Bhubaneswar, May 14: Jagatsinghpur district collector Naryan Chandra Jena today met former agriculture minister Damodor Rout at his residence in Bhubaneswar and sought his cooperation.

The meeting continued for more than two hours. It is considered significant as the government has decided to resume the land acquisition process for Posco’s 12-million-tonne project from May 18.

The district administration is of the view that without the support of Rout, a heavyweight politician from Jagatsinghpur, work for the Posco project cannot move ahead.

Rout was axed from the ministry last week.

Rout said as long as the government and the chief minister continued to support the project, he would also support the project.

The former agriculture minister further said that the project would benefit the local residents.

“The ground level water is depleted every year. After five to six years, only salty water would emerge from the area and no betel vine cultivation would be possible,” said the former minister.

Rout further said the MoU of Posco with the Orissa government, which has expired, should be renewed on an urgent basis.

“No deadline should be fixed to start the land acquisition. However, the administration wants to expedite the land acquisition process as steps have been taken at different levels to expedite the process,” he said.

After the meeting, Jagatsinghpur collector Jena said people of the district wanted that Posco should set up its project. “We will go ahead with the project work taking the people’s views into consideration. The district administration is also looking into the demands raised by the United Action Committee (UAC),” Jena added.

Earlier UAC had supported the Posco project but it is now demanding that the people should be adequately compensated before the land acquisition process kicked off.

On May 7, the nodal officer for the Posco project Priyabrata Patnaik said the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) and Jagatsinghpur district administration would jointly take up land acquisition work from May 18.

Officials said betel vines in the encroached land would be demolished. The owners, however, will have to give a written undertaking before getting the compensation cheque.

The administration has already made it clear that the private land in Dhinkia area would not be acquired for the Posco project. Dhinkia area happens to be the epicentre of the anti-Posco movement which has become virtually out of bounds for the state government and Posco officials.

Out of total 4,004 acres of land identified for the Posco project, around 435 acres belong to private individuals. Of these 435 acres of private land, around 300 acres are located in Dhinkia area.

The Union ministry for environment and forests has already accorded final clearance for diversion of 1,253 hectares (around 3,132 acres) of forest land for the Posco steel plant project on May 2, clearing the decks for land acquisition.

Land acquisition process for Posco project had started from Gadakujang gram panchayat on July 15 last year. But it was put on hold on August 3 following a directive from the Union ministry on the basis of a joint committee report that had confirmed violation of forest rights in the area.