Villagers take part in the palli sabha meeting in Dhinkia. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Oct. 5: People of Dhinkia have disapproved of forestland diversion for the proposed Posco steel plant.

On Wednesday, at a palli sabha (village body) meeting, the villagers passed a resolution opposing the diversion and staked their claim for traditional forest dweller rights under the Forest Right Act.

The Odisha government has already decided to exclude Dhinkia from the earmarked territorial limits of the proposed project. “The palli sabha resolution will have no bearing on the project as the area no more comes under the steel project,” said an official.

“The National Green Tribunal had suspended environmental clearance given to the project. It had asked the ministry of environment and forests to review the matter afresh. The convening of the palli sabha was in accordance with the tribunal’s directions,” said Erasama block development officer Kanhu Charan Dhir.

The comptroller and auditor general had also criticised the Odisha government on the ground that it had grossly misused provisions of the land acquisition act by invoking the emergency clause for acquisition of land for the project.

“As per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (recognition of forest rights) Act, 2006, the local settlers put forth their legitimate claim over the forest areas in Dhinkia gram panchayat. People submitted records to claim that the majority of them have been living on the fringes of the forest for 75 years and dependent on it for livelihood. So, they argued that they had the claim over forestland under the act,” said local ward member Gadadhar Samantray, who presided over the meeting.

Panchayat executive officer Sridhar Swain, who represented the district administration at the meeting, said: “There was opposition to the plan for diversion of forestland. Dhinkia gram panchayat accounts for 342 hectares of forestland, which is now under betel vine cultivation by local settlers. A resolution was unanimously adopted, opposing the diversion plan, and 774 villagers endorsed the resolution,” he said.

On December 29, 2009, the Centre gave final approval for diversion of 1,253.225 hectares of forestland. On March 16, 2010, the government had submitted that there were no tribal people in the proposed Posco area either cultivating or residing in the forestland. No other traditional forest dwellers in the forestland covering the proposed Posco project area have been in cultivating possession of the land since three generations or 75 years.

Of the 4,404 acres, required for the project, 2,958 acres are in forest area. The Centre had approved Odisha’s proposal to acquire and use forestland for the project. However, the tribunal had thrown a spanner on the land acquisition process by suspending the central clearance. In another development, the Odisha government has decided to acquire 2,700 acres for the steel project by excluding Dhinkia from the project area.