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| Police personnel prepare to leave the Posco project site on Thursday. Telegraph picture |
Paradip, July 14: Treading cautiously in the face of continuing people’s protest, Jagatsinghpur district administration today suspended the land acquisition process and project-related work in the Posco plant area.
For the past three days, the project work have come to a standstill as harried civil administration and police are still undecided whether to use force or not.
“The project-related work have been held up for multiple factors. People who were supporting the project are now opposing the work on compensation issue. Inadequate police arrangement has also prompted us to defer the work for a few days. We are hopeful of things settling down shortly for resumption of project-related work,” said additional district magistrate Saroj Kanta Choudhury.
For obvious reasons, the standoff has put the administration on a spot of bother. Authorities have opted for strategy rethink to pacify the unyielding villagers opposing the project-related work. Officials are patiently waiting for directions from higher authorities on their next course of action.
Officials are also thinking in terms of fulfilling of six-charter demand with regard to compensation and rehabilitation for the land-losers before embarking on the project-related work.
Meanwhile, police have reportedly received feedback that a number of outsiders with criminal antecedents have made their way into the project area. The troublemakers reportedly mingled with the local people to create nuisance in the area. The show of protest in recent days was allegedly spearheaded by the mischief-makers who stayed at the forefront disrupting the project-related work such as boundary-wall construction, ground-levelling, sand-filling and forest clearance exercise.
These unruly elements were reportedly backed up by two rival construction farms presently engaged in carrying out project-related works. Rivalry between two construction companies has led to such intrusion of undesirable elements into the project villages.
“We are maintaining close vigil on trespassers into the project villages particularly after leaders of a pro-Posco outfit had received threat letters by suspected Maoists. Any unlawful activity by outsiders would be sternly dealt with,” said sub-divisional police officer Shantanu Kumar Das.
On the other hand, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), an outfit that has been spearheading the resistance movement against the steel plant project for the past six years, put in place a human barricade today as they have been doing it since May 18.
“People of Dhinkia have successfully thwarted forcible land acquisition. The movement against the plant is also gathering steam in other areas such as Nuagaon. People have begun to realise the intention of the government and the steel company. They have vowed to fight till the end,” said PPSS president Abhaya Sahu.