Paradip, July 15: Rejecting the villagers’ proposal to suspend the project-related work till the revision of compensation package, the Jagatsinghpur district administration today resumed the land acquisition process and ancillary works for the proposed Posco plant project amidst protest.

Authorities went ahead with works related to the project after three-days’ break. Since last Monday, the project work did not move an inch as people had stalled the work seeking settlement of their six-point demands on compensation and rehabilitation package. However the administration had cited inadequate police arrangement as the reason for suspension of work.

“There was show of mild resistance at Nuagaon when forest species category trees were being pulled down. A section of people offered resistance and tried to stall the process. They were demanding the fulfilment of the six-point demands. However, order was restored soon,” said Sujeet Das, project director, resettlement and rehabilitation.

On the other hand, Nuagaon panchayat representatives rebutted the officials’ claim. Nuagaon sarpanch Bhaskar Swain said: “There was massive deployment of armed police in Nuagaon forest areas. Despite presence of police, people had mustered the courage to resist. Trees were forcefully felled down today against the people’s consent.”

Villagers staged dharna in protest at Nuagaon Road. But the officials went on pulling down trees, said Swain. Authorities, however, claimed that project-related work was entirely incident-free and was carried on today with the cooperation of villagers.

“There was some sporadic protest. However, officials prevailed upon them and they retreated. The forest clearance work in Nuagaon area moved in full swing today. The pulling down fruit-bearing and forest classified trees is already complete in adjoining Gadakujang gram panchayat. Project-related-work such as boundary wall building, ground-levelling, sand-filling and road-laying progressed smoothly in Noliasahi, Polang and Bhuyanpal villages,” said Jagatsinghpur collector Narayan Chandra Jena.