after the clearance. I will back out from it,” Shyam Sundar Raul, a betel vines grower in Gobindapur, said.

Adikanda Rout of Nuagaon, seemed to have taken things in his strides. “We had support for the anti-plant outfit. We had taken part in the resistance movement. But now we are fed up with it. I have no qualms in handing over my landed property to the project. We have suffered a lot monetarily by plunging into the movement,” he said.