A betel vineyard labourer at the proposed Posco site. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Aug. 31: The Jagatsinghpur district administration has finally doled out subsistence allowance to betel vineyard labourers in one of the villages that falls on the site of the proposed Posco steel project.

This is the first time that labourers, who worked at the betel vineyards demolished for the Posco project over the past two years, have received compensation.

On Friday, Rs 8.64 lakh was paid to 32 betel vine workers in Noliasahi village. Each of the beneficiaries was given Rs 27,000. The disbursal process will continue for a week, said Paradip additional district magistrate Surajit Dash.

The disbursal process will take place in a phased manner. At Noliasahi village, 171 labourers have been identified. After the exercise ends there, vineyard labourers in areas such as Polang, Nuagaon and Gobindpur will be identified and compensated, said Dash.

However, allegations continue to be made that bogus beneficiaries figure in the list while some genuine labourers have been left out. This had apparently delayed the payment of subsistence allowance to betel vineyard labourers, said special land acquisition officer Sarat Kumar Purohit.

Around 2,800 betel vines labourers were rendered jobless following the dismantling of vineyards at the villages on the Posco project site.

“The betel vineyard labourers have been severely let down. More than 1,000 betel vines were demolished for the project. All the vineyard owners have received compensation. But the government had meted out a raw deal to the labourers who lost their sole source of income,” said Nirvaya Samantaray, general secretary of the United Action Committee, a pro-Posco outfit.

On the other hand, Many of the genuine labourers are left out from the identified list of beneficiaries. The enumeration process is replete with loopholes. While the betel vineyard owners and outsiders figure in the list, the genuine workers who are jobless are not in the list, he charged.

The grievances of the betel plot labourers are being addressed. The process is on to include the betel vineyard workers who had been left out, said Jagatsinghpur collector Satya Kumar Mallick.The jobless workers are entitled for dual benefits till the project comes up. They are also entitled for 20% of the compensation award made to their respective vineyard owners.