File picture of a demolished vineyard at Gobindpur village under the proposed Posco steel project area

Paradip, May 4: The Jagatsinghpur district administration today used force to evict encroachers from the proposed Posco steel project area.

Nearly 50 new vineyards had come up in Gobindpur on encroached forestland. The owners of the betel plots were bereft of eligibility for compensation and were earlier ordered to voluntarily demolish the vineyard structure and vacate the land, said officials.

“Those who had built new vineyards had been served notices to vacate the occupied land. They did not act in accordance with the order. So the betel vineyards built afresh were demolished today. Six new vineyards were pulled down. The owners of these unauthorised groves were not compensated,” said Sarat Kumar Purohit, special land acquisition officer.

Durlabha Rout, whose new betel vineyard was dismantled today, took strong exception to the forcible land acquisition exercise.

“Many betel vineyards are being surveyed as newly built ones. Its legitimate owners are being deprived of compensation dues. I protested against the demolition . ,” Rout said.

“Whatever the administration is doing is justful and not arbitrary as the encroachers are alleging. They were given enough time to vacate. But they did not. So betel vineyards had to be forcefully demolished. The Idco is acquiring land as the forest areas of Gobindpur have been deserved after the accordance of stage-2 clearance of Union ministry for environment and forest. The Idco would transfer the acquired land to the steel company in a phased manner,” said Jagatsinghpur collector, Satya Kumar Mallick.

Five old betel vineyards were also pulled down during today’s land acquisition exercise and its owners were paid a compensation of Rs 13.15 lakh. The vineyard owners willingly parted with their land, Mallick said.

A local resident, Ranjan Kumar Bardhan, said: “The land owners whose plots were acquired had opposed the demolition drive as they were not being paid. However, majority people in Gobindpur have decided not to oppose the work any more. They have requested the administration to expeditiously implement the rehabilitation and resettlement measures for landlosers and displaced families.”

In the ongoing exercise, the administration claimed to have acquired about 100 acres to meet the project’s requirement.

While the steel project needs 2,700 acres, the Idco has transferred 1,703 acres to the South Korean steelmaker.

“We hope that land acquisition would end within a fortnight. The ancillary project-related work and civil construction will start afresh with people’s co-operation. ,” said Surajit Das, additional district magistrate, Paradip.