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Protesters in front of the Erasama tehsil office on Tuesday. Telegraph picture |
Paradip, Jan. 14: Administrative work in Jagatsinghpur district’s Erasama tehsil has been disrupted as residents of human settlements coming under the proposed Posco steel project have intensified their protest by staging a demonstration in front of the tehsil office for the second consecutive day today.
The protesters are demanding suspension of project-related civil construction. Their main complaint is that the government has relegated the rehabilitation and resettlement demands of would-be-displaced people to the background.
“The administration has assured them of early settlement of the pending charter of demands. We have written to the government. But, the district administration has no role to play in this regard as the Revenue Divisional Commission is authorised to revise the rehabilitation package,” said Jagatsinghpur collector Satya Kumar Mallick .
“We have resolved to stop the project work. The administration is maintaining double standards. It has failed to keep up its commitment with regard to the rehabilitation and resettlement issues,” said the secretary of the pro-Posco United Action Committee, Nirvaya Samantaray.
“We hope that people’s genuine demands would be duly taken care of by the Rehabilitation and Peripheral Development Advisory Committee (RPDAC) in accordance with Orissa Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, 2006,” said Erasama tehsildar Sarat Kumar Purohit.