Bhubaneswar, April 12: The National Human Right Commission (NHRC) team today said they had received allegations of human rights violations and payment of low compensation to villagers affected by the Posco steel plant project because of the involvement of intermediaries.

Talking to reporters today, the visiting team, headed by Satyabrat Pal, said the affected villagers alleged that they had been paid less compensation for loss of land and livelihood because of the involvement of intermediaries, who have procured the land at a lower price.

On Tuesday, the NHRC team made an on-the-spot assessment of alleged rights violations of families who lost land to the Posco steel project.

More than the alleged violation of human rights and police excesses in the proposed steel project areas, issues such as loss of livelihood and displaced families drew the attention of the panel.

Various groups gave vent to their anger towards the district administration for its “anti-people” policy and sought the panel’s intervention to protect their interests.

“People here are living under constant threat of losing their source of livelihood — betel cultivation and cropland. To add to our misery, police have instituted false cases against those who are opposing the project. Fearing possible arrest, opponents of the project are staying within the village boundary,” said Manorama Khatua of Dhinkia gram panchayat.

Villagers also drew the attention of the NHRC members to the absence of livelihood support measures for those who lost land to the steel project.

The NHRC team also noted that the right to food programme in Balangir had been a complete failure. The team found large-scale irregularities in implementation of the scheme in the district. The team said that failure of identification of beneficiaries for the scheme, along with fake cards, were responsible for poor implementation.

The team visited five districts — Puri, Balangir, Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Jagatsinghpur — to probe 32 cases related to human trafficking and starvation in Odisha.

“We have instructed the Odisha government to file a detailed report within four to six weeks,” said Pal.