Paradip, June 30: The deadlock over the project related work in the Posco site continued for the fourth day in succession, even as a harried administration resorted to an abortive multi-layer talk with the protesters to reach a settlement.

As the authorities failed to break the ice, the project related works such as, fresh land acquisition, boundary wall construction, ground-levelling, road-laying and tree-felling within the demarcated project boundary, came to a halt.

Protesters comprising both opponents and supporters of the mega steel project squatted on the road near Nuagaon to thwart any possible move to fell trees within the forest area of the gram panchayat. On the other side of Nuagaon-Gobindpur border, resistance by the anti-plant protesters under the aegis of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti by staging a human barricade went on as a routine ritual.

A Congress delegation, led by former Union minister Kanhu Charan Lenka, visited the project area to lend support to those opposing the plant.

“The Congress wants the immediate withdrawal of police forces, as people here are living under constant fear of midnight crackdown. Everything should be done within the parameters of peoples’ consensus,” said Lenka.

“To create an amiable atmosphere and instil confidence, we suspended the project related work today. Majority police forces have been withdrawn from the villages coming under the proposed Posco project. We are holding talk separately with the local settlers apart from the representatives of various outfits who are demanding revised compensation package,” said additional district magistrate Saroj Kanta Choudhury.

The United Action Committee, a pro-plant outfit, which turned hostile over the non-revision of compensation demands, again today rejected the offer to sit with the officers for a settlement.

“We would hold talks with the committee representatives at Gadakujang gram panchayat on Friday. Today talks were at various levels with various outfits such as, the United Action Committee, Bhitamati Surakhya Manch and other individuals, not affiliated to any organisation. Some positive notes have emerged from different-level talks.

The administration is hopeful that things would be back to normalcy for land acquisition and project related work,” said Choudhury.

“Earthen platforms of betel vineyards demolished about three years ago were surveyed today, as the vineyard owners were demanding payment of compensation not paid to them at that time. So far, 76 earthen structures, which according to the claim by the local residents, housed betel vines, had been measured,” said project director of rehabilitation and resettlement Sujeet Das.